Roses Grow

sharnii

This is a Revolutionary Girl Utena fanfiction, set post-series and told from Utena’s POV. Utena & Anthy are the major characters/pairing focused on, but we see a lot of Akio and a fair amount of other duelists. The genre is a wicked combo of drama/romance/angst/humor/symbolic-wtf.

This is novel length and continues in the sequel Thorns Wither. Warnings for eventual yuri, yaoi insinuated, violence, limited swearing, and very adult themes. It is Utena after all…

Chapters 1-2
Chapters 3-4
Chapters 5-6
Chapters 7-8
Chapters 9-10
Chapters 11-12
Chapters 13-14
Chapters 15-16
Chapters 17-18
Chapters 19-20
Chapters 21-22

Author’s Notes

It’s been my immense pleasure writing Roses Grow, being such a besotted fan of Revolutionary Girl Utena (the anime), as well as an appreciative fan of Adolescence of Utena (the movie) and both manga series.

If you look closely you’ll find references to all three genres in my fanfiction, as many readers noticed. As is fairly obvious, Utena/Anthy is my favorite relationship in the fandom, and I enjoy shipping them in whatever incarnation can be made believable – as friends, as lovers, even as enemies. However I enjoy all the characters of the fandom and most of the relationships (including conflicting relationships such as Utena/Akio verse Utena/Touga, or Anthy/Akio verse Anthy/anybody-handy), and I admire the way the anime presents the human heart as being a very complicated thing.

Nothing is easy in the anime, everything is angst, symbolism holds the story up and drags the story back down, love is the kind of love that makes you ache and cry and try to believe. Nothing has ever inspired me to the degree that Revolutionary Girl Utena has, and after the closing of episode 39 I felt compelled to further an ending that was so bittersweet my belly curls just thinking about it.

There had to be more for Utena/Anthy. There had to be more than Utena fearing she had failed while swords rained down, and Anthy looking for Utena in the credits, but never finding her in view of the viewers.

I had to have more to survive!

That’s why I wrote Roses Grow. Sheer survival instinct. Although it’s almost 70 000 words in length it hasn’t sated my own inner compulsion to explore and further Utena and Anthy as characters (and their remarkable relationship), not to mention Akio, Touga, Saionji, Juri, Miki and all the rest. There’s so much I want to say about them, places I want to take them that just weren’t possible in the flow of this piece. Thus I’m now writing a sequel from Anthy’s point of view: Thorns Wither. I eventually aim to write a third part to the Roses Grow series as well, and hopefully then everything I have to express will be out there on virtual paper.

I should say that I very much enjoy interacting with readers, and am very appreciate of the comments I’ve received while writing, especially from readers who left multiple comments. Thank you so much! It made writing the story so much more fulfilling – I love the sense of sharing in Utena/Anthy’s possible future with other fans. Also I’ve been asked many questions about this fanfiction, the most common of which I’ll now answer in these Author’s Notes, for those who are interested. If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing that’s you. Before I begin though, a note to all artists out there: YES, I adore fanart and any that you are inspired to draw is most welcome. I’ll post it in all the places I end up posting the series and drool over it when I’m not writing. I want to see the pictures in my mind re-interpreted in other people’s minds, flowing out through their pencils and paints.

Finally any readers are encouraged to email me at sharniichan at aim dot com with comments, constructive criticism, and questions. I like to hear fellow-fan’s thoughts, I’m a learning writer and appreciate helpful criticism, and I’m a very curious person thus willing to answer questions. Keep in mind that all my answers here are just my opinion about things – no worthier than your opinion, and liable to change in my other stories. I like to explore things from every angle: this is only one version of how post-Ohtori could be.