It is with joy that I heard that Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena is getting a theatrical release in the United States (and, apparently Canada!) Yesterday, GKIDS made their official announcement and I spent some hours tracking down every theater I could find that will be playing this movie, so before I rave about why you should go see it, here’s the most important information, about where and when.

Where To Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena

The following movie chains are carrying the movie.  The chain in my town is running the movie in my old hometown, but not here, so check for the nearest location.

AMC Theaters

Cineplex

Regal Theaters

Cinemark Theaters

The GKIDS announcement only mentions AMC, so do take a look at local theater chains…and, if there is a chain that is showing it that I have not included, let me know in comments. You don’t have to mention that the chain theater near you has it, unless it’s a chain I don’t have here.

When To Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena

June 21-22, 2026

These are the most common dates, but I have seen 21 and 23 for some theaters. Check your nearest theaters for time and dates. 

Why You Should Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena The Movie: The Adolescence of Utena

In 1990s, we had two anime series that were foundational for the growing Yuri fandom.  One of the directors for Sailor Moon was Ikuhara Kunihiko. Under his direction in the third and the beginning of the fifth seasons, we were introduced to Sailor Uranus/Tenoh Haruka and Sailor Neptune/Kaioh Michiru. This young lesbian couple changed the world, by making an anime one of the very first portrayals of a lesbian couple on Japanese TV.

Following that series, Ikuhara built a creative team, known as Be-Papas, and they created an anime and manga series, Shoujo Kakumei Utena (少女革命ウテナ) Revolutionary Girl Utena in English. (This link goes the category on Okazu, where you will see many, many posts about the series and its influence. One of those posts was included in my book: Retrospective of a Revolution – 20 Years of Shoujo Kakumei Utena.)

This movie is the one of four alternate versions of the Utena narrative. The TV animation is a 39-episode fantasy exploration of magical and school shoujo tropes, gender, abuse and redemption. It’s fantasy and funny as hell, with intense and fabulous background music.  At the moment it is out of print, but if you check your library system, you might find one of the many releases available. I know I donated at least one to my library. The manga from Viz Media, is another iteration of the narrative. It is much less queer.  The manga for the movie, the fourth iteration, is largely the major influence for me to discover the history of the references in the series, launching me on my trajectory of learning the artistic and literary history of Yuri.

And then there is the movie. This movie is visually one of the most astonishing experiences I have ever had. I first saw it on a shitty VHS copy from an illicit video rental place, then was able to see it on the big screen at the Japan Foundation in NYC.  It is my eternal pleasure to have introduced this film at the Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festival in San Francisco. At that time I spoke to an audience of 1200 people (about 1000 of which had no idea what it was about)  at the Castro theater, with Ikuhara himself sitting in the front row. 

This movie is a magnificent work, often intentionally inexplicable, (sometimes unintentionally) with symbolism that may appear profound, and may not. The music is gorgeous and meaningful. The voice acting is memorable, even more so as  we have lost Kawakami Tomoko, Utena’s voice actress.

Please go and see this movie while you can…and if you find you cannot understand it, just let it wash over you, like the roses on the dueling ground. I promise it’ll be worth it.

In space, capitalism still sucks. And, with the addition of weaponized armored robots, it looks a lot like war. In a world where different corporate concerns are literally fighting for control of market share, a family is torn apart, but not before a young child bonds with her mother’s mobile suit in a way that no one else can attain. Now, 14 years later, Suletta Mercury has come to Asticassia School of Technology to train as a pilot, only to find herself in a series that was brilliantly summarized by Kat Callahan as “Revolutionary Mobile Suitena.” ^_^

At Asticassia, Suletta functions both as a blithering idiot-type protagonist and a True Hero ^TM type protagonist. She finds herself in the middle of a duel to protect a girl she doesn’t know and, as a consequence of winning the duel, is “engaged” to the girl, one Miorine Rembran, who lives in a small greenhouse on campus. By now, you’ve probably cottoned on to the fact that Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is honestly, in some key ways, Utena in Space.

!?#水星の魔女 #G_Witch pic.twitter.com/zN1H5pf4ZG

— Lizリズ (@Nakayasee) October 9, 2022

There’s no doubt, from the credits to the character named Chu-Chu, (with a mouse-ear like hairstyle) and, of course, the duels for Miorine, this homage is deliberate and not especially subtle.

But this is not Utena, it is Gundam, which has plenty of its own references. Also, interestingly, it may be Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Suletta’s Gundam is named Aerial and the head of the Mercury-based Shin Sei Development Company, Lady Prospera is a pretty strong nod in that direction. Prospera is also this season’s Char Aznable-helmet wearing character, because if we don’t have one of those is it really a Gundam? ^_^

As many people have pointed out, Miorine is not at all a passive Anthy. She’s actively seeking to effect change and it seems likely that she’ll be a key piece to overturning her father’s influence. Suletta has a normal sense of what is right and wrong, and she can see that there’s a lot of wrong stuff going on. They may be very good for each other. One hopes so. Guel Jeturk is already our Saionji character and we can see hints of the rest of the student council, at least in part. I sincerely dislike the character designs, and the school uniform, but that’s fine, it’s unimportant.

So this season is carrying quite a heavy load of symbolism and imagery in the first few episodes.  But don’t be deceived, this is still a Gundam and is therefore full of politics and business that have a tenuous relationship to how those things work in real life. If it did, Miorine’s father, Delling Rembrand, would have been removed by the rest of the board long ago. Corporate extortion is one thing, but having to listen to the shouting is not. Those 30 other board members could just pool shares and bounce his ass. He’ll be a drag as a big boss.

And then there are the Gundam themselves. Aerial takes on the heroic white/red/blue and yellow “main Gundam of this series”* design, with unrealistic and very cool transforming weaponry. I am a huge sucker for transforming weaponry, apparently. Honestly, the Gundam battles are among the best parts of the series thus far. I’m glad, too, because they’ve had decades to get that right and it would have been depressing if they weren’t.

I have no idea how much of or how long, this series will be wearing Utena cosplay, plot-wise, but I’m hoping that it sheds it and movse on to a powerful story of its own. I’ve only seen a few Gundam series but one that makes strong anti-war and anti-capitalism statements would be welcome, although I wouldn’t bet on that this time. At least we have a female lead and a couple right from the beginning…let’s see what they do with that.

Ratings:

Art – Good on tech, less good on people, let’s give it a 6
Story – Well, since at the moment it’s 3 series trying to figure out who’s boss, also a 6
Characters – Other than Delling, who is stupidly unlikable, I’ll go 7 and hope some of them go up in score
Service – Erm, not really, but I don’t know if I should be reassured or not
Yuri – Again, erm. It’s Utena, but we’re at the beginning and who knows what will develop. Say….2 for the homage.

Overall – A strong 7, with loads of room to get amazing…or not. Guess we’ll find out!

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is streaming on Crunchyroll.

* I know every Gundam is different and fans could tell me in great detail why. They mostly look the same to me, but I feel that way about cars and planes and other forms of transportation, too. Feel free to detail your feelings about Aerial in the comments. ^_^