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Reviews

Ova

Plot Synopsis

Utena Tenjo, a beautiful girl who dresses as a boy at the Rose Academy suddenly finds herself dueling the Student Council for the Rose Bride after defending her classmate.

Story & Characters

(Note: This is actually a review of the movie, but since that's not an option, I checked OVA. This is definately NOT a review of either the TV or the manga.)

For the revolution of the world!
This is the main theme of Utena, no matter which flavor you're watching. All of the forms (manga, TV, movie, movie manga) contain the same story premise:
Utena enters elite academy under the guise of a boy (not for any real reasons except that she's a tomboy and/or just prefers the male uniforms over the female uniforms), accidentally ends up challenging one of the Student Council members, and ends up in an engagement to the strange Anthy, known as the Rose Bride. Many duels are fought by the Student Council members who are vying to possess Anthy, for her powers as the Rose Bride will allow her to cause a World Revolution.
However, unlike some anime series in which the movie is really just the TV series rehashed in a slightly different manner (ie Rahxephon, whose movie is mostly the same as the TV with more focus on the past), the Utena movie (aka Adolesence of Utena or Adolescense Apocalypse) is entirely different. Like the Escaflowne movie, the Utena movie basically takes the characters and settings of the TV series and takes an entirely new angle.
Despite this, this movie is definately aimed at fans of the TV series. Like the TV series, the story has a wide number of wacky twists and turns and truely absurd moments lacking all semblance of logic - but that is really just a hallmark of the Utena series. As the movie is only an hour and a half, it is much more self-contained than the series and in order to tell essentially the same plot, the pace is very fast (often blindingly so). Because of this, without an understanding of who all the characters are, the new viewer will become quickly lost and drowned in a giant pile of rose petals.
For those who have seen the TV series, the movie transplants the characters into an updated school setting and changes many of the characters' personalities. For example, Anthy, originally a very shy and placid individual becomes extremely outgoing and tempermental while Utena, originally the active tomboy becomes the insular individual - as if they switched their TV personas. Touga is no longer the flamboyant playboy, and there is constant hinting of a dark past between himself and Utena. Actually, the movie's tone in general is a lot darker than the TV series, which had plenty of silly filler episodes (CURRY! COWBELL!) to lighten the mood; the movie's focus on broken relationships can cast a pall, even as it serves to explain the characters' differing motivations.
In summary: The story is wacky, rarely predictable, kind of dark, and requires prior knowledge of the Utena-verse. Thus, it's only recommended to prior fans of Utena and not to folks who are interested in giving the series as a whole a try (the TV series is much more suited for that.)
Also, Ikuhara (the director) is on serious crack.

Rating

7 (above average)

Art

Being a movie, the production values on the movie are expansive, resulting in an utterly gorgeous show. The production incorporates both traditional cel-style animation with digital CG in an excellent blend (mostly because the CG is kept to a minimum and made to blend in with the cel-style as much as possible.) Ohtori academy never looked so good. Getting an entire facelift from the TV series, the campus is an ever-moving, intricate clock-work type of city of red-and-white buildings. The rose garden now hangs at the top of a platform above the school full of lush flowers. Instead of walking up an endless spiral to get there, you can take the elevator!
Character designs have also been upgraded, although not as dramatically. Anthy sports thick long hair compared to Utena's shorp crop (which later lengthens into another show of wispy curls). The school uniforms are crisper and more miltary. Still, characters have that model-thin, willowy body build typical of shoujo series, which does take a little getting used to.
The most beautifully animated scene is definately the midnight dance in the rose gardens, wonderfully done with CG so that the flooded gardens reflect the dancers amdist a riot of roses. A close second might be the appearance of the enormous castle car with its myriad tiers of white and pearl.
The first time I saw the movie I had no subtitles, and was content to be blown away by the visuals. Stuff rarely gets better than this.

Rating

9 (very good)

Sound

The music of Utena is another thing that helps define it - every duel has a different battle song complete with extremely bizarre lyrics (remember the ammonite song? or Who When Where Which?) sung by a raccous chorus. There are two duels in the movie with two dueling songs that are extremely difficult to describe except the fact that they are Utena dueling songs.
Of course, no episode of Utena is complete without a reprise of the Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku song. Although originally played when Utena ascends to the dueling grounds, it is instead used later during Utena's transformation scene and is a much more melodic, bouncy version than the extremely heavy rock version of the original.
The Jpop addition to the movie is Masami Okui's (who also performed the TV series' opening theme) "Toki ni Ai wa", a nice but somewhat typical love ballad. It definately suits the midnight dance scene well, and is very easy to listen to, but it's nothing superb and over the top.
Speaking of the opening theme, Rinbu Revolution also comes to play in an entirely different segment of the movie and features an almost entirely redone melodic theme that draws it out to include a very long instramental section set to action in the scene.
The rest of the music by JA Seazar is lovely, a bit heavy and Victorian at times, but only in fitting with the overall themes that makes up Utena.
Vocal performances are a bit of hit or miss whether in Japanese or English. The original casts from the TV series reprise their roles for the most part. For some this means they have already gotten into character long ago and it takes little for them to reinvigorate their roles. However, some characters who have been totally rewritten (Akio and Shiori) have new voice actors who simply do not bring out their roles and dampen an otherwise good performance.

Rating

8 (good)

Presentation

The wackiness of Utena and its utterly pretentious shoujo ways will turn off many viewers. This is definately a niche series and for most people it is simply too weird.
The movie suffers from this because it is a niche within a niche - an Utena story only for fans of Utena. I honestly would not recommend this to anyone who had not already seen at least the first story arc (13 eps) of the Utena TV series - and enjoyed it. It's the kind of show you would use to weird out those who simply don't understand why you like anime, and the movie is doubly so. I mean, honestly, the carwash scene is just... I don't know. It's just there.
However, for anyone who HAS enjoyed at least the first story arc of Utena, this is a wonderful addition. It is not merely a recap of the series, it is an entirely new interpretation of characters, settings and events. Even after watching the TV series, the movie provides an incredible amount of twists and turns and an unpredictable ending. (It helps to watch the movie several times - there are a lot of clues about the past that are hinted on very early in the film, and it's fun to catch all the details a second or third go-around.) The visuals are lush and exotic and you can tell they put a lot of work into making this movie - the same goes for the music.
Utena is simply unique. Take it or leave it.

Rating

7 (above average)

Final Verdict

7.50 (good)

Reviewed by Tama-Neko, 2y 31wk ago