I thought I would start the first listing of my new sub blog project "Anime Spotlight" with the most recent anime I finished watching. Revolutionary Girl Utena is a story about a girl that dresses like a boy that's seeking a prince that saved her life. At least, that's the general premise of the story. What Utena was really about was something much much more.
A story more about personal self discovery than seeking a prince of random encounter. Its full of love, romance, intrigue, heart break, tragedy, betrayal and more symbolism than you can shake a stick at. So plentiful was its symbolism that it was at times overwhelming. It took me over six months before I finally watched the complete run of 39 episodes. But, don't let the time I took to complete it distract from the quality it had.
The truth is, the story of Utena is so expertly crafted that you practically can't see it for what it is. It starts off so simple and nonchalant that the depth of what's being exposed to you slips by quietly while you watch. It has this odd cliche mechanism to its presentation that can throw off the viewer into thinking that its a simple fare not worth your viewing time. But it grows. It seeps and spreads and winds its way into you. The characters deepen, their relationships become more and more complex as the layers of symbolism and allegory are piled on to the story. Before long the subtle shifts in character can be more frightening than the shifts in the plot.
Ultimately the Revolutionary Girl Utena is about the discovery of love and the lengths at which we go for that love. It wouldn't be featured as an Anime Spotlight if I didn't feel it was worth watching, but on a scale of one to ten (with ten being the best) I would easily rate Utena as a 9.6. Included below is a link to get your hands on a copy for your own viewing.
Torrent Link courtesy of NyaaTorrents. As always, I recommend using Media Player Classic that comes bundled with the CCCP codec pack designed exclusively for Japanese Anime viewing. And remember, true fans only watch anime in Japanese.
No comments:
Post a Comment