Akio was once a Prince but Anthy sealed that part away to keep him safe. He became... Akio. If Touga is manipulative, than Akio is the KING of manipulation. He loves no one (except, perhaps, Anthy) but he shags everyone. He is the person behind all the duels, but it appears that his means have replaced his end, which seems unimportant to him. The relationship he has with Anthy is a strange mixture of brother, victim, abuser, and pimp.

Utena is the idealist protagonist who longs to become a prince. A prince gave her a ring when she was young and told her that it would lead her to him. The ring made her a duelist and she accidentally challanged the current Rosebride owner, Saionji, to a duel and won. She almost always wins, but she does so with the aid of Dios. Anthy and Utena have a rather strange relationship that borders between friendship and love. I’ll have to explore this futher later. I have a website dedicated to her at Ophelia.

Saionji is an obsessive, self-centered jerk. He treats everyone badly and thinks smacking around Anthy is an expression of love. His desire to become better than Touga leads him to make many mistakes including becoming a duelist.

Miki is a sensitive, caring guy with a talent for playing piano. He is very kind, but he also tends to be a bit naïve. He is searching for his "shining thing" or his inspiration which he lost when his sister quit playing piano with him. He has a crush on Anthy and wants to win her so that she doesn't have to be under anyone else's control. Logical, no? Anthy treats him like anybody else really, and it is hard to tell if she knows how he fells about her. I think she is very much aware of it as Akio is, and they both use his feelings for her to manipulate him. At any rate Miki is very nice to Anthy and even defends her against the slap-happy girls. Haunted is my Miki shrine.

Juri is on the student council and wants to sort out her feelings for her friend Shiori through the power of Revolution. She is cold to most people, though she isn’t mean in any real sense. She does slap Anthy when she offers her a rose, but that is because it made her think of her friend and how she had been hurt. Anthy was most likely aware of this fact and offered her the rose on purpose to make her angry. I have a Juri shrine at No Angel Came.

Touga... He is the red-haired heartbreaker of the series. He is very manipulative and under-handed, yet he seems to be one of the most popular characters in the series. Touga wins her in a duel after tricking Utena into believing that he was her prince. Touga wasn’t mean to Anthy, but he treated her like a thing instead of a person. Utena fights him again and wins back both herself and the Rose Bride.

Nanami is dedicated to her big brother Touga almost to the point of obsession. She hates Anthy and tries to prove that she is weird. Of course Anthy is weird but Utena and Miki think these quirks are cute. She is very popular at school and acts like popular people do. When Touga is away, she takes over his position on the student council. She is the first to learn about Akio and Anthy’s... relationship and she isn’t very happy about it. She gets grossed out and it forces her to consider her relationship with Touga.

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