Touga Kiryuu, the Student Council President and Prince of Slime. Heh, can you tell I don't like Touga much? It makes me even angrier that he's so darn sexy... Anyway, Touga is an eleventh grader at Ohtori Academy, and he is viewed as a total playboy. He's rumored to go through girls "like tissues" and it seems that everyone is in love with him. Besides Utena, that is, who is the only girl that Touga has his sights set on at the moment. She doesn't like him at all at first, because he tries to put the moves on her before she even hardly knows who he is. At first, Touga just watches the duels, but when he actually does challange Utena it is clear that he is very skilled with a sword. In more ways than one... *Katie smacks herself* Stoppit, stoppit!
Anyway, Touga is very manipulative. He completely puts the whammy on Utena, convincing her that he is her prince. This shakes her up so much that her confidence shatters and she loses the duel (and Anthy) to him the first time he challenges her. After that, Utena goes through a period where she tries to be "normal", at least until Wakaba talks some sense back into her and she challanges Touga again. He is as smug and confident as usual that Utena will not beat him, but with the help of that mysterious power, the same thing happened that happened in Utena's very first duel: her sword was broken and all seemed hopeless, until she charged her opponent and cut the rose off their chest with her lobbed-off blade. Needless to say, Touga loses, and Anthy and the power to revolutionize the world go back to Utena.
Touga seems to have odd relationships with the other Student Council members. He is on fair terms with Jury and he appears to know all her secrets, even the ones she won't share with the object of her affection. He also knows about Miki's "shining thing" and has made a veiled come-on toward the seventh grader. Or maybe he was just trying to freak him out. I dunno ;) His sister, Nanami, is pathologically obsessed with him, which isn't really his fault, but he isn't very nice to her at times... although, who would be? He has saved her many times from rampaging animals (?), which probably spurred on her obsession. It doesn't look like their parents were very warm towards them, from what I've seen. Touga also claims to be Saionji's "best friend", yet he has acted treacherously towards him on more than one occasion. In episode 9, when Saionji kidnaps Anthy and tries to take her to the dueling arena, it is obviously Touga who calls Utena up and alerts her. He doesn't, however, tell her who he is, which shows that he is trying to stir up trouble. Then, when Utena goes after Anthy, she finds Saionji half-drowned in the pool next to the open Rose Gates. After all is said and done, it is pretty clear that it was Touga who opened the rose gates, brought Anthy to the arena, and tried to drown Saionji. He also fabricated the letter that Saionji received from End of the World that told him about the castle coming down, which was why Saionji was taking Anthy up there in the first place. After Saionji wounds Touga while trying to kill Utena (that boy is severely deranged), Touga has him expelled. Saionji, trusting little idiot that he is, gives Touga the exchange diary that he kept with Anthy to hold onto until he was allowed back into the Academy. Touga promptly throws it into the furnace as soon as Saionji is out of sight. Some best friend. Touga, just like everyone else on the show, obviously has some sort of psychological issues. He likes to be in control and I don't think he would tolerate anyone else pushing the people around that he likes to push around. This is the impression you get at the beginning of the series, but later on, it becomes sort of ironic. Anyway, after Touga lost to Utena, he refused to come out of his room (what is it with these guys?). He doesn't appear much until the Akio Ohtori Saga, where he as shown as pretty much being Akio's lackey. He even rounds up the people that Akio wants to show "the Ends of the World". However, now, it becomes apparent that he really is in love with Utena, and the fact that she and Akio are growing more and more intimate really ticks him off. But he doesn't do anything about it, because he wants to stay good with Akio. At one point, Saionji asks him what he wants from Akio and why he keeps "kissing his ass", and Touga replys that he wants to be like Akio, to have that kind of power. By the end, it's pretty clear that even though Touga may always have been a manipulative playboy, he really is a good person. He just needed to figure out what he wanted. Which was Utena... Touga plays along with Akio's game because he thinks that it will bring him the power to make Utena fall in love with him. Or something like that. It's nice to see Touga actually acting sincere, and patching up his relationship with Saionji as well. In the end, Touga turns out (in my opinion... it's all really speculation, after all) to be a pretty decent guy. As decent as a man like him could be, anyway. There are a lot of times where it is clear that he isn't really bad, just... mislead.

Pictures

He was an awfully cute little kid...
and he's an awfully cute adult. But he was just as manipulative
when he was little as he is now.

See what I mean? Still awfully cute.
Emphasis on the "awfully" ;) Is he beautiful, or what? And is
that some wavy green hair I detect in the corner? Sure looks like it.

The infamous bicycle scene... one of my
favorite parts of the series.

Awww... Touga wuvs his kitty.

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