Customer Reviews

Revolutionary Girl Utena - Darkness Beckoning (Vol. 5)

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

 

 

I'll start off on a general note--Charles Solomon simply doesn't understand Utena. If you like anime, give this series a try--it's amazing. And this DVD in particular is quite good. In some ways Mikage is my favorite character--he's certainly one of the most tragic. But then, the strength of this series is that every character is tragic, fully rendered, and engaging. So are Utena's premises, animation, and concepts. (The dubbing isn't bad either--but the Japanese is best.) This DVD in particular is central to understanding the series--for those of you who are still confused, I'll give you a hint. What Akio tells Tokiko in the middle episode--"Only those who leave this school will ever become adults"--is crucial to the series' meaning. Charles Solomon implies that Utena is only about adolescents, but it's really about adolescence, and about growing out of it. The series' most disturbing implication is that more people have refused to grow up than we might like to think. But really, dueling galore! Who could want more in an anime series?

I am obsessed with this series. In fact, I was hooked from the very first episode. Its decidedly adult sensibility, humor, icon-twisting symbolism and out-and-out romanticism make Utena an extremely engaging and thought-provoking series. In fact, Utena is great in any form...TV series, the movie "Adolescence of Utena" and the manga (only 3 of 5 volumes are currently available in English). Each format takes a slightly different swing at the plot and characterizations, and each is an extremely rich experience.

Central Park Media does it yet again, releasing 3 episodes onto this DVD! (Well, seeing as though they released the first 7 episodes, they could not have done much except to have this one have 4 episodes at most. The Black Rose arc is only 11 episodes long.)

Either way, though they may technically be missing the final episode in the Black Rose arc (The "11th" episode is technically a filler, involving one character's finding the diary of another character, with some silly stuff ensuing.), these three episodes will be all you need to get closure in this arc. It features the duels of two people: Sonoda Keiko, and Souji Mikage. Yes, on this DVD, you WILL find out (eventually...somehow...after thinking about it for a while) what actually motivated Mikage to do all this dueling stuff in the first place. Also, these episodes will reveal to you that certain characters are NOT as innocent as they seemed beforehand. Well...as if you didn't know that NONE of the characters (except MAYBE Utena) were that innocent at all...

The plot thickens and gets more and more exciting. On this DVD, the episodes are great! Utena duels Mikage ( Owner of the Mikage Seminar) and you see his past. This DVD is really cool, too. :)

I thought this volume was kind of weird. Don't really know if I get it either. But I still like it!