Beam's Blog of Writing and Other Things.

So, I just finished reading the full manga for Utena; only five volumes, very short compared to the anime. I'm not actually going to bother with a full review of the thing, just comment on a few thoughts I had while reading that more or less stayed consistent throughout the whole thing.

- Anthy here doesn't get nearly as much focus and development as she does in the anime; a lot of the focus is on Touga or Akio, Utena's straight love interests. All the same, though, I can't say I don't like manga Anthy. She's far more shallow and a bit more stereotypical than the anime version, but she's still very gentle and affectionate, and genuinely loves Utena. Also, she wears a boy's uniform at the end of the manga. HOLY SHIT ANTHY, WHY SO SEXY?

- Juri is straight for Touga, and Shiori doesn't exist. This amuses me endlessly.

- I'd heard that apparently, Utena is a more... boy crazy character, I suppose? In the manga. And yet the moment Anthy walks into the picture, BAM. I'm just going to assume that regardless of continuity and author intent, Anthy's mere presence simply turns Utena gay for her.

- Akio in the manga is a large ham. Not quite sure how I feel about this; it's pretty funny to actually read, but I do think it diminishes him somewhat as an actual villain. I much prefer his anime self, where he was more subtle and manipulative. It makes him a little scarier, I suppose, and more fitting of being compared to Satan himself.

- So... Utena becomes a prince? What? I'm still kind of baffled as to exactly how that works...

- Largest difference in the manga seems to be the nature of Anthy's curse as the Rose Bride. In the anime, it's because she sealed Dios away to protect him and took a million swords of hatred in his place, thus becoming a "witch". In the manga, apparently it's because when Akio overthrew Dios (yeah, they're two souls in one body in this continuity.), Anthy saved him at the last minute and stored his essence inside of her in the form of a sword, to keep him safe. But because Akio was also still connected to Dios, this put her directly under his control. I actually do find this change rather interesting, even if it really diminishes Anthy's character down to a victim of Akio and Akio alone.

'Tis all for now. Sadly, I don't think the manga has enough differing material for me to consider introducing into Fellows, but it was an interesting read all the same to see how it differed from the anime, and it was a fun way of killing some time.

- Beam