Everything since Episode 14 turns out to have been a dream - or was it?
This is a summary of episode 23 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.
Mikage and Mamiya are down to their last black rose - no new one is growing in the tank. They complain bitterly about it. Mikage says he may have to get Utena to join him, but he can't see a winning scenario. Meanwhile, the student council are saying that they may have to get Utena to join them in trying to track down the people behind the Black Rose duels.
Utena is looking for Himemiya. In the rose garden, she encounters Mikage, who tells her he hopes she'll join the Seminar because he finds her attractive; and even if she doesn't join, he hopes she'll come visit, perhaps to seek advice. Utena puts him off with a lame excuse about Chu-Chu leaving cookie crumbs everywhere.
There's a flashback, probably a dream, in which Utena is in the coffin as a little girl, saying she doesn't want to live. Then she wakes up (she was passed out on the kotatsu) and finds that Himemiya has come back and is holding her hand. Utena decides to ask Mikage for advice about Himemiya's problem of being stuck being the Rose Bride. Utena goes to Mikage's office. She notices that the photographs in the entry hall are of the Black Rose duellists, and (though she doesn't know it yet) the 100 dead boys.
There's a flashback to when the researchers succeeded in opening the path to the duelling arena where the castle appears. Nemuro says he won't duel with them. Then we skip to the scene where the building is burning. In the present, he's looking at Utena and seeing Tokiko. She asks him why he's been manipulating everyone.
Mikage tells Utena that she is just like the Black Rose duellists - she is trying to change the world to match her precious memories of the prince. She will have none of that, insisting that she isn't a manipulative monster like him. She hits him several times, then challenges him to a duel. Mikage rides his own elevator to the dungeon, having an imaginary conversation with Mamiya all the way down.
Utena and Himemiya meet Mikage in the arena, where each desk bears a framed photo of Tokiko and Mamiya in the past. As they duel, it's apparent that Mikage still sees Utena as Tokiko. He struggles with his memories, and remembers that the Mamiya of the past, who died, was nothing like the present-day character of Mamiya - who is an image created by his mind. As he loses the duel, we cut to a scene of Akio telling Nemuro that he made use of Nemuro's lingering regret, and now Nemuro should graduate from the school.
Utena and Miki go looking for Himemiya, and walk past the ancient ruins of a building. Miki explains that it burned down many years ago. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. He can't remember what it was called - something like Kushiro or Noboribetsu Memorial Hall. In the last scene, we see from behind Akio standing with Mamiya (the recent, Rose Bride version of Mamiya). He comments that Nemuro never existed, just like Mamiya, and puts his hand on Mamiya's shoulder. Mamiya turns to smile at the viewer - and is Himemiya.
Comments
Matt from 129.97.79.144 at Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:09:20 +0000:
After I get to the end of posting episode summaries I'm planning to post a few pages on what I think is actually going on in the series, but to summarize this part:
Akio is constantly plotting to gain "the power to bring the world revolution" for himself. His scheme is to convince strong-willed people - like Utena, the student council, and Nemuro/Mikage, to fight duels until they gain the power; then at the last minute he'll step in and take the power away from them. He uses his sister, Himemiya, as bait and an accomplice in this: the duellists think they're fighting for her, and he'll use their attachment to her as part of how he'll get them to give up power at the end.
So: as of the time of the Black Rose arc, Utena looks like she'll win the duels, and that's a problem because it appears Akio won't be able to control her and take away the power for himself. So he needs someone else to defeat Utena, someone he'll find easier to control. That's Nemuro/Mikage, who is weak-willed and susceptible to manipulation. Akio creates an alternate timeline - I don't think the original fire and research lab in Nemuro Hall ever "really" happened, at least not in the way that we see in the series. Presumably there was a real Nemuro once, maybe the building did burn down for relatively uninteresting reasons (like a simple accident), but most of that stuff is fake memories created by Akio. Akio somehow resurrected Nemuro's spirit, or maybe has been keeping it on ice all this time, and gave Nemuro all these fake memories so that Nemuro would mount a challenge to Utena. The Mamiya we see through most of the arc, who looks like Himemiya, is also fake. He's actually Himemiya in disguise, which is part of why he looks like a girl.
During and immediately after the duel, Nemuro remembers his real past and that this isn't it. When the pictures change, the replacement image is the real Mamiya, who was a lot different from fake Mamiya that Nemuro has been remembering. With the plan in ruins, Akio sets Nemuro free (that's the "it's time to graduate") and cancels out the fake timeline.
In the next several episodes Akio will switch tactics - instead of trying to replace Utena, he'll let her win but try to get her to romantically bond to him so that he can twist her love for Himemiya and when she does win, he'll be able to take the power for himself.
Matthew Skala from 69.63.62.226 at Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:59:58 +0000:
Above I say that Nemuro/Mikage is both strong-willed and weak-willed. That contradiction is sort of the point: he's strong enough that Akio thinks he can win, but also weak enough to be controllable. It doesn't work, though, because the fact is that anybody (such as Utena) who is strong enough to win, will necessarily also be able to resist Akio at the end.
Jenelle from 12.153.197.92 at Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:56:11 +0000:
This story arc was really confusing until I read your summary - thanks for the help! (but the ending... does it meant that Utena and the student council don't remember Mikage (like they never really met him in because since he didn't succeed he was cancelled out?)) I hope that wasn't too confusing!
blue_cosmos from 58.179.108.227 at Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:53:30 +0000:
Wow, you certainly made a great analysis on what exactly happened! Thanks for your summary - it was very helpful :) I absolutely had very little clue as to what was going on until I read your summary. But one thing - you said that presumably there was a real Nemuro once, so would that mean that Mikage is just a spirit or a living person? What role does Tokiko play in all this? Why did Mikage view Utena as Tokiko selectively (only in some episodes)? Was it probably also arranged by Akio since Mikage is bitter over Tokiko leaving him?
I really don't understand why all this (and gaining eternity) had anything to do with killing Himemiya. :S
Matt from 67.158.79.211 at Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:29:14 +0000:
It's not clear to me how real Mikage is, but I think he's some sort of spirit - or at least, he's *less* real than people from the present time, like let's say Wakaba. If you've seen the very ending of the series (I don't want to give it away here if you haven't and want to be surprised), there's some question as to how real even Utena actually is, but I think Wakaba is pretty solidly a real character.
I think that whatever we see about Tokiko is memories engineered by Akio, so it's hard to say to what extent she "really" existed or was really as we see her. I think it's even possible that there never was a Tokiko at all and that's all a story Akio put into Nemuro/Mikage's head - but more likely she was a real person who Nemuro/Mikage remembers, and then Akio twisted those memories in order to control him. Seeing Utena as Tokiko is part of Nemuro/Mikage's mental problems: he is still living in the past, re-living the (partly synthetic) story of the researchers and whatever they were trying to do and his love affair with Mamiya and/or Tokiko.
Note how Akio tell him to "graduate" at the end - stop repeating that pattern and break out of the dream-world. In Nemuro/Mikage's case that probably means go on to whatever the next life is, because I think he's something very much like a ghost.
Son'a from 151.198.125.39 at Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:24:24 +0000:
Just wondering, what is the reason miki still calls the building "memorial hall" even though no one apparently died in the fire?
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Matt (mskala) at Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:34:34 +0000:
I don't know, but I can think of several possibilities:
* It could be named after someone who is dead, even without that person having died *at that location*. Note that this is typical of other buildings named after dead people in English - for instance, a building will often be named as a memorial to a dead relative of the person who donated money for the building's construction. For the building to be named in memory of a disaster in that same building is actually quite unusual. (And note the building would either have to have had another name before the disaster, or else we'd have at a time-travel paradox, not that that necessarily prohibits it in *this* series.)
* It could be that Miki is still partially remembering the name from the other timeline. Note that that's similar to what happens in the last episode - after history changes, they forget the other timeline, but not instantly, and during that process they *partly* remember it.
* The name translated as "Something-or-other Memorial Hall" might not specifically refer to death. I'd have to dig out the DVD, transcribe what they actually say, and then try to look it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if some common naming formula in Japanese actually has a more generic meaning but was translated as "Memorial."
By the way, "Nemuro," "Kushiro," and "Noboribetsu" are all place names on the island of Hokkaido. I don't know if Hokkaido has any particular significance to the story, but it's probably why Miki thought of "Kushiro" and "Noboribetsu" while trying to remember "Nemuro."
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wanda from 71.194.33.219 at Tue, 25 Apr 2006 04:58:25 +0000:
i really like utena,but like i really dont understand episode 23! i dont understand why did the picture change from mamiya to some other face at the end during utena and nemuro battle? and so nemuro really did set the building on fire along time ago killing 100 male students,but at the end anthy's brother tells nemuro its time to graduate,so its like nothing really happened from episode 14 to 23 cause they wouldn't remeber anything about the black rose seal?
love,
wanda*