If she keeps going there’s a chance she will reach the duel named “Revolution.”

This show is so good, even the recap episodes contribute to the narrative!

Naturally, the recap begins with the prologue, but promptly switches to the Shadow Players in their UFO (possibly on the moon).

Shadow Players: Do you know, do you know? Have you heard the news? That meddlesome hero has, yet again, won another duel! 

Girl A: Might makes right!

Girl B: Losers are smelly old fish!

Both: And the winner walked away, looking like a lily! But, but, brave hero! You may be called back to the path of battle once more. Do you know? Do you know? Do you know?

 

The juxtaposition of “Might makes right”, the motto of many a totalitarian regime, with such a childish line is obviously meant to trivialize that line of thinking. But following line is more interesting, since the phrase translated as “lily” is “yuri no hana”, which might also be translated as “lily flower”. Yuri is also a common term for “girl’s love” or lesbian love stories, and we’ve already established that this show often relates girls to flowers…

Anyhow, in other news, Touga is taking his loss poorly.

“If we don’t crack the world’s shell, we will die without being born.”

Touga’s just lying around in his room, playing his opening monologue from the student council meetings on loop, and Nanami is understandably concerned.

But this is the first Enokido script in a while, and as such, the plot only thickens, despite being a recap.

First, we meet this fine fellow, and once again, I can’t be bothered to beat around the bush: He’s the actual villain, Akio Ohtori.

Akio: You still haven’t awakened? Is the egg’s shell still unbroken? Even the student council president failed. That was her seventh trial so far. She even managed to win the duel called “self.”

These stained-glass windows serve to flesh out the themes of the duels. In addition to the French words for the duels, they also include a different-colored rose – in the case of this last duel, it was green, which we’ll learn in this episode is associated with “friendship” (poor Saionji), also reflecting the title of the last episode…

Akio: Did seeing her defend the Rose Bride, even while wounded, make you remember something familiar? Even the heart of the Rose Bride was moved a bit, wasn’t it? I suppose seeing that has let you begin to have hope for her. No, that’s not right. That was in the first duel, “friendship.” Since that day she accidently fought the Kendo team captain, you’ve had hope for her.

This episode is when we first see that Anthy is central to the story – not necessarily the main character, but still meant to be more than just a prize to be won.

The first duel has a pink rose, which isn’t defined properly here, so we must defer to the Hanakotoba definition: Most likely “trust”.

When? Where? Who? Which?
Flowing blood of caged memories.
The cradle of 1000 years of bliss.
I am an actor, eternally metaphorical.

Since I was too busy in the first post to cover the duel theme, I’ll analyze it here. Notably absent from the list of w’s is “What” and “Why”. The “why” is obviously friendship here, and I suppose the “what” is the duel itself (as in, “what has Utena gotten herself into?”)

Naturally, Saionji teased her for trying to act like a prince…and despite wearing the white rose in that duel, she’s still distinguished by pink, until the next duel, the duel called “choice”.

Akio: As you had hoped, she became engaged to the Rose Bride, and began to walk the path of the Duelist. And then came the second trial. The duel named “choice.” 

That was when she first manifested her “prince attack” – or, more accurately, channeled the power of Dios.

Akio: Ever since that day, the seal on your power, the power of Dios, began to break. That girl was definitely of great interest. Your power…all of the power of Dios might be revived with her. The battles which followed were all quite personal.

By the way, I have more images than normal here, mainly because the images are some of the only new things this episode gives us, but it helps interpret the symbolism, so it’s fine by me! This one is naturally for Mickey’s duel, the duel of “Reason”. It’s notably paired with a yellow rose, which we learn in this episode represents adoration (signifying that Mickey isn’t properly “in love” with Anthy, he just admires her).

Akio: You could say that it wasn’t the power to bring revolution to the world which caught them. As they pursued the miracle, the miracle took hold of them.

Then we get to Juri’s duel, the one actually named “Love” – specifically Eros, or sexual attraction. And she gets a purple rose paired with her duel, which we eventually learn represents the duel called “Revolution”. This, combined with the earlier mention of yuri, is a pretty clear indication of where the show’s heading.

Akio: Yes…the young always aim for the end of the world

Nanami’s duel, the duel of “Adoration”, is paired with a red rose, which might represent her selfish motives, or maybe her conviction (which the is also represented by red in this episode).

Notably, this recap only covers the duel until Nanami officially loses, not the attempt on Utena’s life that follows. It also wasn’t until this episode that I noticed the parallel between Nanami killing the kitten and her attempt to kill Utena…

Akio: Friendship. Choice. Reason. Love. Adoration. Conviction. And finally Self. But though she’s cleared seven duels, she’s still a Duelist. Could she be the person we’ve been hoping for? If she keeps going there’s a chance she will reach the duel named “Revolution.” The day you will be completely released may be near. Don’t glare at me like that. When we finally reach the day we’ve waited and hoped for, we will both profit equally from it. But, a new stage is about to begin. How will she fight in the battles to come?

So there’s some sort of conflict between the prince (Dios) and this Akio guy, but that will have to wait a while yet.

And it looks an awful lot like Anthy there with him…

Then, we see Anthy coming home after going somewhere without Chu-Chu, and she never actually explains where she was…

Next time: The Black Rose arc begins…