Episode 11: Gracefully Cruel: The One Who Picks That Flower

Utena has a picnic with her friends; then loses a duel to Touga, who takes Himemiya away to be his caged bird.

This is a summary of episode 11 of the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena.  You are welcome to link to it, but not to repost it elsewhere.  For more information, and other episode summaries, see the index.

Utena and Wakaba are eating lunch together, outside, and Wakaba is trying to impress Utena with the cute lunch she's packed.  The lunch does indeed look pretty good - until Himemiya shows up and upstages her with a packed lunch of her own, which is easily sufficient for all three of them even after Chu-Chu scarfs much of it.  The girls enjoy their picnic while Touga watches them through opera glasses.  Utena catches a glimpse of him, surrounded by adoring girls, and wonders if he's really the prince of her memories.

In the student council meeting, Miki and Jury question Touga about why he set up Nanami to lose the duel with Utena - and he tells them callously that it was her own fault; she was betrayed by her feelings for him.  Later, in the rose garden, he tells Himemiya that he wants to own the cage-like greenhouse, and her, the bird in the cage; and he'd never let her out.  Utena arrives to hear the end of that, tells him off, and insists that Himemiya tell him the truth, that she hates being the Rose Bride, which Himemiya does.

Touga tells Utena he has something important to tell her, "as your prince"; and to prove that's who he is, he starts to kiss her, asking "Is this how it felt?" (It is.) Then he stops, apologising for the indiscretion of two Duellists behaving in such a way in front of the Rose Bride.  He challenges her.

Utena mopes around for a while wondering at the irony that her only link to her prince, the rose ring, is now also forcing her to fight against him.  She talks to Himemiya for a bit, asking leading questions and getting answers that convince her that her friend doesn't really want to be the Rose Bride at all, but an ordinary girl with ordinary friends.  With that in mind, she goes off to the arena, where she loses, badly.  It appears that her messed-up romantic feelings towards Touga are part of why she's distracted from her swordplay.

Touga congratulates her on no longer being caught up in the duelling game - now she can put the whole thing behind her - but Utena is not at all cheered.  She begs him not to force Himemiya to keep being the Rose Bride, a role she hates.  Touga asks Himemiya how she feels, and she says she's happy being the Rose Bride; she doesn't need friends; she's happy being alone.  Touga explains that the Rose Bride answers the wishes of whoever she is currently engaged to.  Utena is upset.

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