I’m finding it difficult to come up with a proper introduction for this piece. But that’s not my fault, I’m pretty sure – really it’s Utena’s fault. Because Utena isn’t just one show – it’s closer to half a dozen all at once, though they’re really all sides of the same show, and though its disjointed pieces seem to spire out in all manner of directions, they end up saying many of the same things. And I’m sure none of this is helping to describe the show, either.
Let’s start over.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a good show. One of the best, in fact – I’ve heard it described as the shoujo Evangelion, which is a kind of awkward title, but I can get where that’s coming from. In the most reductive view possible, it does indeed do something similar to Evangelion – cataloging truths of adolescence and identity (as well as gender and perception, its own added priorities) in terms of revolution and apocalypse. But framing it as a simple metaphor denies one of the central truths it’s presenting, and why its choice of vehicle is more than just a grand stage for some grounded revelations.
Although it certainly is a grand stage. Revolutionary Girl Utena is nothing if not theatrical.
Let’s start there – with how the tricks of theater and stagecraft define Utena’s goals, Utena’s world, and the lives of those trapped within that egg’s shell.
![[Coalgirls]_Evangelion_3.33.0_You_Can_(Not)_Redo_(1920x816_Blu-ray_FLAC)_[FC2091F9].mkv_snapshot_00.33.52_[2014.01.31_23.00.21]](http://wrongeverytime.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/coalgirls_evangelion_3-33-0_you_can_not_redo_1920x816_blu-ray_flac_fc2091f9-mkv_snapshot_00-33-52_2014-01-31_23-00-21.jpg)