The bird is fighting its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wishes to be born must destroy a world. The bird is flying to God. The god is named Abraxas.
Herman Hesse, Demian
Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 18: “Mitsuru’s Impatience.” Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character designs by Chiho Saito. Be-Papas, Japan, 1997 (Nozomi Entertainment, 2011). Approx. 24 minutes. Rated “16+.”
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Hmm, haven’t done one of these in a while. I think it’s time once again to dive into that greatest of LCD-laced art-house-style anime from the 1990s—and, of course, to do with copious helpings of Texts from Last Night.
Summary
An inordinate number of episodes in this series focus on the character of Nanami, the resident mean rich girl who is now acting president of the student council. This is almost but not quite one of those episodes, as the focus here is on Tsuwubuki, the fourth-grade sidekick we met many moons ago in episode 6. In that episode, Tsuwubuki temporarily became Nanami’s “boyfriend” because he admired her older brother Touga. This present episode, however, suggests that Tsuwubuki’s feelings may have changed.
Tsuwubuki is still Nanami’s personal servant, arranging her schedule and making her lunch and doing most everything else for her. He’s begun to find this relationship dissatisfying, though he can’t exactly state why. At the same time, he has a close friend, Mari, who is one year his senior (presumably in fifth grade) and who, perhaps not coincidentally, looks something like a miniature Shiori, the manipulative love interest of Juri, whom we met in the episode previous. This show likes to believe it has a lot of color symbolism, so the purple hair possibly has some meaning behind it.
In another of the show’s expert deployments of implied content, it’s clear to the viewer that Mari has a crush on Tsuwubuki but can’t admit it. She haughtily points out that she’s older than he is and claims to be more mature as well, and because he’s too young to understand her behavior, it drives him up the wall.
Meanwhile, deep in the basement of the Black Rose Circle, Mikage continues his plotting, now with his eye on Tsuwubuki. Eventually, driven by confusion and annoyance, Tsuwubuki makes his way to the Mikage Seminar, enters the elevator confessional, and then pulls Nanami’s sword and dagger out of her chest. Under the influence of the black rose, he believes he had to defeat an adult—Utena, specifically—in order to prove his maturity.
Discussion
This episode is not exactly filler, in that it continues the major purpose of this second arc, which is to bring second-tier characters to the fore and use them to continue the progression of the show’s themes and character development. Although reasonably likable in itself, episode 18 is uncomplicated in its plot and does nothing to advance the the larger story. Mikage, although he claims to have designs on Tsuwubuki, actually does nothing concrete to produce Tsuwubuki’s eventual breakdown. Utena, too, mostly just wanders around in this episode. Both the villain and the heroine are too passive—one of the show’s chronic problems.
This episode does however, harp explicitly on one of Utena’s major preoccupations, the subject of adolescence, on which the entire show can be considered a reflection. Tsuwubuki encounters Utena and Anthy in the library and asks them what it means to be an adult. Utena, unsure how to answer such a question, fumblingly suggests that it means “experience of certain things.”
Although she probably meant this innocently, the hammy reactions of some teenage boys in the background invite a suggestive interpretation, and then Anthy, in her typically subtle way, adds fuel to the fire. A later scene finds Tsuwubuki in a screening room, watching reels of couples kissing in romantic films, apparently having leapt to the conclusion that such viewing will make him an adult.
It’s not the greatest episode, though it is a good showcase of Utena’s use of light and dark and memorable imagery. Scenes of Tsuwubuki and Mari arguing in front of a rose-shaped stained-glass window that dwarf’s them, or of Tsuwubuki standing in a darkened doorway with Nanami’s hand resting on his head, or of the darkened theater with the kissing scenes playing in an endless loop, are all arresting and lend the eerie atmosphere that does so much to make this show great.
And even though there is little advancement here, Anthy hints—just barely—at some grim things that will play a large role later.
Revolutionary Girl Utena, Episode 18
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