Revolutionary Girl Utena (Japanese: 少女革命ウテナ, Hepburn: Shōjo Kakumei Utena)[c] is a Japanese anime television series created by Be-Papas, a production group formed by director Kunihiko Ikuhara and composed of himself, Chiho Saito, Shinya Hasegawa, Yōji Enokido and Yūichirō Oguro. The series was produced by J.C.Staff and originally aired on TV Tokyo from April to December 1997. Revolutionary Girl Utena follows Utena Tenjou, a teenaged girl who is drawn into a sword dueling tournament to win the hand of Anthy Himemiya, a mysterious girl known as the "Rose Bride" who possesses the "power to revolutionize the world".
Ikuhara was a director on the television anime adaptation of Sailor Moon at Toei Animation in the 1990s; after growing frustrated by the lack of creative control in directing an adapted work, he departed the company in 1996 to create an original series. While he initially conceived of Utena as a mainstream shōjo (girls' anime and manga) series aimed at capitalizing on the commercial success of Sailor Moon, the direction of the series shifted dramatically during production towards an avant-garde and surrealist tone. The series has been described as a deconstruction and subversion of fairy tales and the magical girl genre of shōjo manga, making heavy use of allegory and symbolism to comment on themes of gender, sexuality, and coming-of-age. Its visual and narrative style is characterized by a sense of theatrical presentation and staging, drawing inspiration from the all-female Japanese theater troupe the Takarazuka Revue, as well as the experimental theater of Shūji Terayama, whose frequent collaborator J. A. Seazer created the songs featured in the series.
Revolutionary Girl Utena has been the subject of both domestic and international critical acclaim, and has received many accolades. It has been praised for its treatment of LGBT themes and subject material, and has influenced subsequent animated works. A manga adaptation of Utena written and illustrated by Saito was developed contemporaneously with the anime series, and was serialized in the manga magazine Ciao beginning in 1996. In 1999, Be-Papas produced the film Adolescence of Utena as a follow-up to the television anime series. The series has had several iterations of physical release, including a remaster overseen by Ikuhara in 2008. In North America, Utena was initially distributed by Central Park Media starting in 1998; the license for the series has been held by Crunchyroll since its 2023 acquisition of Right Stuf and its subsidiary Nozomi Entertainment, which acquired the license for Utena in 2010.
My experience with Utena!
I watched RGU for the first time in May 2024,I was also messaging the friend who made me watch it every time something noteworthy happend (so like, 95% of the time), and on the day after it I watched the movie. Even if I was multitasking during it (artfight preparations and all) I fell in love with the series, as a lesbian and most importantly a butch, Utena's gender nonconformity made me so happy! I was also really happy of how, well, how kinda really blatantly gay the whole series were? Even if in the anime Utena and Anthy never did anything like kissing there was still a lot of subtext (..and text), I was like really depressed and somewhat suicidal around the time I watched it but I found so much comfort on this series + it reinvigorated my interest in anime, for a long while I had been put off by a lot of anime (mainly shonen,since its all people tend to reccomend) due to the frequent fanservice of clearly underage characters + jokes about sexual assault and often lackluster characters,always being about man and woman being treated (not only by the narrative but also by the fanbase and author) as some sort of prize, after utena I fell in love with the shoujo genre, it had a lot of I wanted, I'm currently watching Rose Of Verssailes (the original one)
But more important than the sapphic stuff, were the themes of abuse it had,I watched Utena without knowing a lot of it,even avoided checking a trigger warning site (NOTE: I DO NOT RECCOMEND THAT. PLEASE LOOK UP IF YOU KNOW YOU HAVE MAJOR SENSITIVITY TO SOME THEMES AND WANT TO WATCH SOMETHING YOU DONT KNOW), all I really knew was Nanami (kinda? I knew she was a character that had the iconic "ohohohoh" laugh style but thats all of it). I sorta knew it was regarding as a "lesbian anime" but I didnt really trusted it? Sometimes people claim an anime is good sapphic stuff but * points at kakeguri and citrus * not really, it's just kinda fetishy stuff? Going to do a small-ish review thing of all episodes under the cut,as I want to keep this page somewhat spoiler-free in case someone's first exposure to the anime is this page!!
Before I do that however I kinda want to talk a bit about the visuals and soundtrack,from the opening to the duel songs and, of course, all the rose imagery:
Opening: Rondo Revolution
This one feels like those "openings that feel illegal to skip",the bits of animation not present in the series (such as the pegasus stuff) are very pretty,and the opening foreshadowing is also something one wouldn't get until watching the ending of the show. I like both the full version and the anime shortened one, also watch this amv :] I think its pretty cool
During the final arc of the anime,where a lot of heavy and triggering stuff happens,having this opening to lighten the mood a little bit was also very nice,during my first watchthrough the time of the opening was the moment I used to somewhat prepare myself to whatever could happen next + process what just happend,the fact this cheerful melody stayed at the opening even during/after the heavier moments of the show also felt like an "there will be still be hope for these characters"
Ending: Truth
This might be one of my favorite anime ending themes of all time? Sometimes I catch myself humming it,I even have it downloaded on my phone (alongside Rondo Revolution) to listen when I dont have wifi
