I agree, Wicca…
We’ve already seen plenty of incestuous feelings from Nanami towards her brother Togua. Though they are often played for comic relief, I do believe they have driven the story at certain points.
Also, doesn’t Akio bear a certain resemblance to the shadowy prince of Utena’s past?
I do agree with you Newshawk -
The incest does seem to play an important part of the story, both with Nanami and Anthy.
And yes! I noticed that about Akio too. I wonder if there is a connection of some kind? Also, during the end credits, I see that the “Prince” is holding both Utena and Anthy. Again, I have to wonder at the significance of that.
Episode 25 -
What an episode! Akio is a real playboy! He takes Touga out for a drive in his car and Akio is dressed as the prince. Is he the actual prince after all? Anthy and Utena move in with him and he seems to be putting the moves on Utena, as well as retaining his relationship with Anthy; he still has a fiancé as well. And is Touga another conquest for him? And Saionji too?
Saionji wants to give up on the duels, but Touga and Akio convince him otherwise. I like that the girls now take an elevator/changing room to the dueling arena. A weird scene, but much more interesting and no more stairs!
But it was a strange duel with the replicas of Akio’s car and the fact that Utena’s sword disappeared. Then Anthy pulls another sword out of Utena’s chest. Does this mean that Anthy is becoming stronger? I hope so. She even seemed to resist a little when Akio wanted her, although she ended up giving in to him anyway.
I agree
Anthy also (to me anyway) seemed a little bit irked that Akio had his arm around Utena while they stargazed, so she interrupted. Utena also seemed uncomfortable.
And what’s the deal with these guys!? Can’t they keeps their shirts buttoned and pants zipped?? :ohmy:
I noticed Anthy’s reaction as well, but I wasn’t sure if it was because she was jealous or because she knows how her brother really is. Perhaps by interrupting, she thought to protect Utena.
As for the rest of what you said about shirts and pants - I hope not!! :lol:
Episode 26 -
So, now it is Miki’s turn with Akio! Miki’s twin, Kozue, also seems to want to be a little “closer” to her brother.
Anthy is feeding her brother information, but seems reluctant to do so. She also makes an interesting comment about her brother being more like a father to her. More disturbing, when you think about their relationship.
There is a strange scene when Miki talks to his father about a wedding and his new mother. Why is the woman wearing Anthy’s dueling dress? Is she related to Anthy?
When Miki questions the duels, it seems that Akio seduces Kozue. Touga talks to Miki about dueling and Akio shows up in that car with Kozue. Kozue tells her brother “When everything around you is impure, you have to become impure as well. The only way to get what you want is to lose your purity.” It’s obvious what Kozue has been doing! And with whom! Has Miki now lost his “purity” as well?
Miki ends up dueling Utena, but this duel is even stranger than the last one with Saionji. Miki shows up with Kozue as his “bride”. The cars appear again and one still races around the wall, but this time, Kozue is in the car. Then Anthy appears in the car, startling Utena. It looks like Kozue is seducing Anthy, but the car still crashes at the end of the duel, when Utena wins. This is getting very weird!!
Also, the last episode had a new ending, which I liked very much; it featured the car. This episode shows Utena and Anthy (no prince!), although it is the same song. Both are nice, but I think I like the one with the car better.
i like this show my fave character is anthy http://www.theanimenetwork.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/anthy.jpg
I’ve seen up to episode 6 (on my DVDs saw a handful of episodes on VOD over the years), and I’m really enjoying this so far. Those who hate this dub (on other furms not here) need to really shut the hell up, because this dub is not bad at all. CPM has done better (much better), but for a long running show, and from the late 90’s-early 2000’s this is quite good. Just think, Funimation was still doing DBZ and yu yu hakusho around this time 
.
My favorite parts are the duels, which are really exciting. I’m not sure how this show is “deep” yet, but I’m loving how incredbly surreal everything is. This is a top notch show, and it is a shame it’s gone OOP and hard to get. I got the last cheap copies on amazon and ebay. So…yeah.
(spoilers up to episode 6)
The BEST surreal moment so far is when that girl is trying to get dirt on Anthy, trying to make it look like she keeps strange animals in her room, and everytime she tries something, Anthy REALLY HAS that animal in her room, and Utena and Miki Kaoru are completely unphased. In fact Miki Kaoru thinks it’s cute and so “like her”. LOL. Talk about backfirieing.
Another favorite part of this show, besides the duels are the light hearted shadow puppet scenes, right before them. VERY surreal, and they are great to make the moments light, before some serious drama comes up. It’s cool how they comment on the episode like a greek chorus in a play, yet also make the moment a little silly. Perfect comedy relief.
The only problem with this show is I get burned out by it real fast. I can’t watch too much of it at once, or else I dread seeing anymore of it. I wonder why that is. At any rate, this is not a show to marathon.
There’s a great deal of symbolism through aesthetics and the symbolism through social commentary vis-a-vis the characters and of the roles of men and women in society. That should be noted, and certainly admired, but on the other hand I also feel there’s more being made of its deep nature than it is. It’s a lot deeper than most anime certainly, but a few people are making this out to be the Bible or Milton of anime. 
I don’t believe in getting that carried away.
I’m not anoyed by the “over-emphasis” on how deep this show is I guess. I definitely see the whole “role of a man” “role of a girl” thing, although it feels like this will be addressed much later in the show, more towards the ending is my guess. But it’s nice to see I’m not missing anything. People tend to say this is incredbly deep, and I’m just not seeing it. Not that that’s a bad thing, and I really enjoy the show. But I thought I was not picking up on something. I’m sure there will be much more later however. But thanks for the heads up dragoon. I won’t be expecting too much now, but I’ll be on the look out for symbolism now too.
And another thing that this show get’s called is a “yuri” show. I think it’s far more complicated then that, from what I’ve seen so far. Because on the one hand Utena has a friend who’s a girl, and calls her a “boyfriend” (even though she’s a girl) as in they have a relationship, but she seems to like boys as well. Then you have Utena wanting to be a prince, but we don’t know more then that yet. And Anthy seems very symbolic of what some people feel a women should be, pretty mucha doormat to be stepped on. But despite all this both Utena and Anthy dance with a male in the credits. So who likes who eh? That’s something I do find interesting.
My one issue with this show is, I feel it’s too long. For me the novelty wore off around the teens when it started getting to be more of the same. Will be interested to see what you think as you watch though.
Like the one episode…
With the cow theme… made me WTF
Still a great show though, especially when taken in sparingly and not marathoned.
Yeah I can easily see this as being way too long for it’s own good. Already I feel like they are making things last longer then they should, and trying to make the plot move only very slowly forwar, instead of at a nice even paced. Still I enjoy it a great deal. But I CANNOT marathon this one.
I’m afraid to read your spoiler. What episode # is that? Before or after episode 6?
It’s Ep #16.
Thanks for the info 
. I won’t read it until I see that episode then.
You know…
…for awhile there, I thought that maybe Anthy was going to tell Utena what was going on with her brother, and then she didn’t. She just doesn’t know how to make ‘girl talk’ at all!! 
I certainly don’t miss that walk up the stairs to the dueling platform, but who would have ever thought about a ‘magic changing’ elevator?
And I agree, Wicca, about Miki & Kozue’s father with that woman with the dress, what the heck’s up with that? And then the dad just hangs up the phone? How rude!
Those poor baby birds… so symbolic of Miki & Kozue… having their parents go away and having to find someone to take care of them and house them…
And, just for weirdness sake: who drives the car when Akio gets up on the hood?
I agree with you Slow -
I really thought Anthy was going to confide in Utena as well. Or maybe even warn her against her brother in general.
As for the car - based on what happens during the duels, I think the car might be possessed or have a life of its own. It seems to be able to drive itself. Fascinating! And Akio looks so good on the hood! 
Episode 27 -
I don’t think I ever laughed so hard during one of these episodes! Or maybe it is just the mood I am in tonight. With this new story line, everything has been so serious up to now and although I’m anxious to know what happens next with the story, this was a very funny filler.
Nanami thinks she has laid an egg and she has a fear of being thought a space alien. Then she mistakenly thinks it is common for human girls to lay eggs. There is a very funny conversation with Juri about balls. Funnier still is the fact that Nanami starts to care for her egg like a baby and even sings to it.
Then she has a conversation with her brother, asking him if he’d like a girl or a boy. He says he likes girls and when she says that she does too, he lectures her about “God’s plan” for men and women. By this time, I was laughing so had that I had tears in my eyes. Not only because Touga and Nanami are so obviously talking about different things, but because of what Touga may have been doing with Akio. Such a contradiction!!
Nanami realizes that they are not talking about the same thing and corrects him, saying that she only loves him. Then she asks him how he feels about girls that lay eggs. Again, more laughter on my part, as he misunderstands and says that they get along so well because Nanami is a girl that doesn’t lay eggs. Touga goes on to say that he would “pity the family of a girl that would dishonor them by doing something so shameful”. Obvious again that they are talking about different things, but Nanami takes what he says to heart this time.
She considers what other girls might do with the eggs they lay and comes to the horrified conclusion that they must eat their eggs. Since she can’t bring herself to eat her egg, she abandons it in the forest. But when she can’t sleep for thinking about her precious egg, she goes to retrieve it, only to find it (gasp) gone! She comes upon Saionji camping out and cooking eggs. Thankfully, he hasn’t cooked hers yet and she is so happy to see it, that she sings and dances along the way home.
There is one serious scene of Anthy talking to Utena about reincarnation. A tidbit about the prince perhaps? Maybe something about her brother? Strange that they throw it in here.
Then there’s a weird scene of Nanami finding a giant egg that looks like hers. She thinks it is hers. Then it hatches what might be a giant space alien, although you only see a shadow. Nanami wakes up in bed. Was the whole thing a dream? But she finds a broken egg in her bed when she pulls back the blanket…
The last scene with Anthy was a little disturbing. Why that strange look on her face? What did it mean?
Episode 27
After the egg hatched, we find out that Chuchu had been missing for a bit. Also, there is talk of reincarnation. Could that egg been Chuchu’s?
Ep. 27
Somebody get Nanami a sex ed teacher and a therapist, stat!
Only you can stop drug abuse in the anime industry. :laugh:
Not sure about that Redshirt, although it would have made things even funnier. :laugh:
LOL ShawnMerrow, I agree with you! :laugh:
