Forum - View topicREVIEW: Revolutionary Girl Utena Blu Ray Part 1
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Otaku-sempai
 Posts: 120 Location: Lackawanna, NY |
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Eighth grade? I don't think that ever really registered with me until now. So, Utena and Anthy are supposed to be, what, 13 or 14 years old? Somehow that seems off; or maybe that's just me.
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Animechic420
 Posts: 1727 Location: A Cave Filled With Riches |
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Revolutionary Girl Utena never felt like a shoujo ai to me. Probably because Utena was after her prince and Anthy just acted as some girl that needed saving. I don't know.
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1747 |
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I never really felt that this series was a classic. I always felt like Ikuhara wanted to see how far he could push the envelope, and thus made Utena's sexuality more into what, for most of the series, it really was. There were other contemporary series, such as Sailor Moon, that I thought handled the theme better. Haruka/Michiru seemed far more believable to me.
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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14, yes. And yeah, that's intended to be off-putting, especially when combined with other aspects later on in the story. |
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1323 |
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I too would have thought the characters were college students just by looking at them. But since this series sometimes ties in with themes of stage plays, maybe the characters were intentionally designed like 20-year-olds playing middle-schoolers? That's just my personal speculation.
The dub for the series may not have aged well, but the dub for the movie actually has, which is ironic since it's the same cast. They succeeded making it beautifully atmospheric, I don't remember the last time I watched the movie in Japanese. |
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Zeino
Posts: 1098 |
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I personally am going to bid my time for a bit longer and save up to get the ultra deluxe collector edition come December.
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1742 |
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I've heard nothing but good things about Utena over the years, but I've never really had a chance to buy it. Guess that changes now.
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whiskeyii
Posts: 2245 |
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Ditto! I'm hoping it comes with the same commentaries that were in the DVD collection; I feel like those really add a lot to my viewing experience. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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I am very glad to hear that the show looks better than ever on BD. I was going to buy the collector's edition box set, but I did not in the end because spreading the series over 9 discs, instead of 5 or 6 discs, really bothers me, and I already own Nozomi's LE DVD sets. I am buying the regular BD sets though.
I regard Revolutionary Girl Utena as a classic and the best anime series ever made. It should be watched at least once by all anime fans. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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I just watched Utena for the first time this past summer, and it absolutely blew me away. It's probably the most thematically rich show I've ever seen, with incredibly complex characters and mountains of visual flair. In a way I'm glad I saw Penguindrum before it, since I was already generally familiar with many of Ikuhara's quirks and stylistic choices going in, but it still frequently left me astonished. I kept waffling on buying the DVD sets, but I'm glad I held off long enough to go straight to the Blu-rays. I even sprung for the collectors' edition set, which I literally never do, because this is one show above all others that absolutely requires those fantastic creators' commentaries.
As far as language preference, I just about always go for English audio when available (unless it's actively terrible), but I had to go with Japanese here. I love Crispin Freeman dearly, but much of the rest of the cast seemed very stilted, and I couldn't get past the fact that Anthy's actress couldn't even manage to pronounce the main character's name correctly. I'm usually willing to overlook some issues, but Utena is a series that really demands nuanced performances. Maybe even above all that was the audio quality: the Japanese audio track received a fantastic remastered 5.1 mix, with elements like the iconic ringing bells going from an echoey muffled sound to legitimate gongs. Compared to that, a 20-year-old 192kbps stereo mix just can't hold up. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
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I found Revolutionary Girl Utena to be watchable but extremely confusing. It is certainly not for everyone. Unless you have a fondness for weirdness or enjoy heavy duty oblique symbolism it is probably going to come across as simply chaotic.
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3186 |
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I need to buy this.
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omiya
 Posts: 1826 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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Seeing the video of this performance of Rinbu Revolution made me visit Japan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTkMJ5-ITqg |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1817 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Ah, that reminds me of my Masami Okui Yuri Theory: Any anime with a Masami Okui theme song will have yuri or at the very least yuri fodder. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Utena is one of my all-time favorite anime, but I don't re-watch my DVD LEs often enough to justify picking up the Bluray LEs. There's nothing wrong with Nozomi's DVD release, and while I'm sure the Blurays look and sound better, I've never really felt like Utena needed to look or sound better than it does on DVD.
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