Shôjo kakumei Utena: Adolescence mokushiroku (1999)

Director:

Kunihiko Ikuhara

Writers:

Yoji Enokido (writer)
Chiho Saitou (comic)

Release Date:

14 August 1999 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Action | Fantasy | Adventure

Plot:

A handsome youth by the name of Tenjo Utena transfers to the distinguished Ohtori Academy. But Utena's true identity is actually a girl...

Plot Keywords:

Rose | Duel | Memory | Ring | Flashback

Cast

Tomoko Kawakami	...	Utena Tenjou
Yuriko Fuchizaki	...	Anthy Himemiya
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leah Applebaum	...	Nanami (voice: English version)
Sharon Becker	...	Anthy Himemiya (voice: English version)
Roxanne Beck	...	Kozue Kaoru / Wakaba Shinohara / Shadow Girl C-Ko (voice: English version)
Mandy Bonhomme	...	Juri Arisugawa / Shadow Girl F-Ko (voice: English version)
Crispin Freeman	...	Touga Kiryuu / Prince (voice: English version)
Aya Hisakawa	...	Miki Kaoru
Chieko Honda	...	Kozue Kaoru
Kunihiko Ikuhara	...	Art Teacher
Yuka Imai	...	Wakaba Shinohara
Maria Kawamura	...	Shadow Girl E-Ko
Satomi Koorogi	...	Shadow Girl F-Ko
Takehito Koyasu	...	Touga Kiryuu
Takeshi Kusao	...	Kyoichi Saionji
Rachael Lillis	...	Utena Tenju (voice: English version)
Kotono Mitsuishi	...	Jury Arisugawa
Josh Mosby	...	Akio Ohtori (voice: English version)
Kumiko Nishihara	...	Shiori Takatsuki
Mitsuhiro Oikawa	...	Akio Ohtori
Lisa Ortiz	...	Shiori Takatsuki / Shadow Girl E-Ko (voice: English version)
Anthony Salerno	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Yuri Shiratori	...	Nanami
Jack Taylor	...	Kyoichi Saionji (voice: English version)
Kumiko Watanabe	...	Shadow Girl C-Ko
Jimmy Zoppi	...	Miki Kaoru (voice: English version)

Also Known As:

Revolutionary Girl Utena (International: English title)
Revolutionary Girl Utena: Adolescence of Utena (literal English title)
Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

Runtime:

Japan:85 min | Singapore:86 min | USA:100 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 (re-rated) | Australia:M | Singapore:R(A)

Company:

J.C. Staff

Quotes:

Utena Tenju: Thank you, Touga. You really were my Prince...

Movie Connections:

Follows "Shôjo kakumei Utena" (1997)

Wonderful movie...until the last fifteen minutes.

Several of the readers have pointed out that the last few minutes of this film are "easily misunderstood" and "underappreciated".

They fail to make notice that nowhere in the preceding hour-plus of this film is there any indication that the events occurring were supposed to lead to the final scenes. Ikuhara Kunihiko is said to have added the ending "because he felt like it" (though this is perhaps at best apocryphal). Perhaps that's not the best way of deciding how to end a film, because the result seems, at least to this viewer (and not a few others) to be disjointed, uncalled for, and an utter letdown of the integrity of the artwork.

Until then, Revolutionary Girl Utena - Adolescence Apocalypse (not Utena's Adolescence as translated here) is a simmeringly angsty, almost erotic film that is visually entrancing and unique, not unlike Angel's Egg and the Urusei Yatsura films in surreality and possibilities of interpretation. So the ending just seems that much sillier and disappointing as a result of the comparison with those other films.

Though Ikuhara may have been searching for something truly symbolic in his ending to this film, his self-indulgent ending dooms this work to only marginal importance, which is far less than this movie, or this series deserves.