Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie
© MVM Entertainment

Mania Grade: A
Audio Rating: B+
Video Rating: B+
Packaging Rating: NA
Menus Rating: B
Extras Rating: A+
Age Rating: 12 and Up
Region: 2 - Europe/Japan
Released By: MVM Entertainment
MSRP: £15.99
Running time: 87
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Disc Resolution: 480i/p
Disc Encoding: MPEG-2

Related Links

0

Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie (of 1)

Sometimes a title arrives that you just know you're going to have trouble reviewing.  Revolutionary Girl Utena is just one of those titles, and I'm still trying to figure out a good way of putting into words what I thought of it.  Here goes nothing…

What They Say
Revolutionising a Whole New World...

Utena duels her classmates to protect her strange friend Anthy who is the key to a magical power that everyone wants. A power that could make Utena's dream ? to become a prince ? come true. But their deepening friendship hides a terrible secret, and Utena must face the truth about herself and those she loves... and learn what it truly means to be a hero.

The Review!
Audio:
Audio is provided in English and Japanese, with both languages being fairly standard 2.0 stereo mixes.  Good use is made of the available channels, though, with both sound effects and dialogue well-placed to give a decent feel of movement and depth where it's required.  There were no apparent defects.

Video:
Video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen.  The movie uses a palette that majors on pastel colours, just as the TV series did, and is beginning to show its age a little – the video appears slightly grainy in places, although there are no signs of encoding issues.  Animation quality is good, though, and with the visuals playing a large part in making the movie the "experience" that it is, the overall quality didn't disappoint.
 
Packaging:
No packaging was provided with our review copy.

Menu:
On loading the disc, a montage of the main characters in a variety of situations appears before giving way to the main screen, which features Utena and Anthy standing against the school gate while the movie's theme plays.  Options are provided for Play Feature, Select Scene, Setup, and Explore Extras.  All very easy & quick to use.

Extras:
There's an impressive selection of extras included on the disc, beginning with a commentary track by movie director Kunihiko Ikuhara.  This is in Japanese with English subtitles.  There also a Behind the Scenes feature looking at Ikuhara's trip to New York to oversee the recording of the English-language dub; slideshows of conceptual artwork and early character sketches; and a collection of US and Japanese trailers for the movie.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review will contain spoilers)
Utena Tenjou: a tomboy, and student at Ohtori Academy, a school that's a little bit... strange, to say the least.  On her first day she's given the grand tour by classmate Wakaba, and on the way around she catches sight of Touga Kiryuu - whose face she's seen before.  They knew each other once, long ago, although they've both changed a lot since those days. Touga now wears a ring the bears the Mark of the Rose, and the significance of that ring will soon come to play a major role in Utena's life at the school - and the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemiya, will be her ally in that.

Those who wear the ring are destined to duel for possession of Anthy – although Utena, who is given a ring by Touga, sees that sort of behaviour as wrong and vows to do something about it.  She ends up fighting to protect Anthy's freedom, rather than for the ability to control her, and before long the two are ready to make their break for freedom.  Which is when things really begin to get strange.

It's not often that I'd quote directly from a press solicitation in a review, but here's what was written in the announcement for the movie:
"To attempt a more detailed synopsis of REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA: THE MOVIE would not only be futile (as it would difficult to do it justice) but would also give away the film's many pleasant and totally unexpected narrative surprises."

On first reading, that sounds just a little pretentious, doesn't it?  Surely no movie worth watching could be so out there and unusual that you couldn't write a synopsis for it?  Well, in this case, it's completely true - Utena isn't so much a story (I'd describe the plot more as a theme than a story, to be honest), as an experience, driven by that overarching theme, the visuals, and the audio, all working together.  The school isn't a fixed place or entity that you can pin down – it's a place where bits and pieces of architecture slide in and out of the frame, as much to look good as to be there when they're needed.  The characters are malleable – they're identifiable humans for most of the movie, but if the experience needs them to be something else (most famously a car), then that's what they'll become.  If something will make the experience more interesting and/or intense, then it happens, the expected constraints of reality be damned.

People who have seen the TV will know how strange that could be in places, but the movie takes it to a whole new level, and at times you're left just scratching your head and wondering what the hell is going on.  In this case, that's a compliment – it's not down to any deficiencies in the movie, it's what you're intended to do, and you can't really argue against the film doing what it set out to – it just makes the experience a decidedly strange one.

If you want to follow the theme, it's there, although it takes some effort to really get into it.  The movie works just as well, though, if you switch off and go with the flow, girl-cars and castles-on-wheels notwithstanding.  It's not going to appeal to everyone, by any means, but there's plenty going on here and to at least pique the curiosity of most.  It just needs given the chance.

In summary:
Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie is pretty much unique on the UK scene, and that makes it worth recommending in itself.  It's also successful at creating something that works on several levels to become something that turns out to be far more enjoyable than any description of it can really convey – let's just say that it’s something that any anime fan should see at least once.

Features
Japanese Language 2.0, English Language 2.0, English Subtitles, Japanese Commentary with English Subs, Behind the Scenes with Kunihiko Ikuhara, Hichiro Kobayashi's Art Sketches, Sketches with Director's Notes, US Trailer and Teaster, Japanese TV Spots and Trailers.

Review Equipment
Toshiba 37X3030DB 37" widescreen HDTV; Sony PS3 Blu-ray player (via HDMI, upscaled to 1080p); Acoustic Solutions DS-222 5.1 speaker system.