07.22
Utena after reading the script for the movie.
Last time, Utena beat Saionji, attaining a position as a leading student as well as a love interest within Anthy. On this episode, she has to do this all over again. Duality 101 strikes, where Utena becomes the princely upstart all the girls swoon over and Saionji swings his sword alone when nobody but Touga can console him. But that difference in status clouds their similar treatment of the woman in front of them. Sure, Utena may not slap Anthy or show any direct notion of causing harm to her, but her relationship does not seem like equal terms yet.
While Saionji has abused Anthy in the past two episodes, his actions towards her imply that Saionji needs Anthy in his life. Even if that need only extends to needing property, it sheds a light when he will not led defeat get in the way of what he wants. On Utena’s point-of-view, she’s treating Anthy as a friend, but not as the Rose Bride that she has been offered. The school’s rules enforce a more subservient relationship than the one Utena wants with Anthy, and she would rather want out than pursue this journey. She even plans to lose her second deal with Saionji in order to get away from this dreamlike battleground, but that would mean giving Anthy back to this abusive man. She does not apply that realization into her thought process, not realizing that being the prince often means sacrificing all else to save their love.
But for Utena, she has no clear vision of who her love is. Even when her friend Wakaba brings up a book analogy—over how the scorned heroine will find a new hero the next day—she can’t see the picture the way everyone else sees it. With Anthy in her life, Utena’s unknowingly thrust herself into a love triangle. And this only happened because Utena wanted to defend Wakaba’s honor to Saionji even though it was all over another misunderstanding altogether. This all makes Utena appear to be too headstrong, always demanding to act before knowing the complete situation. And as she has little idea about what the Rose Bride conspiracy entails, she will not be able to walk this path without fumbling.
And that’s what necessitates the intervention during the duel. While appearing to be different from the rest of the students, Utena only thinks that she can think for herself instead of being truly self-sufficient. The last duel was only won through luck, while this one required a spirit to guide her victory. None of those duels ended from her own talents alone, quelling her creed on becoming the noble prince if she cannot fight for herself. Ikuhara seems to be showing how misguided her attempt at becoming a prince is through these actions, perhaps pondering on how Utena’s attempt to solely embrace masculinity may cripple rather than enhance herself as a person.
On a side note, I would like to point to the Kashira girls’ skit of the day, where they are dressed up as Spaghetti Western cowboys in the midst of a shootout. I was wondering why that metaphor would be used for Utena’s duel, but then I remembered how one of the most famous Western heroes is Clint Eastwood’s Man with no Name. He accomplished great feats throughout a trilogy of movies, but offered no primary identity beyond an inconsistent nickname. It could also be linked to the Django series of films, and how the name gets passed onto many different gunslingers with little connections between any of them. In both those series, the singular identity of the main character factors little into the story. Any personality becomes blurred in the Western mythos as time passes and more installments are made. So going back to what I’m trying to say, is this scene trying to paint Utena as one of these nameless heroes, achieving mesmerizing actions but unable to claim them as their own?