Review: Revolutionary Girl Utena

Current mood: (put the gif in here ig)

The 90s anime that shook the world and triggered the awakening of queer people everywhere, Revolutionary Girl Utena is surreal as it is sapphic. It has been in my watch list for the longest time and I tried my best to avoid spoilers because everyone warned of the twists and I wanted to experience it for myself. But I never got around to watching it because where do you watch 90s anime with subtitles online??? Nearly impossible to find... until now. Turns out you just need to know where to look.

The internet isn't joking this anime will fuck you up. Badly. 

For course the titular character is Utena Tenjou, damsel in distress saved by prince charming, but instead of striving to be the princess, she became the prince and a chick magnet. On the other side is Anthy Himemiya, the mysterious Rose Bride, 'prized' by members of the student council, and the real damsel in distress of the anime.

The story starts off like a normal school anime: Utena arrives in school with all her main character glory, sees Anthy get abused, swoops in to defend her because she is a 'prince', then gets roped into a duel for Anthy's hand in marriage. Well, not exactly. Anthy may be known as the Rose Bride, but it's just a title so she's not an actual bride. She holds a mysterious power that is used to revolutionize the world and gain eternity, and whoever 'owns' her (aka wins her in a duel) gets that power as well.

Utena wins the duel and so by extension, the Rose Bride. She wants nothing to do with all this business, but she also can't lose because Anthy would go back to being a doormat. The duelers are a rotating cast consisting of student council members, normal classmates and friends, and maybe an occasional family member. Each episode is more disturbing than the last, until it all culminates in a mind fuck where it's unclear if everything is real or just symbolism.

This is literally the most I can wrote about the plot without spoiling too much, because this is an anime that is best experienced blind. I had some things spoiled for me but it still managed to alter my brain chemistry and I'm a full grown adult... imagine what this does to a younger audience. No wonder people quote Utena as their queer awakening! 

I finally understand why it's such a phenomenon. None of the relationships in the story are good for one or both parties. Manipulation, abuse, rape, incest, you name it, it's in there in some form. However, Utena and Anthy manage to find solace in each other despite everything that has happened, for a brief moment at the very end. The movie dials the lesbianism to 11, making it very clear that "UtenaxAnthy is the ship you should root for". It's even weirder than the anime so don't bother watching the movie first because you won't understand a fucking thing.

Or it's just queer story go brrrrr