Yesterday was the big day!  Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie: The Adolescence of Utena was in North American theaters. Yes, the movie had gotten screenings at Film Festivals (sometimes accompanied by me doing an intro) and the Japan Society, and other orgs, but this was  a first – North America-wide screenings. 

So my wife and I and a friend, headed over to the mall at which I spent a lot of my youth and I went into the megaplex that the theater has become.  Our friend was going to be  a great test of what this movie looks like from the outside. She’s smart and well-read, curious and interested in ideas, so I expected her to be able to follow. 

We were disappointed that there wasn’t a movie poster for the movie. I was told that old movies don’t get posters, so boo. I would have loved to have one of those. 

Our theater never got the aspect ratio right, which meant that subtitles were cutoff on the bottom. It was just like  the old days, when they fucked up regularly. ^_^;

Yeah this image came out bad, oh well. But props for “Girls Like Girls” on the same screen. 

I have decided to take a page from K-pop fandom and show up to events with stuff to give away. In this case, I brought some of the By Your Side (still on sale thorugh June 30!) bookplates, with original art by Rica Takashima that are meant to be understood as Anthy and Utena’s hands reaching for one another. I also brought some Yuri Heart stickers and Okazu heart stickers based on the t-shirts designs. 

Giving folks stuff is a great way to make new friends. ^_^

Earlier that day, I had been chatting with RKasa on Bluesky, and learned about an amazing database of otaku goods and figures, and when we started to chat with the person sitting next to us, I was amazed to meet RKasa in person. ^_^ What a hoot, huh? We took a paired selfie of our Duelist rings. ^_^ 

Then I got to meet Mutti, who allowed me to take pictures of their awesome custom Anthy Funko and pins.

Everyone in the theater was lovely. Thank you all for taking a moment to chat!

The movie is so great on a big screen. The school is vertiginous and surreal. The scenes that are always impactful are that much more so on a large scree. The dance on the dueling ground, the castle car…

As Utena says to Anthy, “Let’s go…to the outside world..” I turned to my friend and said, “Now it’s gonna get weird” and she laughed, “NOW?” Afterward, we listened to her ideas about what it all meant.

We had a great time seeing it in a theater. I hope you’ve all gotten your tickets and will tell us about your experience in the comments.