I’ve no intention of fighting these meaningless duels!

This episode is mainly concerned with establishing the general formula for the show going forward, and properly introducing us to Anthy.

As for the staff, Yoji Enokido will be writing almost all the episodes in the first arc (often dubbed the “Student Council Arc”), and the first director/storyboarder other than Ikuhara is Shingo Kaneko, someone who often collaborates with Ikuhara, but also made some good episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime (it’s so annoying that version isn’t legally streaming anywhere now).

Anyhow, Utena sees Wakaba the next day, and…it seems like her duel didn’t affect her much. Wakaba just bounced back to normal fairly easily.

Wakaba: I said you were my true love! Utena-sama,I belong to you-

Utena: Wakaba, please, enough with the “You’re my true love” stuff.

Wakaba: Why?

It seems as if Utena’s particularly self-conscious about being perceived as gay now that, you know, Anthy’s LITERALLY calling herself Utena’s fiancée!

Meanwhile, the Student Council (sans Saionji) are delivering exposition!

Touga: If it cannot break its egg’s shell, a chick will die without being born. We are the chick. The world is our egg. If we don’t crack the world’s shell, we will die without being born. Smash the world’s shell!

All: For the revolution of the world!

I guess this is just the standard opening monologue for student council meetings! Also note that Touga continues to be framed by white roses.

Touga: Have you received your letters from End of the World? […] We all receive letters from him, and then proceed according to the instructions within. As it is written in this letter, Saionji failed yesterday, and the Rose Bride was engaged to the girl who won the duel.

Juri: Is someone who doesn’t belong to the student council receiving letters from End of the World?

Touga: Who knows? But she wears the rose seal. I saw it with my own eyes.

Juri: And who is this girl?

Miki: Utena Tenjou. She’s rather well known in the middle school. Very popular.

Miki is the only representative from the middle school at the moment. Note that Japanese middle and high schools are three years long, as opposed to America, which generally has four years each. So the middle school would span 7-9 grade, instead of American middle schools that typically span 5-8 grade.

Juri: Now, hold on! Someone we’ve never heard of just joins the duels? If this happens again-

Touga: If it happens, what will you do? Drop out of the game? Our letters are one-way messages from End of the World. And we are free to follow them as we see fit.

Miki: When we opened the door to the arena with these rose seals, the phantom castle appeared, just as the letters said it would.

Juri: I know. Just seeing that proved that I can’t drop out now.

Touga: Quite. The letters from End of the World are specific. The one who wins the Rose Bride in the duels and is engaged to her will finally enter the castle, and gain the power to bring revolution to the world. And that is why we must fight.

So, the student council members all get regular letters from “End of the World”, promising that whoever wins the duels (and subsequently, Anthy’s hand) will be able to “revolutionize” the world. Interestingly, the phrase that’s translated as “End of the World” doesn’t indicate the end of time or the apocalypse or anything, but the “edge” or “limits” of the world – perhaps, the “shell” of the world.

The next question, of course, is why do these people want to revolutionize the world? That’s a question that will mostly wait for future episodes, but that’s something we’ll delve into as the arc goes on.

Anyhow, Utena’s surprised to find that Anthy’s been assigned as her roommate (especially since her room is supposed to be a single), but seeing as Anthy does all the cleaning, it doesn’t take her long to agree to the arrangement.

Utena: They only just announced the dorm assignments, right?

Anthy: Our getting the same room isn’t just a coincidence. It’s the rules of the rose seal. It’s because I’m the Rose Bride.

Utena: Bride?

Anthy: I must be engaged to whomever wins a duel.

Utena: Are you sure about this?

She’s understandably weirded out by the “Rose Bride” stuff, seeing as they’re both only teenagers, but she proceeds to ask Anthy to clarify a few things about the situation.

Utena: All right, first question. What’s with the mirage castle and the trick sword?

Anthy: Mysteries.

Utena: Mysteries? You mean you don’t know what they are, either? If you don’t know, then why do you do that?

Anthy: Why do you dress like a boy, Utena-sama?

Utena: What, this? Well…because I like to.

Anthy: That’s my answer.

Note that Utena has explained why she dresses like that before, but evades the question here, perhaps because she’s simply tired of explaining her identity (whatever it is), but more likely because she doesn’t consider Anthy a friend yet, so she doesn’t want to have an honest conversation with her. Hence, Anthy responds in kind.

Then we meet Chu-Chu.

He’s introduced with a banana-frame, to hammer home that he’s not a mouse, but a monkey (“chu” is the sound mice make in Japanese). And Anthy insists that he’s a friend, not a pet.

Chu-Chu is interesting because he represents the feelings that Anthy keeps hidden (hence why he only comes out at “home”).

Utena: How do you do, Chu-Chu. I’m Utena Tenjou. Will you be my friend, too?

Anthy: I’ve never seen Chu-Chu take to someone so well, Utena-sama.

Utena: Look, can you cut it out with the Utena-“sama”, please?

Anthy: But I’m engaged to you, Utena-sama.

Utena: That again…

So, Chu-Chu taking a liking to Utena indicates that Anthy has taken a liking to her, too, and considering how Saionji treated her, who could blame her? Anyhow, Anthy explains (again) that she must be engaged to the current dueling champion, and the rest of the student council are all duelists – that is, those who bear the ring of the Rose Seal are marked as duelists.

Anthy: So, now that you’re the current dueling champion, the others who wear the rose seal will come to challenge you to duels.

Utena: You’ve gotta be kidding! I’ve no intention of fighting these meaningless duels!

Because Utena doesn’t know about the whole “power of revolution” thing, and she probably wouldn’t care if she did.

Elsewhere, Saionji’s been brooding, so Touga swings by to spur him to action.

Touga: Am I disturbing you, Mr. Vice President?

Saionji: No, you’re generally welcome into my domain.

Touga: Is the Kendo team captain going to fight the middle school girl again?

Saionji: Of course. The power to bring the world revolution belongs to me. That girl’s engagement to the Rose Bride is a mistake.

Touga: That’s just how it is. That girl, Anthy Himemiya, is engaged to the winner of the duel.

Saionji: You’re wrong! She belongs to me. She’s to do as I command, forever. That’s what’s written in my exchange diary.

Touga: …You keep an exchange diary?

An exchange diary is a diary that would be shared by two or more people, but naturally, that changes the typical dynamic of a journal, because they’re aware that they’re writing to someone else. And of course, as usual with diaries, they’re generally regarded as “for girls”, hence Touga’s response. But this also tells us that Anthy seems to have been encouraging Saionji’s affections within the exchange diary, despite the way he treats her…

and then he just waltzes over and starts abusing her again

Anthy: I’m sorry, Saionji-senpai. I’m engaged to Utena-sama now.

Saionji: But didn’t you devote yourself to me completely when we were engaged?

Anthy: Yes, but that’s the past. Our engagement is over. Please forget about me.

But after he gets physical, Utena comes out to intervene.

Saionji: You again…good timing. I lost the duel because I let my guard down. Why don’t we settle once and for all who shall possess the Rose Bride? I want a return match in the arena tomorrow, after class.

Utena: Ridiculous! I refuse to fight another meaningless duel! I fought you yesterday because of Wakaba, for my friend! I don’t care about this Rose Bride stuff!

Saionji: That may be, but I do! If you get engaged to the Rose Bride as a duelist, then you must have no objections. Those who oppose the student council vanish from this campus. The school’s regulations are quite specific.

Utena: All right, I accept your challenge. See you after class tomorrow, in the arena.

Anthy: Didn’t you say you weren’t going to fight any more duels?

Utena: No choice. If I don’t fight him, I’ll get kicked out of here. Well, I’ll just purposely lose, so there’s no problem.

Anthy: Of course. Do as you please.

and saionji steps on chu-chu, to add a more literal trampling of anthy’s feelings to the occasion.

A note about the language here: in Japanese, people use different first-person pronouns depending on their status. In reality, women and girls exclusively use the most “respectful”, “watashi”, while boys tend to use the more “forceful” one, “boku”, and the highest-ranking is “ore”. In Japanese media, however, there are some more forceful or boyish girls that use “boku” as well (Arisa in Furuba does), dubbed “bokuko”. Naturally, Utena is a bokuko, using the same pronouns as Saionji here.

The Shadow Players do their thing, basically just teasing Utena by saying that “losing on purpose” might not be as simple as it seems.

The dueling theme generally stays the same, but here, we get one additional line: My own birth, absolute birth, apocalypse. It sets the stage for a sort of birth of “Utena the Duelist”.

Anthy: Be careful.

Utena: Sure. It’d be stupid to get hurt in a duel I intend to lose.

Utena: Grant me the power to bring the world revolution!

Now, Utena has the Sword of Dios, and the line about revolution (whether she’s sincere about it or not).

In addition to the dueling theme, there are also songs during the duels themselves that have some connection to the themes of the episode. This one opens by invoking prehistoric (or even pre-existent) times, followed by recounting the evolution of life on earth.

Rose of the sea. Lily of the sea.
Apple of the sea. Bud of the sea.
Angel of the sea. Mirror of the sea.
Doorway of the sea. Shimmer of the sea.
Carboniferous, Permian, Paleozoic!
You in the sea. I in the sea.
The Paleozoic era within the body.
Living on and on.
Closer and closer to death.
The endless cycle of the Paleozoic.
Like a seal swims, I travel down into the depths of the sea.
At the bottom I can be myself.
Ammonite!

It highlights the cyclical nature of life, as Utena begins a new cycle of her own…

She fights awfully hard for someone intending to lose, possibly because, when faced with Saionji’s seeming contempt for Anthy again, she’s loath to give up on her that easily. And unlike with Saionji, Anthy is clearly rooting for Utena in this fight.

Saionji: I admire your courage. You put the rose before your own life! You understand, living or dying doesn’t matter. The one who loses the rose loses the duel. […] It may be the Sword of Dios, but it has no special power by itself. In the end, it must be wielded by a great swordsman! I was careless yesterday, but now I’ll show you my true power! Both the sword and Anthy belong to me. They are the glory intended for Kyoichi Saionji! Prepare yourself!

But just when it seems like she’s beaten, there’s a change…

The “Prince” descends from the floating castle, his cape making him look like a rose, and empowering her to win the duel.

and touga’s just spying on the duel again

Touga: What was that just now? Was that the power to bring the world revolution? The power of Dios?

Anthy: You didn’t purposely lose?

Utena: I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Chu-Chu. If you went with Saionji, he’d just tease Chu-Chu.

Maybe she’s just embarrassed to admit to the “princess” that she wanted to save her, but the outcome’s still the same. And then Anthy smiles at her in the last shot, behind her back.

Until next time…