Feedback for Fellows.
by
, September 26th, 2012 at 08:22 PM (7025 Views)
I need a little help, you guys.
I've been in a bit of an Utena mood and I've been dying to finish up chapter four of Fellows (once I get past that damn opening!), so you can hopefully look forward to an update for that sometime either this weekend or next week, depending on my school schedule. However, I've run into a bit of a roadblock with the resolution of the first arc of the story, which we are currently in.
Three chapters in and I've made it quite clear that Utena has some lingering issues from Akio. She has a few lingering issues from a lot of things that will be touched on, but Akio is by far one of the biggest wounds she's carrying at the moment. I have a resolution in mind that will help her comes to term with this, but I'm largely having one big problem: is what happened between Utena and Akio, technically, rape?
I definitely know that consent was dubious at best. Utena was clearly a nervous, frightened wreck during the whole experience, and she didn't seem entirely happy about the experience or even sure that she wanted it to happen in the first place. And Akio's bread and butter is the manipulation of other characters, particularly young women. This is further complicated by the age gap between the two: immortality aside, Akio is for all accounts and purposes a legal adult seducing and having sex with an underage minor (underage by American standards, anyway. I know it's a bit different in Japan).
However, rape is generally defined as a sexual encounter carried out without the victim's consent. Manipulation, underage issues, and general hesitance on Utena's part aside, she did give him consent. Whether or not she did so willingly or she did so because he gently pressured/manipulated her into it I'm not entirely sure, though the series heavily hints at the latter assumption given Utena's behavior during their first scene together.
But that still, at least by one definition, isn't rape. I do personally consider it rape to the extent that Utena didn't seem to want it and was still clearly pressured into it, but those are my thoughts, and they might not even be right on the issue.
Largely, I just want to be sure I tackle the issue correctly. So, thoughts? Anything helps.
EDIT: I suppose I should clarify: Should Utena consider it rape? I'm kind of torn between making her consider it that, and her being unclear on the issue but still feeling violated.