First, the Technical aspect: The ANIMATION in Revolutionary Girl Utena is very well done, for it's time. However, it is brought low by an extreme overuse of repeated scenes. For example, before every duel, Utena is shown walking up a long spiral staircase as music plays. Upon reaching the top, she performs a "Magical Girl" transformation, bringing out her dueling sword. This takes up around two minutes of every episode, and gets extremely annoying if you don't fast forward. Another constantly repeated scene is the 30 second elevator ride the Student Council takes in almost every episode, reciting the same 4 or 5 lines about breaking the world's shell.
The SOUND is not noticeably bad or good. It gets the job done. The Opening Song is catchy, though it gets a little tiresome after a while. Ending Song is forgettable.
One of Utena's biggest problem is it's CHARACTERS. All of the men, except for Miko, are long haired, annoying, transparently evil, womanizing scum. Transparent, that is, except to the female characters, who swoon for them. This is very painful to watch, since we initially LIKE these women, and want them to be happy. Instead, we see them tortured and tormented by these cruel, androgynous men for 39 episodes. The series can evoke tears. However, unlike series such as Saikano, She -The Ultimate Weapon- or movies such as Grave of the Fireflies, Utena does not earn these tears, nor do I think it deserves them.
One redeeming quality in the character department is the shadow girls. They alternate playing as a sort of Greek chorus, to simple comic relief. They are amusing and interesting for the early part of the series, but start to get tired as the series plods along.
Another big problem is the Rose Bride, Anthy. Her personality seems to be non-existent for most of the series. She's basically kind and gentle to whoever she is engaged to. Anthy is not very engaging in the early episodes, but at least she's sympathetic, in that she has not fallen for any of the cruel men in the series. This is shattered, however, in episode 14.
Thus begins my critique of the STORY. Androgeny, Homosexuality, Pretty boys with unbuttoned shirts and poisonous personalities, Lesbianism, and seemingly rampant incest. What isn't there to like? To properly review the story, I will have to go into a few spoilers. However, I will restrict myself only to events in the first couple episodes.
By the end of episode 1, Utena is the top duelist, making her the default fiancée of Anthy, the Rose Bride. Unfortunately, everyone wants the Rose Bride, for she supposedly holds the power to remake the world. Thus does Utena's episodic "duel of the week" nature reveal itself. In nearly every episode, another duelist tries to win the Rose Bride. The basic structure goes something like this: A character is slighted by Utena or Anthy, intentionally or unintentionally, resulting in a challenge. The first half of the episode goes to developing the new duelists motives, followed by the duel itself, which I'm afraid to say is dreadfully uninspiring. Repeated frames abound, and the duels lack energy and coherence. Utena fights, Utena starts to lose, Magical Power intercedes, Utena wins. This gets very boring very quickly, as it does in every DragonBall Z episode I have ever seen.
Among the flaws in Revolutionary Girl Utena[, there is 1 that is fatal, bringing the series to a startling halt. It is plot related, so I shall tread carefully so as not to reveal too much.
By episode 14, we have lost sympathy for most of the cast. If they're male, we never liked them much anyways, though I'm pretty sure this is intended. If they're female, we've seen them debauched and/or broken by one or more of the men. Since the men are so obviously evil, we dislike the women for being so terribly gullible (even for schoolgirls) What is left is Anthy. What little interest I had left for Revolutionary Girl Utena resided in Anthy's innocence. However, this is irrevocably shattered in Episode 14, when Anthy... acts in a way that is far from innocent. It is so bad, in fact, that it brings the series to a screeching halt. What makes it even worse is that this monumental event is IGNORED, I repeat, IGNORED... for TWENTY EPISODES!! I truly believe I could have survived through this event if it had been resolved in the following episode. Unfortunately, it is not, and I was so upset by it that the rest of the series was ruined for me.
After episode 15, we realize that this terrible incident involving Anthy is not going to be resolved anytime soon. There are no sympathetic character's left, save Utena, who spends the rest of the series being steadily broken down by all of the evil people around her. This is not fun to watch, yet the writers stretch it out over 20ish episodes. On top of all of this, the duels, which had been mildly interesting due to the back story given to each duelist, and the fact that both parties learned something from the encounter, is made all the more boring when, through a plot contrivance, the future duelists lose their memory of the duel. Thus, they learn nothing, we learn nothing, and 22 more minutes of my life have been wasted.
In my intense hatred for episode 14, I almost forgot another fatal flaw... the pacing. In series of this nature, it is customary that the audience learn, bit by bit, the true nature of the series. In Utena, however, the important questions are not answered until it is far too late, and we have lost all interest.
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