Revolutionary Girl Utena, eps 1-2

No, I’ve never actually watched it before! I just read the manga. I’d heard the general population of LiveJournal saying it had influenced Princess Tutu a lot, but I didn’t realize it was that much. Tutu’s fairy-tale narrator openings are a direct visual rip from the opening of the first episode! The shadow puppets’ voices are like the crows’ voices!

The music is deeply insane.

So far, I’m liking Wakaba and Utena’s relationship more in the anime than in the manga. In the manga Wakaba’s feelings for Utena were set up as being pitiable, because Utena herself didn’t do anything to indicate she felt anything for her, and because Wakaba was so jealous and insecure. Here, they actually seem to be friends - Utena teases Wakaba without Wakaba freaking out! (Though Wakaba doesn’t know about Anthy yet, so there’s still time for the dynamic that bugged me in the manga to develop, I guess.)

(I’m very smug how much of the Japanese I can understand. I turned away from the screen to check on something for a few seconds, and understood nearly all of the dialog without looking at the subs. It wasn’t a scene that used many complicated words, but still! I kinda speak Japanese! (Working for a Japanese company does not do much to convince me of this, because whenever they want to tell me something important, they have the English-speaking guy do it.))

(Originally published at SarahPin.com. You can comment here or there.)