Unless you defend the precious things you possess, people will take them away from you…

First, let’s highlight a line from the OP which relates to Mickey’s arc for obvious reasons:

In the sunlit garden, we both joined our hands.
Drawing close for comfort, we both swore, never again would we ever fall in love.

Now, “the sunlit garden” has been firmly established as a metaphor for childhood…but Anthy and Utena (whom the OP is obviously about) didn’t meet as children, right? Just some food for thought…

Anyhow, we open with a fencing match between Juri and Mickey, who both fence on a national level.

Juri: You finally beat me. You’ve gotten better.

Mickey: No, I haven’t perfected it. I still haven’t perfected it.

Juri: No, your lack of perfection is your strength. The strength of purity. Your sword usually carries a very meek strength. That strength seemed to increase one level today. Could the reason be the girl whose exam you were correcting? […] However! Your sword is not for battle.

Mickey’s the shy, sensitive type, so it makes sense that Juri would encourage him to play to those strengths. She wants him to feel free to fall in love…but of course, she doesn’t know that it’s Anthy he’s crushing on, which changes the situation significantly.

Naturally, Utena’s open to indulge him, too. And thus we come to his backstory.

Mickey: “The Sunlit Garden.” My sister and I wrote it when we were little.

Utena: You wrote it? But it’s a famous song.

Mickey: For as long as I can remember, my twin sister and I would play with the piano as our toy. In the garden…We would play the piano, and adults all around us were amazed.

Utena: Wow, so you were sibling prodigies.

Mickey: When I think back, all my happiness lay in that garden. But then…[…] But then I destroyed it. I destroyed it with my own hands!

Note that this is the same art design used in Utena’s prologue, indicating a memory that might not be totally reliable…

Also, his sister’s name is Kozue, and although it’s not stated until much later, I’ll use it here for simplicity’s sake. And the bird in the cage is also a relevant bit of symbolism!

Kozue: A concert?

Mickey: Yeah! Next Thursday! Everyone will be coming to see us!

Kozue: But I…going out in front of all those strangers…I’d be scared to be in front of all those strangers…

Mickey: Don’t worry! I’ll be right there with you. I’ll be there next to you, playing the piano like we always do. There’s nothing to be scared of!

It’s framed as if she’s just shy, or possibly has social anxiety like Anthy. But when Mickey gets sick on the day of the concert and can’t play with her, she gets frantic, and runs and hides rather than play the piano on her own.

Mickey: My sister never played the piano again after that. It was only then I realized how much I loved my sister’s playing. How much I loved that garden…and no matter how much I tried to polish my technique, I could never match the feeling of my sister’s playing. I only continued to play the piano to get that feeling again. But with her…it’s there in Himemiya-san’s piano.

Utena: You must be hearing something I’m not.

This is the second person who’s commented that he seems to be hearing something that isn’t there – Nanami said a similar thing in the first part. It seems to imply that Mickey might just be hearing what he wants to hear.

Mickey: I’ve finally found the “shining thing” I’ve been searching for!

Utena: Are you saying you’re in love with her? Watcha gonna do, Himemiya?

Anthy: Hm?

Utena: About the younger man in your life?

Anthy: I’m your bride, Utena-sama.

Utena: Look, Himemiya, I told you to stop with this “Utena-sama” and “Bride” stuff.

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

Utena: Now, look! I don’t accept this stuff about you being my bride! It’s ridiculous to make a girl someone’s bride because of a duel! I can’t forgive a system that deprives someone of their personal freedom!

Clearly, Mickey takes Utena’s rant to heart, and tries to actually do something about it! So he calls an emergency student council meeting.

Touga: We gather when the letters tell us to gather, and then act as the letters tell us to act. But today, an urgent motion has been proposed.

Mickey: An urgent motion…I propose the following: The dissolution of the student council!

Touga: This is sudden.

Mickey: These duels to possess Himemiya-san are ridiculous! I can’t just stand by and allow them to continue! No matter how great this power is that we’re supposed to get, I can’t follow a system that robs Anthy Himemiya of her personal freedom!

Juri: Love certainly changes a person. I see…so that was her exam paper you were correcting.

Touga: Youth can sometimes keep you from seeing what you truly seek.

Mickey: In the end, isn’t what we’re doing only going to smash something important to people?

Touga: Smash the world’s shell.

Juri: For the revolution of the world.

Mickey brings up an interesting point here: “Revolutionizing” the world will, inevitably, hurt some people, even if it’s a magical, non-violent revolution. Because the whole idea of revolution is that there is some inequity that must be fixed by bringing certain people down and uplifting others. This scene symbolizes revolution with an apple: Although you can just bite into a whole apple, it’s much easier to eat when it’s sliced (or perhaps, “smashed”). And the idea he’s proposing now is also a revolutionary one, because this school seems to be built around the duels – and, tellingly, he hasn’t even asked if this is what Anthy wants.

And speaking of what girls want, Mickey happens to run into his sister. Also, on a side note, blue roses are traditionally associated with the impossible, as they don’t occur in nature at all (The Apothecary Diaries has a whole episode about the arduous process of making them), although in this series, that’s not exactly the meaning.

Mickey: Get out of my way.

Kozue: You dropped your music book. So, want to try and get me to play again?

Mickey: I don’t have any more hope for you. What are you doing here if you don’t plan to play?

Kozue: Nothing. I’m free to come here. The music room isn’t just for playing the piano.

For all that he seemed to idolize his sister, he doesn’t give her much respect when confronted with the genuine article…

Touga: Good morning, Miki Kaoru-kun. Your sister is as cute as you are. And as easy-going.

…and this is what he sees in the music room. Touga managed to desecrate Mickey’s piano and his sister in one fell swoop. Also, I’m pretty sure this counts as sexual harassment (especially given that Touga’s canonically bi).

Touga: Unless you defend the precious things you possess, people will take them away from you, Mickey. Even if the student council were dissolved now, someone who wanted the Rose Bride couldn’t have her. Only the one she is engaged to can make the Bride do what they want.

I didn’t expect to be hit by the feels this early on, but it’s just heartbreaking seeing Mickey broken down by the patriarchy and forced to be someone he’s not. Touga’s clearly positioned himself as the “alpha male”, seeing as he’s the only person we’ve met that uses the pronoun “ore”, not to mention “taking” his sister, with the implication that he could just as easily have Anthy if he wanted.

But after Touga leaves Mickey’s domain, he gets to talk to Anthy alone.

Mickey: My sister’s playing was so wonderful…(internally) I won’t lose it again! I won’t! (aloud) Do you like the piano?

Anthy: Yes.

Mickey: Would you play for me again?

Anthy: If Utena-sama said I could.

Mickey: How about tomorrow?

Anthy: If Utena-sama says I can.

Mickey: You have to get her permission for everything?

Anthy: Well, I’m the Rose Bride.

Mickey: So, if she told you to stop playing the piano, would you?

Anthy: Of course. I must do whatever the person I’m engaged to wants.

Only the one she is engaged to can make the Bride do what they want. Unless you defend the precious things you possess, people will take them away from you, Mickey. Someone who wanted the Rose Bride than couldn’t have her.

It’s telling that, rather than discuss this in the meeting earlier, Touga makes a power play, intending to make Mickey question the security of his “shining thing”. This also brings into play the prominent theme of sex as power, as the imagery here makes very clear that Touga had sex with Kozue (borrowing from the Hays Code era playbook, when billowing curtains represented offsceen sex).

On a slightly different note, in Part 1, Wakaba mentioned that a strong woman could force her “logic” on a man. While that seems absurd at first glance (especially when they were talking in the context of math and logic), there is some truth to the idea that different “logic” can be forced upon people. After all, what is The Patriarchy but a certain kind of logic being forced upon the rest of the world by generations of men?

Mickey: Don’t worry. I will protect the feeling of your song!

Utena: If you’re looking for Himemiya, she’s in the greenhouse.

Mickey: No, I’ve come to see you today, Tenjou-senpai. […] I’ll be waiting for you in the arena after class today. I’ll be waiting.

The choice to give her a white rose seems to indicate that Mickey thinks he’s acting princely…but really, he’s fallen into the trap of treating Anthy as an object. She’s a “thing” to him now – a precious thing, but a thing nonetheless.

Girl A: Today I set sail upon the seven seas with my hundreds of men! I am a pirate! The precious treasures of the world belong to me!

Girl B: But, sir! But, sir! Tell me why. With all your treasure, why don’t you have the thing you really want?

Girl A: The thing I really want?

Girl B: But isn’t that why you won’t give up on being a pirate captain?

Girl A: The thing I really want…

Girl B: The thing you really, really want…

Girl A: The thing I really want is-

Girl B: Uh, captain, we’ve sprung a leak.

This is the tragedy of Mickey’s story: In grasping at what he thinks he wants, he doesn’t really have the opportunity to consider if this – making Anthy his bride – is truly what he wants. He was just told that he should want to win her, and Touga spooked him enough to make him act.

And now, we’re back at the beginning, where we knew it was always going to end, with the duel.

Mickey: I’ll make the Rose Bride mine, even if…even if it means hurting you!

In this duel song, the emphasis is on theater and performance – and on one level, that seems obvious, as Mickey’s whole purpose for the duel is ostensibly to make Anthy his musical partner. But on another level, Mickey also feels the need to perform a kind of masculinity that doesn’t come naturally to him.

Mickey: (internally) I can see it in her eyes. She really wants to be free! I swear I’ll…I’ll protect your beautiful music, Himemiya-san!

Utena: En garde!

Mickey: (internally) I can’t lose! She’s counting on me!

Anthy: That’s it, Utena-sama! Get him!

And thus we begin the theme of Utena winning not necessarily because she’s the better fighter, but because something threw her opponent off. Mickey’s convinced himself that Anthy must be miserable, not so much because she’s with Utena, but because she’s forced to play this “game” in the first place. In this, she seems to assert that she’s happy with Utena, and implicitly, with her whole situation. It might not really be that simple, but at the very least, that’s what Anthy wants to convey to him.

Utena: I take it you’re satisfied now?

Mickey: (internally) Why can’t I find someone to be my “shining thing”? Someone…

Anthy: Well done. Let’s study together again, sometime.

But that’s not quite the end of the story…

Classmate: Come on, you really used to play piano? Even I’m better than that.

Kozue: Well, I never had any talent. I never even liked it much.

Classmate: Then why did you play?

Kozue: A long time ago, a boy who lived next door wrote me a love letter. It said, “I love your piano playing.” But he misunderstood about my piano playing. You see, I always just played together with my brother. When I was little, everyone just assumed I played well. It’s because my brother’s a genius. Even with my sloppy playing, he could still follow it. But when they announced that we were giving a concert, my brother got sick and I had to go on alone. Since I couldn’t do it on my own, I just fell apart in stage.

Classmate: Your brother’s really cool.

Kozue: I suppose.

So, Kozue was never what Mickey wanted her to be, but as long as she went along with what he wanted, he didn’t notice. She was like the bird in the cage, only being what he wanted because she wasn’t free to do as she wanted. After the failed concert, she was finally free to do other things, at which point Mickey ceased to take an interest in her.

Until next time…