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 15: “The Landscape Framed by Kozue.” Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Character designs by Chiho Saito. Be-Papas, 1997 (Nozomi Entertainment, 2011). Approx. 24 minutes. Rated “16+.”
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The second arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena is like a variation of the first: it repeats the previous arc’s themes, but alters and develops them. The first arc focused on the members of the student council, dealing in turn with each of them and their psychological issues. The second arc focuses in on second-tier characters related to the council members, thereby further developing the characters we have already met.
This episode, “The Landscape Framed by Kozue,” is a variation of “The Sunlit Garden,” a two-parter that introduced the character of Miki.
Deep in their underground lair, Mikage and Mamiya, after the failure of the previous episode, hatch a new plan to install Mamiya in Anthy’s place as the Rose Bride. Since their “makeshift” duelists lack sufficient power to defeat Utena, they decide to tap the fighting skills of student council members: according to Mamiya, the council members have “swords” that have “crystalized” in their hearts, and which can potentially be extracted and used by others.
Meanwhile, the student council still exists, but is in a sort of standby state: Touga is still sitting in his room and wallowing in depression because his voice actor went to another anime Utena defeated him in the arena. His spoiled sister Nanami, with her banana-colored uniform, is now the acting president. But the council has received no new letters from World’s End, and no letters means no duels.
Miki, you may recall, is a boy genius from the middle school who is a championship fencer as well as a virtuoso on the piano, and who has a troubled relationship with his twin sister. He carries a stopwatch that he clicks compulsively, apparently representative of a desire to stop time or leave time entirely, and find his “shining thing,” an idyllic eternity he believes is waiting for him in the hovering castle above the dueling arena.
Continue reading “Theme and Variations: The ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ Rewatch, Part 15”