| What's in a name? |
| In case you happen to be wondering about my choice of names... Wonder no more! I named this page "Carousel" after that scene in either episode thirty eight or nine. I'm sure you all remember it. It's sort of Dios giving Utena a pep talk. I love that scene... "But how that power is used... I Decide." Any way, my darling and lovely friend Celeste kindly pointed out to me one day that a revolution is, in fact, a circular movement, in addition to being a massive and quick change (although I'm reasonably certain that "kakumei" only signifies the "massive and quick change", in Japanese. I'm sure that there's another word for a revolution as a planet on its path. Just like "hate" signifies an actual boundary and not a time. Two seperate words, again, but that's another story). And, you may have noticed, but that's all that either Dios or Akio can do. Dios is dead. He can't affect real things. Akio is trying his damndest to affect things, but in the end he only has control over his own little make-believe world. "But that's exactly why you can't save her. In the end, the prince is wandering for eternity, entranced, within the castle." I am personally of the opinion that Akio is speaking of himself here, and not Dios. All Akio is capable of doing is manipulating the creatures that happen to wander into his little world. So, he will wander, entranced, within his own illusions, for eternity. It's change, it's movement, sure, but in the end, it's going nowhere. |
I have here an update, or rather, correction, sent to me by Chris Kern. Some translation discrepencies, and what they do for the overall meaning: "But that's exactly why you can't save her. In the end, the prince is wandering for eternity, entranced, within the castle." A while back I noticed that this line given in the fansubs is totally different from the line on duellists.tj's script. Since I do know some Japanese I listened to the line several times, and it appears that the duellists.tj translation is better, and that the line should be "But that's exactly why you can't save her. Because in the end, all those things about 'princes' and 'a castle holding eternity' were just make-believe." To me this makes more sense (the other line always confused me). Utena is saying that she wants to be a prince to save Anthy, and Akio is replying that it's impossible because princes do not exist. However, I do agree with your point about Akio having no power outside the Ohtori world (I tend to have odd theories about utena, if you read alt.fan.utena at all you might see some of them.) As another note, you are right about the word "kakumei" -- it refers to a revolution only in the sense of a change (like "The French Revolution"). The JP word for the other kind of revolution is totally different. (On a totally random note, the word "mokushiroku" does not refer to an end-of-the world scenario, but rather a revelation, which is what the word "apocalypse" really means.) (for the record, there is another mistake after the commercial break. The fansubs have Akio saying something like "Someone as young as you may not appreciate the value of this room. But this room connects to the castle in the sky." It appears that this should be "Someone as young as you may not appreciate the value of this room. And so you don't see the real chairman's room, but instead chase after phantom castles in the sky." It's interesting that both of the wrong quotes have opposite meanings to the actual ones.) -Chris |