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Revolutionary Girl Utena/Characters

< Revolutionary Girl Utena
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The following are the characters from Revolutionary Girl Utena. If you have not seen the entire series, beware of spoilers!

Utena Tenjou

Utena Tenjou

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (JP), Rachael Lillis (EN)

 
 


Anthy Himemiya

Anthy Himemiya

Voiced by: Yuriko Fuchizaki (JP), Sharon Becker (EN)

 
 
 

Utena: Himemiya, you're type-AB, right? Let's see, type-ABs are elusive and seldom reveal their true feelings, huh?
Anthy: And you're type-B, right, Utena-sama? Type-Bs are self-centered and prone to misconceptions...
Utena: Yeah, sorry, okay.

 
  • Stepford Smiler
  • Strange Girl (emphasis on strange, but she has her reasons)
  • Talking in Bed (with Utena)
  • Tears of Remorse
  • The Three Faces of Eve (she can be seen as all three depending on the situation: the child in her role as a student, the wife as the Rose Bride, and the seductress as Akio's sexual partner)
  • Uncanny Valley Girl (to the point that Kanae compares her to an alien and Nanami thinks she's the scariest person she knows.)
  • Walking the Earth ( With Chu-chu, after the Grand Finale. To search for Utena and for her real place in the world.)
  • The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask
  • What the Hell, Townspeople? (her backstory, where the townspeople's response to her trying to protect her brother, who was pushing himself to the point of sickness in order to save everyone, was to ignore her crying and inflict the swords of hate on her. No wonder she's so messed up.)
  • Wicked Witch ( Subverted, again! She's more of a Broken Bird.)
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit (played straight and subverted, which tells you something about her character)
  • Zero-Approval Gambit (combines this trope with The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask. It turns out she's an ancient Goddess-Princess who watched her brother, the God-Prince, being responsible for all the evil on earth. As a child, she decided to take the blame and let herself be punished by the world for all eternity. She subsequently spends the entire series serene and calm, while suffering the anguish and hatred of the entire world... for her now evil prince and the fear to change.)


Akio Ohtori

Akio Ohtori/End of the World/Dios

Voiced by: Jurota Kosugi (JP, series), Mitsuhiro Oikawa (JP, Movie), Crispin Freeman (EN, episode 13), Josh Mosby (EN, series and movie)

 

The Council members

Touga Kiryuu

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (JP), Crispin Freeman (EN)

 

Juri Arisugawa

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (JP), Mandy Bonhomme (EN)

 

Kyouichi Saionji

Voiced by: Takeshi Kusao (JP), Jack Taylor (EN)

 
  • Always Someone Better (No matter what he does, Touga just seems to be one step ahead of him)
  • Bastard Boyfriend (He claims to love Anthy, but his behavior is more in line with this. In fact, he abuses her physically before Utena defeats him.)
  • The Chew Toy (In fillers, and it's cathartic)
  • Domestic Abuser: In every continuity, his physical abuse of Anthy is what spurs Utena to try to save her.
  • Dub Name Change: The Enoki Films release names him Kevin Simon.
  • Green-Eyed Monster (His relationship with Touga is defined by this)
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (It's hard to figure out how sympathetic he's supposed to be. But when your best friend makes it look like you violently assaulted him and gets you expelled to further his own goals, that's a clear sign your life sucks.)
  • Innocent Inaccurate
  • Jerkass (And how)
    • Jerkass Has a Point: He's actually one of the more perceptive members of the main cast, but it's not like people listen to him (for understandable reasons)...
  • Kendo Team Captain
  • Loin Cloth (His Shower Scene in the Sega Saturn game reveals that he wears fundoshi.)
  • The Masochism Tango (He does have some sort of unrequited attraction to Anthy, but his claims that she should be head-over-heels for him fall short when he backhands her every couple of scenes. You could probably also make an argument for him and Touga)
  • Perpetual Frowner
  • Pet the Dog (When he's rooming with Wakaba in episode 20, especially when he makes a little hairclip for her. Too bad he botches it by taking up Mikage's offer and giving the hairclip away in exchange for being able to return to Ohtori. Thus, the hairclip goes to Anthy instead, and poor Wakaba goes Cute and Psycho.)
  • Purple Eyes
  • Shirtless Scene (Near the end -- clearly he's been taking lessons from Touga)
  • Slasher Smile (Tends to give a lot of these - he easily has the most deranged expressions of any duelist when he gets pissed off. They're downright scary in The Movie.)
  • Smug Snake (More obviously than Touga)
  • This Cannot Be! (His reaction when Utena wins the first duel)
  • Troubled but Cute
  • Uke (Depending on interpretation, he's arguably a Deconstruction of one. A lot of his problems stem from a mix of his love/hate relationship with Touga and the feelings of inferiority of always being second best and in his shadow. Ultimately, he wants to seek eternity to preserve the equal friendship he and Touga once shared. This also leads to him asserting his masculinity in very unhealthy ways, notably his abysmal treatment of Anthy.)
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The younger Saionji we see in episode 9 wasn't halfway as horrible as the teen Saionji we met.

Miki "Mickey" Kaoru

Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (JP), Jimmy Zoppi (EN)

 
  • Character Tics (Timing his stopwatch. NOBODY KNOWS WHY, especially with Ikuhara's habit of leaving his answers vague or deliberately off-base. A good theory, though, is that he is timing the length of the dialogue from whoever spoke right before.)
  • Dub Name Change: The Enoki Films release makes Mickey his actual name.
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: In the manga only, he kisses Utena while she's taking a nap.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Besides his fangirls, Touga hits on him as early on as the fifth episode, and his piano teacher is implied to have a less than savoury interest in him.
  • Friendly Enemy (To Utena)
  • Half-Identical Twins (With Kozue)
  • Innocent Innuendo (In the Black Rose arc)
 

Nanami: Hey, hey, by the way...how did it feel?
Miki: How did what feel?
Nanami: You know what I mean...did it hurt?
Miki: * goes beet red*

 

Nanami Kiryuu

Voiced by: Yuri Shiratori (JP), Leah Applebaum (EN)

 
  • Alpha Bitch
  • Anguished Declaration of Love
  • Animals Hate Her (Might be due to a curse laid by Anthy, the local animal lover)
  • Animal Motifs (In one episode, she thinks she's turning into a cow. In the movie, she actually is a cow.)
  • Baleful Polymorph
  • Big Brother Attraction (Would you wish a brother like Touga on anyone?)
  • Big Fancy House
  • Break the Haughty: Oh boooy, does this girl have a bad day: After discovering that her brother, whom she loved ever since she was a child, was not her blood sibling, she feels like the connection she had her whole life was a lie. After that, she runs away from home, into the house of a pair of close, happy siblings... only to walk in on them having sex. And after that she walks in on her brother making out with a member of her old gang, to hear that her brother said he not only never loved her to begin with, and to have her ex-friend claim she has no connection to her anymore. And then after that she gets the Akio Car treatment, where her brother attempts to rape her, much to her horror. Her proceeding duel has her break down in tears, claiming that she doesn't have any connection to the brother she loves, and is horrified at being just like the other girls he sees absolutely nothing in.. It's very hard not to feel sorry for her after all that, even if you thought she was a raging Rich Bitch.
  • The Cassandra (Tries to warn Utena about Akio and Anthy after accidentally learning exactly what their relationship is like, to no avail)
  • The Chew Toy: In fillers; even moreso than Saionji!
  • Children Are Innocent (Subverted: she kills the kitten she gave her brother because she thought it was taking away too much of his attention.)
  • Clingy Jealous Girl
  • Demoted to Extra (In the movie, Nanami gets a single blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene...as a cow)
  • Does This Remind You of Anything? (Two words: "Nanami's Egg")
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!
  • Dual-Wielding: Both a sword and a knife. For whatever reason, she only has the sword during her duel in the third arc, however.
  • Dub Name Change: The Enoki Films release names her Nanette.
  • Egg Sitting
  • Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry
  • Evil Phone
 

Nanami: What time do you think this is, moron?
Nanami: Who is this? At least give me your name.
Akio: The Ends of the World. Kiryuu Touga is waiting for you.

 
  • Fallen Princess (Becomes this in the third arc)
  • Girl Posse (Aiko, Yuuko, and Keiko)
  • Imagine Spot (When Nanami is trying to embarrass Anthy [and win Miki's affection] by planting weird stuff in her room. She envisions each ploy going off without a hitch, only to have them fail because Anthy is already keeping weird stuff in her room. And Miki finds it cute.)
  • Important Haircut
  • Innocent Innuendo (See above, with Miki)
  • Jerkass Has a Point (like Saionji, by the end of the series Nanami has actually figured out a lot of what's going on, but given how she acted earlier no one is inclined to believe her. See also The Cassandra.)
  • Large Ham
  • Mistaken for Gay: When she takes care of an egg in the anime, she asks Touga if he prefers boys or girls [she's talking about the gender of whatever is inside the egg]. He believes that she is talking about his sexuality and answers "Girls, obviously," which then Nanami replies with "Really? Me too." Cue a lecture about "Homosexuality is wrong" by Touga.
  • Minor Injury Overreaction (When Touga gets hurt in the Student Council arc, Nanami is quick to blame Utena and Anthy for her brother's injuries)
  • Noblewoman's Laugh
  • Nonuniform Uniform: When she takes over as Student Council President she gains a new, yellow, military-style uniform.
  • The Ojou
  • Rich Bitch (oh yes)
  • Show the Forehead
  • Skintone Sclerae: It's a bit inconsistent in the first arc, however.
  • So Beautiful It's a Curse (In one episode, she thinks that someone is trying to kill her: "These attempts must certainly be the result of someone being jealous of my cute looks, my popularity, and refinement!")
  • Spoiled Brat
  • Third Person Person (Does this sometimes around Touga, likely to make herself look cutesy)
  • Troubled Fetal Position (When things get especially bad)
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid (Played straight and then subverted. She did genuinely adore her brother as a kiddo, but then we see what she did to a certain kitty...)
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack" (Anthy named a cow after Nanami. This is obviously not meant to be flattering.)
  • Yandere (She's so obsessed with Touga that as a child she killed his cat out of jealousy.)


The Black Rose Duelists

Wakaba Shinohara

Voiced by: Yuka Imai (JP), Roxanne Beck (EN)

 

Kozue Kaoru

Voiced by: Chieko Honda (JP), Roxanne Beck (EN)

 

Shiori Takatsuki

Voiced by: Kumiko Nishihara (JP), Lisa Ortiz (EN)

 
  • Attention Whore (Shades of this in her character)
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Due to her cripplingly low self-esteem.
  • Butterfly of Death and Rebirth (In the movie)
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!
  • Disturbed Doves: When she loses her Black Rose duel.
  • Drives Like Crazy: In the movie. While trying to ram Anthy off the road, she doesn't seem to notice that she's about to crash into a fork in the road.
  • Dub Name Change: The Enoki Films release names her Sally.
  • Green-Eyed Monster (Believes that Juri was always better than her at everything, and that she was only pretending to be friends with her in order to look down on her)
  • Incompatible Orientation: Truthfully, this is the least of the problems between Juri and Shiori. May be subverted in the end.
  • It's All About Me: In the movie, when, after she becomes a car, she rants to Anthy that the only who deserves to escape from Ohtori is "beautiful me. Me. Me. Me! Me! Me, me, me, me, ME!!!"
  • The Nondescript
  • Pure Is Not Good (Juri calls her "cruelly innocent." This may be true, but she's also willing to do some pretty awful things because of her inferiority complex.)
  • Purple Eyes
  • Red String of Fate
  • Selective Obliviousness: When Juri tries to warn her away from Ruka because she's worried about her, Shiori misinterprets her words as jealousy and thinks she's awful for it.
  • Self-Serving Memory: In the movie, as she's recounting her so-called relationship with Touga before his death, she mentions that "my Prince and I were going to go steady". Considering he was still in a relationship with Utena at the time, chances are she's either lying or that's how she remembers it.
  • Zettai Ryouiki (in The Movie)

Kanae Ohtori

Voiced by: Ai Orikasa (JP), Elizabeth Tarpon (EN)

 

Keiko Sonoda

Voiced by: Akira Nakagawa (JP), Mandy Bonhomme (EN)

 

Mitsuru Tsuwabuki

Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (JP), Ted Lewis (EN)

 

Tatsuya Kazami

Voiced by: Ryotaro Okiayu (JP), Frank Frankson (EN)

 
  • Embarrassing Nickname ("Prince Onion." To clarify, in Japanese referring to something as onion-make means it's shoddy or second-rate)
  • Dogged Nice Guy (To Wakaba. Upon hearing him confess, Mikage rejects him for the Black Duels and sends him home. And immeduately afterwards, he uses said knowledge to put Wakaba as the next Black Duelist in line)
  • Green-Eyed Monster
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend (to Wakaba)

Souji Mikage/Professor Nemuro

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (JP), Dan Green (EN)

 

Mamiya Chida

Voiced by: Maria Kawamura (JP), Liam O'Brien (EN)

 

Tokiko Chida

Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka (JP), Tara Jayne (EN)

 


Other characters

Mrs. Ohtori

Voiced by Yoko Soumi (JP)

 

Kanae's mother, the chairman's wife, and yet another person in the series sleeping with Akio.

  • Christmas Cake (a harsh deconstruction of one)
  • Fallen Princess (in a series that loves playing with princess tropes, she represents what happens when the princess grows up, gets older and is still unfulfilled)
  • Hidden Eyes (we never see her eyes while she's on screen)
  • Mrs. Robinson (an almost textbook version of this trope, since she's an older woman trying to reclaim what's left of her girlhood in the worst possible way)
  • One-Scene Wonder (and how! Despite having around a minute and a half total screentime, we're told everything we need to know about her in that time. There's even a fanlisting for her that analyzes her appearance)
  • Ready for Lovemaking (it's very subtle, but a close look at what she's wearing shows this)
  • Wicked Stepmother (She acts in this fashion, cavorting with Akio and caring very little about her ill husband's health or Kanae's well-being)
  • Your Cheating Heart (something Akio passive-aggressively reminds her of constantly when they're on screen together)

Ruka Tsuchiya

Voiced by: Nozomu Sasaki (JP), Wayne Grayson (EN)

 

Chigusa Sanjouin

Voiced by: Maya Okamoto

 

Shadow Play Girls

Voiced by: Maria Kawamura (A-Ko), Satomi Koorogi (B-Ko), Kumiko Watanabe (C-Ko, JP); Mandy Bonhomme (A-Ko), Sharon Becker (B-Ko), Lisa Ortiz (C-Ko, EN)

 
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