Is it just me that feel like people are a bit too harsh on these characters?
“A tragic past doesn’t excuse one’s bad actions, it explains it”
First things first, I’m not saying any of them a misunderstood little angels or something, they are bad people. However, I think people jump too quickly on villainizing these two and forget their human part. Specially after seeing and analyzing each of their pasts and motives, I can’t help but feel a bit bad for them? This is just my interpretation of their characters, you might not agree with me (which is totally valid and understandable), but I just wanted to share a bit of my thoughts on these two characters and know what others think as well.
First things first, although Shiori seems like a one dimensional mean girl, to me she seemed more like a bully who is trying too hard to deny the fact that she might be gay. She has such an obsession towards jury, I just don’t understand why she would do all that just because she likes to see her suffer. It seems more like Shiori has been through such comphet, her disdain for “jury’s lesbianism” was actually a reflection of her self hatred for her own sexuality and attraction towards her friend. Every action she does is to get Jury’s attention and to reinforce her supposed “straightness”. I think she might actually be a lesbian and very much in love with jury, but can’t reason with her own feelings. I think some people jump too quickly on the assumption she is a cruel villain without redemption, you know? And just to be clear again, I don’t think this excuses any of her behavior, she is still very much in the wrong and her actions were indeed bad and abusive, but i also think she is a troubled teenager dealing with her own sexuality and internalized homophobia. Shiori is such an interesting character in my opinion, but an asshole too
Second, and people will probably also jump on me on this, but I feel a bit bad for Touga as well. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he is a good person, far from that, he is a womanizer, he manipulated his sister feelings (which… yikes) and he also tried to impose a female patriarchal role into utena. However, he was also s*xually abused by a male authority figure (his adopted father), something he didn’t have a single power or control over. His obsession with sex and girls seems to me like he is trying to regain a sense of control of his on situation. That is why he also seems to like to maintain the patriarchal status quo, because he needs a sense of power. There was specifically one scene in the series that got stuck on my mind, he and Saionji were in a motorcycle driving towards the end of the world, Touga was the one driving and they were having a weird (and kinda suggesting?) conversation about being in control and it kinda clicked to me. Touga is the president of the student council, always the “dominant top” in bed, always needs to be in control. but when he lost to utena, he was so devastated that he gave up on everything? but like why bro? If the rose bride is so important, you can always ask for another challenge. But I think it’s just comes down on things not going as he had planned and thinking he lost the control of his situation again.
They are not good people, but I actually like both of these characters a lot. Some people were jumped on me when I said that, but didn’t seem to want to listen as to why I actually liked them, not because I think they are good people, but because they are GOOD CHARACTERS. And this is just my interpretation of the show, if you guys don’t agree with it I’m totally fine to talk about your interpretations as well, just don’t be rude pls.