Revolutionary
Girl Utena
A Viz manga review
by Matt McConnel
More
Info: www.viz.com
You
have heard of this series; if you have not, you had bloody
well better. Utena was a smash hit in the States before Viz
picked it up. The obvious aside, yours truly has FINALY managed
to get his hands on the first volume of the manga.
The
nominal creator is the head of Be-Papas, Kunihiko Ikuhara,
who was responsible for directing the anime of Sailor Moon.
The credit for the story however, is given to the entire Be-Papas
crew who include some real movers and shakers of anime, and
the manga was entrusted to Chiho Saito, a well known shojo
style author. With this sort of a set up, one might expect
fluffy magic girl non such. Um, no. Well, it is fuffy at times,
and it does occasionally smack of magic girl, but DAMN the
story makes you forget it all.
Our
hero-protagonist, Utena, looses her parents at age six. She
wanders the rain soaked streets of her home town until she
falls into a canal and is rescued by a mysterious man who
dries her tears and tells her she needs to be strong so she
can grow up to be a noble. Cut to ten years later when Utena
enrolls at a new school and causes uproar when she wears a
BOY's uniform. (harrumph, harrumph) The rather long prologue
details how one of Utena's friends Kadio helps her try to
discover who her mysterious benefactor is. All the two discover
is that he came from a prestigious, as well as remote and
eccentric, boarding school. The prologue in itself is enough
for a great one shot; Utena mistakenly believes one man is
her 'Mr. Lickylick' (um, whisky tango foxtrot?), while Kadio
initially tries to get Utena to forget about a man who probably
does not exist so she can get on with her life, and hopefully
with him. But then Kadio makes two discoveries: One, that
the letters that Utena has been receiving for ten years are
in fact a clue and point to Ohtori private academy and that
Utena's Mr. Lickylick is in fact a reality when he rescues
Utena from drowning (again). There is a simply beautiful scene
where Utena and Kadio say goodbye to one another at the end,
and then it is off to something new and utterly different.
What
begins as a mystery only deepens as Utena begins at Ohtori.
She witnesses one of the student council assaulting another
member, and she promptly interferes. She is challenged to
a duel, and when she arrives at the appointed location… Well,
that is something that cannot really be described. Such is
the strength of the graphically told story. The up shot is
that Utena wins the duel, must not only defend herself against
all challengers in combat, but the leader of the student council's
amorous advances as well. The second layer of mystery is overlaid
when Utena is told that the ring she was given by her benefactor
is a mark of the student council and a duelist. So not only
has the new girl been invited to sit at the cool table, she
has just made captain of the cheerleading squad as well. The
problem is that all of a sudden she has to deal with the rather
deranged members of the student council and their bizarre
coda that was set down by the 'World's End'.
Yeah.
Right. Ok. Confusing, but damn compelling the way it is written.
The problem, yup here it comes, is the art. There is nothing
wrong with shojo as a style, but like any artistic school
or movement, it is meaningless unless the artist varies it
and makes it their own. For as skilled as she is, Chiho Saito
injects no innovation or personal touch into her work here,
a pity because she is very talented and her illustrations
are really quite good. And while the so called girl's style
is perfectly understandable, if Be-Papas is trying to be so
innovative and interesting, why could not they have contracted
someone who really does innovate on both boy's and girl's
style like Kia Asamiya (Silent Mobius, Steam Detectives),
Yukito Kishiro (Aqua Knight, Battle Angel Alita), or even
one of the old guard like Kenichi Sonoda (Gunsmith Cats, BGC:
Grand Mal). But then again, these artists are known for their
dire need of control over art and story (Asamiya espetialy).
Utena
deals with some really simple themes in some fascinating ways.
The idea of school popularity spun with the almost cultish
aura that seems to surround the in crowd; the common made
alien and fantastic as well as the continuing rose motif that
has perhaps deeper meaning in Western culture than Japan,
but I am sure that good old Uncle Willie Shakespeare has been
read by a few of the creators. What you have here is possibly
one of the most original and complex stories to make it into
print on either side of the Pacific in several years. Yes,
what you have heard is true; HUZZAH!
Matt
McConnel is our anime guru. He says to get this now for the
art alone.
Email Mr. Sunshine here.
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