lizardjay

To finish off my uncharacteristically frequent Utenaposting (for now...), I present the Definitive Catalog of Every Miki Stopwatch Moment Ever, as promised.



... I see that my thumbnail is being cut off on the bottom. This is hell. I worked hard on that thing.

I'm hoping this doesn't put me on a slippery slope of making theory videos; that's not who I am! But somehow nobody else had made this before I got to it. As far as I could find, nobody had even made a comprehensive list in one place. And despite my hatred of 'video only' resources (dear everyone who puts info in a video, IT COULD BE AN ARTICLE INSTEAD!!), I do think video is the best format here.

Do I have any conclusions or theories now that I've done the extensive research? .... not really. My thoughts are still marinating in my mind. But now I have everything collected in one place for my convenience :D and for anyone else who finds it, of course. I know I was searching "miki stopwatch", "utena stopwatch", etc several times and finding NOTHING. I don't really promote my videos so idk if people will find it, but if they do I hope it's useful!

At long last. Utena* is done.

*Not the movie yet, I’m watching that next weekend.

Overall: There are many things in Utena I don't yet understand, but it's not a CONFUSING show. I feel like people present it as SO esoteric and hard to understand, and at its core, the story.... it's not!

(I'm gonna have to digest the last several episodes for a while though.)

Also, yeah, it’s as good as people hype it up to be. IT’S GOOD.

Akio makes his move :(

I watched these episodes last week and meant to write them up but I clearly don't have the stamina to do it before I watch more tomorrow. So I'm doing Lazy Notes this time.

• WAKABAAAAAAA
• Mikage. Damn. Why has he condescended to me in his memory with those flashing pointers? Or perhaps... perhaps this is supposed to make me draw a parallel with the roses in Main Utena. Perhaps the roses are a sign that the whole story is being told from someone's memory or something.
• Mikage in his purple flashback outfit is so rectangular he looks like a Poptart. Trust me on this.
• I miss Touga. He appears, and stands and walks and everything, but he hasn't spoken since episode 12 I think. Sure, Nanami's minion assaults him or something, but.... COME BACKKKK
• There was a Miki Stopwatch moment somewhere in these episodes and I need to catalogue it.
• Okay. Who was taking photos of all those duels. Mikage??? It's plausible; for the first couple duels people kept lurking in some other location and spying on the duels with binoculars. (And hey, how do you get to that OTHER building????)
• Also photo-related: I swear some of them were real life photos of random guys (perhaps animators?). That would be fun :D
• I see. Mikage has been hallucinating Mamiya this whole time; or, Anthy has shapeshifted into (a warped version of) Mamiya? Or Anthy was there as herself and Mikage just superimposed a Mamiya upon her? This is presumably why Anthy has been so tired lately, but she didn't SEEM to know why; either that's an act or she's had her memory manipulated or something.
• No one's going to explain why Mamiya was getting dressed when we first met them. CONCERN.
• Mikage/Mamiya is now even more unsettling than it was before. Also, there are many gender thoughts here......
• Anyway Akio now retcons Mikage out of existence. Goodbye! I would've liked to know why he didn't accept the professors' bribes but maybe if he (a fake? person) accepted real money, the world would explode due to paradox.
• Good old trustworthy Akio. He seems to be immortal now? Good for him I guess. New theory: the Prince is Akio. Yes, we've seen them talking together. As if Akio couldn't split his personality or something into two bodies, why not? If he can just casually bring Mikage into/out of existence?

I'm getting to the point where I have to rewatch large parts of episodes just to get my thoughts straight 😅

( by episode 25 I'll have a full dissertation for each episode )

I then spent an entire hour analyzing every time Miki pulls out his stopwatch.

( Miki stopwatch )

It's MORE UTENA time :D

( i am obsessed )

I've been meaning to watch Utena for ages now. This is my year!!!

(Relatedly, this is also the year I'm attempting to get more into yuri. So far I've read (half of) one manga series and loved it!)

Here is what I know about Utena beforehand:

• It's Very Deep and probably confusing. Everyone says this.
• It is ICONIC and FOUNDATIONAL for many many anime/shows/etc after it.
• It's sad?? I think?
• At some point someone turns into a car Transformers style? This may be in a movie. Probably unimportant.
• Utena and Anthy have a tense and fraught relationship, I think? The type of thing where they would sit down to tea together and MAYBE the tea is poisoned? Unsure if this actually happens or not.
• Flowers. Swords and duels. Girls.

( Episodes 1 & 2 Liveblog Style )

Overall: I'm confused!! I'm intrigued and compelled!! I just dragged my friend, who'd been resisting, into watching it by saying "I think Kabuto (the Naruto character) came from the Utena universe", which is a statement I can't really explain but it feels true.