Episode 20: Sailor Moon and Fighting Evil By Moonlight

I must add though, that Utena has serious trigger warnings, especially when it comes to emotional and domestic abuse, incest, and even rape . Although the incest and rape are mostly absent from S1.

But these are not gratuitous at all, and most of it is implied, although in a very obvious way. Utena is a deeply metaphorical show, and I also think it is a very feminist show. I have read several articles on how Utena is an exploration of patriarchal culture and I agree.

I have also read that women have a different reaction to Utena then men. Women tend to recognise the fact that the show is about misogyny straight away.

I won't lie. There were many times that Utena has made me feel very uncomfortable, and I even had to take a break from it at one point. But that happened only after S1, and I did go back to the show because I think it is brilliant.

Here's a little about Utena from this article on seven best lesbian-themed anime by kat callahan:

"It's difficult to give Shoujo Kakumei Utena (or just Utena) any kind of adequate summary. It is a series even a hardcore yuri or anime scholar could watch over and over again and still find more to analyse. In addition to haunting visuals and an eerie soundtrack, the series borrows tropes not just from classic/high yuri, but also the magical girl genre, and shoujo more generally. It also just happens to be third on my personal list of favorite anime in general, not just yuri.

There's no way around it: Utena is strange. Very strange. And giving any kind of summary really risks spoiling it for potential new viewers because of just how many mysteries there are about the setting, its history, the characters, their relationships, and their motivations.

The series begins sometime after the transfer of 14 year old Tenjou Utena to the elite Ohtori Academy. The anime doesn't explain how she got there, but the manga (comic) does (if you're curious). Athletic and tomboyish in attitude, Utena wears feminised version of the Ohtori boys uniform. Although she strongly articulates her gender identity is not in question, she also reveals her dream is to become a prince like the one who rescued her in childhood and gave her a ring: a ring with the same rose crest as the school.

Owing both to her goal to become a prince and her inner sense of nobility, she comes to the aid of her friend Wakaba (who often jokingly refers to Utena as her boyfriend, despite actually being straight) when the latter girl is humiliated by her love interest: school council vice president and kendo practitioner Saionji Kyouichi. Mistaking Utena for a mysterious new "duelist," he meets her at a special location behind the school where Utena meets Himemiya Anthy, the "Rose Bride," who has the "Power to Revolutionise the World." An overconfident Saionji loses the duel, despite the fact he has a katana sword and Utena only has a wooden practice version. Having "won" Anthy, Utena finds herself followed home by the mysterious "Rose Bride."

The series focuses on Utena's attempts to protect Anthy at all costs from the other members of the student council, as well as other various duelists which appear. She struggles to reconcile both her masculinity, as a prince-to-be, and her femininity as a previously rescued princess, and to identify her feelings towards Anthy as well as towards male suitors. Above all, she is determined to unravel the mysteries of the prince and the setting around her.

Worth mentioning that Utena and Anthy are hardly the only (potentially?) queer characters in the series. Unfortunatey, too much detail would spoil some of the best revelations about members of the cast. Utena is just that complex that it's very easy for cursory identifications to give away important plot details.

Other yuri reviewers have drawn comparisons between Utena and The Rose of Versailles by Ikeda, and while that is visually true (largely due to costuming), I feel that the series is drawing much more from the world of Oniisama E and its representation of the Class S tropes. Many of the same issues found in that earlier series can be found in Utena, just wrapped up in the latter series' unique visuals, absurd settings, and convoluted reality.

Watch this one at least twice. You'll be surprised what you missed the first time around. "

roygbiv.jezebel.com/these-are-the-seven-best-lesbian-anime-series-ever-made-1634542445