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It's Monday morning! Episodes 4, 5, and 6 are now open for discussion The next batch of episodes are 7, 8, and 9, and their discussion will open the morning of Monday, September 11. The show has started to settle into a rhythm, how do you like it? One of my favorite scenes from the whole show is in this batch, the slapstick scene where Nanami comes over for a study group. Altogether a very normal cast with very normal motivations who do normal things.
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Sep 4, 2023 08:07
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| # ? May 1, 2024 16:53 |
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You really start to understand what this show is about when episode 5 rolls around and Miki walks in on Touga and Kozue all over his piano then Touga calls him a pussy with his shirt open.
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Sep 4, 2023 08:11
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Ohtori Akio posted:You really start to understand what this show is about when episode 5 rolls around and Miki walks in on Touga and Kozue all over his piano then Touga calls him a pussy with his shirt open. lol. the part where miki reflects on tougas words and his mindscape is touga getting progressively more unclothed/in more seductive positions is so good. good to hear that one of my favorite scenes from the first three episodes, touga saying 'Baby' like a creepy pervert while peering through ornate binoculars, is actually an important recurring theme for utena. 
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Sep 4, 2023 10:16
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my takeaway from the this set of episodes is that utena is way funnier than i expected it to be. https://i.imgur.com/FN8SwTx.mp4
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Sep 4, 2023 10:45
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as for the two student council members that get a bunch of screen time, all of the nanami scenes in this block are just ridiculous and i love her even if she's a piece of poo poo. hopefully she gets to make some more appearances before accidentally getting killed by chu chu or some other animal menace. miki really is a normie, but he gets a lot of melodrama and fun cinematic tics like the stopwatch and the piano motif that plays when he's embarrassed, so he's also cool in my book.
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Sep 4, 2023 11:04
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I really love nanami as a character and episode 6 highlights her so well and does a great job making her completely intolerable and deeply sympathetic simultaneously.
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Sep 4, 2023 14:11
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These episodes are hysterical. The 2 Nanami episodes are great, my favorite bit is Saionji talking about his hidden love but the whole thing is amazing. Miki sees Touga with his sister and immediately starts fantasizing about him. What a normal guy. The show has fully settled into an episodic format here, and I'm a big fan of where it's at
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Sep 4, 2023 18:08
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I don't have a lot to say about these; they seemed to be setting up pieces for moves later though I appreciated the characterization they gave Miki and to a lesser extent Nanami. I found Nanami to just be annoying; tripling down on her idea to make a weird girl look weird just about made my eyes roll out the back of my head. I'd just as soon she get disappeared though we can see what they do with her as the story continues. I'm finding that I have a somewhat low tolerance for court politics in fiction and coming off a book that was way too much of that may be coloring my perceptions - Nanami seemed to be playing for chump stakes but pretending that they actually matter.
Midjack fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Sep 5, 2023 |
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Sep 5, 2023 02:32
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Midjack posted:I don't have a lot to say about these; they seemed to be setting up pieces for moves later though I appreciated the characterization they gave Miki and to a lesser extent Nanami. I found Nanami to just be annoying; tripling down on her idea to make a weird girl look weird just about made my eyes roll out the back of my head. I'd just as soon she get disappeared though we can see what they do with her as the story continues. I'm finding that I have a somewhat low tolerance for court politics in fiction and coming off a book that was way too much of that may be coloring my perceptions - Nanami seemed to be playing for chump stakes but pretending that they actually matter. That's the thing about her that's so great, though - to her, making a weird girl look weird is the most important thing in the world. It really does matter.
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Sep 5, 2023 03:44
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A core pattern of Utena is that every single character is ultra invested in some poo poo that does not matter at all. You're meant to be annoyed by her right now. These are all rich teenagers, the world's most annoying category of person.
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Sep 5, 2023 03:50
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Big Leg posted:my takeaway from the this set of episodes is that utena is way funnier than i expected it to be. I've very recently done a full rewatch of the show and one of my favorite things to rediscover is how funny these earlier episodes are. It's a really clever way to introduce the setting and characters. Like as much as I wish Saionji would just gently caress off, it's also hysterical for him to get dunked on like this.
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Sep 5, 2023 15:43
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Ohtori Akio posted:You really start to understand what this show is about when episode 5 rolls around and Miki walks in on Touga and Kozue all over his piano then Touga calls him a pussy with his shirt open. "Your sister is hot but I'd rather be making out with you" is such a power play
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Sep 5, 2023 19:46
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This show has such a weird sense of humor. It's reputation doesn't match it at all. I'm really digging it.
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Sep 5, 2023 20:07
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The jokes make the serious stuff hit harder.
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Sep 5, 2023 20:17
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Ikuhara loves absurdism and sight gags and they are all over this show.
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Sep 5, 2023 20:43
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Ominous Jazz posted:"Your sister is hot but I'd rather be making out with you" is such a power play And Miki's considering it!
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Sep 5, 2023 21:22
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Episode 6 rocks. I'd been expecting the show to be all drama like eps 4-5 but I like the gags more. I'm assuming the allegory is geopolitics and Anthy is probably India because of how she looks, Touga probably America by how he acts, Nanami is England getting attacked by bulls and kangaroos, Utena is probably the concept of revolution Only spoilering that because I might not have considered that interpretation at all yet, if it weren't for prior watchers in-the-know hinting at it. I couldn't place all the references in Miki's story, and his twin sister in eps 4-5 but if I knew more about world history then maybe I would. It did help me in episode 6 especially the last small bit where Tsuwabuki saying stuff about quitting trying to be her big brother and getting along as their little brother instead, and all three suddenly one happy family. If I watched it blind I would have thought "okay I guess they were going for so random ha ha?" but instead I thought "yeah, that's something that would totally happen" Not looking for anyone to confirm or deny. I see the "Understanding Utena" recommended video on YouTube and will look at it after the show's over
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Sep 5, 2023 21:58
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TwoStoryHouseCat posted:Episode 6 rocks. I'd been expecting the show to be all drama like eps 4-5 but I like the gags more. I live for this poo poo. Please keep the speculation coming.
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Sep 5, 2023 22:00
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Ohtori Akio posted:I live for this poo poo. Please keep the speculation coming.
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Sep 5, 2023 22:12
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Well if y'all insist, how else can I respond but Oh yes, Baby. It just so happens I was playing a certain video game and it dawned on me who Miki and his sister really are. I think. I was playing a musou game, and it's an early level so they were emphasizing that the territory is split 50-50, as is typical for musou games. The two lords of the respective territories were having a heated debate. Somehow that clicked for me "oh hey Miki and his twin sister. They must be a country split 50-50." So naturally I thought of North and South Korea. They're near India and one side has makeout sessions with America. It all fits! Except it doesn't all fit. I don't think their relations with all the (I'm assuming) European countries make sense. Then I remembered Miki's ongoing thing, the stopwatch. Punctuality. Oh duh, he's Germany  So now I'm predicting that Miki's part in the story will be way bigger in the future. And given that, I don't think Anthy is who I originally thought either. Given that they're all fighting over her and an all powerful sword comes out of her bosom, I have my suspicions. Really not clear on Utena and Chu Chu's real identities though. Why would Chu Chu stick around Anthy like that? Hmm...
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Sep 6, 2023 05:01
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Chu chu is a rat
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Sep 6, 2023 13:15
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Namtab posted:Chu chu is a rat Chu Chu is a monkey 
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Sep 6, 2023 16:36
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I don’t think that’s true
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Sep 6, 2023 16:52
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Chu Chu is my friend.
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Sep 6, 2023 17:55
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I still get pissed remembering the guy I lent my Utena boxset to that somehow managed to completely lose a set of episodes (I believe 19-23) and didn't even offer to replace them  Looks like the links in the OP don't work though, at least not for me. Could be regional. Anyway this show was my first exposure to anything involving lgbt+ content that wasn't a joke in media and while for sure it's got some areas that perhaps don't hold up today, it's always going to be important to me 
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Sep 8, 2023 08:40
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Pyrotoad posted:I still get pissed remembering the guy I lent my Utena boxset to that somehow managed to completely lose a set of episodes (I believe 19-23) and didn't even offer to replace them I think the Nozomi license is for America - try Crunchyroll for HD versions! I think Utena manages be timeless in that it's not about a super specific realistic experience of romance and moreso about very broad patterns that recur in many contexts.
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Sep 8, 2023 08:52
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i've been watching witch from mercury and i feel like i should pause it until i finish utena. or maybe i should watch them in parallel and compare chu chu character arcs
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Sep 8, 2023 19:30
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parallel imo
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Sep 8, 2023 19:31
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Ohtori Akio posted:parallel imo will do. i imagine they drift apart thematically pretty quick but it's definitely wild how similar the setups are.
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Sep 8, 2023 19:53
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Big Leg posted:will do. i imagine they drift apart thematically pretty quick but it's definitely wild how similar the setups are. Witch From Mercury is very deliberately homaging Utena, that first episode is nearly beat for beat (Miorine even has a greenhouse)
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Sep 8, 2023 20:37
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They also share a writer. I mean Okouchi only wrote the Utena light novels, but still. He definitely knew what he was doing
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Sep 9, 2023 05:48
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Utena is one of those fundamental shows where you watch it and then you can recognize references to it everywhere after. Like Jojo.
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Sep 9, 2023 05:52
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Sep 9, 2023 06:03
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Megamissen posted:the version im watching has lyrics for the stair and battle music, i dont like that since if i dont understand what they are singing the voice becomes more of an instrument the lyrics rock
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Sep 10, 2023 14:51
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Sep 11, 2023 03:58
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It's Monday morning! Episodes 7, 8, and 9 are now open for discussion. The next batch of episodes are 10, 11, and 12, and their discussion will open the morning of Monday, September 18. Nanami rules so much. It's becoming clear at this point that her episodes are about telling jokes with the characters, but the non-Nanami episodes are somewhat more serious. KENDO COMMENTARY: the shinai (kendo swords) are kinda stylized (you don't see a major feature of the leather grip) but I liked the characterization we got from kendo overall in episode 9. Saionji is definitely the kind of guy to fight from high guard in high school, Touga is the kind of guy to beat him from middle guard with a thrust, and they're both the kind of guy to do a serious match without protective equipment.
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Sep 11, 2023 08:04
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Ep 7 was interesting, Jury has a lot of anger and turmoil. I like how the fight brought out Utena's weak side and how she's trying to live up to this memory of the Prince, which apparently means a lack of resolve. Also huge, huge burden off my mind knowing which mammal order Chu Chu belongs to.
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Sep 11, 2023 20:02
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nanami was my fave character for most of the first part. and then she never left that role. she owns so much
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Sep 11, 2023 20:58
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Slapping Anthy is still the school varsity sport. Green hair and red hair have history predating the academy, we'll see how this pays off later. Curry body swap episode was a lighthearted break from the drama.Lady Radia posted:nanami was my fave character for most of the first part. and then she never left that role. she owns so much I have found her to be an irritating poo poo so far but I'm willing to see what the writers do with her. Do the adults at school or in town have any thoughts about the off limits forest?
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Sep 11, 2023 23:16
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message to all the nanami haters out there
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Sep 11, 2023 23:52
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