Customer Reviews

Revolutionary Girl Utena - The Rose Collection/The Movie Boxed Set

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This boxed set comes with the first thirteen episodes of the series and the movie. In the episodes, we start out differently from the original story in the manga, but it does tend to run parallel with it. The movie is a whole different story, almost literally. With stunning visuals and beautiful animation, The Adolesence of Utena offers a different approach to the whole story itself. The characters have obviously grown in different ways, but haven't changed completely. To some, the movie seems "weird", "stupid" and "unnecessary", but the very basic of ideas is to follow the symbolism, just as in the series. The movie explains some of the things that may have not been so clear in the series, and adds more to it in its own way (or continues an idea, such as Nanami!Cow). I've seen some personal reviews with their own ideas and explanations of the meaning of all the symbolism, and most of them thankfully add just that much more to the story.

On a personal note, I love the music throughout the series, but absolutely adore the movie soundtrack. I thoroughly recommend the manga, episodes, movie, and sountracks.

To add any and/or all of these to your current collection(s) is a very good idea, to those who aren't opposed to a few new (and open-minded) ideas...

I think that the beginning of the series, included here, is the most widely liked portion of this anime. Later on the series becomes darker and (it is possible) stranger, and less appropriate for younger audiences.
I also loved the movie, but understand that those people who haven't seen the series seldom understand or like the movie. The reason is that here the movie is essentially the entire series metaphorically presented in less than two hours. If you don't know what's going on, you're not going to get it from the movie. That said I thought it was a fantastic (graphically and otherwise) way to present the story. It doesn't add to the storyline, nor does it try to do a full arc of the series in coherent movie format, it just presents it differently. (I also loved the car-thing, what a great way for her to rescue Anthy!)

Utena is a fabulous series with great animation, music, characters and plot. The Rose Collection is a bargain especially the Limited Edition Movie that comes with it. Utena is very unique and individual, no other anime compares to this entirely. Highly Recommended.

For complete reviews on Utena, check out AnimeOnDVD.com for a full analysis.

"Revolutionary Girl Utena" is probably my absolute favorite anime series. It has plenty of humor, a gorgeous cast of misfits and a dark, twisted plot.

Utena starts with the strange story in which a girl's parents died. But in fairy tale fashion, a prince kisses her tears away and gives her a beautiful engagement ring. And the prince inspired the girl to become a prince herself.

The series narrator also adds the question "But was that really such a good idea?" And sure enough, Prince Utena gets caught in a twisted popular game at Ohmori High School, in which people duel in one-on-one swordfights for ownership of the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemiya. If that isn't enough, supposedly the winner of the battle is engaged to Anthy.

Utena doesn't want to get into this, but after Kyouichi Saionji slaps Anthy one too many times, Utena swordfights Saionji in a duel. Whoever cuts the person's rose on his/her chest wins the match, and Utena is pretty darned good at playing this game. And sure enough, Utena gets more involved with protecting Anthy, and fighting for her freedom from this twisted game. But at the same time, all the characters are increasingly obsessed with ownership of the Rose Bride. And they're also fighting in a contest for the door to Eternity at the End of the World. But Utena's fight for Eternity really worth risking her life?

This is both a fun and intriguing series that challenges the problems of fairy-tale romance--it takes a deep rebellious stab at masculine power and true friendship. It really shows the problems with confusing true love with vengeful protection of love.

By the way, if anyone wants to continue watching the series, they may be turned off by the succeeding story arc, "The Black Rose Saga." Anthy is involved with her brother in fairly incestual ways. Viewer discretion is advised for the second box set.

This set includes two DVDs of episodes of the Revolutionary Girl Utena anime series, and a disc with Adolescence of Utena (the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie).

I enjoyed the episodes of the anime series in the set. However, I was extremely frustrated by the fact that there are no chapter marks for the episodes. The special features on the disc really weren't very impressive. "The Cast" features six of the characters; when you select one of the characters, you just see a brief scene featuring that character. Personally, I thought this feature was rather pointless.

On both discs of episodes, you can also see the songs from the English dub of the anime of the various duels. This was a nice idea in theory, but it doesn't work very well. The dialogue for the duels is left in, which already makes it hard enough to hear the songs. But the audio quality for most of the songs in this feature is rather low and muffled, which makes this feature almost unlistenable.

When it comes to movie, I really didn't care for it. A number of changes were made to the characters, whether it was in their design or in their backstories. I ultimately have to look at Adolescence of Utena as a kind of "warp speed, alternate timeline" movie.

Overall, this is a decent collection if you enjoy the series.

This movie explains everything that Utena is about - how could you call it unnecessary? I thought the movie was really important to understanding all of the themes and symbolism in the show! I don't think there was any way to have explained it better. And I really liked the car part, even thought EVERYONE seemed to hate it. I thought the car scene was well animated, like the rest of Utena. I guess becuase of everyone else's reviews, I had low expectations for the car scene. I was pleasantly surprised by it once I finally did see it. Plus, along with the beginning of Utena, this is a good package. But again, I have to stress some of the other reviewers' points when they say that Utena is an adult show with themes that would be wasted on children under 17. Great, if you have an open mind.

Of all the anime that exists, Utena is definitely not among the more normal types. The same themes that exist within others of gender-bending, reclassifications and relationship twists exists within this series as well. Another commonality is the awesome animation, storyline, and abundant creativity involved in creating this unique series. Each set is watchable on its own. But the best experience comes from watching all of them. This is the start of the adventure.

I love utena and the movie was abstract and not ment to taken litterally. Its a work of art that you can take anyway you want. I feel as thought I understand the movie for reasons I can't verbalize but I think it's truely amazing. Its a retelling in an alternate universe that boasts more symbolism then can be diciphered upon the first vewing. Also it helps to know the characters and their relations to eachother all in all I love this movie! It's deep and beautiful.

My advice for this set is to buy the two series DVDs of this set individually & skip the movie altogether. The Rose Collection DVDs are a great deal as anime goes, each having 6-7 eps on them (as opposed to the later DVDs which only have 3 or 4), & even though they are far from completing the story, you do get a complete storyline out of the two DVDs.

The Rose Collection introduces the viewer to Utena (our heroine), Anthy (the Rose Bride), & the student council, who are dueling over Anthy in order to obtain the "power to revoluntionize the world." Utena stumbles into the duels by accident, but soon is caught up in world of the Rose Bride due to her increasing attachment to Anthy. The episodes go from hilarious (the curry ep, for example) to serious, & something similar can be said about the different types of relationships in the series. The last episode of the Rose Collection is just a review of the season, but it also hints at what is to come in the rest of the series.

The series can be abstract & absurd at times, but by the end you feel very satisfied in the resolution, & every time there's a new revelation about the truth of what's going on, you can't help but be excited that you're getting closer to figuring it all out. Meanwhile, you get to laugh at the funny situations that come up, or rejoice at Utena's victories, or worry about the problems that come up.

The movie starts out well enough. It is similar in concept to the series, & even the point behind the resolution is the same. Some of the relationships have changed completely. Nanami doesn't exist (except as a cow in a video), & Touga has a very different (but actually quite interesting) role. The movie is even more abstract than the series, but there's some cool imagery in the first half. However, the actual "power to revolutionize the world" in the movie is so stupid that even in the world of Utena it was completely ridiculous. I watched the director's commentary at the end, hoping he'd explain why he chose that, & his only explanation was that he didn't think anyone would expect it. Well, yeah, I'd say not.

Anyway, you should skip buying this one as a set, & just buy the individual Rose Collection DVDs, then buy the rest of the series in the sets. Save yourself the mental trauma of watching the movie.

I have all the Utena DVD's; all 39 episdoes AND the movie and let me just say, this anime is AMAZING!! It is by-far my favorite anime... If you were debating over wheter to get this anime or not, get it. It's fabulous!! BUY IT NOW!!