Episode 25: Their Eternal Apocalypse

Utena and Himemiya move in with Himemiya's brother Akio, who with Touga's assistence tempts Saionji to fight another duel.

This is a summary of episode 25 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.

Touga and Akio go for a drive.  Akio suggests that Touga take the wheel; he protests that he's not old enough.  Utena and Himemiya are moving into Akio's house.  Wakaba visits to help them get settled in, and comments that they're lucky to be living under the same roof with such a gorgeous guy.

The student council meets, and they question Saionji as to where he was during his absence.  He declines to comment on that, but says that he's through with following End of the World's orders; he won't continue with the duelling game.  Meanwhile, Akio is using a star lecture in the planetarium as an excuse to cuddle up to Utena and tell her about how his name is derived from the Japanese name for Venus or Lucifer.  When Himemiya and Utena go to bed, Utena tells Himemiya that she wants them to be the kind of friends who always share their problems with each other.  Himemiya seems like she's about to share a problem, but then says, oh, it's nothing.

Touga seeks out Saionji in the kendo dojo, and after an exchange of snippy comments, Touga announces that there's someone he would like Saionji to meet.  Touga says some overly dramatic lines and Akio drives up (even though they are indoors) in his red sports car.  The three of them go for a drive.  Touga gives Saionji a pep talk about seeking something eternal through duelling, and then Akio, who is driving, announces that he'll show Saionji the End of the World.  He jumps up on the hood of the car (leaving it driverless) and poses as the car speeds along.

In the rose garden, Miki tells Utena that a "gondola" has appeared in the central shaft of the spiral stairs to the duelling arena, and "it is the wings which will carry us to the End of the World." Then Saionji arrives, announces that he is not the man he was yesterday, grabs Himemiya and says she belongs to him, and then challenges Utena.

There's a new transformation sequence for entering the duelling arena; now Utena and Himemiya ride up in the elevator-like gondola, and there's more nudity involved than before.  This new sequence is used for the rest of the series.  In the arena, there are dozens of cars similar to Akio's, sticking up more or less vertically out of the ground; one also flies in a circle around the outside of the arena as the duel progresses.  Just after the start of the duel, the Sword of Dios suddenly vanishes from Utena's hand, to everyone's surprise.  Himemiya seems to have one of her rare moments of thinking for herself; she pulls Utena out of harm's way and then, in a ritual much like the one for pulling a sword from her own bosom, Himemiya pulls one (apparently identical to the Sword of Dios) out of Utena's bosom.  With the new sword, Utena is able to beat Saionji.  This new ritual is also used for the rest of the series.

At the end of the episode, we see Akio in the planeterium, telling Himemiya to "come here," and grabbing her when she seems reluctant.  As Utena wonders why Himemiya is so late coming to bed, we get a brief glimpse of someone with dark skin (Akio or Himemiya, it's hard to tell) embracing a person's silhouette that seems to be made out of sky.

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