iamjoe

Honestly, I had to watch this like three times before I had an inkling of a clue what this anime was about. I was not familiar with the Utena series before, and I ended up watching the movie because I was informed that it wasn't the same as the series. So I watched it and wondered what sort of crack I had smoked before popping the DVD in. Apparently, I had not smoked any crack, and it was just Utena that was messing with my head. The story is...I don't know. Up to now, I hardly know what happened. It's long, convoluted, and they don'tever, EVER explain what the hell happened. Well, they sort of did, with visual symbolism. But I'm sort of dumb in a fabulous way, so I barely understood any of that. The art and animation was top-notch though. It looked incredible. The sound was great too. Characters were...interesting, to say the least. I was pretty certain that at least four people in the main cast were homosexual, or maybe it's just all the flower imagery that threw me off. I didn't enjoy this movie because I spent the whole time tugging at my marvellous hair wondering 'WTF?!' is going on. It's not unfabulous, and it's worth a watch, I say.

Venneh

Adolescence of Utena is a feature-length movie that was produced and directed by the same persons who were responsible for the TV series. It premiered in 1999, and has been licensed Stateside by Central Park Media, which is now defunct. Let's just say it's been out for a long time Stateside. Adolescence of Utena is best described as the TV series retold in two hours or less with different plot elements bought up or discarded, with some characters absent, and lots and lots of symbolism and, some would argue, a heavy dose of crack. I would highly suggest watching the series going intothis. I watched this first, then watched the series, and then watched this, and I found that the series helped me understand it more, which is what the creators intended with this. And then the movie, in turn, helped me understand elements of the series that I didn't before, which in turn helped me understand the movie more, which helped me understand the series... it's a cycle of positive feedback. And it's amazing. The art for this is a lot smoother than it was in the series, though it is still heavily stylized. A definite improvement. The music has a lot of the same themes, subtly reworked for the movie, which gives it a whole new feel. There are also some new vocal pieces that don't have to do with the duelling songs, and they're quite addictive. Most of the vocal cast was able to return for this, except for Akio's seiyuu, which just adds a nice touch to this. An amazing movie, and one of my favorite anime movies to date.