Revolutionary Girl Utena the Adolescence of Utena: The Adolesence of Utena

Some books are fast food: gobble `em and forget about `em. Others are made to be richly savored: taken slowly, drawn into a spell of pacing and emotional nuance, laden with meaning, consuming you until the end. These are the stories that stay, the ones that lodge peskily into your thinking, resonating on a deeper level, penetrating the subconscious and the heart. You finish The Adolescence of Utena like awakening from a dream. One you've had before, but never quite remembered. This dream is darker and more beautiful than most. The Utena series draws its power from diving headlong into realms most manga never considers: the very nature of existence, the hold our weaknesses, desires and dreams all have on us. The things we look away from, refusing to acknowledge, and the things we sublimate. As Anthy says, "Ask a man what he most desires... and he'll show you his shortcomings. Those who long to be pure must hide from their true selves." This is the primal version of Utena, fairy-tale condensed into the power of myth. Stripped of the high school gags and pretenses, The Adolescence of Utena enters the murky waters of a very adult world, only the shallows of which were explored in the series: the intermingled natures of loss, love, retribution, regret and abuse. This is territory where the emotional boundaries aren't neatly defined: love, hate, fear and resistance in equal measure. It's not a place to begin at, but a sort of bittersweet nostalgia: an older Utena, armed with a deeper understanding is once again stripped of memory and thrown into the dream-like world of Ohtori Academy. The plot revolves more strongly around her and Touga this time, with Akio an absent figure until the last third of the book. I knew the story already, and found myself drinking it in. Despite its brevity, I was left to consider Utena in greater detail, relating to it far more deeply this time round. But like any myth or archetype, it's telling not so much for what's there as for what you bring to it. Thanks to Animerica Magazine for first publishing this review in 2005.

It is amazing how many times Be-Papas can give us alternate stories to the amazing Utena series and how amazing and amazingly different each of them is. This one is based loosely on The Adolescence of Utena, The Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie and it adopts similar characters designs, backgrounds and ideology while being less surreal but still equally superb. A Must read for any anime fan.