Episode 9: Castle Where Eternity Dwells

Saionji kidnaps Himemiya; Utena comes to her rescue; Touga comes to Utena's rescue, and is revealed to be her prince; Saionji wounds Touga, and is expelled.

This is a summary of episode 9 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.

Saionji reveals, first in a kendo match with Touga and then in a conversation with Utena, that he and Touga have been friends for more than a decade, and he can't stand to lose to Touga.  He must win the duels because he must beat Touga, and take Himemiya to the magical castle where he thinks he'll find "something eternal."

Then there's a flashback to ten years ago:  Touga and Saionji were coming home from practicing kendo when they encountered a church were there was a funeral going on, and some men ask them if they've seen a little girl who just went missing, apparently distraught at the loss of her parents.  Touga led Saionji into the church, where they found the girl - little Utena, of course - hiding in a casket.  They attempted to talk her out, unsuccessfully, but the next day she was found and seemed to have regained the will to live.  Saionji believes that Touga must have shown her "something eternal," and he's determined to discover such a thing himself.

Touga hears via the student council about Utena's quest to find her prince, recognizes himself in the story, and tries to put the move on Utena, asking, "Wasn't your prince someone a lot like me?"; she rejects him again.  Saionji receives a letter from End of the World which seems to please him greatly.  Then Utena comes home, discovers that Himemiya is missing, and gets a phone call telling her that Himemiya has been kidnapped and taken to the duelling arena.

Saionji and Himemiya fight at the entry to the duelling arena.  Then Utena shows up, finds Saionji floating face-down in the moat, no sign of Himemiya, and the door standing open.  She and Saionji enter the arena; inside, there's a giant rose with a casket in the middle, which opens to reveal Himemiya inside.  Then the castle above them starts crumbling, pillars rise up out of the floor, Utena jumps from pillar to pillar as they disintegrate beneath her, and as she reaches Himemiya, most of the weird stuff vanishes.  As Utena is trying to revive Himemiya, Saionji attacks her from behind with a katana, and wounds Touga, who has shown up out of nowhere to defend Utena.  Touga is translated as saying that he did this because he is "chivalrous." The actual word he says is "feminist," but that doesn't mean the same thing in Japanese that it would in English even though it's originally an English word.

The last we see is the silhouette of Touga sitting up in bed and talking on the phone with End of the World, explaining that he sent the letter Saionji received; no, his wound is not serious; and yes, Saionji is being expelled from school.  Touga has at least three girls in bed with him.

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