Mrs Ohtori has been living rent free in my head for over twenty years
SKU hits so much differently after the big Epstein-class reveal and the post-George Floyd world. Yeah Akio is still the bad guy within the story, but it's also too obvious now that he and Anthy were bought as children to be brought to a foreign land and tortured for the entertainment of the ultra-wealthy people who call the shots outside Ohtori.
Now when I see that last scene with Akio getting the next set of letters ready, that shock in his face when Anthy leaves isn't as much about his game being over, it's that he knows the rich and powerful are probably going to kill him off now that he's outlived his usefulness.
Another thing that stands out now is how Touga was supposed to be the sacrifice, but it became Utena, and what do they both have in common? Orphans. So the whole thing was set up in a way that the bloodline rich kids of the student council were never at risk.
How many orphans have those families had killed off to teach their kids the lesson of what happens to people who are not heartless and powerful? These rituals are presented as something that has been going on in the series for generations, and it's too close to reality. Akio is presented as an immortal from the perspective of the audience, but in all likelihood he's just one boy/man in a long succession of Himalayan kids the aristocrats outside SKU have been enslaving since practically forever.
It's all so messed up.
From the opening page of the old school webshrine that got me seeing the series along these lines:
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That's right. A shrine to a character that spends about a minute and a half on screen. In a show like Shoujo Kakumei Utena, it's hard to write off even the minor characters as insignificant, and you certainly can't do so with Mrs.Ohtori.
In her one brief scene, Mrs.Ohtori gives us a glimpse of the ugly adult world that surrounds Ohtori Academy; something we tend to forget exists in a series that centers around the teenagers in the school. Her character exemplifies sex at its absolute worst, turning her back on a sick husband and an unhappy daughter to seek out her adulterous affair with a younger man engaged to her own child. What you'll find here is my little site for a character with very little screen time and very little moral restraint. Continue on, and thank the heavens this isn't your mother, and that you aren't engaged to the man she pursues.