#ikuhara kunihiko

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

thinking about rgu's assertion that it's a complete misunderstanding to think that touga doesn't care about nanami and saionji. he does care about them. he cares about them so much that he, someone who does not believe in sincerity or trust, is willing to emotionally beat down, manipulate, and abuse them to keep them close to him, to keep them on a short leash and that leash in his hand. because he absolutely cannot bear the thought that they can live without him.

#it understands the dynamics of abuse so well #not just in these three ofc in so many of the relationships #kiryuu touga #touga kiryuu #touga rgu #rgu touga #kiryuu nanami #nanami kiryuu #nanami rgu #rgu nanami #saionji kyouichi #kyouichi saionji #saionji rgu #rgu saionji #rgu tag #revolutionary girl utena #shoujo kakumei utena #saito chiho #ikuhara kunihiko

[cafeleningrad]

As I discovered Ikuni's filmography through Utena first, I do think that both shows compliment each other thematically. Utena would be incomplete without talking about abuse, and in a certain way how people react to it, in a patriarchal system. Penguindrum does feature many elements of gendered responses to violence, demeanure of the self, repression, and loss. (Especially visible in the difference between Kanba and Himari but also Masako's overcompensation and emmulating behaviour.) Masako herself has such a strong semblance visually to Arisugawa Juri, and undergoes an Utena discussion in speedrun time, I do think the parallel with Masako was quiet deliberate. The biggest parallel to me is how in both stories the heroine is a pink haired girl who unquestionably champions "childish" and "naive" ideal of love and friendship to pull out her friends out of abusive situations, and doubles down in support and optimism knowing how bad and terrible the world can be but still shutting onself off from the world is never the answer. Even when she's gone she haunts the story with how significant her connection and kindness was. She was still just a kid, she was so brave, so sincere, and that kindness was a highly formative experience for those around her. Ah, and her antagonist is a (colour symbolism faded colours) distorted mirror image of hers.

#note: Penguindrum is a work standing on it's own but I like parallels. #Ikuhara Kunihiko #Mawaru Penguindrum #Revolutionary Girl Utena #the queue broke free

[morallygay]

Look.

2011: mawaru penguindrum

2015: yurikuma arashi

2019: sarazanmai

If this pattern keeps holding, I am hoping for an eventual next one this year (2023) or maybe the next (2024)

#i am constantly in the background of my mind anticipating the next ikuhara kunihiko anime #kunihiko ikuhara #ikuhara kunihiko #revolutionary girl utena #mawaru penguindrum #yurikuma arashi #sarazanmai #animanga #moralgayness

[engshoujosei]

Revolutionary Girl Utena

5 singles, 2 in the boxset? (the box set includes The Adolescence of Utena)

Licensed by Viz Media

After young Utena's parents die, she wanders the streets. Just as she's about to drown herself, a prince comes to her rescue, telling her she must grow up to be a brave noblewoman. From that day on, she strives to become not a princess but a prince. Years later, she receives a mysterious rose-crested ring in the mail. Will she meet the prince again? 

Related Series

Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescence Mokushiroku (Alternate Story, licensed by Viz and included in the Utena boxset) Shoujo Kakume Utena: After The Revolution (Sequel, licensed by Viz)

Status in Country of Origin

5 Volumes (Complete) 6 Volumes - New Edition (Complete) 3 Volumes (Bunkoban)

Tags:

Based on an Anime

Cross-dressing

Dormitory/ies

Duels

Feminism

Fencing

GL Subtext

Incest

Out of Print in English

Philosophical

Prestigious School

Prince/s

Strong Female Lead

Student Council

Surrealism

Swordplay

Tomboy/s

Tournament/s

#Revolutionary Girl Utena #utena #rgu #Shoujo Kakumei Utena #drama #fantasy #romance #school life #shoujo #lgbtq characters #completed #viz media #SAITOU Chiho #IKUHARA Kunihiko #be-papas #manga #ciao #Shogakukan #1996 #1990s #gl

[keeponly1luv]

#Sarazanmai #Ikuhara Kunihiko #MiGii #Utsumi Teruko #manga #merchandise

[maggiecheungs]

REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA 🌹 EP 37: THE ONE TO REVOLUTIONISE THE WORLD

#utena #revolutionary girl utena #kunihiko ikuhara #animeedit #oldanimeedit #anthy himemiya #utena tenjou #utena x anthy #shoujo kakumei utena #anime #sku #rgu #utenaedit #utenagifs #ellisgifs #rgu rewatch #:(((((((( #queue

[roseillith]

ADOLESCENCE OF UTENA (1999) dir. KUNIHIKO IKUHARA

#f #a #adolescence of utena #kunihiko ikuhara #anthy himemiya #utena tenjou #my unwhitewashed anthy kinda ate

[thefloatingstone]

A true visionary

#Revolutionary Girl Utena #Utena #SKU #kunihiko ikuhara #I cannot stress enough I did not edit this

[53v3nfrn5]

少女革命ウテナ (1997)

#revolutionary girl utena #utena #kunihiko ikuhara #1997 #rose #lovecore #roses #rosecore #gothcore #animecore #manga #mangacore #manga gif #anime gif set #rose aesthetic #floral aesthetic #90s #90s anime #retro anime #retro manga #flowercore #flowers #florals #aesthetic #childhood #art #flora #dreamcore

[andycasadonte]

“People find it hard to doubt those they’ve fallen in love with. They can’t imagine they’re being used”

Utena

From 2018

#revolutionary girl utena #utena spoilers #utena tenjou #anthy himemiya #anthy rgu #rgu spoilers #shojo kakumei utena #sku spoilers #kunihiko ikuhara #Ikuhara #fanart #cw impalement

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

akio and the coffin

it’s fascinating how akio both literally IS the coffin of ohtori academy and, simultaneously, is trapped by it. ohtori academy is in many ways a manifestation of the ugly side of adolescence, of clinging on to something in your past and refusing to move forward in your life. every character has something they continue to hold on to despite the fact that they ought to let it go for the sake of growing and maturing. for example, saionji has his inferiority complex regarding touga, his refusal to let go of the simplicity of their childhood together when he felt that they stood on the same ground, and that touga saw him as an equal. everything he does in the series is an attempt to make himself feel as though he is finally on equal grounds with touga. if he would only stop tying his self-image to the perception that touga is somehow above him, that touga looks down on him, then he would be able to let go of that sense of inferiority and move on. but he can’t. juri refuses to let go of the pain she feels regarding her past with shiori, and continues to see shiori as someone who is “innocent”, albeit cruelly - someone who is unknowing of the pain she causes juri through her actions when in fact, shiori in seducing the boy she thought juri loved was deliberately acting to hurt her. if juri would only realize and accept the true intentions behind shiori’s behavior, then she could get one step closer to understanding shiori, to being understood by her, and moving past the pain of shiori’s betrayal. but she can’t. 

most of the characters, except utena and anthy of course, remain in ohtori by the end of the show. while they’ve all made progress in “maturing” thanks to the events they experienced throughout the series - both saionji and touga’s as well as juri and shiori’s relationships have gotten visibly better, as shown in the final medley of scenes - they still have more growing to do, hence why they remain in ohtori academy until their time comes. one day, the show suggests, they might also revolutionize their own worlds - their own selves - and finally leave the coffin of ohtori behind as well. 

so where does that leave akio? i think he can be said to literally be the coffin of ohtori in that he is explicitly shown to try to manipulate others into remaining stagnant, to clinging on to whatever toxic things they are struggling to process and come to terms with, though this is of course only shown via the characters he most directly interacts with. naturally it comes across most clearly with anthy, although i think utena and to a less direct extent, touga, are the other two people who are the most straightforwardly influenced by him. when it comes to anthy, she clings to her love for the person her brother used to be, the older brother who, at least as she perceived, was kind and caring and wanted to protect people. to protect that older brother, she willingly took on the hatred of the world, and continues to endure the pain of it to this day for what is implied to be centuries. but akio has shown time and time again, through the repeating dueling cycles, that if he was ever kindhearted and genuinely caring, those parts of him are gone now. i do believe he cares about anthy to an extent even now, but whatever affection he has for her is paltry in comparison to his desire to reclaim his power as prince dios. it’s for that purpose that he set up the entire dueling system, for which he freely allows duelists to treat anthy like a prize and an object. and additionally, because anthy is so integral to the power he has now in ohtori, he uses emotional, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse to keep her tied to him. he’s willing to not just let her wellbeing come last, but puts it at the bottom of the list of priorities, and actively tears it down himself for his own benefit. anthy knows all this - but because she still holds onto that love that she had for who he used to be, she stays with him and does his bidding. and that’s what akio wants. he is the coffin, wishing to keep people in their states of despair, conflict, and pain, therefore ensuring that they are compliant and vulnerable to his manipulation. 

at the same time, akio is trapped by the coffin like everyone else. he, like all the other characters, has something that he ought to move on from for his own sake as well as the sake of the people around him: his goal to reclaim his powers as prince dios. akio has failed in this goal every single dueling cycle that happened before the show’s events, and as displayed in the final episode, he definitively fails the one that takes place during the show as well. he can attempt the cycle over and over and over again, redo and tweak and modify the dueling system however many times and in whatever ways he wants - it’s all useless. there is no sword that can break open the rose gate. there is no way to reclaim his powers. they’re gone, that part of his life is over, and if he accepted that fact, it would allow him to move on and heal from what he experienced. but he can’t. at the very end of the series, right before anthy leaves ohtori for good, he’s typing away just as diligently as he ever did and, completely oblivious, tells anthy that he’s rewriting the rules of the rose crest, that he’ll be counting on her again. and i didn’t pick up on this until rewatching the episode, but it really just hits you then how utterly stupid he looks, working so hard and speaking so confidently about the upcoming dueling cycles as if any of them are ever going to matter in the slightest. i love anthy’s response to him too; i love the subtle but at the same time so blatant scorn in her words: “you really don’t know what’s happened, do you?” because once again, throughout all this, akio has learned nothing. he hasn’t realized it’s useless, what he’s trying to do; he hasn’t realized all the effort and pain and anguish he’ll cause in people for yet another dueling cycle will never make any difference. he is unable to come to terms with the reality that he will never have his powers as prince dios back. he refuses to move on. 

akio is the coffin of ohtori, wanting to keep others in stagnation and regret. he’s also trapped by the coffin, incapable of maturing past his own stagnation and regret. and it really, really says something that all of the other major characters of the show, who have been in ohtori for far shorter a time than he has, have been able to make visible strides in their growth. anthy, who is the only one comparable to akio in terms of duration at ohtori, revolutionizes her world and leaves. meanwhile akio, as deluded and self-unaware as he is, hasn’t made a single step of progress in all this time. the only thing he does is call in bewildered desperation after anthy as she finally leaves him behind, still totally clueless as to what has happened. 

tldr; i once saw an author say one of her characters represents inertia, in fact he is inertia. i think that’s a spot-on explanation of akio, at least in terms of what he symbolizes in the story. i want to beat him in the dick with a cactus

#revolutionary girl utena #rgu meta #shoujo kakumei utena #saito chiho #chiho saito #ikuhara kunihiko #kunihiko ikuhara #akio ohtori #ohtori akio #akio rgu #rgu akio #anthy himemiya #himemiya anthy #anthy rgu #rgu anthy #touga kiryuu #kiryuu touga #touga rgu #rgu touga #kyouichi saionji #saionji kyouichi #saionji rgu #rgu saionji #juri arisugawa #arisugawa juri #shiori takatsuki #takatsuki shiori #juri rgu #rgu juri #utena

[5-pp-man]

#havent seen half of these yet but am very much planning to do so #kunihiko ikuhara #ikuhara #mawaru penguindrum #penguindrum #sarazanmai #utena #revolutionary girl utena #yurikuma arashi #yuri kuma arashi #tedpost #tedit #ok thats the last of these

[emilylovescookies]

utena and anthy!

#my art #fanart #revolutionary girl utena #utena tenjou #utena #anthy himemiya #anthy #ikuhara #kunihiko ikuhara #utena fanart #lineless #lineless art #emily loves cookies #procreate #magical girl #mahou shoujo

[engshoujosei]

Revolutionary Girl Utena: After The Revolution

1 volume

Licensed by Viz Media

Three short stories set after Utena’s revolution.

Utena has saved Anthy by defeating Akio in the final duel, but in doing so she has vanished from the world. Now the student council members at Ohtori Academy find themselves in their own revolutions.

Related Series 

Revolutionary Girl Utena (Prequel, licensed by Viz)

Status in Country of Origin

1 Volume (Complete)

#Revolutionary Girl Utena: After The Revolution #utena #rgu #Shoujo Kakume Utena: After The Revolution #drama #fantasy #josei #manga #mystery #psychological #romance #gl #completed #viz media #shojo beat #SAITOU Chiho #IKUHARA Kunihiko #be-papas #flowers #Shogakukan #2017 #2010s #lgbtq characters

[yarrayora]

"my favorite ikuhara's work has a plot point where the character is erased from reality as if they never existed in the first place" that can be any of his works

#kunihiko ikuhara #ikuhara kunihiko

[ubyr-babaj]

Another thing I really loved about RGU is how it deconstructs Anthy's cynicism without calling her unreasonable for holding these beliefs. Anthy lives in an objectively different world from Utena. This world IS cruel, this world IS uncaring, the only value Anthy has in it is her passivity and sexual availability to the people in power, the only stability she's allowed is the safety of her martyrdom. Anthy has every reason not to leave her coffin because the world she knows hated her into becoming the Rose Bride.

#revolutionary girl utena #anthy himemiya #kunihiko ikuhara