Reviews from

in the past


I find this game very relateable because when i close my eyes my opp shows up and takes away my freinds nobility away

The level of mystification around Utena probably has a lot to do with how often the series changed course. The short first arc of the show's followed by the nevertheless very strong filler of the Black Rose series, and the episodes which come after that seem to belong to a completely different series. Amidst all this, certain planned aspects of the characters seemed to be abandoned in favor of efficiency. Touga's the best known case of this, with most of his backstory being reworked into the movie.

This was all for the best and helped the pacing of that last arc immensely: the version of Juri who appears in the show, for example, is probably a stronger character than the slightly less taut version of her which existed in some character design document. The rarely-mentioned fact of her having aristocratic tastes or being feared by the school's faculty wouldn't have added much had they come up more often.

Itsuka Kakumei, in adding flesh to these characters, makes their skeletal nature a little more clear. With a little more time to himself it becomes clear that Saionji's drawing off the same archetype as your Goemon Ishikawa XIII or your Tatewaki Kuno. It's a necessary pulling-back of the curtain that doesn't really take away from the quality of the show, only from the notion of its authoriality.

None of this characterization feels too fluffy, and it leaves the cast a little more well-rounded. It's good to know that Juri manages her agonies not only through fencing practice and solitary wallowing but by whipping ass at Gear. The focus on a thematically-tangential plot with two new characters is to its benefit: Chigusa's got great charisma and could fit in very well with the Oniisama e girlies of old.

I was more impressed with its implicit critique of dating sim mechanics before I realized how close they were to Tokimeki, but it's still impressively tied-in to the ideas of the narrative. Its ultimate conclusion does a decent job of wrapping things up thematically, but does so in a very sparing way, probably as a consequence of just how much route overlap's present in the game. Protagonist-chan and Chigusa were absolute freaks and I feel robbed of a thirty minute epilogue giving closure to their relationship: the eternal curse of the serial yuri reader.

Welcome to the !&%#ed-up nonsense world of Utena, where the manga is worse than the anime, the movie slaps, the fandom is chill, and even the one random spin-off game for Sega Saturn is good?! wtf

*the manga being worse than the anime is kind of forgivable considering everything (in the known universe) is worse than the anime

I don't know why this vn exists or why it thinks it has any right to be as good as it is, but if you love Utena as much as I do, you're probably going to have a great time with this.

Remarkably well done game for what it is, had a great time with it. The two new characters are really interesting and enjoyable, and the writing is honestly on-par with the show's.

None of the endings are super substantial but the meat of the game is good, and everything still feels like it wraps up fairly well despite it.

THIS VISUAL NOVEL/DATING SIM OF MY FAVOURITE PIECE OF MEDIA HAS NO RIGHT TO BE AS GOOD AS IT IS. WHY DOES THIS EXIST

more work put into this than i would expect. might be good dumb fun if you consider that this had to have been made by people who saw the first season of the show (setting of this game is somewhere in the middle of that season) and then overheard someone else's vague and confused description of the second one. in fact, that this game misses the point of the series in a much less overwrought way than the movie, and in a more hilarious and not boringly oblivious way than the manga, makes me wonder if its better than both. it actually has nanami in it so that helps

just watch the anime if nothing else because its the best tv ive seen period. a show in which its flamboyant and facetious moments just belie what it is at its heart: a hard look into child abuse's role in the construction of gender and a plea to support those who need it most, to attack the institution at the root. also maybe the only piece of fiction ive found that discusses sibling incest, arguably even centering it, through that lens.

then play this game and date touga!! if you want!!