While no relationship in Shoujo Kakumei Utena is exactly simplistic, the relationship between Utena and Anthy is very complicated. What would have been a very simple relationship in a conventional narrative, gets completely turned backwards, inside out, and bent in some very uncomfortable ways. It may be impossible to understand it without first examining their basic personalities and motivations, because both are very tied into the way they interact. By the end of the series, we find that their relationship is a complex mixture of love and hate, understanding and jealousy, but somehow they manage to make each other stronger and bring the world revolution.

Knowledge of Anthy’s history is vital to understanding her as a character. A long time ago, she had a brother, Dios, who was a prince. He went around saving all the princesses, driving himself beyond his endurance until he was nearly dead, but still the princesses demanded his help. The one person who loved him dearly, but could never be one of his princesses, could only watch as he pushed himself to the brink of death. That was when she became a witch. Instead of allowing him to kill himself helping the girls, Anthy sealed him away and faced the mob of angry people who wanted the prince herself. Somehow, she divided herself in two, locking away the part of her that could feel and leaving the rest to suffer. What remained of the siblings were Anthy “The Rose Bride” and Akio, who was no longer a prince.

Anthy became almost completely detached from humanity. She removed herself from general human interaction and spent most of her time in the company of plants and animals. On the surface, she appears not to care when people harass her for being weird or not to notice. Beneath the surface is a ruthless disregard for the physical and emotional wellbeing of others and willingness to throw anyone under the theoretical bus. Furthermore, she understands people’s weaknesses and exploits them to Akio’s (or sometimes her own) advantage, usually in such a way that people do not see themselves as being manipulated. Coupled with her strong passive aggressive tendency, Anthy usually gets her revenge through subtle, almost untraceable cuts in a person’s particular sore spot. She is, after all, Akio’s sister.

Her primary source of motivation is her brother. As the Rose Bride, she assumes whatever personality the victor desires, but this is only a trap which allows her and Akio to manipulate the person. In truth, her loyalty belongs exclusively to her brother and she does whatever he asks, although she does occasionally dig her passive aggressive claws into him as well. She also seems to be emotionally motivated by cynicism and bitterness, particularly when it comes to Utena and her brother. She betrays the former and occasionally enjoys tormenting the latter, and these are the only two people who mean anything to her. This may also indicate a sense of self hatred—that her crimes warrant the swords of hatred and that everything around her must be tainted. Touga calls her a beautiful bird that belongs in a cage and the cage is largely a self-imposed situation that keeps her safe, though unhappy.

On the other hand, Utena experienced a different sort of history. Her parents died tragically when Utena was quite young, and their passing nearly destroyed her. When everything seemed hopeless, a prince rescued her from the dark and inspired her to embrace life again. He even gave her a ring with a rose signet, and told her that they would meet again if she remained strong and noble. Despite being a girl, she decided to become a prince just like the noble man who saved her. Although she doesn’t remember the exact events, what really happened is that Dios showed her something eternal—the suffering of the Rose Bride. Upon seeing a young version of Anthy impaled with swords, young Utena demanded that he help her, horrified by the cruelty. He replied that he could not save her, so Utena declared that she would become a prince. Dios doubted that she will even remember this meeting, especially when she became a lady, but Utena remained determined so he gave her the signet ring telling her it would lead her back.

Surrounded by the cryptic and mysterious duel participants, Utena stands out as a beacon of honesty and openness. Even though she sometimes deceives herself, she doesn’t willfully try to deceive others. Unlike Juri, who wants to be a realist and detached from a belief in miracles, and projects that image in spite of being an idealist, Utena has no qualms about being an idealist and doesn’t pretend to be anything else. For example, she doesn’t wear the male uniform to convince or persuade others that she is a prince. She wears it for herself, as a reminder to remain true to her prince and the ideas he represents. As an honest person, the copious amount of deception inherent to the dueling system shocks her every step of the way.

While Anthy maintains a constant state of detachment, Utena is extremely passionate and candid. She has a very strong sense of morality and fairness, but her earnest drive to correct situations often leads her to jump into the fray without all of the information. Still, she empathizes with people and does her best to help them, even if they have harmed her in the past. Her morality, unfortunately, is grounded in emotion rather than reason, so she often applies it unevenly, especially when it comes to judging her own actions. Rebellious against authority and convention, believes that there is always a way to succeed and that good ultimately always wins out in the end. In fact, Utena is almost idealistic to a fault, which makes her an easy target for manipulation.

Her primary motivation for much of the story is to live up to the ideal of her prince, who she sees as the perfect model of virtue and nobility. In a sense, she believes that she must be worthy of him when they meet again--he gave her strength and she must show him that she put it to good use. This is an exceptional response to the concept of the prince, since most starry-eyed girls would not take their own worthiness into consideration. Their need to be saved and their inability to do it themselves is their claim on the prince and his chivalry, so they remain weak. Instead, Utena tries to live her life as she believes her prince would—saving people (particularly princesses) and setting wrongs and injustices right again.

Her devotion to her prince drives her to save people, whether from actual bodily harm or emotional harm, often by getting involved in matters that are not her business. For example, when the kangaroo attacks Nanami, Utena tries to step in and protect her, despite Nanami’s previous excessive rudeness. She also tries to talk Mitsuru out of his relationship with Nanami, objecting to the way she treats him like a servant. Although she does not know the entire story, she confronts Juri and tells her to forgive Shiori when she first returns to the school, because Shiori appears to be in pain due to the loss of her friend. She never questions whether the person wants to be saved or even if she is in the right. She simply does what she believes is right at the time.

Anthy presents an interesting package of both psychical and emotional need—she literally needs to be saved by fighting for her in the duels, but she also needs to be saved from the culture of the duels that turns her into a doll to be won. She appears to be a doll, not only in practice, but also in her own mind. Utena’s desire to be a prince, which is defined as a person who saves princesses, requires Anthy to be helpless, but redeemable. She sees Anthy in a position she was forced into and cannot get out of on her own, and, though she wears a mask of acceptance, deep down she resents and longs for a person to set her free. It is a convenient situation for Utena, although it represents rather inaccurate account of Anthy’s actual circumstances.

It horrifies Utena that Anthy doesn’t protest against her duties as the Rose Bride. When she first notices Anthy, she sees her being hit by a boy Utena assumes to be her boyfriend. Furthermore, she sees Touga step in and protect her. She sees Anthy as a girl in distress being saved by someone else, which she easily associates with her prince/princess archetype. As she learns about the duels and Anthy’s part in them, this idea is almost completely confirmed. As far as the duels are concerned, she must win Anthy to keep her from being passed around like a trophy by the other duelist. Although winning the duels is reasonably difficult, the real challenge is convincing Anthy that she needs to be “normal”. Never mind that Utena is hardly normal herself. Her particular blind spot is that she cannot see how anybody can be content being the Rose Bride.

Anthy carefully reinforces this idea by constantly reminding Utena of her position as the Rose Bride and by walking into traps she seems smart and cynical enough to avoid if they did not serve her purpose. The dance where Nanami gives her a dissolving dress might be a fair example of her using what she can guess is a bad situation to manipulate Utena. As long as Utena sees that she still needs to be saved, she will continue to duel until Akio gets what he needs. Sometimes she lifts the Rose Bride veil and reveals some of the dark and cryptic truth that lies deep beneath her calm surface. Perhaps these are rare moments of honesty, but they allow Utena to see or at least believe that she is making progress with Anthy.

The reality is that Anthy plays whatever part she needs to in order to achieve her ends, which are mostly Akio’s ends. Still, she has her own goals and she is often just as subtle and cryptic about achieving them as her brother. In a sense, she is content to be the Rose Bride, and though she is not necessarily happy, she is safe. While being impaled by the swords of hatred (both literally and figuratively) for eternity may not seem safe, there is a certain comfort in the expected. As the Rose Bride, she gets to pretend and deceive, but, as much as she lies to everyone else, she lies to herself a lot more. If she were to give up being the Rose Bride, she would also have to give up the detachment that keeps her from feeling and dealing with the real world.

In the middle of all of this deception, the two girls become very close friends. Utena, who lost her parents at a young age, comes to think of Anthy as family. She shares an intimacy with Anthy which is unmatched by any of her other relationships, even her friendship with Wakaba. Even though she seeks to save her as a princess, she also comes to a point where she sincerely wants to save the real Anthy, as evident in the final episode. Anthy also comes to love Utena, even though she remains primarily loyal to her brother. Through the depths of her detachment, Utena is still able to reach her and give her a taste of what friendship is like. As the witch, she is accustomed to hatred at every turn. Her gestures are very subtle, but she drops hints, warning Utena against the duels while simultaneously trying to convince her to continue dueling.

Still, their relationship is not all sunshine and roses, largely because of Akio. Although they ended up together largely because he put them together (by manipulating Utena since childhood and setting up the duels with Anthy as the prize), he also drives a wedge between them. As he slowly and gently seduces Utena, Anthy watches with growing jealousy. Even though she knows that he needs her more than she needs him and that he will always come back to her, she still isn’t thrilled with the situation. Utena falls quite hard for Akio—after all, he is her prince. As she learns of his relationship with Anthy, whatever else she may feel about it, she is still jealous. The mutual jealousy creates a lot of tension between the two girls, and, as much as they love each other, they cannot help but hate each other a bit as well.

Even without Akio’s influence, the relationship is flawed. Utena, although unintentionally, places Anthy in a role and expects her to play the part. She makes judgments about what she wants and needs, and never really asks Anthy what she wants. She may not have received an honest answer, but she might have found a little insight into Anthy’s motivations. For her part, Anthy often regards Utena as just another duelist and a tool in her and her brother’s plan. Although she is occasionally and unexpectedly moved by Utena, she is also cynical enough to doubt her sincerity. After all, she has probably faced many duelists who have paid lip service to nobility and failed to live up to that standard.

In the end, Utena abandons her desire to be a prince and tries to save Anthy from her self imposed prison. Anthy is so moved by Utena’s courage and nobility that she leaves her coffin and detachment to search for Utena in the world outside her brother’s influence. Even the duelists and many of the stories other foils begin to cast off their childhood limitations and start the process of growing up. The strength of their relationship helps them grow and mature, and together they bring the world revolution.

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