Utena - character notes

Much of what used to be on this page has moved to character arc pages.

Character ages. Japan has compulsory education through nine years of schooling. High school is optional, though few skip it. The elementary-middle-high school levels are nationally standardized, and the years are named by the level plus the number of years at that level. (In Japanese, the levels can be glossed literally as “small school,” “middle school,” and “tall school.” Most logical.) We can tell what year in school the student characters have reached, though we don’t usually know their exact ages. Exception: We don’t know about the shadow girls, though they have at least reached middle school—they wear long ties rather than bow ties.

Anthy and Utena fetishize different body parts. It is an aspect of their complementarity. Anthy usually (not always) treats Utena as male, and in the Apocalypse Saga often touches Utena’s chest in the center to signify attraction to a man. The trope is discussed under Akio and Utena - the final showdown. (When Juri touches her locket, she is usually (not always; the locket is Juri’s heart) touching the same high central chest point that Anthy touches on Utena.) Utena wears a black jacket that de-emphasizes her breasts (it is part of treating her chest as a boy’s chest), and tight red shorts that highlight her crotch and butt. When the camera goes out of its way to sexualize Utena, it usually (not always) focuses on her red shorts. See the left image with Touga. Her arena transformation sequence is another example.

In the episode 25 duel, Anthy rushes to push Utena out of Saionji’s path, and they collide. Anthy moves her hand to Utena’s chest, and Utena moves her arm downward until she holds Anthy tightly around the waist. A moment later they look at each other, and if the scene weren’t a duel, you’d swear they were about to kiss. The pose resembles a sex position. In the same episode, Utena’s nightshirt is open at the bottom (image at funny pictures) as she thinks of Anthy.

Anthy touches Utena on the heart to say that she desires love. Utena touches Anthy at the waist to say that she desires sex. They are stereotypical female and male desires.

Anthy with Utena acts to meet her own desires. She is straightforwardly selfish. Akio with Utena mirrors Utena’s desires. It’s clearest in the Second Seduction when he puts one arm around her and one hand on her butt: He signals sex, but also he acts to meet her expectations, so as to manipulate her feelings.

Mari, Mitsuru’s slightly older friend in episode 18, has purple hair and purple eyes like Shiori. Mari’s hair is darker purple. Mari is already sharp-tongued. In a few years, will she be as bad as Shiori? Saionji also has purple eyes, and his story showed us a personality disorder growing from a small seed. Is Mari still in the seedling stage?

Nanami and Touga are associated with sound recordings. Each gets one tape recorder and one record player. Nanami has a record player in episode 3, playing music for the dance party she arranged to humiliate Anthy. In episode 8 she makes a tape recording of Mitsuru incriminating himself. The two sound recordings represent Nanami taking action—one a failed aggressive action, the other a successful defensive action. In episode 13, Touga sits blankly while a tape recorder plays his voice reciting the spiel about the bird fighting its way out of the egg. It explains why we hear Touga in the Student Council elevator before he enters the elevator; Touga’s voice plays instead of elevator music. Nanami overhears it and leaves without comment. In episode 15, Touga is still sitting blankly while a record player plays Dvořák’s New World Symphony (Wikipedia). Nanami overhears it and vows to take care of the Student Council in Touga’s stead.

I think the new world is the world after the revolution—the symphony is named after the American continents, so it is a reference to the American Revolution. See Enlightenment era. In the final episode, when Akio attacks the Rose Gate with Utena’s stolen sword, he calls it a door to a new world (that’s the evidence that convinced me of the interpretation). Utena is the one to open the Rose Gate to the new world, and the American Revolution was the first Enlightenment revolution to throw off a monarch, which is what Utena does. It explains why Akio’s costume and possessions have such an American feel. In 1997 when Utena was made, feminism had made little impression on Japan but more progress in North America.

The sound recordings make me think of parroting convention as opposed to seeking individuality. Compare Mikage, who is likened to a computer and a robot.

Nanami and Utena. When Nanami is depicted on a slope, she is generally going uphill. When Utena is on a slope, she is going downhill. Nanami has an uphill path in life.

Saionji and Juri are insightful. They find points of truth without seeming to have enough information. In the first duel, Saionji tells Utena that the castle in the sky is a mirage. In episode 35, he tells Touga that they are all in coffins that End of the World prepared for them. In episode 7, Juri hears Utena’s prince story and tells her that some man she liked tricked her. In episode 36, Juri notices that Utena has become girlish (and helps Miki see it too). Juri’s insight ironically does not work on Ruka in episode 29. To me, Saionji’s insights come across as intuitive, while Juri’s seem intellectual. It’s just my feeling; I don’t think it’s in the story. Compare Miki, who is intelligent but not insightful (though he does learn some insight from Juri).

Saionji and Ruka are able to sense people’s feelings from their swords. In episode 29 Ruka, dueling Juri, senses hidden feelings. In his duel against Utena in the same episode, he predicts her miraculous victory and charges, either to pre-empt the miracle, or (as I think) to provoke it as Touga does in episode 11. In episode 36 Saionji, about to practice with Touga, senses Touga’s failing self-confidence.

Touga and Ruka are Akio’s loyal adherents. It shows most clearly in episode 29 when Ruka gives most of Touga’s spiel about the approaching car. They have two-tone hair. Touga is vivid red with a streak of pale red. Ruka is dark blue with a streak of pale blue. Their hair seems to mean that they’re both manipulative plotting assholes with a small streak of trying to do good due to their love—Touga loves Utena and Ruka loves Juri. Their plots to do good fail, though they seem to achieve some good regardless. Touga’s pale red hair is similar to Utena’s pink hair, while Ruka’s pale blue hair is a complementary color to Juri’s orange hair. It should mean that the two have opposite relations to their targets: Touga wants Utena for himself; Ruka wants to release Juri from her obsession and let her go free. Alternately, Touga’s pink streak stands for a streak of homosexuality and stands for his relationship with Saionji. It can be both.

In the photos of little Touga in episode 31, and when we see young Touga with Saionji in episode 9, his hair does not have the pale streak. It fits with either of my interpretations: Touga’s love has not developed yet.

Touga participates in an obvious and yet complicated parallel with Akio, where Touga comes off as similar but lesser in every aspect. Except one! Both defeat Utena and take her sword. Touga defeats Utena by destroying her conviction, or determination, through a trick; he convinces Utena not to fight him. Without determination, Utena’s power of miracles does not operate. Akio uses the same trick successfully in the First Seduction othello game, but in the final showdown Akio is unable to convince Utena not to fight him; he can only defeat Utena physically, through Anthy’s backstab. Utena retains her determination (and renews it by looking up at Anthy in the air), and her power of miracles operates. Touga is the only one to disable Utena’s power of miracles long enough to achieve his goal (even if it didn’t stay achieved).

Wakaba and Miki are Utena’s two regular friends (discounting Akio and Anthy who are not entirely her friends). They contrast: Miki closes books (in episodes 4 and 19) to hide his feelings, in the shape of Anthy’s picture inside. Miki’s books are practical (notebook, music book): He works but does not communicate. Wakaba closes books (in episodes 2 and 19) to talk with people. Wakaba’s books are fiction: She communicates but does not work.

Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 19 January 2022
updated 27 September 2025