At last, the conclusion to the “Apocalypse Arc” of Revolutionary Girl Utena.

There will be spoilers in today’s post. Please do not read past this if you have not yet watched it, or do not wish to know any details.

***

These final three episodes live in my mind as masterworks anime. And now, more than ten years later, I watched them again, fearing that I had made more of them in my memory than they were in reality.

I hadn’t.

The climactic moment for me has always been and will always be the quiet conversation over tea and cookies, when Anthy says that she’s poisoned the cookies…and Utena keeps eating, then admits that she too has poisoned the tea…and Anthy takes another sip.

Out of context, this moment probably doesn’t seem like much, but for me it is *the* moment of the series. Everything is understood between these two, everything is forgiven, even the betrayals to come.

Akio is revealed for what he truly is…nothing at all.

The revolution of the world comes and goes and only one person notices it.

Once again, as Anthy quietly points out the obvious to Akio, “You have no idea what happened here, do you?” I applauded. Once again, as I watched Anthy step out of the gates of Ohtori, my heart is filled with joy for her.

Fans really didn’t like this ending the first time around. It’s too ambiguous, too open-ended. We don’t know what will happen.

For me, it stands as the best ending to an anime series ever. The possibilities were endless, even the fanfic was extraordinary. Because we didn’t know, we could create a thousand different reuinions, a million different futures. At the end of the story, I wanted only to revisit some of these endings (especially those I wrote for myself, obviously ^_^) because in my mind, I know *exactly* what happened.

As, I hope, do you.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

The final Utena box set contest ends today, at midnight my time. Winners will be announced in a few weeks, because I have some personal stuff to take care of this week. Please get those final entries in!

It is my hope that this re-release of Revolutionary Girl Utena was as much fun for you as it was for me. Thanks, Nozomi/RightStuf for making it possible. And thanks for your donation of a spiffy third box set and Duelist’s Ring as a contest prize.