Utena Tenjou

Utena Tenjou &
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The short review: Utena is one of the best series to be released in the past year.There have been a lot of good titles released recently and Utena is right up there with the best.Buy it :-)
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I'm sure not everyone will like Utena as much as I do.If Ninja Scroll and Street Fighter are your favorite anime, or you think Knights of Ramune Blast Off is good (for something other then an emetic) you may want to rent or borrow before you buy.

The title character Utena Tenjou is a student at the Obtori Academy.The Childhood memory of a prince on a white horse who comforted her at the time of her parents death is the key to Utena's life.Driven by that memory she vows to become a prince herself.She has a strong sense of justice, excels at sports even head to head against the boys, she even dresses in a boys school uniform.Utena doesn't want to be a boy just a prince.She wants to be the one to rescue the princess, not the one that needs to be rescued.

It's her sense of justice that draws Utena into the "game" when her friend Wakaba is the victim of a cruel joke.She finds that challenging the guilty party to a duel means more then revenging the wrong done to her friend.She is now part of a game that she doesn't know the rules of.Unable to return to her normal life after winning that first duel, she discovers all of the members of the student counsel have a rose crested ring the same as the one Utena received from the prince long ago in her childhood.
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A friend called Utena "Sailor Moon on crack.I'm not trying to say there is anything wrong with Sailor Moon, but they are two very different things.

Much has been made of the relationship between Utena and her friend Wakaba.Some cultural liner notes would have been helpful here.In Japan teenage girl-girl friendships are considered a stage that many girls go through, not something to worry about.It's clear , as Utena herself says, she wants to find a normal boy.If you want a strange relationship you should be looking at Nanami who is out to get Anthy and Utena because they have distracted her brothers affections.

While it's probably not a good idea to try and dissect a TV show for deep meaning ,one thing I find interesting is the contrast between Anthy and Utena.Anthy is the ideal traditional Japanese bride.Passive, eager to please, only rarely coming out of her shell.Even when abused by others she refuses to stand up for her self.Utena is almost the complete opposite
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One of the things that draws me to Utena is the mixture of elements you would not expect to find together.The same effect can be found in other shows like Key the Metal Idol, Lain, or Giant Robo.Start out with the normal school setting you see in just about every teen romantic comedy, but add a prince on a white horse, the shadow players, and a touch of magic and you end up with a surreal universe for the story to unfold.

The shadow players is one of the unusual things in Utena, appearing before major events they foreshadow the coming events (I don't think the English pun was intended).
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Utena is one of the titles CPM did "in house", it's far better then the sloppy Image DVDs.
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Utena was originally announced as a two disk set with all 13 episodes of the first story arc but was split into two so the unit price would be cheaper even if the total cost is higher.