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Tokiko manipulates Mikage for Akio.
Tokiko says she fell in love with Mikage. Based on her lipstick when with him, I believe it. Mamiya says Tokiko came to the Academy to meet Mikage. Mamiya is played by Anthy, but it fits and I don’t see a motive to lie. But Akio gets to Tokiko first and turns her into his agent to motivate and control Mikage. See Black Rose arc - Tokiko and Mamiya.
Compared to Utena. Mikage often sees Tokiko when he looks at Utena, and she is compared to Utena by her character design and costumes, and by reflected images. (And by Akio seducing her, like Utena, but that happens to pretty much everyone.) I’m pretty sure there is more to the comparison than I have figured out.
Leaving. Tokiko leaves to take up an ordinary life, and her hair turns brown for ordinariness. She is not at all like Utena in that respect; Utena earned a death flag when she defeated Touga in episode 12, and could never be ordinary again. An ordinary woman is of course under Akio’s control, and Tokiko returns to the Academy to meet him and cheat on her husband—and signs are that she has done it before. When coming to visit Akio she wears black lipstick tinted slightly red—she loves the patriarchy.
Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 17 September 2025