Revolutionary Girl Utena

Once upon a time years and years ago, there was a little princess and she was very sad for her mother and father had died. Before the princess appeared a traveling prince riding upon a white horse. He had a regal bearing and a kind smile. The prince wrapped the princess in a rose scented embrace and gently wiped the tears from her eyes. "Little one," he said, "who bears up alone in such deep sorrow, never lose that strength or nobility, even when you are a young lady. I give you this to remember this day. We will meet again. This ring will lead you to me one day." Perhaps the ring the prince gave her was an engagement ring. This was all well and good, but so impressed was she by him that the princess vowed to become a prince herself one day. But was that really such a good idea?

Many years later, Utena Tenjou is attending Ohtori Academy. She begins fighting duels for possession of the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemiya. Whoever has her will be able to revolutionize the world and gain eternity.

There are many episodes that are really well done. On the other hand, there are a lot of rather average episodes. The main story was very interesting. Revolutionary Girl Utena has a mysterious feel to it in the way the story is presented. Not everything is black or white and some things can be interpreted differently, which I enjoyed. I felt that the ending was very fitting for the series.

There are also some filler episodes scattered throughout the show. These tend to be really goofy and even had me laughing a few times but for the most part I found them to be annoying and couldn't wait for them to end. One of the filler episodes is a recap of all the other previous filler episodes; it doesn't get much more tedious than that.

Utena has an excellent collection of music. Two great ending themes and opening theme which was sung by Megumi Hayashibara. The background music is excellent. Also, there is a different vocal song played during each duel. The animation is average and there is quite a lot of recycled animation. The duels are well animated, but most of the later duels have reused animation. I don't think the character designs are very attractive.

My biggest complaint about the show is how it seems to use characters on a fairly episodic level. Characters (mostly duelists) will get an episode or two dedicated to them, then they are left alone - for the most part - until another episode comes up that is dedicated to them. This severely limits character development and I found it the most annoying part about this show. The characters themselves were quite enjoyable, although I found Nanami to be annoying a lot of the time.

The duels are a neat idea. To keep the Rose Bride (Anthy), Utena must defeat her opponents by cutting the rose from their chest. Some of them are just outstanding in their execution and quite intense. However, quite a few use animation from previous duels and aren't as exciting. Also, instead of fighting evil one-episode characters, she duels against her classmates which makes the duels all the more interesting.

Utena ends up being a mixed bag. It has its moments, and is definitely worth checking out, but it has some flaws. I would, however, recommend this to fans of the magical girl genre, as it is very original.

Score:

Written by Marc Frost on Mar 21, 2014