Kozue. <- Previous • Next -> Mikage.
Anthy plays Tokiko’s younger brother Mamiya to manipulate Mikage.
Mamiya as played by Anthy corresponds to Persephone. As Hera and Persephone, Anthy is presented as powerful though second to a male ruler, while as a princess and victim Anthy is presented as weak. She’s both, of course.
Mamiya’s appearance is mostly like Anthy’s, but his hair is the same color as Akio’s. In episode 15, after convincing Mikage to use the swords of Student Council members against Utena, Mamiya puts on a smile like a toned-down version of Akio’s evil smiles. He shows his teeth, just a little. Is it because Mamiya is played by Anthy under Akio’s control, or because Mamiya is somehow a combination of Anthy and Akio?
The real Mamiya we get only glimpses of. He died decades before the duels of the Black Rose (see when did Mikage live?). The convenience of substituting Anthy for Mamiya, and the scene of Mamiya being given an injection, suggest that Akio had Mamiya killed. Mamiya is depicted as resembling Anthy already while sick, before he died, though the real Mamiya does not resemble Anthy. Mikage forgets that Mamiya has died, so the best interpretation is that the flashbacks to Mikage visiting Tokiko’s house and meeting Mamiya there are from Mikage’s unreliable memory, and he remembers Mamiya as resembling Anthy. If Akio did murder Mamiya, then it was presumably by Anthy’s slow poison; the slow illnesses in Utena are similar to each other. There is no direct evidence, but suspiciously many people near Akio just happen to die when convenient for Akio. Compare Ruka and the Ohtori father.
Mikage remembers the real Mamiya only in the duel of episode 23. So I think the real Mamiya really is the real Mamiya (heh), not an illusion like Mamiya as played by Anthy.
Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 22 September 2025