I watched the whole thing through for the first time about five months ago, and I'm 17. Watching it that first time, I think my least favorite was Shiori. After watching it over and over and reading a bunch of stuff here to try and understand everyone more, I think I can appreciate all the characters... But Shiori is still kinda near the bottom of the list..and maybe Touga.

I didn't have a guide, all I had was my first impression of the show I got when I was little xD For some reason, I went into it thinking Touga was going to die.

Last edited by Dognog (10-27-2011 04:59:11 PM)

Interesting poll... I'm interested in hearing your initial hypothesis and conclusions once it's done.

I was 19 when I first watched the series, didn't have anyone guiding me through it, and Nanami was my least favorite. Prissy, arrogant, shortsighted, cruel... what was to like? My opinion of her has changed quite a bit since then and I appreciate what she brings to the story. I wouldn't say I dislike any character now, even those who are most unlikable as people are interesting and beautiful in their way.

You may want to clarify your variables a bit.  Culturally, "mid teens" and your other independent variables can occur at different ages.  Do you want perceived maturity (I was a child, I was a teen) or actual ages grouped into objectively defined levels (11 or younger = child, 12-13 = preteen, etc).  I would suggest defining your levels for age, and then making a short little survey.   Ask not who was solely the least liked character, but also who was most liked.  Then ask for these same opinions currently, along with age.  You also need to define dislike (dislike because you thought they were boring, or did their actions anger you?).

Here's an example, with my own information given as answers.  Age levels are arbitrarily grouped just for example.

==================

AGE GROUPS:  11 or younger = Child, 12-13 = Preteen, 14-18 = Teenager, 19-23 = Emerging Adult, 24-30 Young Adult, 30-40 = Middle Aged Adult, 40-55 = Older Adult, 55 or over = Senior Adult)

1.  Age Group when Utena was first viewed:  Teenager

2.  Rank the three human characters you disliked the most at this time, with one meaning the most dislike.  These are not the characters who least interested you, but   
     whom you actively did not like as persons.  If you have none or only one or two, leave an X: 

1)  Shiori
2)  Nanami
3)  Miki

3.  Rank the three human characters you liked the most, with one meaning your favorite.  If you have none or only one or two, leave an X:

1)  Utena
2)  Anthy
3)  Touga

4.  What is your current age?:  Emerging Adult.

5.  As in question 2, rank your current most disliked human characters:

    1)  Miki
    2)  X
    3)  X

6.  As in question 3, rank your current most liked human characters:

   1)  Saionji
   2)  Nanami
   3)  Utena


============

This way you have a clear independent variable, Age Group, along with levels (Preteen, Teenager, etc), and a more easily measured dependent variable.  You could assign a point value for each rank, say a 1) ranking on dislike equals 6 points on a scale, a 2) ranking equals 4 points, and a 3) ranking equals 2 points. The same can be done on a separate scale for liked characters.  Just an example.

Last edited by OnlyInThisLight (10-27-2011 10:04:23 PM)

Oooh, interesting!

I saw SKU as a teenager, around 15, because I know I opened EM when I was 16. My impressions and feelings about the characters have largely not changed since then, strangely enough. However, keep in mind that a good six months split the first arc from the rest of the show for me, so for a long time I had only the events of the first arc to judge characters by.

My least favorite character, in that I vehemently hated him, was Touga. This is amusing because he's also now one of my favorites. I think back then I was highly turned off by his relentless romantic macking on womins, and I resented the fact that he was obviously a tool for Ends of the World, but sauntered around as if he owned the school. I can't explain why that was resentment when I watched the first arc, but as soon as I saw him interacting with Akio, it went from resentment to amusement, and by the end of the show, I saw Touga as kind of a joke.

In retrospect, I didn't give him much of a chance. Back then the prevailing opinion of Touga was that he was actually a prince character, and just horribly misunderstood. I didn't agree with that either, since he appeared to me to be quite a dick. Between the two contrasting approaches I got left with an impression of a character who couldn't be a jerk villain and couldn't be a hero prince, and therefore was a failure at life. This stuck with me for quite some time, but I did over time analyze him a bit more and found much to think about, and after Yasha badgered me to death about it, I came to like him. Despite that, for a long time after my opinion changed, I kept up the anti-Touga site I had, more because it was a joke than a genuine thing. At this point he's in my top three, because he failed at both things he tried to be, because the confidence built to hide his insecurity was so strong, the wall so thick, that it never occurred to him he couldn't have his cake and eat it too. It makes for a fascinating study, and more than any other character, I wonder what becomes of him after the show.

But I wasn't scared of Touga at any point. No one's actions in the show scare me, but out of the context of the story, or if you said to me 'how would you feel about meeting this person yourself?', I would say I was scared of Akio. No one strikes me as evil in the show, including him, but he's the one who would most readily, and most glibly, do massive psychological damage to someone like me. Especially the way I was back then, with very low self-esteem, kinks a mile wide, and a belief that no one would ever want me. Oh, and a thing for authority figures and older men. He leaves mental scars on anyone that crosses his path, and he does it the way a child tears wings off a dragonfly. It's not that he goes out of his way to be a bad person, it's that he doesn't consider whether he is bad or not to be relevant. That's scary. That's dangerous. That turned me on terribly. He was my favorite character by the end of episode 14. Still is.

I think my age factored a lot into how I viewed Touga. Touga's kind of macking was exactly what I saw a lot of in school at that age (though it was never targeted at me), and I had a healthy disdain for the roses and the promises because I knew they were lies and I knew what kind of damage such shallow crap still managed to do to young girls. His behavior was more 'relevant' to my life experience, or at least observation, at the time. Had I seen it for the first time now, at 27, I think it wouldn't have struck me so hard. Now I would just think 'lol teenagers lol.'

I also rather disliked Shiori, which I think was also a product of my age--I saw girls like her at school all the time. (Usually stumbling over guys like Touga.) I couldn't think much of either crowd. Time's been better to Touga, I'll admit--Juri's storyline never held as much water for me.

My favorite characters, Akio and Saionji, were favorites way back then, and watching now, they'd be my favorites for the same reasons. The filter I view them from has matured, but the reasons for liking them haven't.

Also holy crap I'm old.

I didn't see Utena until I was out of high school (18? 19? something like that) and I saw the movie first, which probably skewed my interpretation of the characters going into the series, but for whatever reason the more morally reprehensible the character's actions, the more I seemed to like them.  The characters I loathed at the time were the ones I saw as inept (Nanami, Saionji as per the movie, but that changed when I saw the show) or too passive (Miki, Anthy up until the Black Rose arc).

The only character I recall really finding frightening was Kozue, mostly because of how unpredictable she was.  With Akio or Touga, even the most heinous things they do at least serve their purpose, but I got the feeling that Kozue's actions were fueled more by her own anger and frustration than her stated goal of having Miki for herself.  Note that this didn't stop me from loving the character, so I don't know what that says about me...

Then and now, I think I find the character's situations far more frightening and detestable than the characters themselves, but at the time I think I most resented the characters I thought would end up crushed under the wheels of the revolution machine.

Interesting question -- I was seventeen when I first started watching the show, eighteen when I finished, and I'm twenty-nine now. I never directly hated any character then, and I still don't know -- I just have those who interest me more than others. But if I had to start naming names, I was never at all interested in Juri or her storyline, except when Ruka was involved; I think it was because I just didn't empathise at all with her issues and I couldn't understand why she would mope around after Shiori (which may or may not be because I moped around after a guy who didn't deserve it for months and didn't want to hold up the mirror, but then he barely knew me anyway). The Ruka thing interested me because it shook her up, and I like seeing characters forced to take a look at themselves. Again, it's probably because I won't do it myself. XD

I also didn't much like Anthy or Nanami, but my opinion of both changed radically *while* I was watching the series, and my ambivalence towards Nanami was more because I couldn't see her point in the narrative; when I did, I adored her. And it's no coincidence that I link Nanami with Anthy here, because I think that was the intention of the writers all along anyway. My problems with Anthy were more due to the same problem with Juri, but on a much deeper level. I behave like Anthy and I know it, and I don't like it. I think that's also why I had issues with Utena, and still do; she's so damned naive, and even when she does take a fall she still tries to cling to that "nobility." It's also natural to resent someone trying to point something out to you about yourself you don't like. (In that we get a mirror of the Ruka/Juri/Shiori situation, as Ruka was also trying to show Juri something; the difference is Ruka was consciously aware of what he was doing whereas Utena wasn't; she was just playing at being a prince, and by the time she realised what she was doing she thought it was too late. Which it wasn't. But that's a debate for another day.)

So, yeah, I don't know. My likes and dislikes haven't changed much over the years, they just changed during the series. But maybe it's because I largely looked at them as characters in a story because I was doing a lot of literary analysis at the time, and if I could clearly see their purpose and the devices used to show their personalities and stories, then I liked them. (In the case of Nemuro/Mikage, I liked it a lot.) Basically I'm a whore for things I can analyse to death, and I tended towards those I could do that with. (Which is also why Saionji always interested me a lot as a character; he appeared more complex to my mind than Miki, Touga or Juri, though that's just IMHO.) ...so, I don't know how useful any of that is, but there you go.

Giovanna wrote:

I don't run around screaming I hate Utena though because objectively I don't. I realize what's great about her character, her journey, and her conclusion. It doesn't strike a chord with me, but thinking she's a damn silly fool with no idea what awaits her in the real world doesn't exactly keep to the point of the show.

Ha ha, that sums it up for me all right. I don't actively dislike Utena, but I tend to find the people around her far easier to relate to, whether I like it or not (for instance, for whatever reason I'm far more likely to admit I have things in common with Nanami and Nemuro/Mikage than I am to say the same thing about Anthy). I think with Utena I simply realised I was nothing like her and never would be, and I did resent that; I'm far too cynical and introverted to ever be like her, and considering a lot of the time she seems perfectly happy in herself, I likely didn't like her for that reason too. But then I have a track record for not liking the main characters of any show anywhere near as much as the supporting cast, so that doesn't help. The only heroes I tend to like are the anti-heroes, or the dark and brooding type; the idealists tend to get under my skin. Which, as I said, is something I'm sure I share with Anthy. Without trying to derail completely into an analysis of Anthy (which I do need to write once I rewatch the whole remastered series), I think she stabbed Utena in the back not just out of loyalty to her brother, not just out of fear of what Utena was trying to do, but out of resentment. I found Utena most interesting at the very end, when her ideals were shattered; ironically, I tend to hope like crazy Anthy does meet up with her again to tell her that it all worked out for the best in the end.

And yeah, I'm still waiting for Akio myself. I'm so repressed I'd need a complete charming asshole to get me to do anything other than run screaming in the other direction. Ha ha ha.

When I first saw the show, I was twelve-ish, and it was pink and had flowers, and I had much more important things to watch like Hellsing and whatever DBZ rip-off happened to be popular at the time.  Plus, I told myself I only watched it for the duels, but I was deluding myself.

I didn't pay much attention, so I only really remember that I started to realize something important was going on around episode seven, and so Juri became my favorite.  Other than that, I hated Utena because she had pink hair, but I also liked her a lot because I was secretly fascinated by the concept of her character.  I got bored of all the whining some time in the black rose saga, so I think it's safe to say that I hated all those characters.

Yes, I was a charming pre-teenager.  No really.

I watched it again in college at 19 because of a friend, realized I was stupid, and was much happier for it.  I started out hating Nanami because she was annoying and interrupted the plot by turning into a cow and nearly getting run over by a horse.  I also found Saionji annoying, and I think this was because of the same phenomenon Gio and Clarice have been talking about.  I am pretty much Saionji in all his frustrated, second tier glory, violent tendencies included.  I also got over this by the time I finished watching for the first time.

Five years later, it's kind of a tie between the Nanami henchmen -ko girls for their extreme ineptitude and guy obsession and Akio because he doesn't really change throughout the course of the entire series, which, in my opinion, makes him less interesting than other characters.  I don't really hate any of them, though.  Like almost everyone else here, I just find certain characters less worth my time.

That aside, since it's somewhat relevant, I need someone to make a gif of Utena hand-facing Akio in the last episode.  It never fails to put a smile on my face.

KaleMarsh wrote:

... and Akio because he doesn't really change throughout the course of the entire series, which, in my opinion, makes him less interesting than other characters.

Strangely enough, for all I claim above that I am most interested by the characters who change over the series (Nanami, Saionji and Anthy are the most obvious whereas Mikage has an interesting thing with Nemuro), I find Akio fascinating because he doesn't. With that said, I'm less likely to analyse him than most other characters, even though I find the Dios thing really interesting. Akio's done most of his character development BEFORE the series even begins, I think, and like Ohtori Academy itself he's now stunted, going nowhere. Like a flower kept in perpetual bloom. ...and now I'm remembering the way Akio hung up on Nemuro at the end of the Black Rose Saga, when his voice went kind of quiet and he didn't let him answer. Was that just Akio being Akio? Or was some part of him almost jealous that Nemuro was now free to go and change and grow up? ...of course, Akio is arguably in the same situation at the end of the series, when Anthy leaves him. But she knows he won't leave. He's the long-legged older man and we can't even guess at his age, but in the end he's the biggest child of them all.

Clarice wrote:

...and now I'm remembering the way Akio hung up on Nemuro at the end of the Black Rose Saga, when his voice went kind of quiet and he didn't let him answer. Was that just Akio being Akio? Or was some part of him almost jealous that Nemuro was now free to go and change and grow up?

I know, a mini derail, I'll stop after this.

Honestly, I took it for Akio being Akio. I never got any impression Akio had the slightest interest in what's on the outside or growing up. His interest, for example, in Tokiko's life is so perfunctory as to be insulting--even the way he goes about it is meant to direct her back to the present, which was really the only thing interesting to him about her.

BUT. I post because this very subject came up last night while I was reading the booklet packaged in the second box set. I even told Yasha 'WHOA I WONDER WHAT CLARICE WOULD SAY ABOUT THIS' until I remembered I have your copy of said booklet! But I'll write it out for you, and if it's something for you to tear up, we can....START A THREAD.

Ikuhara, notes for episode 23 wrote:

(...) I agonized over the dialogue between Mikage and Utena, and over Akio's dialogue in the last scene. I edited it over and over, right up until the eleventh hour, just before recording began.

The last scene. The original plan was for it to be Tokiko on the phone with Akio.

"Why hello, Tokiko. Have you thought about what I said? That's right...about Professor Nemuro. He was lying to himself, clinging to his past with you."

It was all an illusion that Mikage himself had created for his own sake.

"Yes.... that dream that he let the 100 boys die seems to be another lie he told himself to keep himself in the past. It's just like magic, isn't it? Why do you suppose so many people believed a false rumor like that? Perhaps they wanted to believe...that miraculous power dwells within friends."

The illusion Mikage wanted to see. Were the Black Rose Duelists people his illusion resonated with?

"While you cling to your memories, time stops. Perhaps that was the eternity he found, thought. Yes...good idea. If you'll come and fetch him. I imagine he'll be released from his memories."

Tokiko symbolized the lost "real time." And she said she would come for Mikage. The time had finally come for him to be released from his illusion of his lost time.

Just somethin' to chew on. It's literally the only coherent thing he says in the whole booklet. I think it changes the equation a lot for 1. Tokiko to be the one Akio speaks with, 2. for her to be willing to come get him, and 3. for Akio to say clearly that he needs to be picked up. Isn't the whole point that people leave the school on their own two feet...or never at all?

I actually saw Utena for the first time when I was way too young to be watching it - around 11 or 12. I remember I immediately disliked Saionji, but I warmed up to him as the show went on.

I hated Akio's guts and I really didn't like Tokiko either. Mikage and Mamiya creeped me out, but I felt bad for them. The Black Rose arc scared me to death.

Akio... I don't know. I was reading the manga before I saw the anime, and I saw him (and Utena's reaction to him) and immediately disliked him. I knew he was having a muting effect on Utena, somehow turning her into a normal schoolgirl, and I hated him for it. I can't lie and say I knew he was the horrible person he is, but I know I thought something was weird or wrong about him.