Utena Tenjou. The girl who wants to be a prince. Utena came to Ohtori Academy in search of the prince that saved her when she was a little girl. She got tangled in the duels when she challenged Kyouichi Saionji, the kendo team captain, to a duel after her posted a love letter that her friend had written him. Mistaking her for a real duelist, Saionji accepted, but when they dueled, he was not prepared for the desplay of power that Utena gave him. Utena herself was not prepared for the spoils of her victory, namely, Anthy Himemiya. Not only was Utena totally confused by the whole dueling arena with it's architecturally impossible stairs and upside-down, floating, spinning castle, but now she was engaged to a girl she had never met before, a girl who didn't seem to think this was strange at all. Utena promised not to duel again, but when Saionji challanged her a second time, she found that she could not lose and let Anthy go back to her former fiancé, who had treated her rather badly. And so, Utena was totally caught in the web of dueling that made up the lives of the Student Council. She never understood why they competed so over Anthy, even though it was explained to her that with the Bride came a great power that would grant the champion the ability to 'revolutionize the world.' Duel after duel came and went, and Utena defeated duelist after duelist. She did not want the power to revolutionize the world. All Utena wanted was to find her prince, and maybe pass finals. She also grew very attached to Anthy, and wanted to help Anthy break out of the cage that was her duties as the Rose Bride.

Utena is a very strong person. She doesn't let anyone shove her around and she always seems to fight for what's right. She doesn't really understand the duels, yet she keeps fighting because she doesn't want to lose Anthy. I don't think Utena really worries much about all the higher mysteries, because she doesn't think they involve her. However, I have a feeling they do... Anyway, Utena's relationship with the other duelists vary. She is pretty good friends with Miki and he helps her with her schoolwork and stuff (since he's a little genius). She and Saionji seem to have a mutual-hate relationship but they act civil towards each other when the situation calls for it. There's never any love lost between them. Utena respected Jury for a while because she had a reputation of being influential and powerful, but after Jury tried to get Utena to throw her rose signet away, they sort of fell out. But then by the end... well, nevermind ;) Nanami constantly tries to do Utena bodily harm for "stealing her big brother", but Utena mostly ignores her unless it's unavoidable. Touga, on the other hand, has a more complex relationship with our heroine. He is obviously very attracted to her, and he actually got her to think that he was her prince. This shook Utena's confidence so much that Touga defeated her in a duel. This occurance took Utena's confidence totally away, and she began to wear a normal uniform and began to act like a "normal" girl until Wakaba talked some sense into her, telling her that "Everyone else's normal isn't normal for you." Sound advice :) Utena challanged Touga and won Anthy (and her confidence) back, luckily for the continuation of the series... This is where the first saga ends. In the next saga, Utena starts having to fight all sorts of people who aren't duelists, which really confuses her. She also becomes friends with Anthy's brother Akio, who is the deputy trustee chairman of Ohtori Academy (his fiancée's father is the chairman). And time goes on, as Utena keeps dueling student after student. In the third saga, she and Anthy move to Akio's tower because he wants to be closer to his sister, and he didn't want to separate her from her only friend. Things in the dueling part of the series begin to get more and more complicated and just plain weird, but I can't really tell you any more without giving the whole ending away ;)

Pictures


Brr... little Utena, hiding in a coffin.

"Save her!"



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