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Fashionable Conventioneer
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 Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:05 pm
The scattered petals of the rose must all still stem from one singular root.. even as they whirl freely and blindly to their own fates. These beautiful silken petals of the rose named Himemiya Anshi, drifting, spinning fragments of a self divided...meet them here.
The Nobility of the Rose
chasing a dream: Ten'jou Utena
eternal princess: Himemiya Anshi
everybody's Lucifer: Ootori Akio
dios ex machina: The Prince, Dios
slave of passion: Kiryuu Touga
this girl's tragedy: Kiryuu Nanami
unfulfilled and mourning: Arisugawa Juri
aching for the garden: Kaoru Miki
eternally fighting: Kyouichi Saionji
The Fraternity of the Black Rose
wish i was special: Shinohara Wakaba
the hothouse flower: Ootori Kanae
under my umbrella: Sonoda Keiko
This is the Complete Background Of Utena and the Characters in This story.
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:06 pm
Tenjou Utena: True Self/Philosopher's Stone
"Victor of the Duel"
"I wanted only to try to live in accordance with the promptings that came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?" -- "Demian", Hermann Hesse
Tarot Card: The Fool
Duel Rose: White
Quote: "Hey.. if you're suffering, no matter what the cause is, talk to me, and I'll be there for you."
Name Meaning: Holy Grail(?); the cup that supports the flower
Utena, child of Apocalypse who holds the keys to the power of Revolution. Around her everything turns, but the Revolution was never meant for her. Catalyst, unsettler, challenger, fool, she knows none of what she does for its true significance, yet her actions ultimately affect many. She is the ideal instead of the reality, the philosopher's stone. And like that legendary dream of the alchemists, she transforms those she encounters from lesser elements into purest gold...
Her Story
"Once upon a time, there was a princess grieving over the deaths of her mother and father. Before her appeared a prince, traveling on a white horse. His appearance was noble and his smile was gentle; he enveloped the princess in his scent of roses and kissed away her tears. To her, he spoke, "My little one alone and grieving, please don't lose your strength and nobility as you grow up. As a reminder of this day we've met, please keep this."
He placed a large silver ring on the small child's finger, tenderly like a lover. She looked up toward him and asked in her innocence, "Will we meet again?" He answered, "This ring will lead you to me."
She grew into a fine young woman, and wondered, was the prince's ring meant to be a sign of engagement? It was all right to think this, but as she was caught up in the overwhelming adoration of her prince, she decided to become one herself! To save others as she herself was saved... but was it really the best idea?"
The goal of becoming a prince for others has shaped Utena's life ever since. She lives innocently, desiring to right what she feels is wrong. It's no mistake that her rose of duelling is the white rose of the tarotic Fool, for she is many ways a child still.
Utena's basically a normal girl, subject to all a teenager's normal emotions, and she has a remarkable ability to forgive and tolerate even those who annoy or abuse her. She has a few quirks: she dislikes dresses, and stubbornly refuses to wear the Ootori school uniform, preferring her own black-jacket-and-red-shorts uniform. If she has a serious flaw, it would be her naivete, as she can unwittingly walk into traps set by those who are more worldly and wily than herself, like Akio or Touga.
The game of "revolutionizing the world" has little meaning to her, as do the constant duels which she seems to find by turns annoying, confusing, or just pointless. Yet she dutifully answers each challenge given with her full strength and courage- AND because she knows she can be expelled from Ootori if she doesn't! At first she claims she's not actually doing it for Himemiya's sake, but rather for Chuchu's... however, this may well be an instance of Japanese 'indirect' conversation, and Utena and Anshi both know perfectly well what she really means. This 'indirect conversation' is a hallmark of the Utena and Himemiya dynamic that appears several more times in the series during particularly important conversations.
Utena's main motive for Duelling is, ostensibly, to protect her friendship with Himemiya, and to try and free the Bride of the Rose from having to be anyone's servant. There is, of course, a major paradox in that she is more than willing to use Anshi to fight for Anshi's sake... and this goes unnoticed by Utena for quite a long time, until almost literally the very end. Some fans have implied Utena actively chooses to ignore the paradox, but I believe that she simply wasn't mature enough to see it at first. A veiled but deeply important secondary reason for Utena's duelling is that she, wanting to be a Prince, needs a Princess to protect; her ego depends on both filling that role and having someone to play the role FOR.
Thus it is that Utena is particularly devastated when she loses Himemiya to Touga; she is shocked and hurt to discover that the Rose Bride seemingly has no desires other than those of whomever 'possesses' her at the time. Just as she was beginning to warm into the role of being Anshi's Prince, beginning to identify herself with the self-aggrandizing illusion of being the all-powerful Victor of the Duel (and thus losing her true identity in the process) her emotional footing is kicked out from under her.
This is actually one of the most crucial moments of Utena's development. For a time, her secret dream crushed, Utena flirts with returning to 'normal' gender behavior; she wears the girl's uniform, she sits dully and passively, even allowing Touga to toy with her in the presence of Wakaba (and note that Wakaba, following Utena's former example, instantly rises to the defense- much as a Prince might...) Wakaba rejects this 'new' Utena as 'uncool' and demands to have the 'original' Utena returned to her.
Utena does in fact have a mild streak of depressiveness; when defeated or handed a serious setback, she tends to become withdrawn, introverted, and occasionally even collapses into fetal positions, hiding in bed with her face buried in her arms, or curled up on the floor next to the couch. While this is probably excusable as normal teenage-angst behavior, it flies in the face of her outward 'go gettem', always-cheerful boyish energy, and reveals that the pain of her past is still not all that far from the surface of her soul. Even from early on, we see that Utena, at the core, wants just as much to be a Princess as a Prince... Like Saionji, she craves love and attention directed toward her. Ironically by being less than herself, she is shunned by those that once followed her eagerly.
Finally shocked out of her self-defeating complacency by Wakaba's truly heroic efforts to reach her (and note that Wakaba, much like Saionji, actually flies into a rage and slaps Utena when she feels her message isn't getting across...) Utena regains her presence of mind and the memory of her true goal. As she reasserts her will, she realizes she doesn't want to be a "Victor"; she just wants to be Anshi's friend. Her friendship is now important enough to her that she will fight for it, even if she can't be the 'ideal Prince' that she wants to be. In that sense she fights, and in that sense she wins, defeating Touga and becoming her true self once again.
Through the Black Rose duels Utena fights, and she denies much; denies admitting that she's anything like the willfully blind Mikage who scapegoats others and clings to self-protective illusions rather than face his own guilt and complicity for past sins; she grows so angry when the similarities between them is brought to her attention that she lashes out with the only genuinely violent behavior she shows in the course of the series.
But she stumbles again, much more severely, as Akio enters her life. Akio's influence on Utena is powerful and stems from his ability to fulfill needs young and immature Utena barely knows she has. At first he approaches her as a friend, a confidante and a teacher- he dispenses sage wisdom and adult advice in an unthreatening manner; he becomes someone she can ask any question of, who always has time for her. In effect, Utena comes to think of Akio as a substitute parent; a particularly dangerous arrangement for she who has spent most of her life without a true father figure. Even outside the TV series, in the manga Utena is raised by her aunt, another woman, and is therefore particularly ill equipped to defend herself against this tactic.
Perhaps it's utterly inevitable that Utena's internal fantasy of the 'perfectly perfect prince' and the constant personal attention from Akio would combine to produce a powerful crush. So powerful is Utena's crush on Akio that she even begins to harbor guilty, unwieldy feelings of jealousy toward Akio's fiancee Kanae. So powerful is Utena's crush that she can't really seem to control her feelings at all, and she walks a terrible line between her wanting and her knowing that she can't have. So powerful is her crush that she all but forgets everything about her original desires to be Himemiya's friend.
Akio tempts and seduces Utena away from Himemiya and the prince... destroying and remaking her into a woman... and she comes perilously close to losing her soul to him as well. But Utena's dreams are haunted by an increasingly persistent memory, barely understood, all but forgotten; a memory of being small and following a Prince through velvet darkness to see someone suffering in unbearable torment. Of begging the Prince to save that suffering someone, and being told that he can't... whereupon small Utena vows that if he can't save the suffering one, she will...
As she spends more and more time with Akio, Utena becomes a little more of a Princess each day, and those that love her look on in dull despair... But there does come a final realization, a crucial moment just before the end of everything. On a ledgetop, crying, finally Utena sees and understands all that she's done, and all that she's failed to do. And once more she rises to the challenge. In the end, her near-forgotten promise to save that suffering someone- to be Himemiya's friend- saves Utena too... even though it ultimately costs her all that she is.
In the end, Utena's fate is unclear. Was she destroyed by the Million Swords of Hate? Did she survive? Was she transmuted into something greater? Did she become the new Prince of Roses?
It's certainly a mystery, isn't it?
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:08 pm
Kiryuu Touga: Ego Manifest
Student Council President
"Cynical and morose, he lived in a beautiful country mansion by the sea, and he tormented the women and friends who visited him there with wild whims and malicious acts... Satiated, he felt sick and tired of being sought, demanded, and given love which did not interest him. He sensed the worthlessness of his dissipated and decadent life and of the way he had always taken and never given anything. " -- "Augustus", Hermann Hesse
Tarot Card: The Emperor
Duel Rose: Red
Quote: "Only a fool believes he has friends."
Name Meaning: One who is able to see the end of a situation; a shoot of a plant
The playboy seeks affirmation for himself in the women that he seduces and teases. But only one woman ever proved to be his equal.. the one woman he could never truly have. And even knowing all the secrets of the Ends of the Earth, the awareness of Revolution's purpose... even holding all the cards, he could not change that one truth- he could not have her. Could love undo this man?
His Story
Until Akio appears openly, Touga is *the* man in charge, the President of the Student Council who wryly and evenly rules over his fellow students. A playboy and man-about-town, there's little that escapes the coolly aristocratic gaze of the Seitokaichou.
He is amused by much that goes on around him; he also is unfocused, preferring pleasures and instincts of the moment to any long-term future goal. His sister, Utena, the student body, the other Duellists- all are appraised and used for their worth, and nothing more. He is usually seen in someone's company, rarely alone unless he chooses to be. Somehow, he always manages to be in exactly at the right place at the right time.
This may be because he's, figuratively at first and then *literally* later, 'in bed' with the Ends of the Earth- he definitely knows more about what's going on than any of the other Student Council members, though he feigns ignorance. For a time, fascinated by Utena, he toys with her, pretending to be her Prince, but this is a facetious claim.
It's true that he *was* there in Utena's past. He opened her coffin and somehow led the Prince to her or at least opened the way for her to find her way to Dios- but Touga also left Utena to her own fate, let her slip through his fingers...
There have only really been two women that mattered in Touga's life: His sister Nanami, and the bolt-from-the-blue Utena. Sadly, Touga treats his sister with a kind of tolerant disdain. His parents asked him to look after her and so he has, but it's not necessarily true that he -likes- Nanami as a person.
Meanwhile, he and Utena have a very wry and dangerous relationship; a wary detente. Even their most casual exchanges are heterodyned with intense meaning; usually, as Touga pushes, Utena pushes back. There's no denying that Touga does have immense power over Utena; he can stun her into silence with a casual word, and he spends many of his early appearances pressing her physically, holding or pinning her in some manner, demanding that she -acknowledge- him. But Utena has equal power over Touga; able to deflate his pompous manners effortlessly with a well-turned phrase, and always able to slip away...
The truth is, Touga actually -does- love and admire Utena. He wants Utena to become his. Who else is worthy of him, really, among the babbling crowds of girls that throng about him daily?
He suffers a severe shock to his being when (after defeating Utena for control of the Bride and nearly causing her to abandon all hope, intending to make her vulnerable to -his- advances) Utena soundly *thrashes* him, without any of the miracle powers, in the subsequent Duel; the turnabout and rejection hits Touga so hard he disappears into emptiness for roughly a third of the series. For without his ego and pride, who is Kiryuu Touga?
But when Akio emerges, Touga is somehow revitalized, and takes his place not only as Akio's most trusted lieutenant, but as a visionary of the Revolution; he now knows with certainty that Utena is the key to the future. He begins to try, in small and subtle ways, to warn Utena away from Akio; he sees the Victor's growing infatuation with Akio as a threat to the state of the world balance.
He pleads with Utena repeatedly to change her path.. even openly declaring his love for her, his desire to become her Prince, in increasingly desperate attempts to sway her. He's loved her ever since that first meeting, in the church, in the rain... and it can't be said Utena doesn't respond to this final confession with some feeling of her own... but it's clear she fears getting too close to Touga- and with good reason. In many ways his early manipulative and overly dominating behavior only helps to push Utena deeper into Akio's hands- an irony Touga becomes all too aware of as things press toward the inevitable end.
It doesn't help that Akio is actively rubbing his success with Utena in Touga's face, either. They declare it a sort of game, the two gentlemen; who can impress her first? And the man who has never had a problem with getting any girl he wants suddenly finds himself getting tossed out in the cold as Akio waltzes away with Utena right before his eyes.
In the end, despairing, he risks it all on one last Duel with the highest stakes of all; either he or Utena will take it all; one of them will Revolutionize the world. And, when he is again defeated, all he can do is deliver his final warning- do not trust the Rose Bride OR the Ends of the Earth!- and then once more allow Utena to face the fate she made for herself. Their fingers drift apart, and they say farewell to each other, the could-have-been forever pulled apart...
Could there ever be even a chance of their doomed romance to sprout anew?
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:09 pm
Ootori Akio: Subconscious
Acting Dean of Students
"The Ends of the Earth"
-- " It is a pleasure to me, my dear Harry, to have the priviledge of being your host in a small way on this occasion. You have often been sorely weary of your life. You were striving, were you not, for escape? You have a longing to forsake this world and its reality and penetrate to a reality more native to you, to a world beyond time. Now I invite you to do so... I can give you nothing that has not already its being within yourself. I can throw open to you no picture gallery but your own soul... I help you to make your own world visible. That is all."-- "Steppenwolf", Hermann Hesse.
Tarot Card(s):
The Devil
The Chariot
Duel Rose: Lilac
Quote: "Allow me to show you the Ends of the Earth."
Name Meaning: The phoenix reborn at dawn
He who was once the Prince now dwells solidly in the heart of darkness, giving voice to the deepest depths of the self, to the forbidden fruits of sensuality and subterfuge. Yet, all the games one can play, even if one is master of the world, are empty without love and compassion... does he know this, the aching and beautiful once-upon-a-time Prince? Does his hatred for the world mask a deeper hatred of his failed self?
His Story:
Akio is what is left of the ruins of the Prince, Dios; they are the same being, but Akio is Lucifer to the angel that Dios was. Akio is a fallen, corrupted and broken man, worldly, seemingly wise, controlling, and a tempter with an almost hypnotic power that he exerts over all around him. His innocence lost, he slavishly devotes himself to 'revolutionizing the world'. He is the man behind the Ends of the Earth, who sends the letters (at the bidding of Himemiya?) which give the orders to the Student Council and Utena.
He is a beautiful and alluring man, very fashionable, in a position of great power over the school as its acting dean of students. He is engaged to Ootori Kanae, but this seems rather literally to be a marriage of convenience; he wants her power, but nothing to do with HER (in fact, he seduces her mother!).
Apparently, the Ootori clan who owned the school had no male heir; to continue their family name, Himemiya Akio became Ootori Akio upon his engagement to that clan's eldest daughter, a fairly routine transaction among families with no firstborn male heirs. Nonetheless, his engagement is a sham; he rarely interacts with Kanae, preferring Utena; Utena makes the mistake of letting herself believe he is her prince, and surrenders to his charms in a hotel outside of the school's borders. Touga and Saionji are also drawn into his web of hedonism, and Anshi suffers directly from his domination.
Akio covets Utena, and much of the series revolves around the unspoken tug of war between himself and his sister with Utena in the middle; veiled looks, obscure comments, and meaningful glances are exchanged constantly by Akio with his sister as he struggles to wrest control of Utena away. As the story progresses, tension mounts and the world becomes a series of harsh checks and balances, brother against sister, each making attempts to block the other's progress... with Utena the golden pawn between them. It could be said, in the end, that neither truly wins; Akio gains Utena's body for a time, but Anshi keeps her soul...
Akio infects a good deal of the cast with his blatant, wildly unfettered sensuality; his appearance blasts the story into a more 'adult' arena as he promises to reveal for the first time to each of the characters the real "Ends of the Earth."- that which is their ultimate limit, the point deepest in themselves that they dare not look; the logical end if they continue carrying on with current patterns of behavior. His job, which he fulfills with glee, is that of the serpent leading the innocent into their destruction. Yet he is also as bound as Anshi to his 'role', and seems to have no care to escape or change it.
Or so it would seem. But at the end, he shows himself pained, yearning for his lost innocence, for the power of Dios, the Prince whom he once was...to become the Prince, and take Utena as his Princess, to dwell within the Castle of Illusion together, forever, in glory...or, was that all just a lie after all, smooth words to a naive girl from a man who lusts ever more for power? Still, his bitter tears show that on some level he knows that he could have chosen another way...
In essence Akio has blinded himself to life, choosing to retreat into the safety of the ritualistic Duellist's Code of his construction. Ironic that a 'unfettered hedonist' would cling to an archaic set of rules as the foundation of his universe... He seeks the revolution of the world without realizing that it occurred literally under his nose, and is left gaping in Anshi's wake when, at the end, she finally turns her back on his lack of vision.
Could such a man as Ootori Akio, though, TRULY submit to such an end?
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:10 pm
(its in white none is more pure than the prince)
Dios: The Savior
Tarot Card: The Magician
Duel Rose: White
Quote: "Don't ever lose your noble heart."
Name Meaning: "Dios" is Spanish for God.
-- "But the Princess still languishes under the curse of the Witch Poisonbreath, the thunder of the evil hour still reverberates in the rubble-filled Opal Palace, and my King, shackled in leaden dream-chains, still lies in the devastated hall." -- "Lulu", Hermann Hesse.
He could change anything in the world with his power. Yet he remains secluded, hidden, unwilling to act save through an agent, one who devoted her life and soul to him all unknowingly. What he wishes or hopes for, no one can know clearly- he wills Utena to win, and so she conquers those who are his enemies. Yet, he dooms her by his actions, even as he makes her stronger...
His Story
Once there was a Prince on a white horse. His self-assigned duty was to save all the young women of the world, who were princesses, through the tenderness of his heart. He was the light of the world, tirelessly battling every evil when a maiden cried out for his help. No one ever knew why he did this; whether he was atoning for some past long forgotten sin, or simply because he enjoyed it. No one ever knew the reasons; they only knew that he was there, always there when they needed him.
Even though he realized that there were some people he was not meant to save, still, he worked himself so hard that he exhausted his strength and fell severely ill. His sister tried desperately to help him as he collapsed into a straw bed in his country home. Outside, the people gathered, panicked, screaming need of the Prince's help to save their daughters. He tried to rise and go to them, but his little sister refused to let him go, for his own protection, and because she loved him so. Why couldn't those people go save their own daughters for once and let her take care of her brother so that he wouldn't die?
She stood outside the cottage door and blocked the way of the people, told them that the Prince was not available to them any more, that he was too ill to help them and that he belonged only to her. The outraged mob called her a witch and said that she had placed a spell on him. They pierced the girl- Anshi- with a million hateful swords.
The good Prince known as Dios died on that day.
From that moment, he retreated to the Castle of Illusion, and rested upon a silver sphere deep inside its magic halls, waiting for the release of the power of revolution. Unable to die, unwilling to live, he surrendered his noble heart to the Devil... But sometimes, he still came down, for those in misery. And one such girl was a weary child named Ten'jou Utena, alone and suffering... buried in her smothering coffin of roses.
But why did the Prince choose Utena, of all the millions of sorrowful people- to what purpose? Can it not be said that her wish of becoming like Dios fates her to destruction before she even begins her battle? Can it not be said that any Prince destroys those whom he means to save? For those who rely on Princes to fight for them soon lose the strength of their own sword arms, and become complacent...
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:14 pm
Arisugawa Juri: Withdrawal
Captain of the Fencing Club
Student Council Member
"However, I was well armed against the outside world. I was no longer afraid of people; even my fellow students had come to know this and treated me with a secret respect that often brought a smile to my lips. If I wanted to I could see through most of them and startled them occasionally. Only I rarely or never tried. I was always preoccupied with myself. And I longed desperately to really live for once, to give something of myself to the world, to enter into a relationship and battle with it." -- Demian, Hermann Hesse
Tarot Card: The High Priestess
Duel Rose: Orange
Quote: "Show me your 'miracle' NOW!"
Name Meaning: To wrap oneself in tree bark to avoid storms.
Without love, there can be no faith. Without faith, there can be no miracles. And when the memory of a miracle only brings pain, so it is that the inwardly tender romanticist Juri withdrawals from all feeling. Cold as stone, feared and misunderstood by all around her, she tries to convince herself there are no such things as miracles.. no such thing as love.. to shield herself from the pain of deeply loving one who hurt her in her past. At the same time, she knows this to be the ultimate lie...
Her Story
Juri is the doubter, the skeptic and bitter rationalist among the Student Council's Duellists. She loved a girl, Shiori, once, but the girl betrayed her with a male classmate, and so Juri's heart became a closed rose wrapped in thorns. She is not, clearly speaking, a lesbian; she shows no apparent sexual interest in other girls at the campus; rather, much like Saionji's singleminded obsession with Anshi, Juri's obsession is with Shiori. She is haunted in particular by a memory of Shiori handing her an open orange rose, whispering, "Believe in miracles, that your wish might come true."
Juri carries close to her heart a small gold rosebud-locket which contains a tiny black and white picture of Shiori clipped from a class photo inside it. Even though she outwardly rejects the actual person, she still clings to the belief that Shiori is *hers*. Perhaps it is that Juri rejects the reality of Shiori in order to cling to Shiori's image; this is an all too common flaw running through many of the Duellists.
She is ruthless, logical and somewhat dry of wit, the president of the Fencing Club of the school, and fiercely opposed to any notion of magic or miracles- so much so that Utena's mild retelling of her dream to become a prince sends Juri into a bitter, violent rage. I think, however, the rage came from recognizing herself in Utena- there's no real difference between the way Juri feels about her pendant and the way Utena cherishes her rose signet. Many characters in Utena are quick to flare up at comparisons between themselves and others when the comparisons touch on 'sore spots' -which they often do with unerring accuracy.
Juri is feared throughout the school as being one whose influence is so great that if a teacher displeases her, she can get the teacher fired. Juri is well aware of this reputation and seems to do nothing to discourage it, perhaps liking the aura of distance and detachment it provides her... a convenient wall of dead tree bark to hide behind.
As a Duellist she is one of the most skilled and experienced fighters and represents a serious challenge on the Arena floor to anyone unlucky enough to face her. However, the doubts and inner turmoil that she tries to hide away inside her icy heart make her a poor candidate for revolutionizing the world; she may even know this inside. She holds too closely to the past, and to her lack of faith, even as miracle after miracle is literally shoved in her face along the course of the Duels.
Juri hides a delicate, fragile heart behind her stone shield of indifference and practiced asceticism; the one thing that makes Juri bow and submit to ANYTHING is a threat against Shiori. A very messy situation with between herself and Tsuchiya Ruka, the former fencing club captain who taught Juri how to fence, leads to Juri's forced realization that she can not possess Shiori, can not even hope to cling to that. Her precious locket is utterly shattered by the power of Dios, the will of God, and the whole world seems to weep for her loss. Yet, this paradoxically frees Juri in the end; she is able to see that she wants friendship with Shiori above all else.
Could realizing that bring Shiori closer to her?
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:16 pm
Kyouichi Saionji: Inferiority Complex
Kendo Club Captain
Student Council Member
"On good days, when my conscience did not trouble me, it was often delightful to play with them, to be good and decent as they were and to see myself in a noble light ... But how infrequent such days were! Often at play, at some harmless activity, I became so fervent and headstrong that I was too much for my sisters; the quarrels and unhappiness this led to threw me into such a rage that I became horrible, did and said things so awful they seared my heart even as I said them. Then followed harsh hours of gloomy regret and contrition, the painful moment when I begged forgiveness, to be followed again by beams of light, a quiet, thankful, undivided gladness." -- "Damien", Hermann Hesse.
Tarot Card: Judgement
Duel Rose: Forest Green
Quote: "Why, Anshi? Why can't you obey me?"
Name Meaning: An outer skin to protect the seed from outside weather
You can love too much. Yet his desire is genuine... if motivated by questionable purpose. The memory of a girl in her coffin, speaking words echoed in his own heart, is partially the cause; it's unclear when Anshi became the focus of Saionji's intentions, the nexus of his dream, but he perceives in her what he projects from himself... a need to be loved, a hope to find the eternal power that will ensure his love lasts forever.. something permanent and real. He is wiser than he seems, but fatally flawed by his desire to possess Anshi...
His Story
Saionji and Touga have been friends since childhood; although their relationship has in their later years becomes taut and strained, they were at one time extremely close, and still at least make the pretense of believing they are. They duel constantly in the Kendo hall, as tension-release or as another shot in their neverending rivalry which neither will openly name the reasons or causes of...
Saionji has become increasingly insecure and unhappy over the years, consumed by inner demons of uncertainty and doubt. Although he (like just about everyone of major standing at Ootori Gakuen) is much admired by girls, he has no loved ones. Unlike Touga who takes open advantage of the availability of women, Saionji will only ever be interested in one woman, the one that he desires above all other things: Himemiya Anshi. He is devoted to her, utterly willing to go beyond all boundaries in his misguided attempts to show his love for her. And his stubborn possessiveness of her also knows no bounds; when he was her Victor, he would routinely beat her in frustration. His actions toward Himemiya are the stuff of nightmares, every thinking woman's terror; but is he beating her to punish her, or is he really so furious at himself for his failures to reach her or communicate with her that he lashes out blindly?
He labors under a persistent delusion that no amount of external evidence can sway that Anshi belongs to him, and that she returns his affections; this couldn't be farther from the truth, but unlike Touga or Utena, Saionji never really learns the truth of the Rose Bride. His most cherished possession is their diary that they kept together while he was the Victor; he genuinely believes everything written there is for real. He clings to it for it is the only concrete thing he has left that he's loved by someone, anyone. It's really as simple as that. Of course, Anshi could really care less, but it was his will at the time that she participate in the behavior. It's also worth noting Chuchu's vengeance on that same item later...
Much of Saionji's violence and immature behaviors seems to have stemmed from the incident in his and Touga's childhood... following some friendly duelling, they rode home together, but chanced to pass by a church, where some men were seeking a girl who'd disappeared after a funeral... Although Saionji was reluctant, he followed Touga to the church.. where they found a girl huddled up in the third of three coffins; her parents had just died, and she wanted to die with them... She begged them not to open the coffin; Saionji pleaded with Touga not to do it, but Touga didn't listen...
And the question that the uncovered girl asked lodged in Saionji's heart and stayed there... "Why does anyone live, if all anyone ever does is die? Eternity doesn't exist, does it?" He wanted to show the girl something eternal, but he couldn't.. but somehow, Touga did. Touga, always going to places where Saionji couldn't go, seeing things Saionji couldn't see... he became jealous of Touga's prowess and increasing mysterious knowledge.
As a Duellist, Saionji is fierce and vicious, but not undefeatable; curiously, his grace and patience appears more in the Kendo hall than in the Forest of Challenges. As the Captain of the Kendo Club, his strikes are controlled and directed, his force channeled. But as a Duellist on the field, he attacks with wild, random strikes, almost no style at all- his only chance of winning is through sheer brute force... even the completely unskilled Utena was able to defeat him through sheer persistence. It's even arguable that the only reason he began the story as the Victor of the Duel was because none of the other more combat-competent Duellists had any interest or reason to challenge him... rule by apathy.
After he attacks Utena, causing Touga to be injured in her defense, Saionji is thrown out of the school...His love-diary he entrusts foolishly to Touga, who destroys it without a second thought. With nowhere to go, Saionji takes refuge in Wakaba's company- ironic as he originally scorned her love letter in the first episode and caused the cycle that began Utena's rise and ascension through the Duellist ranks.
While with Wakaba, for a time, Saionji allows his softer, more compassionate side to show through; He works on making her a leaf-pin for her hair, starting to realize that perhaps it'd be better to move on and find a better, more true love... He starts to make personal progress, on a path that could lead him to freedom... However, it's likely because of this that Mikage narrows in on him. And Saionji just isn't strong enough to resist being lured back once more... He betrays Wakaba's affections once more, and gives the leaf pin to Anshi. It is this action that sends Wakaba spiraling to the path of the Black Rose...
Even still, after his return to the campus Saionji is a little wiser, a little more reserved and cautious, more laid back and more thoughtful in his actions. It takes the direct intervention of Akio to coerce him to Duel again; although suspicious, Saionji is at least partially inducted into Touga's 'other life' with Akio, and becomes privy to some of the Ends of the Earth's secrets. He gains at least enough wisdom to realize that not only was it Utena in the coffin years ago, but that he and Touga are still in that church with her even now... sealed away inside their own coffins of restricting beliefs.
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:59 pm
Kaoru Miki: Rational Mind
Second Captain, Fencing Club
Student Council Member
Tarot Card: Temperance
Duel Rose: Pale blue
Quote: *stopwatch click*
Name Meaning: The tree trunk's fragrance
Quiet and subtle, this gentle-hearted piano player is perhaps the softest of all the Duellists- he is content with the world, content in books, music, and the friendship of everyday living. Like an untroubled sea, he is placid and unruffled. Yet even the calmest sea may have hidden depths and jagged cliffs inside- it's just that you can't clearly see them for the smooth, glass-like surface...
His Story
Miki is the gentlest of the Ootori Duellists; he is warm-hearted, sweet and mild of temper. Closest to Utena in spirit, he seems to have little real concern for revolutionizing the world as his own personal existence is mostly satisfying.
He is the intellectual; he tutors Himemiya and Utena, (who both have the most rotten grades imaginable, in math particularly) and geniunely likes both girls as friends. His swordfighting is highly competent technically though he lacks Juri or Nanami's viciousness or Touga or Saionji's brute force; he fights the most 'honorably' of all the Duellists, with a single-handed style. His placid nature makes him a very unlikely candidate to possess the power of world revolution. He also doesn't entirely trust the motives of the Ends of the Earth.
He has his own quirks as the rest do, however. A fetishist about time, he carries a stopwatch, eternally timing people's sentences and actions and noting them down in a notebook for reasons only clear to himself. He also has a fetish for a certain piece of piano music, "The Sunny Garden". He can play the piano expertly, but when he hears Himemiya playing the same song, with more skill, he becomes entranced by her, as her playing reminds him of a key moment in his past:
Miki and his sister, Kozue, once used to practice together on the piano that piece of music, and Miki remembers it as the time when he was happiest in his childhood. However he harbors tremendous guilt because at a crucial time when they were to perform together in public at a piano recital, he fell ill and was unable to go. Kozue, who had no real playing ability, had to go alone and had a horrible experience where she was publically humiliated. She had been leaning on Miki's talent all along... though she never told him so. A wedge was driven between the brother and sister from that time; the sunlit garden was infected with weeds.
Miki and his sister share a bedroom and an evening ritual is that Miki prepares warm milk for both of them in special glass cups- one marked M and one K.
When he discovers he and Himemiya both enjoy playing the piano it makes him happy, yet one of his few angry moments comes when she tells him that, if Utena willed her to, she would never play the piano again. He challenges Utena to a duel to free the Rose Bride, so that Anshi can play her music whenever she wishes, but is crushed easily when Himemiya cheers on her Victor; she likes being where she is.
This brief upset doesn't really affect his friendship with the two girls, however, and he remains close to them. Of all the Duelists, it seems he will be the least upset by Revolution's coming... He has little to lose. But one wonders... will he ever try to grow beyond the Duels?
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:05 pm
Kiryuu Nanami: Insecurity
Student Council Member
Acting Student Council President
Tarot Card: The Moon
Duel Rose: Yellow
Quote: "OniiIIIIIiiisama!"
Name Meaning: Protecting the shoot of the plant
Lost, confused child, so desperate to be understood that she lashes out in violence, her love confused with hate, affection confused with desire... Her heart is tender and fragile, guarded by a shell of remorseless arrogance. She is merely a child, spoiled and uncertain, clinging needfully to the one thing she believes holy and sacred... aren't we all like this sometimes? Who can blame Nanami really?
Her Story
Nanami is your classic scheming, sniping, manipulative girl- the school bully, basically. The younger sister of Touga, some might say her attachment to him extends well beyond simple sisterly devotion; she is usually seen clinging to his arm, or scowling at other girls lucky enough to hold that spot. She answers to no one except Touga and she respects the opinions of no one except Touga.
Her jealousy is boundless, her rages capable of vesting in extreme violence. Her mind is devious and cold. She's basically the school bully, but like all bullies her behavior is clearly a display masking serious inner turmoil. In duels she fights with a curved short sword and a curved dagger, making her unique among the Duellists as the only combatant to use multiple weapons. Her ferocity in battle matches Saionji's for blind force; she also has this little PROBLEM stopping after the destruction of the rose...
Initially her cruelty is vented on Anshi, who arouses her ire for no clear reason. Later, as the series progresses and her situation becomes more unstable, she just becomes generally unpleasant to everyone. She possesses a deep and resounding persecution complex, to boot.
The dark secret of the Kiryuu clan is that BOTH Nanami and Touga were adopted- they are genetic siblings- but Nanami doesn't know that, and Touga carefully eludes telling her the whole truth, which sets her immature, frail ego almost to breaking- to the point where she's forced to turn to Utena and Anshi for help.
Nanami's issues with her desire for her brother are brought to a head when she is unfortunate enough to witness one of Akio and Anshi's late-night 'sessions'; when Touga is finally offered to her wholly by the Ends of the Earth, she screams and shoves him away, thus proving once and for all that her worship of Touga is based not on sexual feelings, but on a need for *someone* who can understand her closely.
As a complete flip side to her dark, torrid emotional nature, Nanami appears to have some kind of curse whereupon animals of every known species will attack her randomly. (This may be the universe punishing her for murdering Touga's kitten in a jealous rage when she was a child...) This has included a boxing kangaroo, no less than an entire herd of elephants that chase her across the world, a rubber inflatable octopus, and a pencilcase full of snails... (!)
Nanami has the largest group of subcharacters in the story- no less than *seven* seperate servants. Her female henchmen are Sonoda Keiko, Wakiya Aiko, and Oose Yuuko. Keiko has a crush on Touga, and, in fact, becomes a Black Rose Duellist over it.. Her 'pet', a young boy who pledges his fealty to her is Tsuwabuki, an underclassman that desires to be her brother and Prince, disapproving of Touga. Her male henchmen are Suzuki, Yamada, Tanaka (or, the Three Stooges) They have no real personalities, but they write Nanami letters of affection every day and will follow her anywhere she goes... they also seem to have crushes on Keiko, Yuuko and Aiko.
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:06 pm
Shinohara Wakaba: Potential
"Some people are capable of learning a great deal, but you are not one of them. You'll never be a student. And why should you be? You don't need to. You have other gifts. You are more gifted than I, you are richer and you are weaker, your road will be more difficult and more beautiful than mine. There were times when you refused to understand me, you often kicked like a foal, it wasn't always easy, I was often forced to hurt you. I had to waken you, since you were asleep." -- "Narcissus and Goldmund", Hermann Hesse.
Tarot Card: The Star
Quote: "My world is completely different from the world of the special people."
Name Meaning: The young leaf of the bamboo field
(ed. note: bamboo flowers only once and then dies)
Foil to the Prince, sister self, hopeful child, undyingly devoted to love, faith and hope. In so many ways and on so many levels, Wakaba mirrors her hero. In so many ways, she also surpasses Utena, and yet she never allows herself to see it. Integrated child, fresh sprout, next in line, Wakaba is the closest of any of the characters to true humanity.
Her Story
From the very beginning, Wakaba is attached primarily to Utena and Saionji. These two extremes and polarities truly define the outlines of Wakaba's internal heart.
Utena's entrance into the secret world of the Duel Game can be directly attributed to Wakaba.
Wakaba, early on, calls Utena her 'prince' and her 'boyfriend', but her eye is on Saionji from the beginning. Wakaba spilled her heart out in a letter to Saionji, which he callously threw away in a public place, and indirectly caused it to be pinned to a bulletin board for all to read. In the midst of a spectacle in which many boys are reading and mocking the innocent, clumsy letter, Utena stomps in to intervene, and soon discovers the letter was written by Wakaba. Wanting to defend the honor of her friend, Utena tracks down the person responsible for posting the letter, runs into Saionji, and is soon drawn headlong into the mystery.
If Wakaba had never written that letter, Utena would never have become a Duellist.
Wakaba shadows Utena almost constantly, and the two are best friends, utterly inseperable. It's clear that Wakaba projects much of her personal strength and power into/onto Utena; she takes it quite personally when Utena falls into gloom and despair, even more than one might expect of a best friend. It's hard to say just why she gets Utena's attention, although it may have something to do with Utena's need to have princesses... What raises Wakaba above the common crowd of Utena's female admirers, anyway, is the commonality of their backgrounds.
When Wakaba was little, (so she says) her mother called her the "Princess of the Onion Kingdom." And both girls believe in a prince of sorts, a romantic fantasy of the man that will come for them at the time their own strength fails- though Wakaba initially writes her fantasies off as a joke, it comes out later that her memory of the "Prince of Onions", a boy who (she believes) protected her from humiliation, is actually one of her dearest and most cherished childhood memories. Of course, that boy really didn't do any such thing, but...
Much as she admires Utena, Wakaba's feelings toward Saionji are driven largely by the fact that she considers him inaccessible to her- she even describes the situation herself as that he is 'completely out of her league'. Despite this statement, Wakaba actually shares several traits with the green-haired Kendo captain- when frustrated, Wakaba can fly into violence (unable to reach Utena any other way during the critical period of episodes 11 and 12, she slaps her); she clings intensely to Utena (and her idea of Utena) just as Saionji does to Himemiya. She desires Saionji and she also bears a slow smouldering jealousy of Himemiya Anshi under the surface. You see, Himemiya has what Wakaba doesn't... and it only gets worse as not only Saionji but also Utena are 'stolen' from Wakaba...
During the trauma of the Black Rose possession, her delayed rage and inner sorrow at the theft comes out full force. Perhaps out of all the Black Rose Duellists, Wakaba truly has the most genuine reason to hate the Rose Bride- she sees Himemiya as the thief of her friends, her true love and her dreams. We see that Wakaba considers herself truly a low creature, not like the 'special' people, the popular ones, the shining ones, which is Utena, the Student Council, and everyone EXCEPT her... Her duel is brief, but the issues are poignant and the duel is one of the most painful and poignant in the series as friend is pitted against friend.
After the Black Rose ends, Wakaba's role as Utena's best friend resumes its usual course. It's a little odd that, as Akio appears, Wakaba doesn't consider him competition for Utena's attention- perhaps she's feeling a bit more secure in her status? Much like Utena herself, Wakaba seems smitten with Akio, viewing the chairman as someone to be admired and coveted. With the clarity of vision only a true best friend can have, Wakaba does spot Utena's infatuation quite early on, and with ambiguous actions appears to be ENCOURAGING Utena's fixation in a backhanded way. Wakaba takes a ride with Akio, deliberately shutting out Utena, and makes many small comments that seem to be nudging Utena in Akio's direction. This is almost a complete reversal from her behavior, always discouraging, about Himemiya. I think she does have good intentions at heart- she wants Utena to fall in love- but there could be a subtle edge of 'undoing' in it, a subconscious remnant of the fury of the Black Rose where she might want to see the 'special one' take a fall. On this point, it's up to the viewer to decide...
Fittingly, just as she was one of the first images of the series, Wakaba is also one of the last things we see; looking up toward the Tower as Akio speaks of 'moving on to the next'. Her 'onion prince' and the girl who mocked her at the beginning of the series are now hanging around with her, clinging to her. Could Wakaba be the next Victor, the next Prince? Shoujo Kakumei Wakaba?
Then, would Wakaba finally be the special one she so longs to be?
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:09 pm
Sonoda Keiko: Obedience
"One can do all kinds of forbidden things and laugh them away, or one can confess them and that is that; they need no longer concern one. Why shouldn't you commit these little foolishnesses like other students? What is so terrible about that?" -- "Narcissus and Goldmund", Hermann Hesse.
Tarot Card: Queen of Rods
Quote: "I'm happy only being with you, Nanami-sama."
Name Meaning: Child (Stalk) of the Rice Garden
One of the usually indistinguishable trio that serves Nanami night and day, Keiko actually shows that the binding holding Nanami's followers to her is as thin and fragile as rice paper. For a few moments she dares to express her individuality, and is all but crushed for doing so. Pity the fragile insect whose wings are torn off at the moment of birth.
Her Story
Keiko gets the center stage for only a very short time- one episode, to be precise- although she appears in a sort of background way in several others. She was the last of Nanami's followers to join the group, and along with Aiko and Yuuko form the henchgirl part of Nanami's little armada of personal drones. It is Keiko along with the other two girls who carry out much of Nanami's petty little vengeance schemes.
As a result of her ubiquitous anonymity, she's not all that well developed. Utena doesn't even know who she is except as a 'one of those three girls that hang around Nanami'. Only Himemiya (who has suffered the abuse of all three girls) seems to know which one is which. Only for a moment does Keiko show any hint of an individual self with an independent drive. The catalyst for this brief flame of independence is Touga, Nanami's elegant and distant-star brother. Keiko, having admired Touga from afar almost from the beginning, wishes for a chance to be with him. However, Nanami is always in the way...
Much like Wakaba's sentiment during her Black Rose days, Keiko feels herself to be utterly below Touga- "only the princess from the secret world may meet the prince", as she puts it. Yet, she hopes for a chance, however slim, that she could gain Touga's attention...
Things go bad for Keiko once Nanami finds out that Keiko actually has some desire toward Touga. Nanami's legendary possessive/jealous streak flares up and she in effect 'fires' Keiko, even going so far as to banish her utterly from all of her clubs and social activities. Aiko and Yuuko pretend Keiko doesn't exist, at Nanami's behest.
Completely scorned and abandoned, Keiko falls into the darkness of the Black Rose, but her personality, just barely developed, is hardly strong enough to hold up for long against the Victor- or against Nanami's overbearing manner- and after her defeat, that eggshell persona is completely cracked.
Thus, Keiko becomes 'one of the girls' once more...
Who might she have become if she had been strong enough to hold onto herself?
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 10:12 pm
Ootori Kanae: Alienation
"My condition at that time was a kind of madness. Amid the ordered peace of our hourse I lived shyly, in agony, like a ghost; I took no part in the life of the others, rarely forgot myself for an hour at a time." -- "Demian", Hermann Hesse.
Tarot Card: The Empress
Quote: "Remember me once in a while, okay?"
Name Meaning: offshoot of the phoenix
She should have been the center of the world. Daughter to the family controlling Ootori Gakuen, fiancee to the acting chairman, the world could have moved at her whim. But in the end Kanae was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard; nothing more than a prop in a lethal play she never truly perceived for what it was...
Her Story
Uberfeminine and ultimately submissive, Kanae would seem to be the Japanese ideal of the perfect wife-to-be: pretty, meek and mild, speaking softly and subtly. Many times Kanae veils her statements by presenting them indirectly, as 'rumors' or things she 'heard', rather than directly stating her own opinion. In many ways, Kanae would seem to be the truest Princess in the series, embodying all the most negative aspects of that archetype.
It's important to note that her engagement to Akio was arranged by her father, and Akio himself states that he feels it's too soon; to marry fresh out of high school? This is a particularly scathing irony when you consider that Utena is four years Kanae's younger, and just barely entering high school...
It's not entirely clear whether Kanae truly wants the marriage or whether she's simply going along with what her family desires for her, walking in lockstep with her predetermined fate. She confesses to Mikage that she would do anything for Akio... but all too often finds herself completely shut out of his life, which leads to endless silent suffering and frustration.
What is clear is that Kanae not only dislikes but actively fears Anshi; this fear seems deeprooted and primal, almost instinctual. The fear of the True Princess to the Witch, perhaps? There is a poisoned apple later in the story, after all...
Kanae is the first Ootori student to become a Black Rose, and in many ways is experimented on from several sides at once. Mikage and Mamiya use her as an experiment of their process to create a Black Rose duellist; Akio uses her existence (though not her existence as a PERSON, only as a SYMBOL) as a pawn and bludgeon against Utena a few times- after all, she should -never- forget he has Kanae as his engaged...
Kanae gets desperate enough later to bring her mother into the situation, who reminds Akio rather tartly that engagements can be cancelled at any time, and that his position is dependent on how he treats her... however, she's speaking out of both sides of her mouth, and it can certainly be said even Kanae's mother has selfish interests at heart when it comes to dealing with Akio...
The last image we see of Kanae is rather startling and unsettling; she sits limply in Akio's arms with a blank stare, and she is being fed a slice of apple by a small dark hand that is clearly belonging to Himemiya. (Look -very- closely and you can see three brown hands in the shot- two of them are identifiable as Akio's, but the third...)
Even her name implies that she may have never -truly- existed; was Kanae nothing more than a prop in the game, a mannequin brought on stage at need to drive the actions of the other characters forward?
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Fashionable Conventioneer
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:39 pm
[[The background of Al-Qaum, so all know]]
Long ago, deep within the sands of a lost land called Nabataea. Their world was powered by the sun and moon, divisions of light and dark. Gods were close to this old nomadic group and present in daily lives. As such, many of their own pantheon bred with the mighty and beautiful, furthering the wonderful people who worshipped them. Alas, time has all but disappeared with the greater civilizations of Rome and Egypt, and very few remember it’s strength.
Through time, these children of the gods have evolved and lived longer than the average man or woman, each one gifted towards the traits of their descendants. Most gods have been forgotten, but their rare heirs have kept their names alive. One such god was the mighty Al-Qaum, god protector of the night and wayward travelers along with power and war. Much has been forgotten about this god, except he passed his line down to the strongest women of Nabataea. After generation and generation of ancient blood passed to each child of Ali, a son was born in the early turn of the century. He was named after the man who kept their family so wonderful and strong, he too was named Al-Qaum.
Early in his youth his father, the previous heir, fled to fulfill the heritage of a true son of Ali. He has been traveling the deserts of Arabia and not returned since the young Ali was 15. In his youth, with the power and money a bloodline as his had over time through trade and wars, he was shipped to the most prestigious school in the world. This secluded school was Ohtori Academy, lost itself in far east Japan. Something about the atmosphere kept him intrigued, it breathed power unlike any establishment he’d seen in his short life. If only he could have figured out it’s magics during his first arrival to such a place, but as a son of a god, trapped between the age restrictions of mortality and that of the immortal, he doesn’t age as quickly as the rest of the student body. As of such, he was forced to leave after 6 long years trying to desperately find out why this place enchanted him so. All attempts may have unsuccessful, though he did come out with a close relationship to the ruling couple who inherited it’s glory, Akio Ohtori and Melody, his fiance.
Decades later, once he was sure no one would recognize his face, he returned to the school that had once driven him mad. Upon his arrival he was handed a ring, embossed with a fuchsia rose, and told he could seek all that the school could hide if he participated in the duels it held. Duels, something new he had fallen in love with. The way a sword could swing and the dance 2 bodies could do as they overpowered one another. He very nearly conquered all, but a few familiar faces still caught him off guard, the chairman and his fiance again. Akio seemed a match, able to catch any blow and it became a draw every duel, while Melody not only beat him like an weakened child, but she took hold of a part of him, of his own strength. How could they still linger as he did, though raise no alarm? How could they defeat him when god blood of an ancient war god coursed through his veins? Everywhere he turned, he seemed trapped within their limits, netted and flailing just as every other student.
Having had enough he fled into the night suddenly, never to return until now. Al has finally come to terms(mostly) with his emotions and restrictions from time to time. Wandering as his father had for the past 40 years has left him nothing more than a lonely and broken man, finally able to accept himself. He hopes that seeing old Ohtori along with it’s forever ones, will inspire both the livelihood of younger years, and the passion he desires to find his own way to work with what he has born to do.
No more traveling alone and lost, Al will prove himself finally as the strongest entity this school has seen, and hopefully find another who can embrace his near immortal self.
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