Forum - View topic

Daily Cosplay: Revolutionary Girl Utena's Anthy, Utena

inb4, would look a lot better without the heavy makeup, which isn't really needed anyway,

- Pips

It's a shame the lighting is so bad in the photograph. The girls are lovely and you can tell they put a lot of heart into their costumes. Even with the crummy lights they look good.

Pippin4242 wrote:

inb4, would look a lot better without the heavy makeup, which isn't really needed anyway, - Pips

More like, Are they Lesbians? Y'know, for "accuracy."

It's a shame the lighting is so bad in the photograph.

ya know maybe I'm just thick but I never once got from the anime that the two were lesbians. I kept waiting and waiting for the moment and in my eyes it just never came

What rocks about Utena is sex didn't matter, and it's getting kind of sad that it's now picked up the label of "that lesbian anime" among people who don't really know the show, or people who just downright don't understand female relationships with other females.

it's getting kind of sad that it's now picked up the label of "that lesbian anime" among people who don't really know the show, or people who just downright don't understand female relationships with other females.

[Ikuhara's Remarks]
[Manga Artist Saito Chiho's Remarks]
[Moderator's Remarks]

-----

"This series is very popular among people who are gay. What's your opinion towards that?"

"Gay people all over the world like this series."
"Really? You want to say that so definitively?"
"I mean when I say around the world..."
"It's true that there're various types of couple pairings, but you can also say that there aren't any really. I guess there are many different ways to read between the lines."
"This series is the only series of its kind. Hm, how do I explain what I'm trying to say? There're tons of anime with [homosexual] eroticism, but...I'm pretty sure there isn't another anime that tells the story of two girls so innocently. In that respect I think it's popular because this is the only one that does that."

"Was that your intention from the beginning?"

"Yes. I didn't tell Ms. Saito but I was planning on it."
"Initially I wasn't told anything about that. He asked me to draw something where the two were close, so I drew a piece where the two were next to each other looking rather friendly. He was extremely happy. I had no idea in the beginning what he was thinking but...I figured it out at the end that his goal was to make me draw the two girls looking friendly."
"In the beginning, I brought it up lightheartedly during a meeting...she got really angry and said, 'If that's the case, I'm out!' I realized it was something I wasn't supposed to say and I decided to keep it to myself."
"No, that wasn't it. If I recall correctly... We started a debate about how we should make it more entertaining for girls. We were on a workshop trip and the debate turned into a fight. Mr. Ikuhara wouldn't give any consideration about enjoyment for girls. As a professional manga artist, I couldn't offer such a joyless story to the target audience. We had this huge clash of opinions, which created a lot of friction between us."
"When that happened, the entire Utena project was almost scrapped. It was such a big fight, the entire project was in jeopardy. It was such a painful fight I got carried into the hospital the day after."

[Long digression about not getting any work done during the workshop trip.]

"...That's because Ms. Saito vetoed my idea from the get-go about Anthy and Utena being lovey-dovey. I was too shocked to do work. She said, 'I quit if you're taking that route!' I figured I'd have to hide it from her because I was gonna do it anyway."
"Really? You decided that after such an internal struggle?"
"It was such a struggle."