| Revolutionary Girl Utena | |
 | |
| 少女革命ウテナ (Shōjo Kakumei Utena) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Created by | Be-Papas |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Kunihiko Ikuhara |
| Produced by |
|
| Written by | Yōji Enokido |
| Music by | Shinkichi Mitsumune[a] |
| Studio | J.C.Staff |
| Licensed by |
|
| Original network | TXN (TV Tokyo) |
| English network | |
| Original run | April 2, 1997 – December 24, 1997 |
| Episodes | 39 |
| Manga | |
| Written by |
|
| Illustrated by | Chiho Saito |
| Published by | Shogakukan |
| English publisher | |
| Imprint | Flower Comics |
| Magazine | Ciao, Bessatsu Shōjo Comic Special, Flowers |
| English magazine | Animerica Extra |
| Demographic | Shōjo, josei |
| Original run | Initial run May 2, 1996 – March 20, 1998 Adolescence of Utena May 5, 1999 – September 5, 1999 After the Revolution July 28, 2017 – March 28, 2018 |
| Volumes | 7 |
| Film | |
| |
Revolutionary Girl Utena (Japanese: 少女革命ウテナ, Hepburn: Shōjo Kakumei Utena)[c] is a Japanese anime television series created by Be-Papas, a production group formed by director Kunihiko Ikuhara and composed of himself, Chiho Saito, Shinya Hasegawa, Yōji Enokido and Yūichirō Oguro. The series was produced by J.C.Staff and originally aired on TV Tokyo from April to December 1997. Revolutionary Girl Utena follows Utena Tenjou, a teenaged girl who is drawn into a sword dueling tournament to win the hand of Anthy Himemiya, a mysterious girl known as the "Rose Bride" who possesses the "power to revolutionize the world".
Ikuhara was a director on the television anime adaptation of Sailor Moon at Toei Animation in the 1990s; after growing frustrated by the lack of creative control in directing an adapted work, he departed the company in 1996 to create an original series. While he initially conceived of Utena as a mainstream shōjo (girls' anime and manga) series aimed at capitalizing on the commercial success of Sailor Moon, the direction of the series shifted dramatically during production towards an avant-garde and surrealist tone. The series has been described as a deconstruction and subversion of fairy tales and the magical girl genre of shōjo manga, making heavy use of allegory and symbolism to comment on themes of gender, sexuality, and coming-of-age. Its visual and narrative style is characterized by a sense of theatrical presentation and staging, drawing inspiration from the all-female Japanese theater troupe the Takarazuka Revue, as well as the experimental theater of Shūji Terayama, whose frequent collaborator J. A. Seazer created the songs featured in the series.
Revolutionary Girl Utena has been the subject of both domestic and international critical acclaim, and has received many accolades. It has been praised for its treatment of LGBT themes and subject material, and has influenced subsequent animated works. A manga adaptation of Utena written and illustrated by Saito was developed contemporaneously with the anime series, and was serialized in the manga magazine Ciao beginning in 1996. In 1999, Be-Papas produced the film Adolescence of Utena as a follow-up to the television anime series. The series has had several iterations of physical release, including a remaster overseen by Ikuhara in 2008. In North America, Utena was initially distributed by Central Park Media starting in 1998; the license for the series has been held by Crunchyroll since its 2023 acquisition of Right Stuf and its subsidiary Nozomi Entertainment, which acquired the license for Utena in 2010.
- ^ Friedman 2022, p. 107.
- ^ Thew 2018, Revolutionary Girl Utena.
- ^ Olsen & Cooper 2018, pp. 76–105, “Laserdisc Liner Notes: From The Japanese Archives”.
- ^ Animage Editorial Department 1997b, p. 9.
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