Well, I won't deny I also sometimes like really light comparisons, especially for Sailor Moon. Making up Sailors is fun.
Still, Utena seems to invite itself to heavier stuff as a tool to examine other series and the dynamics behind the actual surface. Usagi doesn't even need a self, only the powers within herself, and others fall down before that. Usagi really seems to lose herself when "Serenity" takes over.
I like Seiya as Utena not just for the gender alterations but also as Seiya first seems to be trying to fit into an already-taken role but in further examination, if taken at his/her best, likes Usagi rather than Serenity despite initial Princess/Prince cliche ideals (and unlike an interest in the miraculous power of the witch or the Rose Bride) and who could be an escape route from Crystal Tokyo and an eternity living out Serenity's life, Usagi as an individual different from Serenity almost totally thrown aside. (The live action Sailor Moon series explored this, but only extremely lightly, meh.)
The other hand is that Usagi accepts her Serenity side and Seiya remains blissfully unaware of all the parts of life Usagi has already accepted as pre-written for herself, yet Seiya seems to love her. Kakyuu would almost be more like Dios here in the sense of Seiya liking someone because he/she is reminded of someone else, at first... and that the Silver Moon Crystal may have been what powered Seiya's infatuation, an aspect Seiya didn't realize. Both of them, like Utena and Anthy, were ultimately dishonest with each other and themselves trying to live two lives. (Though Seiya at least tried to tell, in multiple episodes, like Utena he/she wasn't trying to listen quite so much, and Usagi or Anthy never really tried to tell the gory details.)
I wonder if the left-over "inner" sailors could be called the -ko equivalents, either Nanami's or the Shadowplay girls, honestly a bit shallow and living only to admire or reflect upon the Prince and Princess dynamics, their own lives absolutely insignificant in the end and vanishing quickly (how many two or three episode max appearance boyfriends were there?!)
I think seeing it as Usagi the Heroine versus Akio (I don't know who'd play this role now... still Endymion? But abandoning Usagi/Serenity's dynamic means Endymion/Mamoru seems to fit the role poorly...) and some female, perhaps Galaxia, who needs Usagi's friendship, is probably more accurate towards the intent of Sailor Moon. But even in these cases, it's more an issue of Princess/Sailor versus Princess/Sailor, and Serenity's Silver Moon Crystal is just so shiny and amazing others are won over. This still feels like the witch's power to me, the way others obsess over Anthy even without clear reason and despite their hate of her. Ah, it's complicated! ^_^; Like the 'noble sword' that smashes against the seal, Utena's power isn't her nobility or princeliness despite Akio and Anthy's confusion, it's who she is beyond all of those ideals, and I'm not sure Usagi ever reaches a level beyond "Princess" or "Girl who will be Princess again" or "Future Queen." Her power comes from her idealized feminine forms, even her nobility or kindness. I really liked the end of Stars but it still lacked the same impact as Utena's, for me.
Akio really is hard to pin down. Maybe, to be really thorough, we should admit that he's a male director or writer who keeps putting the females into set roles, or even makes a "revolutionary" female who is at heart the same Princess and has a dress & flowered coffin reserved for her, rather than letting her escape into a world where she isn't a prince, a princess, a witch, a knight, but just a person. And yet 'Akio' cannot exist without the consent of other women who want to have princes and to be the princess.
I've heard a lot of comparisons for the castle, especially the Utena movie version--I think it looks like the Disney castle, but I've also heard people say it looks like Crystal Tokyo's castle or other fairytale-style castles. It doesn't help that the director was a Sailor Moon director first, and seemed to want to break away from that intensely. XD;
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Utena spoilers and Sailor Moon spoilers ^_^;
Date: 2009-12-27 11:31 pm (UTC)Still, Utena seems to invite itself to heavier stuff as a tool to examine other series and the dynamics behind the actual surface. Usagi doesn't even need a self, only the powers within herself, and others fall down before that. Usagi really seems to lose herself when "Serenity" takes over.
I like Seiya as Utena not just for the gender alterations but also as Seiya first seems to be trying to fit into an already-taken role but in further examination, if taken at his/her best, likes Usagi rather than Serenity despite initial Princess/Prince cliche ideals (and unlike an interest in the miraculous power of the witch or the Rose Bride) and who could be an escape route from Crystal Tokyo and an eternity living out Serenity's life, Usagi as an individual different from Serenity almost totally thrown aside. (The live action Sailor Moon series explored this, but only extremely lightly, meh.)
The other hand is that Usagi accepts her Serenity side and Seiya remains blissfully unaware of all the parts of life Usagi has already accepted as pre-written for herself, yet Seiya seems to love her. Kakyuu would almost be more like Dios here in the sense of Seiya liking someone because he/she is reminded of someone else, at first... and that the Silver Moon Crystal may have been what powered Seiya's infatuation, an aspect Seiya didn't realize. Both of them, like Utena and Anthy, were ultimately dishonest with each other and themselves trying to live two lives. (Though Seiya at least tried to tell, in multiple episodes, like Utena he/she wasn't trying to listen quite so much, and Usagi or Anthy never really tried to tell the gory details.)
I wonder if the left-over "inner" sailors could be called the -ko equivalents, either Nanami's or the Shadowplay girls, honestly a bit shallow and living only to admire or reflect upon the Prince and Princess dynamics, their own lives absolutely insignificant in the end and vanishing quickly (how many two or three episode max appearance boyfriends were there?!)
I think seeing it as Usagi the Heroine versus Akio (I don't know who'd play this role now... still Endymion? But abandoning Usagi/Serenity's dynamic means Endymion/Mamoru seems to fit the role poorly...) and some female, perhaps Galaxia, who needs Usagi's friendship, is probably more accurate towards the intent of Sailor Moon. But even in these cases, it's more an issue of Princess/Sailor versus Princess/Sailor, and Serenity's Silver Moon Crystal is just so shiny and amazing others are won over. This still feels like the witch's power to me, the way others obsess over Anthy even without clear reason and despite their hate of her. Ah, it's complicated! ^_^; Like the 'noble sword' that smashes against the seal, Utena's power isn't her nobility or princeliness despite Akio and Anthy's confusion, it's who she is beyond all of those ideals, and I'm not sure Usagi ever reaches a level beyond "Princess" or "Girl who will be Princess again" or "Future Queen." Her power comes from her idealized feminine forms, even her nobility or kindness. I really liked the end of Stars but it still lacked the same impact as Utena's, for me.
Akio really is hard to pin down. Maybe, to be really thorough, we should admit that he's a male director or writer who keeps putting the females into set roles, or even makes a "revolutionary" female who is at heart the same Princess and has a dress & flowered coffin reserved for her, rather than letting her escape into a world where she isn't a prince, a princess, a witch, a knight, but just a person. And yet 'Akio' cannot exist without the consent of other women who want to have princes and to be the princess.
I've heard a lot of comparisons for the castle, especially the Utena movie version--I think it looks like the Disney castle, but I've also heard people say it looks like Crystal Tokyo's castle or other fairytale-style castles. It doesn't help that the director was a Sailor Moon director first, and seemed to want to break away from that intensely. XD;