WYSW: Revolutionary Girl Utena

*WYSW = Why You Should Watch*

**this review is spoiler-free!**

Revolutionary Girl Utena is an older anime with a huge legacy. Having aired in 1997, it was definitely the inspiration for many of the dark magical girl series we know and love today. Not to mention, this show was revolutionary in more ways than one, particularly because of its early LGBTQ+ themes.

I won’t be able to say much as to avoid any spoilers, but here’s a short summary of the plot: Utena Tenjou is an unconventional, gender non-conforming girl at Ootori academy, who was once given a ring by a mysterious prince on the day her parents died. One day she has a run in with kendo club member Saionji, who is also on the Ootori student council. When he challenges her to a duel, Utena discovers that the student council all have the same rose signet ring that the prince gave her many years ago. She becomes roped into their peculiar games to win betrothal to the rose bride, the unusual Anthy Himemiya.

That is as much as I’m willing to describe, but if you’re still unsure if you’ll enjoy this show, I’ll mention that it’s categorized as comedy, drama, mystery, and psychological. The plot also gets much wilder and deeper than what you can surmise from my spoiler-free summary, I can assure you.

Despite its low budget, the show manages to have absolutely incredible visuals. Every shot is very carefully thought out, and I genuinely think it’s one of the most visually stunning anime I’ve ever seen. The backgrounds are very intricately drawn, and it has really incredible direction/cinematography.

An important thing I should mention is that RGU is a show made for mature audiences, and as a result it has some intentionally inappropriate/problematic aspects. So as a warning here are some parts of the show that might be triggering/upsetting to some: large age gap relationships (though I will say, these are not portrayed in a positive light), sexual abuse/assault/rape, domestic violence, incest, and homophobia, amongst other things.

However, if you can handle those difficult elements of the show, it’s an incredible watch and absolutely worth it. It might require a few video essays to fully understand, but overall Revolutionary Girl Utena is genuinely one of my favorite shows now and I hope it can be one of yours, too!

If you’re already a fan of Utena, feel free to add to this! I didn’t want to spoil too much but if you can add more convincing details without spoiling please do, because I think more people should watch this anime.

Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking