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like, six or seven, my dude

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Duel 15 -- The Landscape Framed By Kozue Or: I Drink Your Milkshake! I Drink It Up! Now that we’ve spent time talking about the Utena’s we did get, I thought it’d be fun to talk about what we didn’t. For example: guns. Revolutionary Girl Utena was originally conceived with gun duels instead of the sword duels we see in the completed show. The creators attribute this change to the bad optics guns and a school setting would invoke, especially internationally, which, I mean, yeah, probably a good call there. The swordplay ties into the fairy-tale imagery of the rest of the series, too, and with the number of references other media has made to the duels of this series (see the post for Episode Eight for more on that), it’s difficult to imagine any other way. There were some aesthetic changes as well. Utena wasn’t always pink-haired and black-clothed, a lot of Chiho Saito’s early art depicts her with blonde hair, sometimes even with a length closer to Anthy’s, and a rose-colored uniform. This change is depicted both in the universe of the manga and out of it; Utena receives a new, black uniform after her first one is torn up, and an omake depicts a conversation between Ikuhara and Saito that goes as follows: Ikuhara: Which color do you think Utena’s uniform should be, red or black? Saito: Red! Ikuhara: Alright, we’ll go with black, then. Perhaps the biggest “what could have been” change, though, was in the initial pitch for Utena’s English localization. Not only would it have changed the names of the series (Ursula’s Kiss) and its characters (Utena, Anthy, Touga, and Saionji, for example, becoming Ursula, Angie, Tommy, and Kevin, for example), but Enoki Films USA also planned for other, new characters to be introduced. This was scrapped by Central Park Media when they decided for a more faithful recreation. I talked a little about the resulting dub in my post for Episode Ten. Other changes abound, such as how Touga’s voice actor was busy with other projects for the entire Black Rose arc, and more of his backstory was only described in detail in the movie because of it. It can be interesting, I think, using such behind-the-scenes materials to inform a view of the final product, even if it can lead to some readings that aren’t supported by the texts themselves. Souji Mikage’s plot is demonstrated in full here. Freezing Kanae’s heart didn’t work; she was too weak a duelist. And the only duelists who could stand a chance against Utena have already lost. What he needs, therefore, are people who have had their heart hardened like Kanae while also using the heart of a duelist. The metaphor is pretty obvious, what with the weapons literally popping out of their chest, but there was some of that already in how people have drawn the Sword of Dios out of Anthy’s body already. So far, the series has maintained, at least vaguely, that Anthy’s is voluntarily given (and I won’t go further into that here), but the swords that come from the Student Council in this arc are taken by force. One might draw the distinction that, while the members of the Student Council want to revolutionize the world, the Black Rose duelist feel that they must. Mikage puts this into words, actually. “Your only option is to revolutionize the world.” So let’s talk about the first one. Kozue Kaoru really loves her brother. Like, this is what I meant when I said, all the relationships in this show are kind of messed up. We got an inkling of this way back in the two Sunlit Garden episodes, but now that we start to see the relationship from Kozue’s perspective, it becomes much more clear. In a bid to maintain Miki’s attention, not only does she maintain several relationships with people Miki doesn’t approve of, but she also chases away anyone who gets too close to him. Some of this is portrayed sympathetically -- Kozue catches Miki’s piano teacher getting a bit too close and chases him off, which, given that Miki is the youngest member of the main cast, is likely for the best -- but it’s this same drive that also leads Kozue to join with Mikage in his plot to kill Anthy. This is contrasted with Anthy’s relationship with Akio, and while the audience can infer that their relationship isn’t exactly healthy either, Akio does outwardly profess to Utena that he believes that a sibling, or at least a little sister, should be like the moon: you don’t always see it, but when you do, you’re glad it’s there. One might notice that this perspective, just like Kozue’s “Siblings should protect each other from all harm,” either removes agency or outright objectifies the other party, though we’re only going to see hints of that for the time being. Nanami and Touga’s relationship gets a mention too, even though Touga’s still sulking in the corner. Nanami has decided that she must step up to replace Touga in his absence, taking over the Student Council, complete with her own version of the “If A Chick Cannot Break Its Shell…” speech. Touga’s voice actor leaving the show may have been unintentional, but the result of it means that Nanami has basically been put in a state of arrested development, and how she reacts to that, being without a brother, is something the show is also interested in exploring. Not immediately, of course. The first thing she’s going to do is turn into a cow. -r Next Time: There really is no other way to put it. Nanami turns into a cow. ←Previous Post -- Link to Episode -- Next Post→

Estellise had told Chris to be careful and here he was going and getting hit in the exact same spot. He could just imagine the lecture now, but what was he supposed to do, not keep fighting? He took a quick glance at where the rock had struck and immediately regretted it. It was a mess. Maybe it looked worse than it actually was, but it was a mess all the same. And yet, thanks to Estellise’s spell, moving his arm around still felt no worse than anything else. Pretty soon, he was resuming his charge, allowing Lana to pass in front of him as she ran after the goblin/rat pair -- they weren’t mount and rider anymore, but it was easier in his head to think of them like that -- before running at the one on the right. The only real obstacle was the second rock lobbed at him, but Chris made sure to not let that interrupt his step again. A flash of violence later, one sword stab for the goblin and a pair of daggers into the head of its accompanying rat, and that was that. He looked up to see Lana dealing with her half of the rock-slingers and rats as well, so all that was left was a shaman (that Sergei hopefully could manage, maybe with Estellise’s help) and a giant rat. They’d all been giant rats to be fair, but this particular one was a giant among giants. It had been inching forward throughout the entire fight, maybe that was its top speed, at least? Chris rubbed his shoulder and took a breath. “Alright,” he told Lana. “Um, don’t get eaten, don’t get clawed, don’t get hit with the tail, uh, don’t get trampled…” He kept trying to think of last-minute warnings, but they all sounded so mundane against the actual scope of the thing. In the end, Chris settled on, “Aim for the head, I guess. Should be the fastest way, right? Ready?” He didn’t feel ready, but something in his gut and aching shoulder told him he had to be ready real soon.

The cart seemed like a Hana problem to Peter. Since getting it and putting all their groceries on it had been her problem, it made sense that this would be too. And it had been a problem that she’d taken care of impressively, actually, or at least her boundless optimism kept it from ever being a problem to her, which was impressive in itself to Peter anyway. Of course, when she suggested that they all ride down the escalator in it, then it became his problem too, and that was where he drew the line. Makoto suggesting carrying all those groceries down wasn’t better, either, though it was a step (heh) in the right direction. An elevator, or something else to make the station wheelchair-accessible, was the most obvious solution, Peter thought, and he almost said as much before he realized that this wasn’t a station that had that for whatever reason. But it did have an escalator, which was like Makoto’s plan, except without involving the constant inching down and instead meant just standing there bearing the weight. “And I definitely can help with that,” Peter said, explaining his version of the plan to the group. It was difficult, but Makoto had already valiantly volunteered to take the brunt of things by being in the front. Hana still had a vice-like grip on the actual handle of the thing, so that left Peter and Leila to squeeze to the sides of the escalator and hold onto it there. The escalator was on the longer side, sure, but they managed alright. The next problem, as Hana put it, was “Where are we going, exactly?” “Well, the ticket machines, for starters,” Peter said. Leila said she’d ridden a subway before, but had either of the other two? “And we probably shouldn’t use the club money for this either so…” He sighed. Tickets, even round-trip ones like three of them were going to have to be, weren’t expensive to him, but the costs still added up. He didn’t say as much, but he hoped that the way he said, “Please don’t lose these,” as he passed them out to everyone got the point across fine. Then, as if he was still answering Hana’s question, the one she’d asked, like, several minutes ago, he said, “Next is the turnstiles. Hana, the cart’s your job, probably a bigger challenge than riding the train will be.” Something about a camel and an eye of a needle came to mind, but he wasn’t sure why. “After that, though, I mean, just don’t make eye contact with anyone unless you’re ready to start a conversation with them, and, I dunno, get off when I say to get off.”

The fact that Lauryn walked away without getting mad at her was enough for Elsie to think that the matters of money had been waived, at least for the time being. She did wonder if Jekyll was going to have a conniption over the massive tab they were inevitably going to run, but she only wondered in the curious sense, not with any sort of worry. Why should she? It wasn’t her problem anymore. Besides, she had other things to think about now, like the sheer number of her companions who had just walked in, or, worse still, how most, if not all, of them were about to drink poor-quality booze. Elsie managed to restrain herself on the latter point, though, mostly because she got a particularly mean stare from Corbin that didn’t let up even after she said “What?” all innocent-like. The rest, of course, was her wanting to know just what everyone else had found out. Even though some of them seemed to have ignored her initial approach of a question, that didn’t mean she couldn’t try again. To nobody in particular, she started, “What’s the deal with-” “Maybe you should talk to them, like, individually,” Corbin said. “They might respond better if you single them out.” “That’s no fun,” Elsie said. “Didn’t say it was.” She would have gone over to Tricky, the one person who had even just returned her greeting, but he seemed more interested in Lopt and Alexandre, and, by extension, whatever card game they were about to play. Not that she wasn’t interested too, but Corbin had said “individually,” and while he certainly had been rude about it, he still was kind of right. She didn’t need vital information passed around in addition to chips and cards. One would just distract from the other. That left Wada and Lachlan left, each hanging out all by their lonesome, one at the bar and one just flowering on a wall. What was she supposed to do about that besides “Wanna split up? You take hammer boy and I’ll go talk to Lach?” “Sure,” Corbin said. “Although, if you kiss, you have to tell me all about it.” Elsie laughed. “Same to you,” she said, and, with that, she left her familiar to his own devices. The last thing she heard him say before tuning out to focus on her own conversation was, after hopping over to Wada’s portion of the bar, “How was your first purview of the place? You learn anything interesting out there?” Lachlan looked a little sad, Elsie thought. She didn’t have the best solution for that -- happy spells were notoriously fickle, anyway -- but the next best thing, she was sure, was to just get nearer to him and just start talking. “Lach, hey!” she began. “How’s things? I’m pretty excited myself to stay up the whole night looking for monsters, what about you?” She leaned in and put a hand on the wall to balance herself. “Oh, I guess also I learned why this place is named The Naughty Crow. Would you believe it’s named after the bartender there? She won’t tell me what she did that was so naughty, though. Little disappointed about that, but, you know, it’s whatever.” It was a two-pronged attack, really. Either she got to learn more about the monsters or she’d get to do more gossip without Corbin’s supervision. What could be better? Maybe this would be fun after all.

The Shape of Water The only ones left in the room were Levanna and Finn, which was just fine by Finn. In his left pocket was the mother of pearl, in his right was the gem representing all of Galatea’s water, and the fewer people around who could find that out, the better. Not that he intended on telling Levanna anything of the sort either, especially not when he had other questions on his mind. The first was “Who’s Wendell? I was down -” Revealing that sort of information, where he’d been, was giving a bit too much, Finn decided, and he just managed to cut himself off. “I heard the name while I was out and about and it seemed important so I figured I would ask.” “Which Wendell?” Levanna raised an eyebrow at Finn’s verbal backspacing but didn’t question it, at least out loud. “Wendell… the doctor? Wendell… the dockworker? There are enough Wendells, you’re going to have to be a bit more specific.” She laughed. “That’s why I got a less common name. Not too many people named Levanna anymore. You hear that name, you think of me. But no, Wendell is common enough I can’t help you there, unfortunately.” “Hmmmmmmm.” Finn said “hm” in that exaggerated way where he began a bit too loud and held on for a bit too long, before coming back up for air with an “Okay!” and a “Second question then, kind of a repeat, but would Galatea like its own ocean?” Levanna frowned. “Why are you asking that again? If I remember, I made my stance -- and therefore, the island’s as a whole -- perfectly clear the last time. No, we do not; Dia has blessed us in other ways.” “Sure, sure,” Finn said. “I was just wondering -- just a thought that came to mind. A lot can change over the course of half a day and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Well, if you do think the people are asking for an ocean, you probably won’t even have to find me. I’ll be right there with you.” He left quickly after he finished, trying not to give Levanna any time to even think about what exactly he meant. Because she would… Tomorrow, she would. When did it get so dark outside? Finn wondered. It had already been late afternoon when he found his way back, sure, but there had been enough light in Levanna’s office to make him lose track. Not that it was too big a deal; he already had his destination in mind and he already knew how to get there. Tavern, schmavern, he wanted to see Dia again and tell her all about his day. He wanted to lie by the pool they’d given her, cause some ripples, and fall asleep pretending the lapping of the water against the walls was the sound of the tide. Plus, in the morning, there would no doubt be all sorts of people at Dia’s temple ready to sing her praises. Finn imagined that almost-barren shell he’d been at before just lush with activity. Most of it, hopefully, would be the worship Dia so desperately needed, though he could forgive a few chatters off to the side. So long as people were there, Finn thought, she would be okay. It was with these thoughts that he pushed against the temple doors, and was met with… “Greetings,” someone said. “I am sure you are wondering what we are all doing here, especially so late at night. My name is Simon Weatherson. I was wondering if we could have a little chat…” Notes from Captain Helmsley’s Logbook What a fine sunrise I woke up to this day. The colors were especially vivid, and while “red sky in the morning, sailors take warning” is one of those phrases I’m expected to believe in in this line of work, I still can’t help but take such a sunrise as a blessing. My appreciation was interrupted by one of the dogs I’ve been escorting -- Amir, I think his name was -- coming to me early asking about passage East. It seems he had been called separately from the rest, and now had been urged back towards that rising sun to the island of Delft. I found myself unable to leave this island while there are so many other watchdogs who may need passage onwards, but I did assist them in commissioning a small ship of their own to start their voyage. I am sure, of course, that our paths will cross again one day. What else can be said? All the shipments we had been assigned were unloaded yesterday, but like I said, without a heading from the dogs still remaining on the island, I hesitate to weigh anchor. I am sure if I am restless enough I will take a visit to the Temple Square like I wrote as we arrived, but for now, I think I will make small talk with the dockworkers and wait to see what the day has in store for me. OOC

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. -Matthew 24:10 (NIV)Melissa had told everyone “we all need to think this will work or it literally will not,” and yet, as the Relinquished absorbed another monster and the rest of the horde came closing in, well, she wasn’t exactly practicing what she had been preaching. Of course, because it was her duel field that was holding everything together, such thoughts had deleterious effects on the space she had created. It didn’t flicker out of existence like last time, but her light did go dimmer. Up above, storm clouds rumbled in, the kind that were especially dark and grey. No rain yet, but surely soon. Her fellow students either must have noticed or had already gone down that same mental drive off the cliff of misery, because that was when the panic started. People Running About was already one of Melissa’s least favorite cards just on concept alone, and seeing it in the flesh wasn’t particularly soothing either. It took a lot of effort for Melissa to not follow suit, or worse, lose control of her breath and be unable to. Some people hadn’t budged yet, though. Gabby, bless her heart, kept up the skeleton assault in the meantime, and- actually, everyone Melissa knew knew, was still around, either avoiding the uproar where they could or not even paying it any mind. The new kid, whatever his name was, hadn’t moved yet, either. Yushiro was, though, running at Gabby and screaming something about… pulling the Relinquished into her duel field? It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that made sense to her, but then again, Melissa considered, her plan probably hadn’t made much sense when she’d said it out loud either. Besides, Gabby seemed to manage okay. But if that plan revolved around her duel field still being up, she had to do something about the people it was supposedly protecting. What was she supposed to do, though, to quell such panic? There was really only one thing Melissa could think of, and she still took several moments trying to think of another. She took a few more breaths, then summoned her best impression of Jeremiah. “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel says: ‘Listen!’” Of course, she didn’t actually have any follow-through, but a few of the people who hadn’t immediately left the sanctuary did turn around at least. Oh, she remembered why she hated this. How did she manage to do this before? when there’s a plan, there’s hope, right? It was silly, and it sounded a bit too much like a platitude, but the voice in her head did give her some amount of encouragement. Just enough to prompt her to continue on with her own. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. She said it again, just to be sure. “It’s going to be okay. I realize it might be hard to focus on, uh, ‘good thoughts’ right now, but at least start with that. Everything else, uh, to be honest, everything else hinges on that. Or if that’s too much, um, we’re still here, right? We’re all still trying. How about that?” The sky was starting to brighten again, so that was something, at least.