Questions about Adolescence of Utena
Hello, back again with some more questions after finishing Adolescence of Utena, which left me with even more questions haha. Would appreciate if anyone can explain in great detail to my questions, regardless of whether you believe it is a sequel or just an alternate take (I welcome all perspectives and answers).
- so the biggest thing that confuses me is Touga. Why is Touga in the position of the drowned boy from Jury’s story from the TV series? Why is he Utena’s ex-boyfriend and prince? What does this say about the patriarchal themes, for Utena to say to Touga he really is her prince? Touga in the movie’s backstory still was a two-timer and this is a story about deconstructing the concept of princes (“Killing the Prince” as some say), that they don’t exist, yet in this case, a prince did exist for Utena, he just died.
- Relates to the first question, but why is Touga dead in this world? Why is Akio dead from the start? Utena says in the end “together we killed the prince”, does she mean metaphorically? Also, what does the movie want to say about Dios? Dios appears briefly when Utena duels Juri, but beyond that, isn’t seen or acknowledged again.
From the sequel interpretation, I’ve seen some people say “Touga is too far gone, he was just like Akio, so he’s dead”, but why is he dead? And personally, I don’t think Touga was at all far gone from the TV series, he began to respect Utena for her values and he ultimately didn't follow in Akio’s example, yet he was deprived of a conclusion that the other characters received in graduating from the academy? Even Saionji, who was worse off, graduates. I’ve seen another interpretation say, “Touga does the first noble thing in his life and dies for Utena with a pure heart, truly becoming her prince”, but why does he need to do that.
on the Touga dead topic (as you can see I’m very confused), how did Shiori see him? I figured it was cuz she was knowledgable of his drowning just as Juri also knew his name, compared to Miki who didn’t. But I’ve seen some people say Shiori is also dead, yet that doesn’t really make sense to me?
Can someone break down Touga’s psychology to me with context to his backstory revealed in the movie? Afaik, though the movie is an alternate take, the backstory is canon to the TV series and lead to the formation of his current character. So would someone explain to me why being SA’d as a child by his adoptive father made him such a womanizer? Yet at the same time, how do women truly feel to him, if he envisioned Shiori as a moth preying on him?
What do the moths/butterflies symbolize in this film? As well as the Shiori bed sheets sequence? And most of all, what does the straw dolls with all the students uniforms at the very end of the movie mean?
How do you all view this world within the movie? I’ve seen people say it’s just purely an alternate reality without any bearing to the tv series but represented psydelicalluk a different reality Utena from the TV series walks into with Anthy following her and all the characters are different (and that the world is made of Utena’s memories), I’ve seen people say the characters are the same people from the TV series, I’ve seen people say it’s Anthy’s bubble world, I’ve seen interpretations that it’s some dreamlike world.
- this is an overarching question about the series, but how do you view the series in terms of coming of age stories? What does it mean to suggest about Utena and Anthy as opposed to those in the academy and what Akio represents? Do you think the series is hopeful and idealistic about dreams or is it just an illusion like Akio’s projector?