Episode 30: The Barefoot Girl

Akio romances Utena and several other women.

This is a summary of episode 30 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 fantasizes about the prince of her memories, wondering if when he kissed her, that was her First Kiss for the purposes of Japanese culture, which puts a lot of emphasis on that (like promiscuous gaijin losing their virginity).  Akio, whom she is now living with, bakes a cake, and just as they're about to eat it, Wakaba shows up at the door to sample the cake and drool over Akio.  At this point we first see a shot of a candelabrum with three burning candles in it, which will be shown repeatedly throughout the episode.

Two teachers are scolding Utena again for cross-dressing when Akio shows up and rescues her by intimidating them.  He makes some comments about how much he likes her, and she gets weak at the knees.  Several more scenes follow in which Utena starts to realise that she's falling for him, despite her attempts to deny it.  When she hurts herself on the basketball court (because she wasn't concentrating, because she was thinking about him), he drives up in his car as she's limping home, to whisk her off to the hospital, and we see one of the three candles go out.

After returning from the hospital, as she's getting out of the car, he takes off her shoe, starts caressing her foot, and then starts kissing her; she doesn't resist.  We see the second candle go out, and then the camera zooms out and we see that Himemiya is holding the candelabrum, standing in the shadows out of Utena's and Akio's view.  The light is reflecting in her glasses, making them shine - always a bad sign in anime.

Utena and Himemiya, in bed, discuss whether there is anyone that you just shouldn't fall in love with; they don't reach a conclusion on that, but Himemiya declares that she is in love with someone herself.  Meanwhile, Akio and Touga are out for a drive, and agreeing with each other that Utena is a fine girl.

The next morning, Kanae shows up, with her mother, to warn Akio that he's on thin ice because he's been pretty much ignoring Kanae.  He talks to Mother alone, starts rubbing her feet, and then kisses her...

Utena thinks about kissing Akio some more, and the last candle goes out.

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