Revolutionary Girl Utena vol. 1
 Mike Toole  rates it:    

If you're a well-connected anime fanboy or girl in America, you've no doubt gotten a look or two at this series and been intrigued by it by now. Revolutionary Girl Utena ("Shoujo Kakumei Utena") was created by BE-PAPAS, a conglomerate of disgruntled former Sailor Moon staffers. They were mainly fed up that Naoko Takeuchi got super-rich from the fruits of their labors-- after all, it was the Sailor Moon anime that made the series super popular, not the manga. So, they concocted something of their own, that they could make some money from-- the result is Revolutionary Girl Utena, an odd tale about a high school girl's quest to be a prince, obviously heavily influenced by the classic historical drama Rose of Versailles.

The title character herself is an 8th grader at the prestigous Ohtori Academy, which may as well be called Neo Versailles High School. She's sort of an oddball, though-- while she wears her hair long, and seems somewhat effeminate, she also wears a boy's uniform tailored to fit her and look more feminine, and she routinely pounds her male classmates at sporting events. When asked why she acts the way she does, her only response is "to be a prince."

Like molasses, the plot thickens. The Ohtori Student Council are a bunch of head cases in their own right-- president and obvious ringleader Touga Kiryu is considerably more beautiful than any of the girls in the school, and conducts his shady affairs with a smug, imperious attitude. Kyouichi Saiyonji , the school kendo champ, is similar in terms of looks, but a hell of a lot more violent and foul-tempered. Supporting members Juri amd Miki are kind of pushed to the background in the first volume, but make an interesting pair-- they're both androgynous to the point that I wasn't certain which one was male and which was female at first.

Of course, the extroverted Utena crosses paths with the Student Council quickly enough, due mainly to the fact that Saiyonji humiliated a friend of hers. Without thinking, she challenges him to a duel. But the dueling location he names is forbidden for students to enter, and as it turns out, a lot more is at stake than pride and honor.

And, as more is revealed about Ohtori Academy, the Student Council, and their mysterious advisors, a shadow group referered to as "End of the World", we get to meet more and more slightly off-kilter cast members. We meet Anthy Himemiya, a girl who has a French first name, a Japanese last name, and Indian features. She's also bizarrely submissive to Saiyonji, almost spineless, and is referred to as "the Rose Bride" by the Student Council. We meet Anthy's cute/frightening pet monkey, Chu-chu. We meet Wakaba, Utena's friend who makes a show of pretending that Utena is her boyfriend. And we meet Nanami, Touga's adorable and completely psychotic little sister. And that's just in the first four episodes.

Series direction is handled by Sailor Moon Super S director Kunihiko Ikuhara, and the story itself is written by Chiho Saito, who also takes care of the manga version of Utena. The animation is just slightly above average for a TV series these days, but the color scheme makes it seem more impressive-- everything's awash in pinks and whites and bright colors, and generally looks stylized and really, really, beautiful. Character design is singularly weird-- while everyone seems to be six feet tall, skinny almost to the point of anorexia, and with absolutely perfect hair (all staples of shoujo anime) everyone also sports oddly-dilated pupils, making all the characters look rather stoned. I suppose it wouldn't be surprising if they were-- the events and locales of Utena are certainly odd enough to be a fever dream.

The thing is, it's the weirdness that makes Utena so engaging. Much like Twin Peaks, or pehaps Pink Flamingoes, you'll find yourself being drawn in by the odd, convoluted stories, quirky characters, and bizarre dialogue. The first volume is also good as an introduction, as it manages to introduce most of the cast while giving away virtually none of the backstory. Indeed, by the end of the 4th episode, Utena seems to contain more mysteries than the Bible. It's very obviously a shoujo (girls) story, but males should have no problem getting into Utena's odd mixture of romance, swordplay, and bizarre comedy.

As I'm already a fairly big fan of Utena, I was looking forward to the dubbed version with a mixture of apprehension and hope. Would they screw it up, or would they get it right? Well... both, sort of. English voice characterizations are right on the money, with Rachael Lillis as a very solid Utena -and- Chu-Chu, and a really outstanding voice for Touga in Crispin Freeman. Unfortunately, the dubbing supervisor and director really screwed the pooch-- the audio mix is -way- too loud in some parts, resulting in sound distortion. On top of that, a myriad of names are pronounced incorrectly. They got "Utena" (pronouced "Ooh-teh-nah" with no particular emphasis on any syllable) right, but proceeded to pronounced "Tenjou" as "Tenjooh" and "Touga" as "Toohga" and "Saiyonji as "Sayonji" and also misplaced the accent on both "Himemiya" and "Nanami". Problems like this are still fairly common in dubs, but they're in no way permissible-- Anthony Salerno (the supervisor) had access to the original Japanese versions and the project translator for pronunciation reference, but obviously couldn't be bothered to use them. Hopefully, these foul-ups will be corrected in future volumes.

As a fanboy at heart, my allegiance kind of lies with the subtitled version. The dub is pretty good, but I honestly don't think "pretty good" is worth $24.95. If you honestly prefer watching your anime in English, though, it's really not bad-- like all Central Park Media dubs, the script is slavishly close to the original subtitled script, and while not mind-blowingly good, the dub is certainly adequate. Either way you want it, though, Utena is amazing-- it's like nothing I've ever seen, ever. It's unique, engrossing, funny... even moving, at times. I really can't recommend it enough-- now that Neon Genesis Evangelion has been released in its entirety (well, except for those two pesky movies), this one's the series to watch if you're an anime fan in North America.

Added:  Tuesday, October 14, 2003

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