I’m on an anime high having watched Redline this week and having finished rewatching all of Revolutionary Girl Utena. I’m starting to see the connections all over the place, just by tracking the work done by the Utena creators after that seminal work. I’ve already written a piece on Redline and normally I wouldn’t write a “remembering love” kind of post here, but otou-san is away and I’m making sweet love with his blog. Here’s the jizz:
Enokido Yoji did scriptwriting work for Utena, and Redline. What I just found out is that he and Ikuhara Kunihiko (Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mawaru Penguindrum) actually worked together in episode two of Diebuster! This just blew my mind, Diebuster being one of my favorite shows.
Look at this:
![[BSS]_REDLINE_[1080p][207485B6].mkv_snapshot_01.08.25_[2011.08.21_14.56.55]](http://www.shamefulotakusecret.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/BSS_REDLINE_1080p207485B6.mkv_snapshot_01.08.25_2011.08.21_14.56.55.jpg)
It’s commander Volton (with the pointy headpiece) serving his lord of Roboworld in this fantastic strategic GUI which lets them wade through the tactical displays. Now look at these images from Diebuster:
![[Lunar] Gunbuster 2 - 02 [DVD][AC3][965DE0CB].avi_snapshot_13.27_[2011.08.25_11.34.00]](http://www.shamefulotakusecret.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Lunar-Gunbuster-2-02-DVDAC3965DE0CB.avi_snapshot_13.27_2011.08.25_11.34.00.jpg)
![[Lunar] Gunbuster 2 - 02 [DVD][AC3][965DE0CB].avi_snapshot_14.30_[2011.08.25_11.37.15]](http://www.shamefulotakusecret.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Lunar-Gunbuster-2-02-DVDAC3965DE0CB.avi_snapshot_14.30_2011.08.25_11.37.15.jpg)
Hell yeah, that’s where I’ve seen it before! Even the commander had a very pointy headpiece! These images are from the second episode of the OVA, which had Ikuhara doing the storyboards. Redline did far more than this, but I would have to spoil the finale of Revolutionary Girl Utena: Adolescence of Utena to show you. If you haven’t seen it, don’t look!
Back to Diebuster! I’ll let some images do the talking:
Well, not all the talking: L’alc is a version of Nono’s prince. She has the skin tone of Anthy/Akio… though the mythical prince here is Noriko (from Gunbuster!). The Onee-sama, is Noriko, who isn’t an Onee-sama (rather, would never be so confident to think of herself as such), who looked up to her own Onee-sama. The Onee-sama is equivalent to the Prince, who is or must be, an “ally of justice.”
L’alc is called Princess by the Nikola Prince of the Topless, and by other members of the Fraternity. L’alc disavows her role/status as Onee-sama to Nono, at least at first. Nikola is the scheming, fallen Prince, and there’d be more than one of such a character in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
The Fraternity behaves like an anime student council, and yes is reminiscent of that of Ohtori Academy’s.
While there is no 1-1 correspondence with Utena/Anthy, but rather Nono and L’alc share attributes of both. Certainly Nono being a buster machine also translates as being a witch. But it also works as her transforming into a car that frees L’alc. Nono gets a Utenaesque end, and L’alc totally gets an Anthyesque end (based on Utena TV).
So what’s the point of this exercise? I’m just having a mad ball seeing my favorite shows remember love for each other in a web of allusion, the kind that doesn’t really matter save for something akin to fanservice. Sometimes it’s just really, really good to be a fan.
This is fucking glorious.
Thanks to you watching FLCL with me, I can totally see parts of episode 02 straight out of the Black Rose arc, particularly Tsuwabuki’s turn. Even the very animation (facial expressions are the same).
I’ll do a complete post later on with the whole web.
FUKAKU, MOTTO FUKAKU
FLCL and Utena have a lot of the same sexual themes, which are also there in everything else Enokido does. It’s his specialty methinks.
Your web is missing Melody of Oblivion and, more importanlty, Sailor Moon S, which is the real origin of this whole thing. I’ll handle watching them.
I only want to focus on everything after Utena, because once I start going backwards… shit never ends, but if to limit their collaboration, perhaps.
Crazy! Now I really have to see Redline. Not a stretch though, the Diebuster thing, as Enokido also wrote FLCL, which was Tsurumaki’s opus. Diebuster was Tsurumaki’s baby as well. Them Gainax boys know a good thing when they see it.
The full web should include RahXephon, FLCL, Star Driver, and the latest being Penguindrum. It just blows my mind how they actually got back together to work on Diebuster ep 02.
Yeah them Gainax boys are the shit, and Bones not too far behind the Remembering Love arms race.
And yes, Redline is made of jizz.
I’ll help you with that web when I’ve seen more of Melody of Oblivion, which has half the staff of Utena on it and Enokido doing *all* of the writing. That said it’s pretty ugh so far.
You might say it’s “Gainax knows a good thing when they see it” gone horribly wrong.
Ok, consider this a project! Gonna bug you on G+ about this.
Dude, the main character’s mechanic/friend in the movie is plyaed by Tadanobu Asano!
Now I have this image of you making sweet love with otousan’s blog while he’s away, and then he comes home unexpectedly and catches you and you say: “Orousan!” and let’s leave it there. Gah, I thought digi was supposed to be the disgusting perv.
Reading this post it feels like you’re starting to see the code behind the world, like Neo in the Matrix. Cool.
Hehehe, with the help of digiboy I’ve already unlocked the web of production relations across the different shows. The next step is to cite actual examples from the different shows.
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