Translation by the Utena Translation Project Yasuyuki Sato and others Talking about Shoujo Kakumei Utena Ikuhara Kunihiko Director/Creator Ikuhara Kunihiko Ikuhara Utena is someone I wish I could be. Ikuhara I want to be a fool. I want to be ignorant. I want to be naive. Ikuhara Anthy is, to me, the embodiment of reality. Ikuhara I can't reveal the motivation. Ikuhara But to give you a little hint, it will be something fun. Ikuhara I don't know if the character Anthy herself actually has any "venom." Ikuhara I portray her as having "venom" in her, yet at the same time I won't portray her as ever having "malice." Ikuhara Speaking for myself, I must say that she is an uncommon character. Ikuhara I don't think there has never been anyone quite like her in animation. Ikuhara As for Seazer's choruses, I've liked them ever since I heard them at Tenjou Sajiki (a theatrical troupe) as a teenager. Ikuhara If you ask me, it was odd that everyone reacted in surprise. Ikuhara Some people even said that they laughed, thinking it was supposed to be a gag. Ikuhara I thought about what that meant, since they seemed so natural to my sensibilities. Ikuhara I think they probably laughed at those Japanese words, which sound like a potpourri of fossilized words. Ikuhara Which means, I think they had a fixed idea that choruses are normally not like this. Ikuhara Plus, I thought it might be that we didn't like the Japanese language any more. Ikuhara We intended to make episodes 1 and 2 pretty straightforward. Ikuhara Having said that, I told them I wanted to discover a new value of fun, but still, I think we made episodes 1 and 2 quite straightforward. Ikuhara I was still trying to reach the greatest common denominator of understanding. Ikuhara But many people told me it was unintelligible right from episode 1, and yet I had meant it to be the biggest crowd-pleaser I could make. Ikuhara I couldn't make it any more so than I already had. Ikuhara I don't know whether it's what they wanted of me, though. Ikuhara I think from now on we are moving away from the atmosphere of episodes 1 and 2. Ikuhara You see, I don't want to make works that they will only say are "good." Ikuhara Of course, if they say it's good, then that means their reaction was good. I can appreciate that. Ikuhara But rather than that, though you might call this a trainee monk's sense of value... Ikuhara I want to pursue a value of fun for its own sake. Ikuhara Since many staffers are working together, someone says "This is good, isn't it?" Ikuhara "What's so good about it?" And we go back and forth like that. Ikuhara ...Hollywood movies we saw long ago, animation we watched as teenagers, Ikuhara manga we thought were so good... Ikuhara ...so, what A knows... and what B knows... and what C knows... we keep refining what is good using our common language... Ikuhara Then, we notice it's turned out to be a parody. It's turning into an imitation. Ikuhara So, I wanted to avoid such imitations to the best of my ability. Ikuhara I feel each of the characters is my alter ego. Ikuhara The Shadow Play Girls are my friends. Ikuhara Those girls come from Planet Kashira. Ikuhara And they often talk to me via radio waves... almost every day. Ikuhara I think my generation, as well as the younger generation, lacks imagination. Ikuhara You know that a great many students commit suicide. Ikuhara I think they're unable to imagine a happy future. Ikuhara To put it more bluntly, they look at their mothers and fathers, who should be motivating them for their future, and they can't imagine they will grow up to be happy. Ikuhara The grownups they communicate with are their parents, their teachers and the like. Ikuhara But looking at them, they can never be convinced that their future will be happy. Ikuhara I don't think that's because of their parents, but because of their lack of imagination. Ikuhara That may apply to me, too, though. I'm not so sure if I can portray this very well toward the audience, but... Ikuhara Through this, you may be able to imagine a happy future, or through this, you might be able to go on living happily. Or... Ikuhara These are the sorts of things I wish to portray. Ikuhara To put it nicely, this is why Utena is naive and foolish. She speaks of her Prince and the like, at her age. Ikuhara To our sensibilities, we think of that as stupid. Ikuhara I want to show that this sensibility of ours, that leads us to think of that as stupid, is itself absurd.