Tenjou Utena

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Tenjou Utena
Tenjou Utena
Role Champion Duelist
Family Name Tenjou ("heaven above")
Given Name Utena ("calyx")
Hair Pink
Eyes Blue
Rose White or pink
Grade 8th
Birthday December 29 (Capricorn)
Blood Type B
Height 165 cm (5'5")
Japanese Seiyuu Kawakami Tomoko
English Voice Actor Rachael Lillis

Tenjou Utena (天上 ウテナ) is the main character of the anime, movie, and manga that bear her name.

Contents

Background

Anime

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a little princess, and she was very sad, for her mother and father had died. Before the princess appeared a traveling prince, riding upon a white horse. He had a regal bearing and a kind smile. The prince wrapped the princess in a rose-scented embrace and gently wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Little one," he said, "who bears up alone in such deep sorrow, never lose that strength or nobility, even when you grow up. I give you this to remember this day. We will meet again. This ring will lead you to me one day." Perhaps the ring the prince gave her was an engagement ring.

This was all well and good, but so impressed was she by him that the princess vowed to become a prince herself one day. But was that really such a good idea?

Thus begins the anime Shoujo Kakumei Utena. The story is Utena's fanciful recollection of her first meeting with her "prince," whose ring would indeed lead her to Ohtori Academy. The gist of the story is accurate, but Utena's memory has warped the details. After her parents died in a car accident, Utena found her way to the belfry of the church where their bodies were taken, where she found three coffins laid out. Utena lay down in the third, apparently intending to wait for death. She was discovered first by a young Kiryuu Touga, who along with Saionji Kyouichi tried to talk her out; he couldn't sway her, however, as she demanded to be shown "something eternal." Later, Ohtori Akio appeared. In his Dios persona, Akio showed the tearful Utena something eternal: the eternal suffering of the Rose Bride. The Bride's plight moved Utena to swear to liberate her. Telling her not to lose her strength or nobility, Akio gave her the Rose Seal that bore the crest of his school.

Manga

Here the story is simpler. Distraught over the death of her parents, a young Utena threw herself off a bridge. She was saved from death by a mysterious man -- Ohtori Akio again -- who licked the tears from her eyes and gave her a Rose Seal. From that point on, she receives rose-scented postcards from her prince every year. When her friend Kaido realizes that the pictures on the front of the postcards were taken at Ohtori Academy, Utena leaves her aunt Yurika to attend the academy and pursue her prince.

Personality

While the details differ slightly from version to version, the core of Utena's personality is much the same in the anime, manga, and movie. In all three, she has preserved her strength and nobility; she hates lies and is a stalwart defender of her friends. The anime and manga portray her as a tomboy, refusing to wear a girls' uniform and singlehandedly defeating teams of boys at sports. At the same time, however, she is naive and easily led, with little ability to see what is really going on. In the anime, this innocence is exploited once an arc like clockwork: Kiryuu Touga in the first arc, Mikage Souji in the second, Ohtori Akio in the third, and Himemiya Anthy in the fourth.

Sexuality

Utena's sexual orientation is hotly debated among fans, due in no small part to her "engagement" to Himemiya Anthy. In Adolescence Mokushiroku, Utena's bisexuality is fairly transparent; conversely, in the Utena manga, we are given little reason to believe Utena is anything but straight. The anime, however, presents a greater enigma. Utena is clearly attracted to men in the anime, as she is seduced by Touga and Akio, but the status of her relationship with Anthy is unclear to some viewers. The anime offers circumstantial evidence of their romantic involvement, including but not limited to their engagement -- the result of the rules of the dueling game -- and their sleeping in adjacent beds, often with hands locked. In the end, there is little in the way of concrete evidence of Utena's bisexuality, though she clearly considers Anthy a dear friend, and believable fanfiction suggesting a sexual relationship between the two abounds.

Relationships

Analysis

All links hosted at Empty Movement.

  • Hero's Journey: Rhyaniwyn explains how the story of Utena follows the arc of the journey of the Campbellian hero. Hosted at Empty Movement.
  • Body Language: Giovanna dwells lasciviously on Utena's sex scene with Akio, dissecting every twitch and whimper to great effect.
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