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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 "Visually Astounding" Every frame of this film is art. From the beatiful backdrops to the phantasmagoric imagery, every scene is jaw-dropping. The story is fantastic as well. I cannot reccomend this film enough. "Watch this for pure oddity, at least!" SPOILERS: Why in the world did I just give the Utena movie five stars? Hell if I know, in all honesty. I'll be straightly blunt: it's a really, really, /really/ weird movie. (This is what is recommended when some really weird people come on rec.arts.anime.misc asking for yet /another/ acid trip after End of Evangelion.) Yet, even though it's weird, I find it very appealing. I'll say that I haven't seen the Utena TV series. Well, four eps, but that doesn't really count. But a friend's friend who's seen all of Utena still can't get why characters just /happen/ to turn into cars. Hell, the thing that got me was that Touga was dead. That's a pretty heart-wrenching scene when Utena remembers this, too. *sniffs* A big plus for the movie: the animation. Utterly gorgeous. Visually, the movie is just astounding. Anthy gets the most changed design other than Utena, and I like her movie design a lot better. (I don't like what they did to Utena's hair for the movie, though. >_<) As I only viewed my friend's DVD, I can't give a good review of /all/ the features. The art sections with character sketches are nice, and the trivia quiz is good fun. ^_^ Well, if you liked EoE and are a very strange person and want /another/ movie that's weird like that, check out the Utena movie. "Greatest Movie ever!" This movie is the best anime movie I have ever seen! it's got a great storyline. Good animation and Music. I just love it. The Utena movie is a definite must have! "A fan's view: Bravo to Ikuhara!" "Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie" on DVD has to be one of the best anime DVD out in stores. The menu is simply elegant, and the opening, although it may make you think: "Wait, the agree with having Utena fans as young as my age, as the series is full of complicated topics which may be unsettling for most movie is starting already?!", it is an accomplishment. I do not children my age. The movie is beautiful and elegant, with skilled directing from one of the most talented directors, Kunihiko Ikuhara. (I felt that they should have kept the original name: "Adolescence of Utena," for "Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie" just takes away from the movie itself.) If you see this movie, watch the original version, and do the Japanese actors a favor as they showcase their hard work. The English version is decent, but not "extraordinary;" the main actor, Rachel Lillis, proves that she can do a rather well-done Utena, but the Japanese actress simply shines. The extras are wonderful, showing both the English and Japanese trailers to the movie. The game included in the extras is somewhat playful and entertaining, but quite confusing, as they do not tell you what to look for in the clips, making it hard to make correct answers. But, I'm sure that this is what is intended. I definately recommend this movie, even if you're not familiar with the TV series, you can still watch it, since it has a different storyline completely, but, if you want to have an understanding of the Utena world from the series, rent or buy The Rose Collections 1 and 2. These are rather expensive, but if you think about how many episodes are on the discs, they are worth the money. "Don't forget the promise..."Someday, we'll shine together"" Adolescent Apocoplypse of Utena (I believe that was the original Japense title; she's no longer a girl) is the fullfillment of that promise. This movie shines in so many ways. Oh, but wait, you probably don't know what promise I'm talking about because you haven't seen the whole Utena series. The only real problem is with the boneheads who decided to release the Utena movie before the TV series. If you haven't seen the whole TV series you can't fully understand or appreciate the movie. Of course, the movies so weird that it probably won't make sense the first time you see it anyway. But that's what gives it so much rewatch value. If at all possible get a hold of the fansubs and watch the whole TV series before seeing the movie, because it's a continuation of the story, the final chapter. Of course, many won't be that patient so hopefully without spoiling anything here's a bit of background to put the movie in context. Things don't go so well for Utena at the end of the TV series. The TV series was the story of an idealistic premodern girl growing up. Utena revolutinzed the world for everyone who came into contact with her, yet she didn't completely grow up or revolutinze the world for herself. The movie completes the story by showing Utena's revolution. She's grown up into an adolsecnt now, stuck in that limbo between childhood and adulthood. This is the story of Utena the adolescent growing up. In it we can find an allegory about the growing up of postmodern man. Even if you don't want to dig into the deep (and I mean very deep) layers of symbolism and allegory the surface storytelling is still superb. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous and the many musical pieces are incredible and really enhance the action and mood. Fans of the other characters may whine about their fave getting the short shrift. But it's an 80 min movie, they've got to keep the plot focused. So the only real characters are Utena and Anthy. The movie does it's job perfectly of being faithful to the themes in the TV series and exploring the relationship of these two. The others charcters are just props to assist the plot, as they should be in a movie where time is limited. The Utena movie is truly a masterpiece and a great end to a great series. Hopefully software scultpor will hurry up and release the rest of this postmodern fairytale so more Westerners can appreciate it in it's entirety. Parents may have reservations about showing this movie to kids as it does contain full nudity (except the girls just don't have ertain.. um.. stuff), incest, murder, suicide, and lesbianism. Fans of Akio will also be livid over the fop who plays the role in this movie.