Shoujo Kakumei Utena

From UtenaWiki

Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena in English; 少女革命ウテナ in Japanese) is a television and manga series created by Be-Papas. Both incarnations of Utena, as well as the associated movie, follow the experiences of a teenage girl named Utena as she becomes involved in shadowy duels at Ohtori Academy.

Themes

The TV, manga, and movie versions of Utena diverge substantially in the details of their plots. Nevertheless, there is a good deal of thematic unity between them. All three meld the high physical drama of the duels with the psychological melodrama of their characters' relationships to exist in a genre that is simultaneously drama, romance, and magical girl. Some viewers also find yuri or shoujo ai undertones in Utena, though these are held to be more prominent in the movie than in the anime or manga. The surreal atmosphere of Utena and the intense focus on the characters' psychologies and interrelationships also characterize all three incarnations of Utena to varying degrees. Underneath these themes, Utena is fundamentally a coming-of-age story centering on the burgeoning maturity of its title character and those around her.

In other media

In addition to the TV series, manga, and movie, the story of Utena has been adapted for a number of other media. Creator Ikuhara Kunihiko and others have directed a number of Takarazuka-style musicals based on the story, of which the best-known is the aptly named Musical Shoujo Kakumei Utena. Also in the Utena corpus is a video game for the Sega Saturn, Itsuka Kakumeisareru Monogatari, loosely translated as "Someday My Revolution Will Come."