Episode 3: On the Night of the Ball

Utena briefly disguises herself as a girl, then rescues Himemiya from Kiryuu Nanami's creepy incestuous jealousy.

This is a summary of episode 3 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 is on her way to school, and telling Himemiya not to call her "Utena-sama," when crowds of other girls show up and all greet her by that title; she says, okay, they can call me "sama," but you can't, because you actually mean it - and also, shut up about this engagement business because, despite all appearances, I'm straight.  Kiryuu Touga shows up and says he's very glad to hear that; Utena attempts to brush him off, then sees that he's got a rose ring just like hers, and is confused, wondering if he might be her prince.

Meanwhile, the student council are mystified as to who Utena is and why she has a rose ring when she clearly isn't one of End of the World's pawns.

Wakaba tells Utena that Touga is a playboy who has hurt lots of girls, and Utena says that such a person couldn't possibly be her prince.  Then Wakaba says that Himemiya is quite unpopular, especially because she broke Saionji's heart - and we cut to see other girls bullying Himemiya over exactly that.  Nanami, a new character, shows up and rescues her, saying "I'd like to be your friend." She informs Himemiya that she (Himemiya) is nominated as the queen of the upcoming dance.

Back at the East dorm, two packages containing gowns are delivered - one for Himemiya from the dance committee, and one for Utena from Touga.  After hearing that Utena doesn't plan to attend the dance, Himemiya declares that she won't, either.

At the dance, we first observe that Nanami is Touga's little sister, and her affection for him goes well beyond "cute" and into "creepy"; he seems not to notice.  The girls who were bullying Himemiya are actually Nanami's friends and in league with her.  Then, sure enough, Utena makes a big entrance with Himemiya on her arm, both wearing the dresses they were given; Utena is almost as stunning as a girl as she was as a boy, and Touga in particular is quite taken with her.  Not surprisingly - it's exactly the fantasy he arranged.

Nanami has been making arrangements of her own, motivated by jealousy over Touga's apparent interest in Himemiya; pretending to be friendly, she drags Himemiya onto the dance floor and has her doused in champagne, at which point the trick dress Nanami had sent Himemiya, disintegrates.  Utena, who was in the middle of rejecting Touga again, pulls off her own gown, revealing her masculine clothing hidden underneath, which is pretty impressive considering that the boy's uniform covers a lot of skin that the gown didn't.  She makes Himemiya an improvised dress out of a tablecloth, and they dance in a cloud of rose petals for the rest of the episode.

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