Revolutionary Girl Utena – episode 35
Dec. 22nd, 2005 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasseI had a particularly stupid moment a little while ago, for a rather extended period of time. I was complaining that I couldn’t watch a certain episode of Utena that was up for debate because the fuckwit who will earn himself a good kicking on Christmas day had my Utena DVDs still. He does and he will get a good kicking but I do have the official Apocalypse Arc DVDs still.
So having recovered from my weeks of ineptitude, I sat down to watch this critical episode.
The question was over the matter of Touga’s position at that point in the series. He’d been the playboy student council president who had already tricked Utena into losing a duel via the ‘hamming up the fairytale prince stereotype’ before so was this simply a further extension of that trick?
I don’t think it was.
Granted, he’s following Akio’s orders but there does seem to be a certain note of reticence and misdirection going on in Touga’s compliance. He seems almost relieved when Utena considers refusing the earrings that are allegedly from Akio and then later even tells Akio that his present didn’t go over well because Utena didn’t like them.
Even during the infamous horse-riding scene. He seems to be actively trying to sabotage Akio’s plans for Utena, laughing a little at the princely stereotype that she clings to. Almost as if to suggest that she believes in an illusion that’s a little childish really. Of course she then falls off the horse and is caught by the perfectly-timed Akio. Whether it’s a set up or not Touga does look appropriately horrified when Utena falls and somewhat disappointed when Akio is there to save her.
Aiko’s “That could have ended badly.” could even be taken as something of an indirect threat to Touga, that while he has leeway to do as he pleases, it won’t go well for him if he interferes with Akio’s plans.
As for the meaning of poppies, they’re traditionally associated with sleep and/or love potions. They can mean things as extreme as oblivion and eternal sleep, and also imagination. While a red poppy will signify pleasure, Akio seems to be talking generally so the more general meanings would probably apply.
Sleep eternally in the dream of Ohtori Academy perhaps even.
And interestingly a cactus signifies either endurance or seemingly ardent love.
So simply looking at that circumstantial evidence it does seem that Touga may not be quite so absolutely cynical towards Utena any more. But moving on from that, his interaction with Saionji, especially during their conversation before they spar is fairly interesting.
Saionji accuses Touga of using everyone around him and actively appearing to play the role of the prince after which Touga retreats back into the security of his flippant misdirection.
Strangely enough, what seems to come from this is the suggestion that Saionji has been hurt by Touga in the past, not romantically in particular, but by Touga’s unrepentant sophistry and lies. Possibly he’s been hurt by being one of the few people close to Touga who can actually see through the image of the prince he’s constructed and which all his many admirers never seem to see through. Saionji knows that Touga is like and might even be capable of bringing him down but he doesn’t. He lets himself be cast aside for some girl wanting something eternal, a man who pretends that he’s still a prince and even for the sake of Touga’s vague ambition to possess the sort of power that Akio has. Throughout it all Saionji keeps his peace and pretty much sticks by the person who might actually be his dearest friend.
Bearing in mind that Saionji wanted ‘something eternal’ and Touga wants power in a vague sense, I’m not entirely sure that Saionji’s eternal something and Touga’s ultimate power would bring any benefit for the girls in the series but rather a strange sort of accomplishing everything for each other. Of course they both want to possess what they’re after themselves and then share it unequally with the other but it doesn’t negate the actual fact of each wanting the other to be a part of it.
But coming back to Saionji’s comments to Touga and Touga’s reaction. I’d say that the Touga that Saionji describes at this point is most likely the way Touga was before. It’s a clear, unembellished or whitewashed view of Touga by someone who has no urge to use that information against him, which makes it such a painfully honest observation. Yet by this point in the game Touga has changed or at least is starting to show signs of true nobility.
His response to the girl who brings him a love-letter, while categorised by his usual brazen attitude, is still remarkably kind. He could have scorned her obviously or thrown her letter away while she was still in his presence or even gone and stuck it up on a notice-board as Saionji had done previously with Wakaba’s letter to him.
Overall, while Touga does have a nascent nobility about him, that he seems to have only previously used on the most superficial level, he does seem to be finally realising his own capacity for actual princely behaviour by this point in the series.
And what Saionji lacks in cultivated nobility seems to be equally balanced out by his forthrightness and loyalty, though obviously on his own terms.
They’re a prickly pair certainly and I’m not entirely sure that I’d see them together in a romantic sense but there is an intense degree of attachment there.
They don’t balance, they don’t fit or make each other better in any way but somehow they’ve got their ‘something eternal’ right there, and as far as the flower analogies go, it’s pretty much a cactus.
So having recovered from my weeks of ineptitude, I sat down to watch this critical episode.
The question was over the matter of Touga’s position at that point in the series. He’d been the playboy student council president who had already tricked Utena into losing a duel via the ‘hamming up the fairytale prince stereotype’ before so was this simply a further extension of that trick?
I don’t think it was.
Granted, he’s following Akio’s orders but there does seem to be a certain note of reticence and misdirection going on in Touga’s compliance. He seems almost relieved when Utena considers refusing the earrings that are allegedly from Akio and then later even tells Akio that his present didn’t go over well because Utena didn’t like them.
Even during the infamous horse-riding scene. He seems to be actively trying to sabotage Akio’s plans for Utena, laughing a little at the princely stereotype that she clings to. Almost as if to suggest that she believes in an illusion that’s a little childish really. Of course she then falls off the horse and is caught by the perfectly-timed Akio. Whether it’s a set up or not Touga does look appropriately horrified when Utena falls and somewhat disappointed when Akio is there to save her.
Aiko’s “That could have ended badly.” could even be taken as something of an indirect threat to Touga, that while he has leeway to do as he pleases, it won’t go well for him if he interferes with Akio’s plans.
As for the meaning of poppies, they’re traditionally associated with sleep and/or love potions. They can mean things as extreme as oblivion and eternal sleep, and also imagination. While a red poppy will signify pleasure, Akio seems to be talking generally so the more general meanings would probably apply.
Sleep eternally in the dream of Ohtori Academy perhaps even.
And interestingly a cactus signifies either endurance or seemingly ardent love.
So simply looking at that circumstantial evidence it does seem that Touga may not be quite so absolutely cynical towards Utena any more. But moving on from that, his interaction with Saionji, especially during their conversation before they spar is fairly interesting.
Saionji accuses Touga of using everyone around him and actively appearing to play the role of the prince after which Touga retreats back into the security of his flippant misdirection.
Strangely enough, what seems to come from this is the suggestion that Saionji has been hurt by Touga in the past, not romantically in particular, but by Touga’s unrepentant sophistry and lies. Possibly he’s been hurt by being one of the few people close to Touga who can actually see through the image of the prince he’s constructed and which all his many admirers never seem to see through. Saionji knows that Touga is like and might even be capable of bringing him down but he doesn’t. He lets himself be cast aside for some girl wanting something eternal, a man who pretends that he’s still a prince and even for the sake of Touga’s vague ambition to possess the sort of power that Akio has. Throughout it all Saionji keeps his peace and pretty much sticks by the person who might actually be his dearest friend.
Bearing in mind that Saionji wanted ‘something eternal’ and Touga wants power in a vague sense, I’m not entirely sure that Saionji’s eternal something and Touga’s ultimate power would bring any benefit for the girls in the series but rather a strange sort of accomplishing everything for each other. Of course they both want to possess what they’re after themselves and then share it unequally with the other but it doesn’t negate the actual fact of each wanting the other to be a part of it.
But coming back to Saionji’s comments to Touga and Touga’s reaction. I’d say that the Touga that Saionji describes at this point is most likely the way Touga was before. It’s a clear, unembellished or whitewashed view of Touga by someone who has no urge to use that information against him, which makes it such a painfully honest observation. Yet by this point in the game Touga has changed or at least is starting to show signs of true nobility.
His response to the girl who brings him a love-letter, while categorised by his usual brazen attitude, is still remarkably kind. He could have scorned her obviously or thrown her letter away while she was still in his presence or even gone and stuck it up on a notice-board as Saionji had done previously with Wakaba’s letter to him.
Overall, while Touga does have a nascent nobility about him, that he seems to have only previously used on the most superficial level, he does seem to be finally realising his own capacity for actual princely behaviour by this point in the series.
And what Saionji lacks in cultivated nobility seems to be equally balanced out by his forthrightness and loyalty, though obviously on his own terms.
They’re a prickly pair certainly and I’m not entirely sure that I’d see them together in a romantic sense but there is an intense degree of attachment there.
They don’t balance, they don’t fit or make each other better in any way but somehow they’ve got their ‘something eternal’ right there, and as far as the flower analogies go, it’s pretty much a cactus.
