Episode 38: End of the World

Akio tempts Utena with a fairy-tale ending, and she successfully resists him only to be betrayed, stabbed in the back at the last minute.

This is a summary of episode 38 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 goes to the duelling arena and finds a red carpet laid out, leading up to some steps at the top of which is a sphere with Dios sitting catatonic on top of it (as seen in episode 13).  Akio is just descending the steps, in his Prince costume; Utena realizes consciously (though as he points out, she really already knew) that he is End of the World, and demands to know what his motives are.  He tells her that she is the princess and he the prince, and then Himemiya suddenly vanishes out of her clothes, which fall in a pile on the floor.  Anthy appears, in her red dress as seen in the flashback, lying on the steps below Dios's sphere.

Akio caresses Utena, telling her she's done well not to lose her nobility, then pulls the sword out of her bosom as if preparing for a duel.  As he does so, her clothing transforms from her black "boy's" school uniform, to a pale pink gown.  Akio tells her that he'll carry the sword from now on, and they'll live happily ever after.  Utena asks what will happen to Himemiya, and doesn't like the answer - that she'll just remain the Rose Bride forever.  There's a flashback to Utena preventing Himemiya from killing herself in the previous episode, and the two girls apologizing for using each other for their own selfish ends.  Utena grabs the sword back and declares that she will save Himemiya.  Akio tells her that she reminds him of himself before he turned evil, but it's all for naught because this is all an illusion...  and he turns off the projector.  The duelling arena is actually a virtual reality created by the planetarium projector in Akio's room.

Utena says she hates the room - not for its illusions, but because it's where Akio and Himemiya conducted their incestuous affair.  He says (projecting some video clips as a memory aid) that she's just as bad as he is, for having an affair with a man engaged to someone else.  Then he shows her memories of when she was in the coffin, and repeats that she is and must be a lovely unspoiled princess who shouldn't try to be a prince.  He says that the Prince from the story never really existed - he's always been the same person - and then contradicts himself, saying that Dios's sphere (which is the disguise hiding the planetarium projector) is the grave of the person he used to be.

As the student council repeat their old speech about smashing the world's shell, Utena and Akio start duelling, she with the sword he'd earlier drawn from her bosom, he with a similar sword he pulled out of Anthy.  They fight bitterly until the magical castle disintegrates and comes crashing down around them.  The climax is a shot where Utena and Akio face off amid the ruins of the castle, with Utena shielding Himemiya behind her.

Himemiya pulls out a sword of her own, and skewers Utena.

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