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Revolutionary Girl Utena - The Movie Director: Kunihiko Ikuhara Number of Items: 1 Format: Color, Animated, Widescreen Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 87 minutes Studio: CENTRAL PARK MEDIA Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2001-11-13 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 97 Average rating: 4.5 "CHanges from the Series, but cool either way" This is one of the best anim$B!&(Bmovies I've ever seen. Though there is some changes from the series. Akio has a role that's really hard to understand, yet his role in the "Scandalacious Video Tape" is funny at first. Chu-Chu makes a short run in the wrong tape played by S-ko. Utena and Anthy's friendship has been changed to a lesbian relationship. But Utena's motivation is the same, she is saved by a prince after her parents die, and, unlike most girls who want to be princesses, she wants to be a prince. So she duels for the Rose Bride: Anthy Himemiya, whos powers can make her dream come true. Definitely get the Special Edition, that trivia game is awesome! Rated 13 Up: Homosexuality "Barbie Boobs", minor violence. "Well, I hate to say it, but I didn't like it" I was really looking forward to this movie. I came on board by reading the manga of Revolutionary Girl. It looked interesting, exciting. But when I got this, I felt like I was looking at a Lesbian Pink Floyde movie. At the very best! I didn't understand it...though I am smart enough to be disatisfied by the molesting scene, the lesbian scenes, and the incest hints. I might be a fairly conservative person, but I have enjoyed abstractions and scandelous actions in Neon Genesis, Coybow Bebop, Series Experiement Lain, and several other titles that are for adult viewers. I really didn't like this movie. Maybe it was too condensed (as some viewers say that its the tv series smushed down to eighty some minutes). But the scandelous sections dont make up for that. I just didn't like the movie. It just didn't work very well. "Poor" The movie was really bad if you got the english dubbed anyway. It was very confusing and totally unlike the book at all. It didn't explain anything. Like for instance, near the end of the movie they say, "let's go to the outside world!" when you didn't even know that they were on an Inside. Most of the movie was music and the plotline was very well written. Also there was a lot of nude scenes. Maybe it's cause I only got to read the first book so I don't understand it all 'cause we don't have the show in America, but I didn't like the movie very much so I sold it to someone on the second day after I watched it. "There more going on then I noticed" I watched and rewatched this movie, and to give a simple response would be, HUH? There are many jokes going on that refer to stuff I don't know. It is a movie that need to be discused in a poetry class, because everything seem to have a second meaning. I believe it is a movie that is design to make you think, but it didn't seem to work with me, I felt LAIN, Ghost in the Shell, and Akira are better movies to make you think. In short if you are a DBZ anime type fan, this is not worth your time, but if you like to watch a movie and think about everything that has happened you may enjoy. "Through Rose Tinted Glasses" You step through a wire framed gate and cast your eyes upon the 'impossible'. Moving sidewalks, gothic architecture, and the faint smell of roses greet you, and upon entrance you are immiedately drawn into it's spell. Utena is not meant to be taken literally. If you take everything said at it's face value, then this will be a shallow expierence for you. This movie is a cinematography masterpiece. Angles make you think one way, only to have a turn of the camera and see its true appearence. This is not odd, for in Utena, everything is not as it seems. Utena goes into Ohtori, and, after a brief encounter with her old lover Touga, finds herself dueling for the chance to be a 'prince' to Anthy, a 'Rose Bride'. From the instant Anthy and Utena meet, you can tell that fate had a part in bringing them together. Their personalities supplement each other, with Anthy bringing out a little bit in Utena and visa versa. Utena herself is a teenager, and like teenagers, confused about life. She is drawn in an internal struggle of past and present, duty and selfishness, right and wrong. She becomes aware of things only to have another curveball hit her. In Japan, this movie was title the 'Adolence of Utena' so these themes make perfect sense. If only companies would keep the original titles, which are usually a key metaphor for the movie. (Cowboy Bebop - Knocking on Heaven's Door has been shortened to Cowboy Bebop - the Movie as well) As Utena slowly comes to term with her reality, the movie takes a bizzare turn in which she becomes a car. This may be wierd to some viewers, but again, the whole ending sequence is a metaphor for something big. The script masterfully hints at this throughout the movie. Bad things do lessen this release and keep it from being perfect. The Dub. It's not that the voices are bad, it's just that they don't suit the characters. Utena doesn't sound as innocent and naive as the Japanese version, and Anthy doesn't near reach that level of mysterious irony displayed in the Japanese Sub. Watch the subtitled version to gain the full effect. Someone in another review mentioned that the last line "Let's go to the outside world" made no sense. That person missed the entire essence of the movie. Utena and Anthy are trapped in Ohtori, a surreal dream of the sort, by their own inner restraints and seeing things through 'rose tinted glasses'. Only by letting go can they leave, and that in itself is another challenge. One last thing to mention is the supreme quality of animation and one scene in particular that sticks in my mind. While Masami Okui croons out the poetic lyrics of 'Toki ni ai' Utena and Anthy dance upon water and a waterfall of roses, which in my opinion, is worth buying this DVD to see that scene alone. Hold up you hand, how many fingers do you see? If you answered five, then Utena may not be for you. If you said ten, then this movie is perfect.