Episode 16: Cowbell of Happiness

A magical cowbell turns Nanami into a cow, and hilarity ensues.

This is a summary of episode 16 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.

Himemiya watches an ad on the equivalent of the Home Shopping Network for Sebastian Dior jewelry, and comments that it's cute ("kawaii").  Then Nanami gives a lavish party to show off her clothing and jewelry.  But as she's about to unveil the expensive new pendant she is expecting will earn her the admiration of all present, Jury walks in looking like a ten thousand dollar whore.  Nanami and her gaudy trinkets are hopelessly outclassed by Jury's elegant and tasteful clothing, original designer jewelry, and sophisticated manners.

As Nanami is freaking out, a package arrives addressed to her.  It's a Sebastian Dior cowbell - polished to a high gloss and packaged in a pretty box with a designer label, but obviously and literally a cowbell, that is, a bell for a cow.  Nanami is overjoyed.  She pretends that the party was for the purpose of showing off the cowbell.  Her guests are confused.

Nanami wears the cowbell to all school activities.  She revels in the knowledge that she has become the main topic of everyone's conversation.  She doesn't realise that the stares she's getting are not stares of admiration.  Her young slave, Tsuwabuki, is the first person who dares point out how silly she looks.  She says he's too young to understand an adult's fashion sense.  Utena backs him up, and Nanami replies that as a notorious cross-dresser, Utena is in no position to comment.

Nanami, wearing the cowbell to bed, dreams that she's living in a stable and Touga is feeding her hay, sending her off in a cart to be slaughtered, and then eating steaks made from her.  She starts wearing a black-and-white spotted gym uniform.  She starts wearing hair clips that look like a cow's horns.  She becomes noticeably lazy and placid, and she more and more frequently uses the word "mo," which indicates emphasis in Japanese grammar.  She pronounces it "moo." Eventually she isn't saying much else.

Utena, Himemiya, and Tsuwabuki find Nanami on her hands and knees in a cow pasture, eating grass and mooing.  They explain to her that the "Cow-stian Dior" cowbell is turning her into a cow.  Then the transformation proceeds further; her body (still wearing a yellow school uniform) becomes cow-shaped, she sees the red sweater Himemiya has been knitting and gets angry, and Utena, with the sweater and a pitchfork, does a toreadora routine with her, eventually removing the bell.  Nanami instantly returns to normal. 

It turns out that Himemiya has a pet cow also named Nanami, the bell was for her, and it was delivered to the human Nanami by mistake.  Himemiya also ordered a nose-ring...

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