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feeling: tired but content
listening to: Utena - Eien no Himitsu
I was excited this morning~ cause this guy in my Japanese class was wearing an Utena t-shirt ^___^ That's the second time I've seen one on campus this year, and both were different and worn by guys. Happy this makes meeee XD Utena is not as well-known an anime as it should be... more people need to see it an get obsessed and advertise it everywhere by wearing shirts like those two guys. *nod* Foof, I shouldn't talk I guess... even if I did get my hands on an Utena shirt I doubt I'd wear it in public. That's just too much pink for me. >3 I like, don't even own any clothes with pink in them... but it's a major color in Utena promo stuff cause her hair's pink... so yeah. Don't ask, I'm strange about wearing stuff with pictures of things I like on them. It makes no sense. XP
I wonder if I have time for an Utena spoiler-blog before I leave for the 3 day weekend... hmm, what to spoil today...
Ohhh, I know >D
Big Utena Spoilers Follow... durrr
Today I think I shall expound on the meanings of the main Utena characters' names and what significance they have to the series. This shall lead into an assessment of the main players in the Black Rose series... so get ready, Dumplin', cause I think I got it now. XD
Utena Tenjou ~ Utena means calyx, the green leafy parts of a flower that protect the unopened bud... and the two kanji of Tenjou mean "heaven" and "above". The calyx part is easy, and it's one of the coolest symbolic things in the show, I think... but I'll go into that in more detail when I get to Anthy's name. The "heaven above" part, I think, refers to the upside-down castle that floats above the arena where all of Utena's duels are fought. All desirable things are said to dwell in the castle - eternity, things that glow, the power of miracles, etc. - and the ultimate reason everyone fights to win the Rose Bride is to gain entry into that castle and take possession of all those things they desire. So I guess the castle could be symbolically compared to heaven.
Anthy Himemiya ~ Anthy is a Greek word for flower, and the two kanji in Himemiya mean "princess" and "shrine". The flower part ties in with the calyx part of Utena's name: the calyx protects the vulnerable flower. Nifty symbolism there. Yep. So, the last name... the "princess" thing is kind of ironic at first, because Anthy is not a princess. She's the opposite - a witch. That's a major theme of the series, so it seems interesting that the creators gave her a name with princess in it. But in a way she IS a princess, because Utena is the prince who saves her... poor Anthy, gone princess to witch to princess-in-distress again... o_O Well, anyway... and the shrine part... hmm. I guess that just gives her a sense of regality and natural beauty and stuff. She does have that air about her.
Wakaba Shinohara ~ Wakaba means "young leaf", and Shinohara means "bamboo field". I am really not sure of any symbolism behind this. ^^;; Except the "young" part... she's definitely... well, no younger than Utena, but she acts younger. I don't mean she's childish, but... well, maybe she is. Nah, she's not. Anyway, she's cute and spunky and genki and just sort of average, and she looks up to Utena as both a best friend and a child might. So the young thing works. As for leaf... well, in one episode Saionji, her long-time crush, carves a little leaf-shaped hair clip for her, but then changes his mind and gives it to Anthy, his crush. Which leads Wakaba to become a Black Rose duelist and challenge Utena. I can't see any leaf symbolism beyond that though... can't think of anything for bamboo field either... maybe it's just a common Japanese family name (kinda sounds like it), which would stress her role as just an average girl?
Dios ~ This one's pretty easy. Dios is Spanish for God. And in Utena, Dios kinda is the representation of God... he's the all-good prince who goes around saving girls, and his home (cage actually, in the series) is the castle that's an awful lot like Heaven. Unfortunately, before he can become the full incarnation of Dios and save the world by revolution, Dios falls ill. Anthy traps him in the floating castle to protect him, and the world, robbed of salvation, holds her in contempt as a witch. At this point, Dios changes paths and turns into the exact opposite of God after Anthy traps him in the castle...
Akio Ohtori ~ this spelling of Akio means "morning star". In the series, Akio says that this star could have been the one to light the world, but it instead chose the way of darkness and became a sort of fallen angel among stars. This clearly goes back to Akio going from godly prince to the Lucifer figure. His last name isn't really his last name - it's the last name of his fiance(e?), who is the daughter of the chairman of Ohtori Academy. But anyway, Ohtori means "phoenix", which is just really cool in and of itself. ^^ In mythology, of course, the phoenix was a bird that resurrected itself by rising from fire or ashes or something... I'm not 100% clear on the myth, but it's commonly known. I think this must have something to do with the Revolution, another big theme in the anime. Revolution is kinda like resurrection, ne? I could be wrong... but it's an interesting parallel.
Short break from names for a sec. You know, I just remembered something, while I was typing the Dios/Akio stuff. In the final episodes, as Akio is dueling with Utena, he uses all sorts of stuff to try to break her confidence and set himself up as her prince so he can win. When it takes longer than he expects, he says something to the effect of "If I can't be a prince, no one can" and sheds some tears. Weakneeesssss >:D Anyway, that reminded me that Akio regretted having lost the way of Dios and turning into such a manipulative demon. Back when he first abandoned the path of the light and became Akio, he could've just gone on with his evil life, but he didn't - he created Ohtori Academy and the dueling game, and he kinda forced Anthy into his *koff* service, all for the purpose of regaining that power to revolutionize the world. He wanted to go back, to have a chance at becoming Dios again. Now, I still don't think his motives were good... he only wanted to be Dios again so he could gain everything. He never cared about saving the world. He couldn't, I don't think... because he was Akio. He'd lost the light he'd had before he changed direction. So even if he did beat Utena and gain the power to revolutionize the world, it wouldn't work. He might've brought a revolution, but it wouldn't have been one to save the world. It would've... been bad. Yeah.
Ok, that made little sense, and if I keep babbling it'll only get worse, so back to names it is. And here comes the Black Rose theorizing...
Mikage Souji ~ The "Mi" in his first name is a sort of honorific prefix; the "kage" part means "shadow". The kanji of his last name mean "grass" and "time".
Chida Mamiya ~ The kanji of Chida mean "thousand" and "spit"... which I can't even come close to understanding. o_O And the kanji of Mamiya mean "horse" and "shrine".
Chida Tokiko ~ Mamiya's sister. Chida, again, means "thousand" and "spit"; Tokiko means "time child" or "child of time".
Now, I'm doing these three assessments as one, because all these characters kind of go together. Notice any relations between their names and/or those of other characters? For one, two of them have "time" in them. The symbolism here, I say, is that these characters appear in the series in the same timeline as do Utena, Anthy, and the other main characters. But in reality, Mikage has not aged a minute in several decades, Tokiko looks like she aged about 20 or so years, and Mamiya is dead. Maybe that's why Mamiya's name doesn't have "time" in it... hmmmm. Anyway, they were all associated with each other at that time so many years ago; in the series, a middle-aged Tokiko returns to Ohtori Academy to visit Mamiya's grave, and she encounters Mikage, who hasn't aged in the slightest.
But here's the thing: in the present time (Utena's time), Mikage has a lackey. That lackey, whom he is trying to turn into the Rose Bride, is Mamiya. Or he THINKS it's Mamiya. But as mentioned earlier, Mamiya died back when Mikage was at his peak, decades ago. Not only that, but when he was alive, he looked like an average young boy... white, brown hair, dark eyes, freckles. But in the present, he looks much more feminine. In fact, he looks like a female version of Anthy with silver, shorter hair (but still in pretty much the same style) and no glasses; he even wears an outfit with many features identical to Anthy's Rose Bride dress. And, in fact, Mikage wants to defeat Utena so that he can kill Anthy and make Mamiya the new Rose Bride. Why is all of this, you... or more specifically, I... ask? Well, let's look at the incident from however many years ago it was. Mikage was a genius professor and was on the verge of discovering the secret to eternity. Tokiko and the sickly Mamiya were friends of his. He knew Mamiya was nearing death, and he wanted this secret to eternity so he could give it to Mamiya, so he wouldn't die. But Mamiya burned down the building in which all of Mikage's research and the 100 students working for him had been, and they were all destroyed. Mikage lost the hope of eternity. So he instead turned to Akio, who showed him his dueling game and a new chance to gain the power of revolution and, as mentioned before, eternity within the castle. Thus Mikage became a puppet of Akio, and the Mamiya of the present who looks like a female Anthy... actually was Anthy. He just saw Mamiya in her. The question remaining is, what does Anthy have to do with all this? I think Akio just sent her to screw with Mikage's mind (remember she's Akio's puppet too... she's just closer to salvation than Mikage, cause of Utena, and thus increasingly harder to manipulate). He's evil that way. And it worked. Mikage lost his duel with Utena, thus losing his last chance at finding eternity. And having lost any threads of Mamiya's existence, he also lost any hope of eternity he had for himself. Akio no longer has use for him. And so he vanished.
And now I shall get to the other name relations. Mikage's name, remember, has an honorifc prefix, which reminds me of princehood and other such regality. Who else has the role of prince in this series? Utena. And indeed, Mikage is to Mamiya much as Utena is to Anthy. And of course, remember, Mikage's vision of Mamiya in the present was Anthy. Cool, ne? :3 Anyway, the other part of Mikage's given name is "shadow", which works because his present form, where he knows Utena, is merely a shadow of his past self from before the fire incident, and in fact if not for the hopes he had of gaining eternity, he wouldn't be alive in Utena's time. He's a shadow of hismelf, existing only as Akio's puppet... thinking he's trying to get eternity for himself and Mamiya, but actually he'd just be handing it over to Akio if he did get it. But he didn't, so there's that. Anyway, finally, his family name, Souji... I dunno about the "grass" part >_<, but the "time" part should be obvious now that I've gone on and on about how he's existing in two different ages in the series. He's both past and present.
Then, Mamiya's name. Again, I have nooo idea as to Chida, the "thousand"-"spit" part. Or the "horse" part. But the "shrine" part should be clear by now too. Remember I mentioned the "miya" in Anthy Himemiya's name means "shrine"? Same with Mamiya's name. And while he does have a kinda regal air about him because his clothes are so much like Anthy's, I think this was mainly done just to parallel him to Anthy, since... well, Mamiya is Anthy. Or Anthy is Mamiya, whatever you prefer.
Finally, Tokiko's name. Again, I bypass the "thousand"-"spit" part and move on to "time child." Again, like Mikage, she exists in both past and present. They run into each other in the series. The difference is she is aging normally, while Mikage isn't. And this difference, I think, is symbolized by the different kanji used to represent the "time" part of each of their names: there's Tokiko and Souji. And as I mentioned before, even though Mamiya supossedly existed in both past and present as well, his form in the present was only an apparition; in reality he was long dead. I think this is why there's no "time" component in his name.
There. I think I'm done now. Wow... as dorky as it sounds, I think this is a blog I can be proud of. :D I deciphered the insanity of the Black Rooooose and I did it all by myseeeeelf~~~ XDDD ...well, excluding the source from which I found the meanings of the names... but... hey, I'm not Japanese. So anyway *hugs blog*
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dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 5/24/2002 02:42:00 PM
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