Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Adolescence of Utena (1999)

I recently re-watched this movie, having first watched the entire series + the movie 10 years ago. Revolutionary Girl Utena is truly one of a kind. The series is sweet, funny, fierce and surprisingly deep. Every character is conflicted and flawed and struggling to overcome their "demons," the things that scare each character and hold them back from becoming confident, fully-fledged adults. In the series, every character gets their turn to "shine" and then, in turn, to confront their "darkness." Revolutionary Girl Utena will probably go down in history as one of the queerest --if not *the queerest*-- anime out there... with just about every main character having some underlying relationship that's gay, just plain complicated ... or involves a problem/hang-up over the love of a sibling. Pretty daring for early 1990s. Everyone has a dark, not-so-veiled secret... and you love them all both in spite of -- and because of it -- anyway! The movie compresses what was 39 episodes in TV into 90-odd minutes... and so it necessarily takes shortcuts. Think of the movie as the more overt companion piece to the TV show. Dynamics that were more subtext in the TV show become main-text here. And at the same time, the movie revels in abstraction... with stories that were more drawn out and linear in the TV show being reduced to something more symbolic here. The show's rose-heavy Louis XIV France design, insistent, Gothic music and the shadow-puppet Greek Chorus are perhaps never so lovely (and cohesively) powerful as they are here in the movie. The Utena movie is a love letter to those who fan-girl/boy the original series, for sure. And there's plenty for someone new to the Utena world who's willing to hold its wounded and aching heart till it finds its noble reason for being.... and just go with it.

This movie is definitely not for people who enjoy a good plot - the story is very dream-like in that it presents a lot of changing images and scenes that are only loosely related. While the allusions become more clear once one has watched the series, the plot is still mostly absent. While it turned me off at first, but the movie has since grown on me now that I watch it more as a work of art or dream than a traditional movie.With that out of the way, the film is absolutely beautifully to watch. It is more of an experience than a film, the idea is to present images with music and dialogue for the purpose of creating feelings and thoughts within a viewer, such as an expressionist painting would, rather than a more direct plot-driven movie format.I recommend this movie to anyone who likes anime, especially the related series, but warn anyone who ventures into the world of the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie to resist trying to make sense of the plot.

A complete retelling of the original series, Adolesence of Utena is stunning in every aspect. The first time I watched it, I really did start crying. I -LOVED- the way they changed the character design for most of the characters. Espetially Juri's long hair, and Anthy without the glasses!^^yay! Akio actually seemed a lot more sexy in his David Bowie-esque look then he did in the anime. I really like Utena's new uniforms, too.^^; X.x;;I'm not a big fan of her hair getting all long and wavy when she draws the Sword of Dios from Anshii, though.x.x;One major problem I had with the movie was the fact that Nanami was hardly even IN the movie!!>.>Just that stuupid Scandalous Tape thingy...Anyways..^^Go and buy this movie!O.o;; I gave it 10/10.

In an alternate universe retelling of the Shoujo Kakumei Utena story, this movie blows the already great TV series out of the water. Tenjou Utena is new to Ohtori Academy, having recently broken up with Kiryuu Touga. Upon arriving, she sees him again, and meets Himemiya Anthy, also known as the Rose Bride. Utena is forced into a duel with Saionji Kyouichi for the possession of the Rose Bride. She is bewildered by the events taking place in the academy, but starts to figure out what life is all about and where it doesn't happen. The plot is fresh while still holding on to certain elements of the original storyline from the TV series. The characters, while many have done 180s with their personalities, are still as captivating as ever. The music, supplied once again by the wonderful J.A Seaser, is just as good as anything in the TV series, if not better. Finally, the animation is more beautiful than words can describe. If nothing else, watch this movie for the animation. Many people, Utena fans and not, don't give this movie a fair shake, claiming a number of things they don't like about it which were exactly what they liked about the TV series. Though it is much easier to understand the movie if you've seen the series in full, the movie is still a masterpiece to behold in any right.