Welcome to Empty Movement: the Utena fandom's worst kept secret! We still update an actual, real, website, of the kind that existed before social media! Wow! And you know what? We're gonna still be kickin' when social media is over. Your special prize for noticing this link? Early access to Something Eternal. Take a look at what's new, both above and below, or just browse around and see what you find!

This website is over twenty years old, and it's still going strong. Thank you so much to the many, many contributors and supporters we've had over the years, you've made insane amounts of content possible and it has been our absolute pleasure to do our best bringing it to you. Come! Join us! If we can't take you to the world you desire, we can at least take you to a pretty massive archive of Utena content.

Check us out on social media while it still exists: translation projects, artwork, creator tidbits, and most importantly, complete trash and shitpost memes can be found there. We are most active on Twitter, Tumblr, and Discord...for now. :) And if you want to support us, we have some great custom merchandise you can get here, or support us on Patreon!
Twitter: @ohtori_nu
Tumblr: empty-movement
Discord: invite only, e-mail us!
We are currently invite only, so ask emptymovement(at)gmail.com! It's a great community and we'd love to share it.
Something Eternal: What's this? Well it's for you to find out. ;)
In the Rose Garden: (archive)
The center of the Utena fandom for almost a decade, the Empty Movement forums are now a static archive. We know it's a mess, it's on the to-do list.
Over 13,000 images, an exhaustive collection of production artworks for Revolutionary Girl Utena, including screencaps of the series and movie, production artwork, backgrounds and sketches, sheet music, and more. Explore, and get lost.
A collection of high-resolution scans of dozens and dozens of Utena doujinshi. A fascinating look at the state of the Japanese fandom around the production of the series.
A relic of duellists.tj, the Utena Fan Translation Project's scripts of the television series. A unique and independent translation from the official releases, and a great quote resource.
Translated by the immortal Dallbun and presented by Giovanna, the two Utena light novels reimagine the events of the first arc of the series, and include among other things...Touga and Miki as a canon thing.
A collection of transcribed and translated input from the creators of Utena. Interviews, commentaries, tid-bits. Essays, blogs. You name it. Ignore everything Ikuhara says, though, it'll make life easier, I promise.
Untranslated resources such as the game guide book, CD booklets, essay books, and other potential goldmines of Utena content, waiting for an enterprising translator to bring to us.
An exhaustive resource covering the music and soundtrack releases of Utena, including side-by-side lyric comparisons of multiple translations, album information, and liner notes.
Countless amazing essays and considerations surrounding Revolutionary Girl Utena. Character information, production info, and a growing list noticed references. Much of this site was built to make analysis easier, and you all have rewarded us handsomely.
Character shrines used to be a common site, but Akio character shrines...were not. Come see what Vanna sees in the beast. No, I don't seriously stan him, but I do find him fascinating. The title of this site is based on an ancient mistranslation, by the by. Fitting, no?
She's onscreen for less than two minutes, but she made one hell of an impression. A mini-shrine to an interesting character, an eerie scene, and a toxic relationship.
Before the availability of high-resolution images, a fad existed of vector tracing anime into high-resolution images. These can be found here, inclding a tutorial that shows how dated this really is.
Before there was social media, there was this, Utena art and fanfics hosted on Empty Movement, at one point the busiest and most labor intensive part of the site.
....brought back to life. These are websites saved from the wreckage of 20 years of Utena fandom, reposted with the blessings of the original creators. Come see some ancient history, including fanfics older than you are, and shrines to the least loved characters.
It was common back in the day to have a little subsection of larger websites with information about them. That can be found here. It's retro.
We've made a few items that can be purchased through our online store to support us, or just to get you some cool stuff!
There have been lots of requests for us to put up a Patreon, and so we bow to this demand!! Empty Movement has been an extraordinarily expensive labor of love over the years, and while we've been happy to mostly shoulder that burden, we absolutely appreciate every dollar you contribute. <3



January 6, 2024

SO. HERE'S THE THING. I've been adding to the site all year, but got lazy about posting an official update here. This here, is that update, and it's huge. I am forgetting things. Entire books. Entire albums, entire massive essays, entire huge translations projects. So let's kick off 2024 with a tour of everything new and wonderful at Empty Movement that happened last year!! I can't stress enough that almost any of these deserves an update of its own, so definitely take a look! Analysis, meta, art, it's ALL here!

You know what else is here? Something Eternal, at EmptyMovement.com. It's a website. It had originally been meant to be a media preservation thing but given current social trends, we decided to do some even cooler. On top of everything in this update....yours truly has built a forum. Yeah, like a website one. In 2024, Empty Movement is endeavoring to be part of the Slow Internet movement. Social media has sucked, and Discord is a wonderful space FOR NOW, but...well. Read about it here, and boost maybe? And join! Or don't! YOU DO NOT NEED TO JOIN TO ENJOY ACCESS TO THE CONTENT. Welcome to the world wide web circa 2008. :)

If you are looking for the list of doujinshi that consistuted the last update...or any other late updates, remember you can see those in Site Info, here! So without further ado, welcome to the (last) year in Empty Movement:

In Analysis (Fan Essays):
seebee's essay The Power of Living an Embodying Narrative is about more than Utena, it's about the fandom--including us. We were both interviewed for this piece, and the result is an absolutely beautiful essay that has helped inform how we do Utena stuff going forward. Thank you so much for letting us be part of this!
seebee's VIDEO essay FILM CUTS BACK | transfeminism in utena absolutely blew our minds and it's so good we're listing it. Look at the title. Just go watch it, it rules.
Nicole Winchester's essay No Choice But To Become Witches: The Bishōjo-Demonic Phallic Mother Dichotomy in Revolutionary Girl Utena catches you up to speed on the academic discussion around what might best be described as the shoujo manga iteration of the Madonna-Whore complex. Then, naturally, it finds plenty to say about Utena. Great work that was well worth the coding!

In From the Mouths of Babes (Translated Meta/Creator Content):
Cross X Talk, A Round Table Discussion Commemorating the Second Musical Utena GOGAI FUCKIN' GOGAI. Nagumo and friends bring us the final untranslated part of the 2019 Black Rose Musical's program guide: the monster interview with Ikuhara and the director of the musicals, Yoshitani. INCREDIBLE content here that 100% lives up to the first musical's similar encounter! A must read!!
The Rose Apocalypse's Ei Takatori Interview The director of the mysterious 1999 musical (yes the machine gun one, and YES WE HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT IT COMING) interviewed in The Rose Apocalypse book. This...is that. Thank you so much to iris hahn for translating, and I can't wait to bring you more of this mythology!!!
The Utena Dossier Animage Magazine's June 1997 supplemental, this 36-page Utena tome has ben translated by Nagumo with editing by Ayu Ohseki. Because so much of the content is in its visual presentation, I worked the translation into the original scans! Check it out! (PS. Yes that is an entirely different gallery on the emptymovement.com domain, no this won't stay there, yes it has been a weird couple years.)
The Dossier includes two long interviews that are also worked into html pages for easy viewing!
The Auspicious Joining of Manga and Anime: Saito and Hasegawa
For Whom the Director Smiles: Ikuhara and Kitakubo

In Historia Arcana & The Bibliothèque (Untranslated Resources):
• There are a lot of changes happening in this arena!!! How and where to place different materials has been a moving target, so I'll do my best! The sites don't quite reflect this yet, but Historia Arcana will be for cover to cover Utena media, including special magazine publications. Something Eternal's gallery, the Bibliothèque, will be for magazine articles, clippings, and other things. Major artbooks will likely be in both places, cross referenced.

New books in Historia Arcana:
The Rose Spiral: Reflections on the Mythology of Utena While not strictly official, this is a fan published book of in depth analysis of Utena, circa 1998! Yep, cover to cover.
Revolution Dictionary (OST 1 First Press Bonus) Cross-referenced from Audiology, this is the bonus dictionary you only got if you grabbed it early! Cool!
Revolutionary Girl Utena Making of Visuals Book Art of UTENA I am mentioning this for completions sake and because I already uploaded it, but this is a cover to cover high resolution, uncleaned scan of the 1999 Art of Utena artbook. I am going to clean the scans, and ultimately be posting the official artbooks elsewhere.
Revolutionary Girl Utena Photobook: Rose Memories This special Animage bonus could be purchased for 700 yen, and back then, was probably a great way to keep the anime in your pocket! It's entirely shots from the TV series, though, so there's nothing specifically new. But I scan it all, baby.

New books in the Bibliothèque:
Chiho Saito's 1999 Revolutionary Girl Utena Original Illustration Collection
HI THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL. Read more about why when you visit! TLDR? Here's some of the best artwork of Utena, rescanned and remastered by yours truly to be the best big big scans of big big beautiful Chiho Saito Art. This is a feast. I even made myself a calendar! (Note that the price is such that I don't make a profit on these, so if you're looking to donate, definitely go by other routes, haha.) You will find multiple ways to obtain the scans, and in more than one size. Either way you soak up the rays, enjoy 'em!

New articles and clips in the Bibliothèque:
H! Rockin' on Japan Magazine Saito X Oikawa This fashion music magazine's July 1999 article has ALREADY BEEN TRANSLATED? Like, I am going to add the translation officially to the site of course, but holy hell Nagumo is amazing!! This article is actually the origin of a Saito art piece that uh, well. Now we know she went to a love hotel with movie Akio's VA. Cool! Anyway check it out!
Comickers Magazine, August 1997 This absolute monster find is an industry-focused magazine with this gorgeous spread and interview with Chiho Saito. It gets into how she does things. The making of Utena. All kinds of stuff. I'd LOVE to know more about this one!!
Comickers Magazine, June 1998 Again, an industry-focused publication, this time it's exploring the manga and the anime and how they compare. Again looks like a tasty meal!!
Volks Magazine, Spring 2022 YEP SCANS OF THE BOOK OF THE DOLLFIES. For a lot of us, this is at close as we get to these ludicrously gorgeous dolls. I included a few extra pages because they were just fuckin' cool and felt relevant.
Sega Saturn Magazine, December 1997 One of two grabs I got recently on Yahoo! Japan! This appears to be the first look announcement of the 1998 Utena video game! (Yes we have more on it, yes we will eventually post links.)
Sega Saturn Magazine, April 1998 This feature brings attention to the voice actors, who are all returning for the game!

Dengeki G's Magazine, January 1998 Another gaming focused magazine, with frankly a more adult edge, cheaply lets the readers know about Utena. These three game magazine moments are just a bizarre reminder of how we did things before the internet, LMAO

In Audiology (Music and CD Information):
Complte information about the STAR CHILD - Girls Character Song Best album! You also definitely can't grab the two new remix tracks there.
Did you know there was a first press bonus dictionary for the first OST? I DIDN'T UNTIL RECENTLY. Now I know all about it, and so can you. Check it out! Obviously, scans available, both here and in Historia Arcana.
I FINALLY acquired a complete set of the Utena CD singles!! Check out complete track lists, scans, and information for ALL FIVE Utena singles. Yes. Including the movie Akio guy's one.


The content on Empty Movement belongs to Giovanna Spadaro and Yasha (who will remain otherwise nameless). Images and media scanned, ripped, and altered by us. Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) is © Kunihiko Ikuhara, Chiho Saito, Shogakukan and bePapas/TV Tokyo and/or their respective copyright holders. The US release of the Revolutionary Girl Utena series and movie is © Nozomi Entertainment, previously © Central Park Media, and the US release of the Utena manga is © VIZ . Don't sue us.