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EP. REVIEW: Revolutionary Girl Utena

Lol, I guess we can apply the "Artistic Age" trope to these series.

Basically "We need these characters this age for the story but we need to draw them looking older because of certain.....situations they have to go through".

So I guess not all of the characters are in the 13-15 range (though I don't know if this is what the English versions other than the one by Enoki Films actually imply).

As far as Utena goes, though, I'm not entirely sure about how much I'm bothered by the fact that the characters don't look like middle schoolers... probably because most of the time I forget that they aren't high schoolers.

Count me in as one of those who the show spoke to as an adolescent. Though for me it was more about the gender norms. It was so frustrating (and still is) to see how everyone tried to make Utena into less of a female simply because she chose to do some things that were typically more associated with males. Our society has gotten better since I first watched the show but there's still so much of this that is applicable.

from what I know of cultural definitions of self expression, does Ikuhara even know what "bears" are? Or that bears even have a meaning more than "large omnivorous mammals" or is it just one of those odd coincidences?

Ikuhara isn't pro expression of personal sexuality identity, he's just pro lesbian. To create that point as well as show why it's "the right one", he's stacked this world in favor of what he sees as desirable... I'm amazed how penguindrum escaped this as spoiler[as both lead romance couples were entirely hetero... except for the fact that both guys were removed from the picture and the two women started living together...] so...it didn't?

So, yeah, I guess that's it. I don't have a problem with pretentiousness but I do have a problem with stories where people can say "this is what I see and this how this work supports it" while ignoring the fact that Ikuhara and the work is a little biased against one sex? It's not even being subtle about it either

It's not actually progressive, it's just another form of sexism.

This is exactly how I feel about Ikuhara and he bugs the hell out of me. lol I'd love to walk up to him and ask him "Dude, why do you hate your own gender anyway? What is your problem!?"

I feel you are somewhat missing the point, if perhaps with good intentions. Utena is not a "multi-gendered character", at least not in terms of identification; she identifies strongly and clearly as female multiple times throughout the show. If you are perceiving her as a multi-gendered character in terms of presentation, then I'm afraid you are falling into a common trap, one of your own making. However, as will be made extremely plain later in the series, the show set up this version of the trap purposefully, to catch you doing it - and to have you catch yourself doing it.

One of the strongest points the show is seeking to make, as Ikuhara has expounded on repeatedly in the various interviews and commentaries, is that the supposedly "masculine" positive aspects you mention - a love of sports and activity, a strong sense of justice, the sense of self-confidence that enables her to enter into direct confrontations with what she sees as wrong - these and other attributes are just as innate to, and just as much within the purview of, women.

This role of action and competence, which the show condenses into the archetype of the Prince, is contrasted with the just-as-stereotypical role of the Princess, which is a role of passivity, inaction, and helplessness. However, the show takes great pains to advance an assertion that both of these roles, and others, fall within the potential of women as complete human beings that embody - both inwardly in themselves and in outward representation to others - the full spectrum of everything it means to be human.

This is the true meaning of the franchise's promulgation of a "female Prince". It is not a male role, but a human one. It is not "discarding femininity", it is expanding its definition beyond the stereotypical ideas of what that term, that state of being, is often taken to mean.

Utena appears to be appropriating aspects that the show itself describes as masculine.

If the show later says "actually, we were just kidding, that wasn't masculine, it's something else" then I'll comment on that when it comes.

It seems strange to me to say that the show is setting "traps" for the audience. But I'm mainly commenting on the fact that the show portrays Utena's ideal as a prince who is specifically male. The gender of that prince is made clear in Utena's dream sequences and othe mentions. It's also made clear that she is dressing "like the boys," not "like a prince." Perhaps some of this is dealt with later on, but the point I was making is that it is fair to criticize the show thus far because male characters thus far have been depicted very poorly (aside from the prince in Utena's dream) and at the same time, Utena appears to be appropriatingoing aspects that the show itself describes as masculine. If the show later says "actually, we were just kidding, that wasn't masculine, it's something else" then I'll comment on that when it comes.

Except he doesn't hate his gender

Could have fooled me; in everything he has directed, the male characters are either a-holes or they are given crappy endings or crappy writing?