Shôjo kakumei Utena: Adolescence mokushiroku (1999)

Director:

Kunihiko Ikuhara

Writers:

Yoji Enokido (writer)
Chiho Saitou (comic)

Release Date:

14 August 1999 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Action | Fantasy | Adventure

Plot:

A handsome youth by the name of Tenjo Utena transfers to the distinguished Ohtori Academy. But Utena's true identity is actually a girl...

Plot Keywords:

Rose | Duel | Memory | Ring | Flashback

Cast

Tomoko Kawakami	...	Utena Tenjou
Yuriko Fuchizaki	...	Anthy Himemiya
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leah Applebaum	...	Nanami (voice: English version)
Sharon Becker	...	Anthy Himemiya (voice: English version)
Roxanne Beck	...	Kozue Kaoru / Wakaba Shinohara / Shadow Girl C-Ko (voice: English version)
Mandy Bonhomme	...	Juri Arisugawa / Shadow Girl F-Ko (voice: English version)
Crispin Freeman	...	Touga Kiryuu / Prince (voice: English version)
Aya Hisakawa	...	Miki Kaoru
Chieko Honda	...	Kozue Kaoru
Kunihiko Ikuhara	...	Art Teacher
Yuka Imai	...	Wakaba Shinohara
Maria Kawamura	...	Shadow Girl E-Ko
Satomi Koorogi	...	Shadow Girl F-Ko
Takehito Koyasu	...	Touga Kiryuu
Takeshi Kusao	...	Kyoichi Saionji
Rachael Lillis	...	Utena Tenju (voice: English version)
Kotono Mitsuishi	...	Jury Arisugawa
Josh Mosby	...	Akio Ohtori (voice: English version)
Kumiko Nishihara	...	Shiori Takatsuki
Mitsuhiro Oikawa	...	Akio Ohtori
Lisa Ortiz	...	Shiori Takatsuki / Shadow Girl E-Ko (voice: English version)
Anthony Salerno	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Yuri Shiratori	...	Nanami
Jack Taylor	...	Kyoichi Saionji (voice: English version)
Kumiko Watanabe	...	Shadow Girl C-Ko
Jimmy Zoppi	...	Miki Kaoru (voice: English version)

Directed by
Kunihiko Ikuhara

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Yoji Enokido		writer
Chiho Saitou		comic

Produced by
Tomoji Matsukura	....	producer
Atsushi Moriyama	....	producer
Toshimichi Otsuki	....	producer

Original Music by
Shinkichi Mitsumune
J.A. Seazer

Cinematography by
Toyomitsu Nakajo

Film Editing by
Shigeru Nishiyama

Art Direction by
Shinya Hasegawa
Shichirô Kobayashi

Sound Department
Yoshio Obara	....	recording coordinator
Hideyuki Tanaka	....	sound director

Animation Department
Masahiro Aizawa	....	chief animator
Shinya Hasegawa	....	character designer
Shinya Hasegawa	....	chief animator
Akemi Hayashi	....	chief animator
Shingo Kaneko	....	animation director
Keiko Kawashima	....	chief animator
Katsushi Sakurabi	....	animation director
Tooru Takahashi	....	animation director
Nobuyuki Takeuchi	....	chief animator

Other crew
Takayuki Karahashi	....	translator (English version)

Production Companies

• J.C. Staff
• King Record Co.
• Movic
• Sega of America
• Shogakukan
• Shôjo Kakumei Utena Production Co.
• Star Child Recording
• TV Tokyo

Distributors

• Software Sculptors
• Toei Company (1999) (worldwide) (all media)

Other Companies

• Audio Tanaka  sound mixing
• Continental Far East  Dolby consultant
• Digital Site Corporation  digital compositing
• Kodak Japan  film supplied by
• Tokyo Laboratory Co. Ltd.  digital film output
• Tokyo Laboratory Co. Ltd.  film processing
• Tokyo TV Center  recording studio

Also Known As:

Revolutionary Girl Utena (International: English title)
Revolutionary Girl Utena: Adolescence of Utena (literal English title)
Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

Runtime:

Japan:85 min | Singapore:86 min | USA:100 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 (re-rated) | Australia:M | Singapore:R(A)

Company:

J.C. Staff

Quotes:

[Akio checks on a seemingly unconscious, unclothed Anthy]
Akio Ohtori: Uh... You weren't asleep?
[backs away]
Akio Ohtori: How long? How long have you been awake? Have you never been asleep? Were you only PRETENDING?
Anthy Himemiya: [sits up] Don't worry. You are my Prince, dear Brother. You can do with me as you please.
Akio Ohtori: [yelling] Don't talk like that!... I'm not like THAT!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Die Another Day (2002)

Wonderful movie...until the last fifteen minutes.

Several of the readers have pointed out that the last few minutes of this film are "easily misunderstood" and "underappreciated".

They fail to make notice that nowhere in the preceding hour-plus of this film is there any indication that the events occurring were supposed to lead to the final scenes. Ikuhara Kunihiko is said to have added the ending "because he felt like it" (though this is perhaps at best apocryphal). Perhaps that's not the best way of deciding how to end a film, because the result seems, at least to this viewer (and not a few others) to be disjointed, uncalled for, and an utter letdown of the integrity of the artwork.

Until then, Revolutionary Girl Utena - Adolescence Apocalypse (not Utena's Adolescence as translated here) is a simmeringly angsty, almost erotic film that is visually entrancing and unique, not unlike Angel's Egg and the Urusei Yatsura films in surreality and possibilities of interpretation. So the ending just seems that much sillier and disappointing as a result of the comparison with those other films.

Though Ikuhara may have been searching for something truly symbolic in his ending to this film, his self-indulgent ending dooms this work to only marginal importance, which is far less than this movie, or this series deserves.