Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Black Rose Blooms
 Mike Toole  rates it:    

I tend not to revisit titles too much after the first couple of volumes are released. Some sites and publications love to review every single volume of every single series, but I've always labored under the delusion idea that a show that isn't worth watching after the first volume or two probably isn't worth sticking with in the long run. (Also, the purpose of reviewing, say, Trigun volume 5 would seem to be awfully mercurial-- are there people out there who try to skip mediocre volumes of TV series, only collecting the discs that have the best episodes?) But I'll make an exception for Revolutionary Girl Utena, for a couple of reasions. First, this disc is the first we've seen of the Utena television series since 1998. That's a gap of more than 3 years-- impressive. Second, one of the neat things about Utena is that it's neatly divided into three story arcs. The first arc, contained on the first two Utena DVDs, is the "Student Council Saga"; this disc, and the three following discs, contain the "Black Rose Saga."

This segment of Utena, the series about a canny, tomboy-ish teenager, her quest to become a prince (complete with taking a "bride" and getting in lots of swordfights), and the weirdoes she encounters along the way, opens with the surprising realization that the normally rather vacantly cheerful Anthy actually has a brother, with whom she spends time every week. Her brother, Akio (you might remember him from the tail end of the first story arc, a lean, angular man with Anthy's skin tone but much lighter hair) is serving as interim chairman of Ohtori Academy, and during his social visits in the school's planetarium, he frequently brings along Kanae Ohtori, his fiancee. Utena takes all of this in with her usual open, cheerful inquisitiveness, but is quick to notice what seems like some tension between both Anthy and her brother, and Anthy and Kanae. But Akio is rugged, worldly, and charming, and it isn't long before Utena is regularly seeking advice from him herself.

But all isn't well at Ohtori Academy. The Student Council, the first arc's body of antagonists, has become benign since the sudden departure of both Saiyonji and Touga. (The fact that Nanami, Touga's deliciously insane kid sister, is serving as interim president does not help matters.) Strange things are afoot at Nemuro Memorial Hall, the site of a bizarre tragedy years earlier. A boy genius named Soji Mikage is planning some strange things-- when he isn't casually manipulating school officials, he's holding his sinister "Mikage seminars" with confused Ohtori students, or plotting and scheming with Mamiya, a curiously androgynous younger classmate. He senses the power of Dios in Utena and her relationship with Anthy, and wants that power for himself.

So, essentially, the duels-- always the lynchpin of Utena-- continue, only with a slightly creepier set of adversaries this time. What I really love about these episodes is the way the Mikage seminar unfolds each time. Each of Mikage's interviewees starts off entering an office which seems more like a confessional. They talk to Mikage about their social problems, the things and people that make them upset. The boy genius is never satisfied, always asking for more details-- and as his victims (it's never really clear if they're totally willing to take his seminar or if they've been coerced, which adds some enjoyable creepiness to the affair) recount more details and become more agitated, the office starts plunging downward, as if it was an elevator into the interviewee's subconscious. Moments like these are really director Ikuhara's forte-- he handles run-of-the-mill shoujo fare like teen romance and swirling flower blossoms with flair, but he's at his best when he's taking shoujo conventions and twisting and distorting them.

Utena isn't without lighthearted moments, though. The series continues to employ the "shadow girls" as its town criers, who spend these episodes mostly injecting the show with a potent dose of comedy; if it's not through absolutely ridiculous pantomime, it's simply comedy via repitition. This first "Black Rose Saga" disc also contains the long-awaited (for me, anyway) Nanami cowbell episode, in which Touga's enjoyable petulant little sister comes across a fashion accessory that starts to have entertainingly bovine effects on her appearance and behavior.

The dub continues to improve, but it's still pretty shaky-- astute viewers (and nutjobs like myself, who enjoy watching dubs with the subtitles turned on) will note a few weird rewrites here and there. The cast gets better with every volume-- at this point, Rachael Lillis is comfortable enough with her role as Utena that she easily anchors the rest of the cast, who generally feed off her charisma pretty well. The entire cast from the first arc are back to reprise their roles. Jimmy Zoppi still sounds a little too old as Miki, but he gives the character the necessary earnestness, and Leah Applebaum is reasonably hilarious as the always-entertaining Nanami. The weakest performance is still Sharon Becker's Anthy, and I'd point to the show's direction as the source of that problem-- Becker's voice is fine, she's just way too quiet and out-of-it. ADR director Tony Salerno seems to have trouble seizing on the fact that 'subdued' does not necessarily equal 'comatose', and that Anthy is actually quite outgoing and sociable in some of these episodes. Easily the highlight of this volume's dub is Lisa Ortiz' nuanced performance as Shiori-- it's been a real pleasure to watch Ortiz evolve from a specialist in loudmouthed, comical petulance (see Slayers' Lina, Tylor's Azalyn/twins, etc.) to an actress who regularly turns in classy performances of a variety of character types.

I still found myself enjoying the Japanese version more-- perhaps it's partially due to the presence of old favorites like Aya Hisakawa as Miki, or due to the sheer presence of Jyurota Kosugi as Akio, who rattles off his lines in a bone-rattlingly deep basso profundo. Mostly I enjoy listening to Tomoko Kawakami as Utena; she's one of the few fairly recent seiyuu to really display any sort of versatility, in a sea of Yui Hories and Masayo Kuratas who really only seem to handle one or two character types. She's up to the task of portraying Utena, projecting the character's mixed moods (and slightly off-kilter gender identity) extremely well.

The DVD looks good-- fewer episodes than the earlier volumes makes for higher bit-rate, which means that these episodes look a little sharper than their predecessors. There are also fewer instances of annoyances like hard subtitles. Central Park Media tried hard to pack the disc with extras, but the only interesting bits are a two-minute interview segment with director Kunihiko Ikuhara taped last year, and a brief profile of actress Sharon Becker. Subsequent discs will probably continue this theme. One other thing I was also definitely happy to see was better packaging-- CPM finally ditched that godawful old logo and went with something classier, which sort of resembles the design of the Japanese laserdiscs.

Visually, Utena continues to be outstanding. Shinya Hasegawa's character designs, with their distinctive hairstyles and uniforms, outrageously slim proportions, and large, diluted eyes, are some of the most instantly recognizable out there. They're notable because, like the series as a whole, they use established shoujo conventions as a starting point, but still manage to be unique and more memorable than most. The series also continues to be sharply punctuated by J. Seazar's gloriously incomprehensible duel songs, which are entertaining cocktails containing bits of rock anthems, showtunes, and funeral dirges.

Utena is certainly an entertaining series, but to me it also represents the sheer strength of director Kunihiko Ikuhara's vision. The Utena zeitgeist might boast several talented contributors, including the aforementioned Hasegawa and the first-rate manga artist and writer Chiho Saito, but Utena is obviously Ikuhara's baby, and he takes great care of it. You'll see me poke fun at the flamboyant Ikuhara on this site from time to time-- but the fact is, when he hits the mark, he creates anime that entertains like few other shows. More than three years after its introduction to American audiences (and nearly five years after its debut on Japanese television), Revolutionary Girl Utena is as fresh, compelling, and thrilling as ever.

Added:  Saturday, October 18, 2003

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