You can’t undo it once it’s done.

This is the most subtly horrifying episode of the series, disguised as a recap.

This episode begins with the prelude again, but with that city skyline backdrop rather than the usual animation. And I think it’s about time to explain the Paradise Lost reference.

So, Adam kisses the tears from Eve’s eyes the morning after she dreamt of Lucifer (Satan) urging her to eat the forbidden fruit, and acting like he’d take her to Heaven (paradise – or perhaps, eternity). Thus, the Prince in the prelude might be similarly trying to ease Utena’s mind, drawing her attention away from a dangerous dream that would revolutionize their world, for better or for worse.

And note also that while Akio has presented himself as her prince, he would be playing the role of both Adam and Satan (he does literally identify with Lucifer, as this episode reminds us). Significantly, “Adam” directly translates to “Man”, naturally alluding to the patriarchal system that demands compliance from women and girls.

Anyhow, on to the actual plot…

Anthy talks on the phone with someone, and we hear her side of the conversation.

Anthy: Hello?…Yes…I was looking at the stars…I didn’t want to look at the real ones…Did you get tonight’s roses?

Then we find Utena with a bouquet of roses (and wearing a dress, contrary to her normal attire). This episode is comprised mainly of a series of monologues.

Utena: I can’t believe how much fun I had today! I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself this much. I feel like I’ve ridden every ride I could ever want. I wish Himemiya could have come with us. You can’t have this much fun when you’re alone. Did I ever mention that I was an only child…?

and she’s clearly talking to akio here. to whom she’s mentioned she’s an only child multiple times.

And evidently he has a phone in his car (that was a thing in the 90s, before cell phones really caught on).

Unlike in previous episodes, the Shadow Players will be introducing themes as a segue into the recap segments here (via a call-in radio show).

Girl A: Do you know? Do you know? Do you know the answer? The stars out tonight are sooo pretty! All of you listeners out there should go to the window and see them! The beautiful autumn constellations are twinkling in the sky. A night for couples to glimpse eternity.

It’s unclear if this scene is portraying something that happened in earlier episodes (it naturally leads into a recap of Saionji’s duel), but that’s kinda beside the point here.

Girl A: Good evening! Is this End of the World-san?

Akio: Yes.

Girl A: Are you listening to the show right now?

Akio: Of course.

Girl B: Ooh, he sounds sexy, folks!

Girl A: Thanks for your postcard. So, what do you do for a living, End of the World-san?

Akio: I work for a school. I also have another job on the side.

Girl A: Isn’t it against the rules to have a side job when you work for a school?

Akio: Yes, well, it’ll work out as long as no one catches me.

Then he hangs up to attend to his “side job”, leading into the Saionji recap.

Touga: What do you want? What do you aspire to? What do you wish to be?

Saionji: What’s the point of asking those questions? First of all, I don’t trust you.

Touga: Oh, please. Aren’t you my only friend?

Saionji: True friendship doesn’t exist in this world.

Touga: You think so? […] Is it because something eternal exists there? You believe you can find eternal friendship, perhaps? The girl said she wanted to see something eternal, didn’t she?

As I said in the last post, the duels in this arc are focused on fighting for a reality that no longer exists. Saionji wants to trust Touga, wants to still be his best friend, but that’s no longer possible.

Utena: If you really love Himemiya, look at it from her point of view!

Saionji: I did. I, too, once considered the Rose Bride’s feelings. That’s what inflamed me so! But now I know better! The Rose Bride has no will of her own!

And here, we get to the lessons that Utena could have learned from the duels. At this point, it’s clear that Anthy can’t do much outside of Akio’s will (let alone attempting to subvert it). Which will eventually lead into the question of Anthy’s complicity in all this, but we’ll save that discussion for another episode. But Utena refuses to look at the reality that’s staring her in the face.

and then we switch back to utena fidgeting and clearly uncomfortable with her current situation, talking about what’s on tv just to distract herself from the fact that she’s ALONE WITH AKIO

They begin to run through Mickey’s episode, and then the scene with Utena changes…

She’s TAKEN OFF HER DRESS, seemingly to take a shower…which might indicate that this is a “love hotel”, a single-room apartment with a shower that you can rent for an evening and GIRL, RUN. although this would probably be far from campus, so she’s reliant on akio to take her home.

this is exactly as bad as it sounds

anyhow, i’d much rather contemplate mickey’s sad state at this point.

Kozue: What’s to be embarrassed about? If she’s important to you, make her yours. I just want you to be happy, Miki.

Mickey: What’s brought this on?

Kozue: I’m always completely honest with my feelings. I never lie. When everything around you is impure, you’ll have to become impure as well. The only way to get what you want is to lose your purity.

Utena doesn’t necessarily have to lose her “purity”, but she needs to acknowledge that the world isn’t nearly as black-and-white as she wants to believe. That’s really what’s preventing her from seeing Anthy’s suffering – she can’t believe that her dear friend would deceive her, or that Akio could be “nice”, but not have her best interests at heart.

Then we switch back to Akio in the car, where the Shadow Players broach the subject of “miracles”…

Juri: I don’t know what you’re after as a Duelist. However […] Keep your hands off Shiori!

Ruka: […] I told you. I’m just living a normal life right now. I’m free to fall in love with anyone on campus, aren’t I?

then we return to utena and akio’s “date”

This is a game that’s sometimes called “Reversi”, but this particular form was popularized in Japan as “Othello”. Yes, the Shakespeare reference is intentional. It’s a game of black and white, the name intentionally invoking the racial dynamics of Othello, a Black man, and Desdemona, a white woman.

Utena’s naturally playing white, but is we draw on the color symbolism of this very show, “black” can also represent “death” – or perhaps, the death of innocence.

and utena continues to ramble on about random things

Utena: I tend to mess up measurements. Like, recently, I cooked the wrong amount of macaroni, and ended up filling a huge pot with it. And it’s worse when you do that with seasonings. If you don’t watch it and you add too much then the meal’s ruined. You turn a meal for three into a meal for ten! And you can’t undo it once it’s done. Well, you can tell yourself you’ll save it for later. For hamburgers or lunches or something. You can’t do it with stew, though. I can try and follow a recipe exactly, but no matter how I try, it never really seems to taste right. Why is that? Huh?! Now I’m losing!

i get the impression that utena did something stupid like saying that whoever won the game would get to choose what they did next

So, back to the recap again. Ruka wanted to “free” Juri from Shiori, but he attempted to do so by breaking her heart. And it’s not even clear if he was “successful”! Sometimes, freedom is much scarier than loneliness. It might take a miracle for Juri to stop loving Shiori, but I don’t think she’s gotten one yet.

but we’re done with recaps now

Akio: Miracles happen every day. We just don’t notice them.

and now we get to the point

Utena: Listen. Today was…I can’t believe we played around till this late. I have to make lunch for tomorrow as soon as we get back. […] You see, usually, I just whip something up with the dinner leftovers. There’s two servings for Himemiya and me…oh, great…What’ll I do? I can’t think of anything else…

Once again, this is exactly what it looks like. Akio is RAPING Utena. She’s one of his students, someone he should be looking out for if he was a decent human being, but instead he groomed and assaulted her.

Utena: Hey, what do you think I should make? Maybe a sandwich? […] We left all the food out, too. I hope it’s still good to eat. We…we always put it away in the refrigerator…today…tell me…what is eternity?

because akio drove her to secondary location where she would be completely in his power

And since I want to write about anything else than the horror on display, this is as good a time as any to bring up racism.

Significantly, the show never fully displays Utena’s white (or at least white-coded) body like they do with Anthy. This is about as much as we see of that. I think, like with the conception of the name “Othello”, it’s unintentional racism, but the fact remains that the creators felt less concern about displaying a brown body than a white one. I’ve heard of some Black women who can’t stand seeing how Anthy is abused, and others who love the show for its message of queer revolution. Of course, I took the positive message from it, but I understand why others would be turned off by it (hence why I included it with the trigger warnings in the first post).

And finally, we get back to the opening phone call.

Akio: Anthy?

Anthy: Yes?

Akio: What are you doing?

Anthy: I was looking at the stars.

Akio: It’s a beautiful, starry night tonight. There’s no reason to be in the planetarium.

Anthy: I didn’t want to look at the real ones. Did you get tonight’s roses?

Akio: Yes, I got them. Well done.

Perhaps Anthy wanted to control her environment as much as she could, even if she can’t control much else. Or maybe staring at the same sky as Utena tonight would be unbearable.

Akio: The stars tonight were beautiful, weren’t they?

Utena: (internally) I never expected we’d end up doing what we did. All I came to do today was deliver roses…

until next time