Review of Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie

I bought the Shôjo kakumei Utena movie recently and this is a very surreal tale that takes place in a fantasy world (unlike the series, which takes place in Japan). The director gives us beautiful scenic artwork along with a new, more beautiful look (than the school-girl-with-librarian-hair) for Anthy. The movie does take on more lesbian overtones than the series, which was based on friendship. Most people don't understand what happened with Touga/Shiori. Utena and Shiori both were haunted by the dead (which is why Shiori and Utena could see Touga, yet Miki and Juri couldn't). The whole transformation with Shiori was to symbolize Shiori's malicious feelings growing as Touga explained his childhood when he was raped and beaten. The ending is what kills most people, but let me explain: The director said that Utena and Anthy would sacrifice everything (including their clothes, which is explained at the end when they enter the barren, apocalyptic modern world) Basically, this is story about teenage hood. They wanted to leave their crazy-and-surreal dream world and come to reality. The world is really a harsh place and that you must make sacrifices to truly grow up. Good symbolic drama, nice score. 9/10