Ohtori Academy Worldview

(Ohtori Academy Self Contained Universal World System) -- version 1.0 July 2003

If you want the short version of this analysis: Ohtori Academy is a nuthouse.

Now, in longer and more drawn out rambling pose, Ohtori is a world based upon illusions, lies, ideals and psudo-theoretical "it should work this way" thinking. Time as it passes relative to the "outside world" is altered. This is most clearly shown with Mikage, who was able to live in Ohtori in 18-year-old adolescent form for many years past his time. He was also an illusion, but that is beside the point.

The emphasis on keeping students young forever is the power of adolescence. "A star looses its brilliance as it ages. It is the same with humans" is another Akioism that has the uncanny ability to summarize the theme of an episode or the show in less than two lines. There should be an "Akio Says" segment at the end of the show. But as it applies to the setting and as any teacher will restate, teenagers are rebellious, questioning punks that want to tear down the system; even if they don't really understand what the hell they are talking about, they are so inclined to rebel anyway. And most of them grow up eventually and become dull adults. To revolutionize the world Akio needs angry, dissatisfied adolescents that are willing to change the world, hence why there is an age lock on the Academy. The students are preserved, forever adolescent. Ironically, the faculty is made entirely of dull adults with a dislike for rebellion. Sharp contrast to further emphasize the youth and vitality of the Duelists (literary device usage!).

In essence, Shoujo Kakumei Utena is a show about adolescence and the people that never fully grew out of it. If adolescence is considered a state of rebellion, awakening, maturing and growing self-awareness (with generous douses of depression, angst, and general anger at the world and the systems that try to tie us down, damn them all), then Utena exploits it to the hilt and beyond. To continue that analogy, it thinks outside the scabbard.

Not only is Ohtori Academy a perpetual forest of hormones, but also a world of illusion. Every ideal in the academy, the castle, eternity, the prince, the Rose Bride, the duels--essentially, what drives the students--is an illusion fabricated by Akio's planetarium projector or by Akio himself. The most powerful illusion in the world is one that exists in one's mind and that one believes is true--to see the world through the lens of the illusion, or theory, and filter reality to fit it--is the most powerful illusion there is, and Akio knows it. And he exploits it for all it is worth. It is how he controls everybody. Think of some of the illusions as his puppet strings, and the other illusions what he dangles in front of the Duelists to make them dance. If Ohtori is an illusion, then the students are living in a world of lies. But who is to say that this "real world" isn't an illusion or a fabrication? That everything that we fight for is not an illusion of our own fabrication? Our ideals, our thorns and morals and theories and societies and rules? They're just particles with attached meaning to fill a void! That it isn't an analogy for our world? Are you living in the real world? Are you sure you're not ignoring the butterflies--

(The webmaster was at this point in writing shoved into the loony bin with the nice smiley face by the doctors in white coats again. They're watching. But she is so used to it that she easily wormed back out using paperclips and a cocktail toothpick. And then ran from the institution on the hill again. She knows the route well.)

Ah yes. Where was I?

So if the world is eternal in the faculty that it is perpetually adolescent, illusionary, and a stage on which the little puppets dance, then it is the illusionary eternal stage. Now you know where the website got its name. Sort of the same way that a virus is an obligate intercellular parasite.

In this world, the only death is to be forgotten. Once again, using Computer Boy as an example, it is only when the people forget your existence that you no longer exist in that world. It is the only way out while still remaining in one's coffin.

The setting of Ohtori is drawn in a very neo-gothic European style, distinctly French in design. The architecture and Duelist uniforms show influence from the old shoujo anime Rose of Versailles. The French influence is prevalent in the show: the duels are given French names, French phrases are used in several artbooks and promotional pieces. And of course, there are the roses: wrought iron roses, rose rings, Rose Bride, rose duel, rose garden, rose jam, roses with thorns. The rose motif that has become Utena's trademark may or may not have significant symbolic value as to the grand meaning of the show or the meaning in life in general, but it works out beautifully. What does, however, have much more meaning in the show is the constant reference to fairy tales, princes on white horses, castles in the sky, the princess. It is the existence of innocence, a beautiful world of illusion that one wishes existed, a world in which people are happy with their given roles and merely live them out as living corpses. The Duelists use both the European style of fencing and the Japanese style of Kendo. The Sword of Dios is a fencing sword, a rapier. Whether or not this is a representation of what is considered European ideals fighting against what is considered Japanese ideals is unclear, but Utena is a story about getting out of one's shells and roles completely, not fighting over which ones are better. The mixture of Eastern and Western influence contributes to creating at atmosphere that is universal and otherworldly. Ohtori is not a part of the "real" world, and it is self aware of this.

The school system at Ohtori is distinctly Japanese. The grades are arranged in the 6-3-3 system, and since Ohtori is a private school there are no entrance exams to move up in the school system, which are a major factor in the lives of many anime characters that live in Japan. It is unknown if Ohtori has some sort of college, which would probably qualify as simultaneously the most prestigious school, the school with the most erotic orgies, the school with the worst hierarchy system and the school with the puffiest sleeves on a uniform (with the Knights Caeli Royal Academy in Austoria, Gaea coming in a close second), and all because Akio slept with the survey representative. And that is not to mention whatever else happens behind closed doors. The students wear Japanese style uniforms--both for class and for gym--the classes are named by grade level and then a letter, the classrooms have a Japanese school setup, and the bell tone to signal classes plays the very same little riff of notes heard in every anime taking place in Japan.

As far as the layout of the school is concerned, when viewed from above it looks like a burial mound. This may be symbolic of the fact that when students enter the school, they enter a graveyard of living corpses. Or it isn't intended to look like a huge proverbial grave. One thing about the Utena universe that gives it reality: not everything is explained. Some things do not fit in or have a cleanly cut meaning or even a vague symbol, but just exist as things that exist. Not everything in the world can be explained. Truth is stranger than fiction. The worlds that attempt to explain every little thing and meaning that happens for a specific reason that ties into the great scheme of things seems artificial and dead. And then I come in and try to pull meaning out of everything. Bloody hypocritical of me, isn't it?

A great deal of influence for Utena came from the novel Demian by Hermann Hesse. The boarding school at which much of the story takes place, called St. ------, closely resembles Ohtori as far as the faculty is concerned: oppressive and traditional. Demian is a story of individualization in an atmosphere that tries to push one back into respectable society, much like Japan. If Ohtori Academy is actually in Japan, this sort of oppression would be familiar to all of the students. Those that still rebel, then, show even more initiative and strength than the viewer would think if the viewer had grown up in America, the latter of which is socially oppressive enough in itself. Yet Ohtori Academy itself still seems universal and otherworldly-- its sort of social and mental oppression is universal and not just distinctly "Japanese".

The students in Ohtori Academy appear to be Caucasian as a majority, but considering that in the anime universe the father can have black hair, the mother blonde hair and blue eyes and the child pink hair and still be a fully Japanese family, this is not much of an indicator of anything. Utena once says that Touga does "Not not look Latin", so there is some self aware recognition of the situation. Call it anime irony or the Discworld effect. Anthy and Akio look Indian or Middle Eastern. They both have the bindi on their foreheads, in any case, which may or may not be a sign of their affiliation with a religion. Since I associate "Akio" and "religious" as readily as I do "Seishirou" and "fundamentalist Southern Baptist", it is assumed that the actual symbolism of the bindi itself and not its religious relation is being implied. That, or it merely makes them look different. Interestingly, the more common students (the ones that get labeled "student A" or just get a name in the credits under "other voices") have a more Japanese appearance than the main characters--dark hair, dark eyes. I do not think that this is implying anything more than just being a device to make the main characters stand out more (in much the same way that you know who the main bad guy is because his henchmen are all square jawed and unshaven and he himself is quite the bishounen.)

So, there is a definite atmosphere of the "common" people and those that stand out, both in dress and in hair and eye color. Maybe it's genetic, or they all dye their hair. I don't know. The common people are conformist and stereotypical, all wearing the uniforms while the Duelists wear their own uniforms. This brings another point: the power given to the Student Council. These people are given some serious shoving rights. If you disobey a member of the council, you are expelled. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that they are all Duelists and Akio is running the academy. The hierarchy is evident, but the top is reserved for the people that stand out. "Those that shine with their own inner light", as Akio would say. And they get out of wearing the school uniforms for those spiffy Duelists uniforms. I wonder if they ripped off the marching band. But that would mean a multi-colored marching band. And speaking from experience, marching uniforms are uncomfortable and I would not relish spending a day in one, much less dueling in one. There are attempts to enforce the uniform code for non-student council students (as is seen with Utena), but the guidance counselor seems more concerned that she is crossdressing than not being in a standard uniform. Again, uniforms = conformity, and the faculty loves conformity. More fuel for the atmosphere of adolescent rebellion.

The upper levels of Ohtori's Academy sexual society (yes, sexual society) are more accepting of homosexuality and bisexuality than is found in most anime outside of CLAMP and pure yuri and yaoi. Characters with these sexual orientations are far more common in Ohtori than they are in the real world, or they merely feel more comfortable expressing it in the academy. Of course, attempting to simplify the situation into a mere "almost everybody is all right with it" or "almost everybody is homophobic" gets the same result one would get if one tried to make a consensus on whether or not Americans like pop music: an inaccurate mess of generalities. Major themes in Utena are gender identity and sexual identity and no attempt is made to hide it or make it seem shameful or wrong. Incest is seen as something more taboo. About as taboo as satanic rock music in a high school, if that gives any prespective. As far as the actual sexual goings-on in the academy are concerned, there is the usual sleeping around that occurs whenever you have adolescents living in close proximity to one another.

So here comes the mind-blowing and awe inspiring closing paragraph. Ohtori Academy is a world of paradoxes and illusions and phenomena not explained, of symbolism and duels and adolescence, of conformity and standing out, of corpses and shells. It's high school with a vengeance. Gossiping, student council, popularity (though here popularity means being different and not the same), smack fighting and romantic bickering, the guidance counselor with no good advice and a small brain, a chairman that really IS Satan. Damn it. I wish high school really was that exciting.