#so most anime fans wouldn't notice that something's off about how utena handles its themes the way people notice it for pmmm

[holdharmonysacred]

Man I was thinking about Utena again and like. I think one of the core problems the show has, for all of its themes and symbolism, and for all of how the ultimate conclusion is “the system itself is wrong”, it has the same undertones of “I’m not like ~other girls~” that everyone dunks on PMMM for when it comes to how that show handles the magical girl genre, but in Utena’s case it’s like that for fairy tales. Utena’s understanding of fairy tale tropes is extremely shallow to the point where I don’t think the creators actually read any fairy tales beyond really vague memories of disney movies, not to mention that it ignores how most of the European fairy tales that have survived to the present day are stories by, for, and about women and that the tropes in these stories do have a context and thematic point to them and aren’t just “And then the prince saves the princess from the witch!”.

So it ends up kind of silly, for example, that one of its big points of genre deconstruction is that Anthy is an abuse victim trapped under Akio’s rule who has to use cunning, trickery, and cruelty to cope and survive, when if you go actually read some European fairy tales there are entire genres of fairy tales about women getting trapped in marriages to serial killers and dude villains and having to use cunning and trickery to escape. While Anthy’s character arc works in the context of the show, it is a massive step down from the very thing it’s supposed to be deconstructing, because the creators apparently don’t actually know shit about fairy tales outside of like, Cinderella. And it’d be so easy to integrate commentary on this in the show itself!!!!!! Because even in those kinds of fairy tales there’s issues like the heroine having to rely on Even More Dudes to deliver the killing blow that would support the show’s points about Patriarchy Bad. But it doesn’t, and that’s a shame.

#i specify 'airy tales that have survived to the present day' because there ARE stories by for and about dudes #but fairy tale collectors usually went to women as the sources they stole their content from #and those ladies collected fairy tales that appealed to them (which usually meant the girlier ones) #so a lot of the dudes ones got lost because the ladies who told them didn't really care for them #it's like if you decided to collect and preserve modern day works but you only asked romance novel and shoujo manga fans #when i get the brain power for it there's other points i want to make on this topic #but honestly i think the only reason people don't dunk on utena for the way it talks about fairy tales #the way people dunk on pmmm for the way it talks about magical girl shows #is that utena is 1. old enough to be a sacred classic on a pedestal #2. more overtly and blatantly gay than pmmm #and 3. there aren't nearly as many fairy tale turbo nerds in anime fandom as their are magical girl turbo nerds #so most anime fans wouldn't notice that something's off about how utena handles its themes the way people notice it for pmmm