One of the most significant shoujo series in anime and manga history celebrates its 20th anniversary this year – Revolutionary Girl Utena. The series was one of the first, and became easily the most popular, to look at stereotypical gender roles in fairy tales and turn them upside down; it remains a popular series to this day.
Revolutionary Girl Utena focuses on Utena Tenjou, a young girl who aspires to become a prince. As a child, following the deaths of her parents, she met a prince who wiped away her tears and gave her a ring with a rose crest on it. She was told that someday, the ring would lead her back to him – and she was so impressed by her demeanor that she decided to follow in his path of nobility. Utena arrives at Ohtori Academy, where her princely charm makes her popular among both the male and female students on campus.
Soon, Utena finds herself entwined in the school’s secret “dueling game,” in which members of the student council duel each other for the right to possess the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemiya. After accidentally challenging the current victor, Utena defeats him in battle and becomes “engaged” to Anthy. It’s said that Anthy, as the Rose Bride, contains the power to “revolutionize the world,” and thus Utena must duel the other student council members throughout the story in order to protect Anthy. By the end of the series, she begins to learn what it truly means to be a “prince,” what it means to be true to Anthy, and who the prince from her childhood really is.
The series ran from April 2, 1997, through December 24 of that year for 39 episodes. Running somewhat concurrently with the series was the original manga by Chiho Saito, which began in 1996. Though the manga and anime series have the same characters and basic plot, the details are significantly different. Also interesting to note is that Utena’s color scheme in the manga was light and girly – blonde hair with a pink uniform – while her television appearance was much bolder, with her pink hair and black uniform. The look of the manga changed over its course to more closely match the television series. A movie, Adolescence of Utena, was released in 1999 and told yet another different version of the same tale. Three all-female stage shows were also produced in Japan, again somewhat retelling the basic story in a new way.
Revolutionary Girl Utena won animation awards in Japan when it aired, and its impact on both Japanese and Western animation is still felt today. The series’ director, Kunihiko Ikuhara, has referenced the show in his other works, Mawaru Penguindrum and Yurikuma Arashi. Contemporary western cartoons have also referenced the show, including Steven Universe, which did shot-for-shot recreations of some of Utena’s duels in the episode “Steven the Swordfighter.” Despite airing in a time where animation budgets were thin and other, massively popular shows could have easily overshadowed it, it’s clear that Revolutionary Girl Utena has continued to revolutionize the world of animation.
