What's all the hype about this Utena show? Is it a meme? I watched the first episode and sucked, will it get any better?

What's all the hype about this Utena show? Is it a meme? I watched the first episode and sucked, will it get any better?

This is all coming from a guy who loved Rose of Versailles, by the way.

yes

yes

You don't give two shits about sexual liberation. Which is a theme of Utena.

yes

Consider that you might just have shit taste.

Ahh Utena, one of the great ways to find out if someone is a pleb or not.

this show is phenomenal and if you dont like it because it doesnt make sense or calling it pretentious you can objectively call someone an pleb

since its a show that heavily uses symbolism and a few other parrel narrative techniques that force the viewer to think for themselves

nigger the camera flashes in utena mean sex

>This is all coming from a guy who loved Rose of Versailles, by the way.

Irrelevant.

It's Stallman's favorite show.

Your point? There's nothing gay about two men having sex with each other.

Just making sure you knew senpai
Also you need some new images, gifs at 154p aren't doing it in current year

everything in Utena means sex
Except the duels

>except the duels

I like Ikuhara's other stuff, never got into Utena though.

I respect it, but I don't like it.

More like everything in Utena means sex, except the sex.

>I like his lesser shows but not his one masterpiece

I guess there's always one.

To be honest, the series doesn't make anything special until the second arc. The first arc is pretty conventional but necessary for the development of the characters in the following episodes.

could someone tell me what the fuck everything meant

How? All of his other shit is mediocre compared the Utena
Penguindrum was a poorly written confusing mess, Yurikuma Arashi was just shit, and to be honest I've never rewatched sailor moon from seeing as a kid growing up

You have to think like Ikuhara, it's easy.

I don't know, user.
Though now that I think about it, it was nearly a decade since I watched, so maybe I need to sit down and revisit it properly.

It's a classic, I ain't changing shit.

>confusing mess
What confused you?

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First you're fucking retarded for judging a show based on the first episode alone, especially in the case of Utena because the first ep is not at all representative of the rest of the show.

Second, Utena is mostly "hyped" because of how incredibly influential it was, at the time nobody had ever seen anything quite like it before. It had a significant impact on an entire generation of the anime audience.

Third, the direction is genius. The way that it mixes in surrealism and the art nouveau aesthetic are inspired, especially on an obviously shoestring budget.

Fourth, the show is not actually that great, it's got weird pacing issues, the themes are garbled, and its more off-the-wall elements were obviously fueled by a desire to compete with NGE which was also going off the rails at the time, but if you actually watched the fucking show you'd know that it's impossible to experience it and not understand why it's still discussed.

Fifth, and last, Versailles wasn't even that good. Talk about overhyped.

Utena is totally worth a rewatch, its even better the second time around
>super serious series
>suddenly a funny episode with jokes about death
>character jokingly dies
>oh wait that was actually part of the story
Thats not to mention how little is actually explained about anything
I still have no clue what the fuck those penguins are
One other issue with penguindrum is that it never really differentiated symbolism and reality and just sorta haphazardly mixed it together
In utena you can tell whats symbolism and what isn't for the most part, in penguindrum I felt like I had no clue what was actually happening half the time

>the show is not actually that great
>Versailles wasn't even that good
Gotta disagree with you there.

autism
captcha: impasse impasse

>super serious series
How it was super serious? How SEIZON SENRYAKU is super serious? From the first episode it tells you that the series would be upbeat and fun on the surface but with a tragic story behind.

>I still have no clue what the fuck those penguins are
From storytelling, they express the thoughs and behaviors of the protagonists in a simpler way. In the story itself they are basically the link between Sanetoshi and the sons of his henchmen.

>One other issue with penguindrum is that it never really differentiated symbolism and reality and just sorta haphazardly mixed it together
Maybe you needed an episode where every simbols is pointed out like Utena did.

>In utena you can tell whats symbolism and what isn't for the most part
Not really.

You make a strong case.

I enjoyed Versailles, mostly because of the direction and because it told a decent story, plus a few details here and there, but the characters were so weak.

None of the leads had an arc, they got into different situations but never learned or grew or anything. This is best illustrated, of course, by the show itself. That other chick, the one whose mom died or something? And eventually Oscar takes her in and starts training her. SHE was a good character.

Now contrast her story with Oscar's, Oscar is the same exact person throughout, looks at problems the same exact way, makes decisions the same exact way, is the same amount of capable the entire time. She's boring. Same for main dude. It's kinda interesting when he loses his eye and eventually confesses his love and stuff, but at the end of the day these are just noble, honorable people, pure at heart and with enough of an understanding of the world around them to always make the right decisions. Almost by definition this means that they're not going to change throughout the show because they've got no growing left to do. They're boring, static characters just designed to look cool to the shoujo audience by being super idealized.

Add to this the fact that the story is largely on rails, the actual characters have very little actual agency in terms of the historical events, everything is almost entirely beyond their control when it comes to the politics and eventual revolution, and it just wasn't super engaging. I can understand why it was influential and important, and I think it did historical fiction pretty well, but it's not amazingly entertaining. It's not some incredible 10/10 masterpiece.

It's interesting from the start. Great cast and their intertwining relationships and interactions transcend age and gender boundaries

>utena with long nails
I have a hard time accepting this.

Sorry is people dying and terrorism not serious? Of course it had lighter tones throughout the series but to go from episodes where everything is generally pretty serious or realistic to a comedic episode that not only seems out of place but explains many major keypoints of the series is really stupid

Ok?

You mean that episode where theres a bunch of arrows on screen pointing to a bunch of random shit for no reason other then to fuck with you?

Uh yes? You could almost always tell in Utena when something was suppose to be more metaphorical and symbolical then an actual part of the story. Its obvious the shadowgirls aren't actually happening and its just symbolism. Penguindrum didn't have that, most of the time I wasn't sure if it was symbolical of something or not. Like that diary, doesn't really make sense in the characters world but its never really explain. Where souma and whatever really trapped in cages as a small children and had to eat an apple to survive?

Don't forget Nanami is best girl.

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Fanart

meme show, isn't good

I'm still pissed that this never happened.

As long as you feel the need to classify everything in the show into neat, disjoint "real" and "symbolic" categories, you'll be incapable of watching either Utena or Penguindrum properly.

Yeah, I was hoping for it but it never happened.

This, waited 40 fucking episodes for it and nothing. Not even non-flying horse duels. That's just dishonest.

really?

>Sorry is people dying and terrorism not serious
We just see that after half of the series and the series is pretty serious in the last episodes.

>but to go from episodes where everything is generally pretty serious or realistic to a comedic episode that not only seems out of place but explains many major keypoints of the series is really stupid
The series is about people trying to deny the tragic lifes they actually live. That's why everythiing seems part of a comedy even when it shouldn't be funny.

>Its obvious the shadowgirls aren't actually happening and its just symbolism
But it happened, it's stated in the last episode that they are real students

>Like that diary
The diary is basically The Biblie, Ringo's sister was the one with the powers because of herself, the book itself was just a a book. Momoka herself is a parallel of Jesus just like Sanetoshi is a parallel of the devil.

>Where souma and whatever really trapped in cages as a small children and had to eat an apple to survive?
No, that was metaphorical, at some point they met and they were lonely, Kanba found love from her sister and littler brother (the apple) but nobody loved Shouma, so Kanba shared his love with him and so they became friends.

Yes. I actually dropped Utena after the last episode because of that.

>watching BLACKED: the anime

Nope

>BLACKED

The fuck is that?

a Sup Forums - television and film meme

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Okay so it gets better? I might keep watching them. I like the main character cause she don't afraid of nothing, but the rose princess annoys me.

>versailles wasn't that good
Versailles was made 45 fucking years ago. It's got historical waifus, real politick and one of the best main characters I've seen in anime.

>Versailles is older then the moms' of people who can legally post here now

Oscar is boring, she has no arc. Literal Mary-Sue.

I'm in love with her though.

The thing with Utena is the more you watch it the more it changes and the better it gets. It's easily one of my favorite shows but I'm a total Ikuhara fag ans as far and I concerned he can do no wrong.

Well that's your prerogative.

>The Duels sex
>Not the other personal problems

Yes it could have happened. I think because of overt magic shit like this not happening a lot of people think none of the magic actually was real.

The best TV show of all time. The side cast of Utena is more fleshed out than the main characters in 99% of anime. The first episode can only be appreciated on a rewatch.