(L) Revolutionary Girl Utena

[Slick_rick]

Utena!

I love this show. One of the all-time best everyone should take a chance to see it. The remastering is very well done and makes a world of difference. They even get more morbid! Poor blackrose duelists!

Spoiler for dead fools:

It's sad that we'll probably never get a DVD release of the remastered version in the U.S.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by sa547

Never mind that the dubbing could be hit-or-miss (understanding that dubbers -- I know them -- hardly had the luxury of anime consultants to help with the script), from first episode Utena was mind-blowing, like being thrown back to the days of psychedelia or a surrealist painting running at 16-24 frames per second, with the rock-opera soundtrack rivaling Hair. True, today's studios should (re)study the artistry involved in its production.

For the most part, Utena is one of the more influential anime of the last two decades, and I think that its sense of style has been carried over to a great many other shows. There are examples out there like Princess Tutu and Melody of Oblivion, and the visual style of SHAFT and other like-minded creative staff.

The main impediment to more is that historically, the vast majority of shoujo anime has adaptations of existing manga and so forth. Their visual styles and other directional touches reflect this, but this isn't the case at all for Utena. While there is a manga, Utena was effectively designed from the ground up as an original work, and the very way meaning is confered to scenes reflects this. It basically isn't a show that can exist in its present form if it had been a mere adaptation. Original shoujo anime doesn't happen much ever, and it would be awfully rare to see exceptionally ambitious original shoujo anime - Princess Tutu is about the only example that I can come up with. Melody of Oblivion was specifically designed as a slightly different take on Utena's elements and themes, but it's a bit of an exceptional project.

But aside from there not being much of a holistic reuse of Utena's core elements, there are bits that can be seen in any number of shows. The main exception is the music, but that's more a case of an unusual type of music that's just not used all that much in anime.

Originally Posted by sa547

Then there are the variety of characters (girls or beefcakes), each has his or her reasons and motivations, either for just being there or trying to defeat Utena, but of all those duelists, Nanami was epic comedy gold.

Of the early episodes, the best duel had to have been the one with Juri. Everything worked perfectly in that episode, from the how Juri's past was weaved in, the expectation built up, to the rejection of miracles, to the depiction of a miracle, and the final reveal. I label the last few scenes as one of those "perfect moments of beauty" and it's one of my favorite episodes of anything.

Originally Posted by sa547

Overall, Utena is on my to-acquire list.

It's worth getting just for the wacky Ikuhara commentaries. Compared to him, all other anime directors are a little more normal . I think what he said even surprised the mangaka Saito Chiho when they did the commentary together for the last few episodes.

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Heh, i'm not surprised you posted in this thread 4Tran.

It's got to be the avatar. For some reason, everyone always assumes things about Akio .

Originally Posted by Slick_rick

I love this show. One of the all-time best everyone should take a chance to see it. The remastering is very well done and makes a world of difference. They even get more morbid! Poor blackrose duelists!

Well, I knew about the remastering, but I never knew that it was quite that intensive. I definitely want to see it now, if only to see what kind of crazy stuff Ikuhara has come up with in the last decade. At least I can be pretty sure that it still probably won't match the movie visually.

[Aurelia aurita]

I got my copy a couple days ago. The music set and the first set arrived in October. The art on all of this is very beautiful.
I watched a couple of scenes from one episode of the remastered version, and then popped in a disc of the R1 releases (I own 10/11 R1 discs and the manga...I've spent way too much money on this series). They didn't fix Touga's transparent bangs or completely redraw scenes, but the difference in sharpness and color was very obvious.
In case you missed photos of the other two parts:

[4Tran]

Okay, I went and watched the last 30 episodes of Utena over the last three days, including the last 3 episodes twice to catch the Saito/Ikuhara commentary, and I'm still sane (I think ). Wow, what a rush that was - it's definitely a lot better than the first time round, and I have a lot more appreciation for the show now. I probably still didn't catch all the themes even though I'm thoroughly familiar with them, but what I caught was great.

My favorite student council member is still Jury, like my first watch, but coming up right behind her are Touga and Akio. It's just fascinating how much depth there is to all of these characters - even ones like Shiori who have lines in only 5 or 6 episodes. I'm also really impressed with what is probably the most surreptitious sex scene in all of anime - that the creators pulled it off in a recap episode just takes the cake for deviousness, creativity and sheer schadenfreude.

I recall being a bit disappointed with the ending the first time through, but it works way better this time - I really can't imagine it ending any other way. Instead of being a cryptic, almost impenetrable, wall of symbolism, just about everything clicked, and I absolutely love how everything worked out. Instead of it being a bit of a downer ending, I think that it was extremely positive - just about the entire cast worked out their issues and can be happy for perhaps the first time in the series. And now since my brain is still functional, onwards to the movie!

Originally Posted by Densetsu Tsubasa

I got my copy a couple days ago. The music set and the first set arrived in October. The art on all of this is very beautiful.

I can feel my jealousy rising... Luckily for me, I'm almost all Utena-ed out, so I can resist the urge to buy this set immediately. I've seen a few comparisons, so I have to agree that the sharpness is a huge improvement over the original DVDs. It doesn't make that much difference overall, but it does do a lot more credit to the wonderful art design (although the original does have its own charm).

[Shiroth]

Speaking of favorite favorite student council member, mine will forever be Touga. Just like i am now, i was a huge fan of Takehito Koyasu back in the day, and i had just finished watching one of my favorite shows, Tekkaman Blade. Koyasu's role in that show is out of this world, and being able to experience that, and then watch something like Utena was pretty mind blowing.

I'm a sucker for his character type, and i still say to this day that Touga is the best out of them all. He and Akio just bounce of each other in the later part of the show.

[KimmyChan]

I wouldn't mind checking the series out for myself soon

I already own the feature length anime movie of it on DVD

[wandering-dreamer]

Well fans should be rejoicing, Utena just got a US license again by Nozomi/RightStuf. Here's the short blurb about it.

[guest]

Here I was hoping that it would be re-translated by some other company. The CPM version cut down the dialogue to make it fit like two lines on one screen. Nobody wanted to see four lines on one screen or on a commercial DVD. Also, maybe they were trying to make it not so gay by changing the translation. Like when Utena was saying, “I want to become a prince,” it was changed into, “I want to meet him [the prince].” Yeah, I said this already but I really hate to see a masterpiece got ruined this way.

[wandering-dreamer]

The article says they're using re-mastered video so I'd imagine that doesn't come with subs attached so there's a good chance that the subs will be better if need be (the article doesn't suggest either way).

[Shiroth]

Seeing as though it's just a rescue title, they'll probably use CPM subs which is a bit of a downer, though then again it's another chance to town one of the greatest shows ever created, plus it's the remastered set which makes it all the more wonderful.

I'll preorder this the second it appears on their site.

[Shiroth]

Rightstuf have a date up for the first Utena box. Go preorder!

[wandering-dreamer]

Whoooa, now THAT'S how you package a box! Was hoping this would come out a bit later in the year so my wallet could recover from DRRR!! but oh well....

[wandering-dreamer]

For those who haven't seen it yet, the trailer for the first set, gah, June needs to get here faster. >.>

[Shiroth]

I've only seen previews of the digital remastered editions, but boy does it blow me away when i see it again. Hurry up June!

[FireChick]

Sad news...

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...mi-passes-away

[sa547]

That news almost broke me. Damn. She'll be missed, and already I asked Rightstuf via Twitter to see if they could honor her memory in some way; also asked the local anime station to rerun the whole series.

[Veritas]

That person hasn't vanished. She's merely left our world.
















Goodnight, sweet prince ;_;

[silverstri]

Well i just finished watching Utena til the last ep 39 wow...

But hey,...im still confused... where did utena go? was the revolution failed? and Anthy leaving Akio and she was going to look for Utena??
How i wish the story more simple and direct since I cant think much of this series...

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by silverstri

Well i just finished watching Utena til the last ep 39 wow...

But hey,...im still confused... where did utena go? was the revolution failed? and Anthy leaving Akio and she was going to look for Utena??
How i wish the story more simple and direct since I cant think much of this series...

When it comes to the question about the revolution

Spoiler for episode 39:

I personally felt that it did happen. The thing is that Akio, being the extravogent person that he is, fails to notice it (as he doesn't realize that all the duelists, even if they don't remember Utena anyone, have changed for the better thanks to her).

[silverstri]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

When it comes to the question about the revolution

Spoiler for episode 39:

I personally felt that it did happen. The thing is that Akio, being the extravogent person that he is, fails to notice it (as he doesn't realize that all the duelists, even if they don't remember Utena anyone, have changed for the better thanks to her).

Ah....but where is utena? she died?? or reborn ? since anthy was looking for her?