08.01
Utena High School Host Club
I remember citing repetition as the chief reason why I dropped this show a few years ago, of the opinion that marathon viewing doesn’t combine well with scenes that appear every other episode such as the story of the orphaned Utena. Then again, the show was made before producers knew about marathon viewing. The DVD market wasn’t even alive, and it seemed impractical for a decent amount of people to buy a crateful of videotapes just to watch all of them in one day. And I guess progress made in that area was what made the recap episode and other expository fare more rare in anime nowadays. It’s still there, of course, but for shows made for the casual audiences rather than the people ready to dedicate half of the day to watching a series. Instead, the clip shows are reserved for compilation movies where audiences can watch repeated clips without it getting in the way of a show’s run. Plus, it gives the studios an extra buck for minimal work.
But from what I’m told to expect of Utena, this repetition of information could be a little handholding for the first episodes before the plot really goes underway. On the other hand, that could possibly be why you don’t hear of this show’s infamy more than Evangelion’s. People expect something mind warping, but that happens later in the show rather than the “Anthy slap and duel of the week” events in the current arc. Evangelion’s first arc may not hold a candle to what happens in the second-half of the show, but you still get the sense that something’s quite off with the world. But here, Utena’s atmosphere at the third episode seems a bit rosier than the reputation it has formed. It doesn’t help that the imagery used brings more to mind the eye-winking world of Ouran nowadays than the theatric framing Ikuhara’s trying to accomplish.
Even then, this does feel a bit like an Ouran episode, doesn’t it? Party events are going on, with the more privileged students trying to have their way with the commoners. You can probably argue that Haruhi is a slightly less ambitious Utena when you put it to mind, same with Tamaki and Touga. They both want a princess out of a woman who refuses to be bound to gender traditions, loving a fellow student out of their personal image of the person in question rather than who they actually are. While I may nitpick about the storybook prologue, it does pull attention to Touga’s relation to Utena. The two apply the rules of fairy tales into their lives, but do so through conflicting interpretations. They both want to be the mighty prince of their own kingdom, but one prince-to-be wants the other to settle down from that dream.
And to pull a young lady away from her desires wouldn’t be very princely, wouldn’t it? Thus, Touga’s introduced as the wolf in sheep’s clothing, being able to sweet-talk Utena into wearing a dress out of a desire for her to submit to society rather than to ascend from it. Behind charm lies an agenda, where a manipulator can pull out a nice smile on a whim to suit their needs. That thread connects both Touga and his sister Nanami. They are both vipers trying to bite into the Utena/Anthy dynamic, as well as some foreshadowing for some future revelations that I’ve only been given hints for.
Speaking of the relationship between Utena and Anthy, it gets an extra layer from why Utena and Anthy go to the party. Utena wants Anthy to find some friends, but she has to go with her while wearing a light pink gown. The embryonic state of love they’re going through requires sacrifices, but it seems to indicate that love means having to abandon your ideals. There’s never a win-win situation. And the moment Utena throws her dress away and gets back to her uniform, she proceeds to dance with Anthy while no one moves with them. She takes back what’s hers, but at the cost of giving Anthy something she finds just as important. Could it be a realization, or could it be unrealized selfishness?