The ballad of Miki and Utena continues in part two of this two-part episode. After becoming a friendly part of Utena and Anthy’s tiny social circle (despite Nanami’s best efforts), Miki fences against his student council peer Jury. He beats his senpai, because of what she deems his his imperfect “purity.” She further implies that this change in his game is because of the ~*mysterious girl that he’s been tutoring*~, but warns him that his skills aren’t up to par for actual battle though. Hmm, wonder if any part of that is going to come up! (All of it’s going to come up.)
Miki, still enraptured with Anthy, visits her in the school greenhouse and subsequently gets lost in his “sunlit garden” of memory—until Utena butts in.
That is the face of someone who knows.
Miki reveals that the song Anthy and he’d played an episode earlier is “The Sunlit Garden,” a (famous) song he and his sister wrote. The two twins were prodigies, but then he messed up their relationships to the piano by proposing a joint concert with his anxious sis.
Taken out of context, all of the show flashbacks are terrifying.
However, the day of the show, Miki got measles; rather than following through on the concert alone, his sister ran off the stage and never played piano again. According to Miki, she had a special “feeling” in her playing, and now he’s chasing after it, only to finally find it in Anthy. Utena just thinks that translates into him loving her, and even seems to encourage the crush.
What’re you doing over there, Anthy?
Miki blushes at the suggestion, but when Utena asks Anthy about it, the latter merely repeats her mantra: That she’s engaged to Utena and will only do whatever Utena wants/suggests her to do. Miki listens in as Utena rips that idea apart: “I can’t forgive a system that deprives someone of their personal freedom!” Word.Â
At a student council meeting, Miki proposes disbanding the group, saying, “These duels to possess Himemiya are ridiculous!” (Wonder where he got that idea.) He argues that no matter what the powers of the ~*End of the World*~ are, and no matter the end effect of the revolution the council is set to bring, it’s not worth what they’re doing to Anthy.
Alright, middle schooler.
Touga and Jury disagree with Miki’s statement, and well, the student council remains. Aside: There’s an apple that, at beginning of meeting, is full, then it’s sliced by the student council convo; the symbolism of this show isn’t subtle, but that doesn’t lessen its effects.
While Jury’s sentiment toward Miki seems sisterly, Touga’s is decidedly not as friendly. Later that day, Miki bumps into none other than his much-spoken-about sister—as she exits the music room, uniform askew.
When Miki asks her if she’s there practicing, aka his life’s dream apparently, she answers, “The music room isn’t just for playing the piano.” Miki enters to find nothing other than an open-shirt Touga. BETRAYAL.
EW.
Touga wants to have taught Miki a lesson on “ownership,” or rather that if you don’t defend something/someone you like, someone else will take them away. Just then, Anthy walks in; Touga reminds Miki that if the student council’s dissolved, he’ll probably never have a shot at winning the hand and heart of the Rose Bride.
Here’s where things get icky: At the onset, Miki was a sweet boy looking for someone who plucked his nostalgic and artistic heartstrings. Here, he’s unwrapped and revealed as a self-centered aesthete trapped in his own delusions about Anthy and his sister. He’d just argued for Anthy’s true autonomy, and now he thinks that by winning the game that he’d literally just denounced, he can tether her to him in a way that isn’t like her previous engagements? Knowing that he’d only gotten this far in because of Anthy’s relative autonomy under Utena? Who, for her part, actually encourages his relationship with Anthy? Boy.
But did you ever have ‘it’?
This all is exacerbated when Anthy plays piano for Miki, and reveals that if Utena told her to stop, she would. (Not that Utena EVER WOULD DO THAT.)Â As Miki’s mind spirals into into an extra-creepy Touga flashback sequence, it takes him to the “logical conclusion.”
Utena obviously thinks Miki is her pal, and is even touting the effects of his tutoring to Wakaba, when he confronts her with a white rose and a challenge to duel. She’s perplexed, but after all, hadn’t she suspected as much when he first started making overtures to Anthy? Still, it’s tough to see that even though Miki isn’t as self-serving or outwardly brutal as Saionji, he’d still arrived at the same conclusion, only under a veneer of kindness and actual care.
At the duel itself, Miki repeats his claim that he wants to set Anthy free—by fighting to absolutely control her. He puts up a decent fight against Utena, who’s apparently a master swordswoman for all of the sword-variant sports, but then! Anthy cheers for Utena… and the illusion dissolves. Utena slices his flower up, and that’s the end of Miki’s claim.
But then! A cut to Miki’s (nameless?) sister: She reveals that she’d only played piano because a cute boy next door told her he liked it. Though everyone assumed she was as good as her brother, including Miki, she was actually terrible; he was just good enough to follow her. Miki’s memory is a lie, or rather a very polished, one-sided version of reality; a good mirror, perhaps, of his “relationship” with Anthy.
The episode ends with Miki telling Utena that he’ll challenge her again in the future. Let’s hope that’s not the case, but if I had to bet, it’ll be Jury’s turn to have dueling beef with Utena next. Until next week.
Tweet your thoughts on Episode 5 of Revolutionary Girl Utena to me here. This should go without saying, but NO SPOILERS PLEASE!
Lilian Min is an associate editor at HelloGiggles and has written for The Atlantic, Nylon Magazine, BuzzFeed, and others. Read her other work here and tweet her here.
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