if you can't break the egg's shell...

[mikogalatea]

That feeling when I watch what's ostensibly a comedy episode, yet the analysis notes I write down for it wind up going to incredibly depressing places. :(

Utena's comedy episodes are odd beasts, because when you rewatch them with knowledge of the whole show, they turn out to have a fair amount of unhappy subtext and/or foreshadowing that makes them hard to laugh at in hindsight. That said, I don't agree with the implicit notion that the show has no genuine comedy and that every single thing is actually secretly horrifying; then again, it's mostly little moments that I find funny, like the endings of some Shadow Girl plays or Juri wanting a turn in a massage chair Nanami was sitting in.

Next up for me is eps 28-29, which I'm not looking forward to all that much because ugh, Ruka. It's possible that I might end up not hating him as much as before, but I don't exactly expect my opinion on him to do a 180, and just seeing him in the episode preview had me cringing already. ~.~

I'll do it for Shiori, though! And for everything that comes after these episodes!

Comments

[sarajayechan]

The show does have genuine comedy! I love Utena interacting with the Shadow Girls in the Black Rose arc, and the "my ball" scene with Juri and Nanami.

I'll do it for Shiori, though! And for everything that comes after these episodes!

I skipped episode 29 entirely because I could NOT deal with Ruka even if I muted the whole episode and didn't look at the screen until Juri's duel.