Ø I AM BUILDING A NEW FORUM IN FUCKIGN 2023 SHH IT'S A SECRET BECAUSE IT'S A LOT OF WORK BUT FUCK SOCIAL MEDIA
Ø STORYBOARDS OF EPISODE 20
Ø COMPLETE ARTBOOK SCANS
Ø SHOUNEN OU AND SCHELL BULLET SCANS AND TRANSLATIONS
Ø I'M SORRY I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE REST OH YEAH NEWTYPE MAGAZINES

 

Updates Archive: 2000-2002

Cool Spy on a Hot Car
by Shirogane-tei

bud
by Tsubuan Doumei

Doll
by Motoy Ohinata

Garden
by Milk Morinaga

Hello World
by Hello World

Hello World 2
by Hello World

Love Is Piyopiyo 3
by Piyopiyo

Marionette Guignol
by Blank Alliance

Pleasure
by Ohtori Gakuen Posing Club

Saionji Unrequited Love Book
by Chain Gang

Borderline Electra Disorder
by Anatomic Angel

Thanatos
by Anatomic Angel

by Anatomic Angel
The chunk missing from this volume is included in Chaleur, another of theirs that I've scanned. What's here is more gorgeous Utena and Anthy trash.

Musashino University Press' Issue 115: "Actual Sexuality"
"Disturbing, Traversing, Borderless, Shaking Sexuality: The Place Where Revolutionary Girl Utena Was Born"
This is a college published interview and analysis where Ikuhara discusses the queer origins in pop culture of Utena. Please for the love of fucking God someone translate this thing. There are pictures of David Bowie and Kirk/Spock BDSM fanzines from the 70's I NEED IT.

Interview with Mizuki Yamamoto for Kono Manga ga Sugoi!
This is a small interview with the actress that starred in an Utena-based episode of the late night TV docudrama above named. She did a photoshoot to reinact a panel of the Utena manga. Dios almost got cast as a Caucasian man. No I'm serious.

In The Doujinshi Gallery

By Anatomic Angel: A nice big pile of Anatomic Angel's epic outfit design and sharp, stark artwork.

By Rose Revue: A dialogue between series and movie Utena. Cool!

Sweet Stories by Various Artists: The first two here are beautiful and awesome, and you want to see thenm.

Full color doujinshi: Yes, this is Penguindrum, but I figured y'all would appreciate it anyway. :D

Changes to the Gallery:
The Musical Blu-Ray, Scans & Extras [14 Images]

Touga and Juri Unused Stills (I stole these lol)
Musical Utena's Promotional Stills
Musical Utena's Early Teaser Images
Musical Utena's Cast Shots
Miscellaneous Production Images from the Musical

Episode 5: The Sunlit Garden - Finale
The flashback shots have been replaced so that they include the comparison shot at the end of the episode. About 15 images got replaced throughout the episode.

Little Bits:
-Rearranged the Historia Arcana section, splitting it into two pages in anticipation of a lot more articles and such.

January 11, 2019:

Musical Utena ~ Bud of the White Rose - Download it, watch it, listen to the 'soundtrack' I made, worship it, stan it.

Morphology of Utena – While we accept donations, we'd rather sell you swag! Welcome to our personal webstore where we make custom Utena goods like series-accurate notebooks and series-accurate disaster gym shirts, Utena, what the fuck. Note: Check your categories, and do not try to check out with both Printful and Printify in the cart. If you get charged like 4x for shipping, that is why--check out the items separately. :) Why isn't this RedBubble? Because I wanted the maximum amount of control over the final product, and wanted to do things RedBubble doesn't do. Also, the margin is higher. *shrug*

Additions to Analysis of Utena:
- The Body as a Bargaining Chip – A fascinating deep dive into the connection between Touga and Anthy, what makes them different, but more worryingly, what makes them the same: victimization and abuse, and the gendered bridges between. Trigger warning for discussion of rape and abuse. (Written by Yasha)
- The Comet in the Stars – Akio's comet speech in episode 34, newly accurately translated, why he says it, what it means, and how it turns out. Mostly, it's about his spiraling relationship with Anthy, and how his stupid ass can talk himself into a corner without any encouragement at all. (Written by Giovanna)
- Lady Berserk: Revolutionary Girl Utena and Berserk – This essay explores the similarities between these two staples of their respective genres within anime, and how the language of anime and the thematic elements of both are closer than we think! (Written by Lt. Tangerine)

Additions to Mouths of Babes (English-translated Creator Content/Interviews/Etc):
- Eulogy for the Fool – Ikuhara Kunihiko and Ohtsuki Kana Discussion, an awesome interview from the Ikuhara retrospective published in 2017: Kunihiko Ikuhara - Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mawaru Penguindrum, Yuri Bear Storm ... Our Revolution and Survival Strategy. Translated by @why1758.
- Art of Utena Interview with Kazayama Juugo – An interview with one of the artists that worked under be-Papas, directing episodes, writing scripts, and storyboarding. Translated by coriolisky.
- Whisperings of a Rose – Interview with Ikuhara and Saito published in Newtype magazine in May 1997. Translated by @t_unmasked.

Additions to Audiology (Utena Album Info):
- Barbara Dwarf Star Child Apocalypse – EJ's been so kind as to translate the bizarre liner notes for OST 12!
- Lyrics: Earth Prison Panopticon – EJ's translation/romanization/kanji of the last track of the Barbara CD, Earth Prison Panopticon, is now available for viewing!

Additions to Historia Arcana (Japanese Resources):
HMV Magazine Ami Noujo Mini-Interview – A wee little interview published in HMV Magazine for Ami Noujo, the actress that portrays Utena in the 2018 musical.

Changes to the Doujinshi Gallery:
The entire section has been revamped to organize content and remove material that's a little frisky for the times. Content warnings have been added to sexually explicit material, and anything past rated R is no longer available.

New doujinshi:
Asterisque by Dwarf Sunflowers
A sweet little set of shorts, with absolutely gorgeous artwork and loveable chibis.

This is Cool by The World
Holy shit, y'all this is a doujinshi about the Sega Saturn video game. RIGHT? Aptly named.

Utena by o-ji-in-arauri
ANOTHER Sega Saturn game doujinshi! Not as long, but it's still a total unicorn.

MERCI LA VIE by Loli-Killer
The same artist as Anatomic Angel draws a series of humorous shorts. Akio gets slapped in the face.

Positively Success Fate by Celestial Speech
Starts serious, ends with Saionji putting an octopus hat on Anthy.

Roses, Swords, and Revolutions by AHRI Project
WARNING: RATED R, ADULTS ONLY. Mostly Akio and Touga with limbs the length of skyscrapers getting down.


Episode 25: Our Eternal Apocalypse
Replaced the scene of Touga and Akio on the bed, as well as the following scene of Akio and Anthy leading to the episode end.
(Series_ep25_247 - Series_ep25_268)
Episode 34: The Rose Seal & Episode 38: The Ends of the World
Replaced these two images since I was discussing them being a matched shot in the Discord.
(Series_ep25_247 & Series_ep25_268)
Nuts & Bolts
- Amended Sex, Torment, and Body Language, an essay in Analysis, to distinguish between the coercive rape I am describing, and the violent rape I'm arguing against, as this distinction is not clear now that rape is the dominant term for both events.
- Reworked the layout for From the Mouths of Babes to be comptaible with new browsers, and more readable on mobile LAWL
- Reworked the layout for Analysis of Utena to be compatible with new browsers LAWL
- Corrected some code that was breaking in the Site section, some minor updates to it, fixed links to hosted site

July 28, 2018:
Changes to Audiology:
- About a couple dozen random code fixes, mistakes, and general things, thanks EJ and the Discord for helping me out!
Additions & Changes to the Gallery:
2008 Japanese DVD/2018 Nozomi Blu-ray sleeve artworks
Back of the After the Revolution collected book
Ultra rare Supergroupies SKU-themed lingerie purchase benefit clear file
Clean but small images from the After the Revolution manga
Added/Replaced 2008 Japanese DVD/2018 Nozomi Blu-ray Art
The Utena clear file folder from the 2018 Utena Musical
The clear card shuffle Set from the 2018 mMusical
Complete personal portrait sets, complete shuffle Sets, and complete super limited purchase prize postcards of the 2018 Utena Musical cast, with other bits and pieces of errata, all compiled in a new section of dozens and dozens of images:
Click here to go to the entire new section, complete with actor titles and all!!
Images from the opening sequence replaced or accompanied now by ultra high resolution scans of cels from the Hardcore of Utena book
Revamped Character Designs & Color Tests section to include new artwork from the 2018 exhibition production book and a few pics I definitely didn't take on the downlow:
Click here to go to the entire new section, complete with actor titles and all!!
Entirely recapped the Opening Sequence, Rondo-Revolution using the credits-free Bluray remaster, as well as encorporating multiple high resolution Hardcore of Utena images, already linked to above:
Click here to go to the entire new section, complete with actor titles and all!!
Definitely not a sneaky phone picture of a cel on display at the exhibition
Entirely recapped the first closing title credits, Truth, using the credits-free Bluray remaster:
Click here to go to the entire new section, complete with actor titles and all!!
Replaced this Black Rose Saga image of Shiori with a better copy
Blu-ray quality replacements of shots in the series:
Episode 39: Someday, Shine with Me
Replaced the sequence of Utena meeting Anthy within the coffin and reaching for her.
(Series_ep39_212 - Series_ep29_255)Episode 9: The Castle Said to Hold Eternity
[Touga in bed lol].
Episode 33: The Prince Who Runs Through the Night
Carnival pan
Image if Tomoko Kawakami, Utena's voice actress, from the 20th Anniversary Exhibition's program

December 31, 2017- A little late for Utena's birthday, but just in time to celebrate the new year! This update's a lot of bits and pieces I've been accumulating and adding over the last few months, so there should be a little something for everyone!
The new manga by Chiho Saito, After the Revolution, is now hosted permanently in the gallery. By the way, yes, we do INDEED know about the Juri and Shiori one coming up in a month! Gee, I wonder if it will appear on the site... :)
A big addition of sorts! Thanks to the donations of so many of you, I was able to get my grubby hands on the Japanese Blu-ray, which included among other things a high-resolution copy of the 1997 Utena musical, something we just haven't had access to in the English-speaking fandom until now!! It's now up on Youtube with subtitles and information, for everyone to enjoy!
Though in its infancy, I have finally cobbled together the References section of the Analysis site with the list of stuff I had on hand. I invite contributions! Check it out yourself, you're sure to find *something* new!
There has been quite a few additions and changes to the gallery, including the collectible rubber stamp chibis from the 2017 exhibition, an overhaul of the character design section to encorporate a ton of new content from various sources, and... some truly horrifying Chiho Saito sketches from the early brainstorming of Utena (check out our analysis of the images, holy CRAP IT'S URSULA'S KISS.) These images include translations of the text thanks to Hiraku and Dallbun, also! Thanks so much you guys. <3
Also, now that I have my hands on the Blu-ray, I've been selectively poking about replacing screencaps with huge upgrades. Links to previous images will remain intact, as I've seen to it the links will continue to lead to the exact same frame, but several scenes have been replaced for our viewing pleasure, including the ending of episode 38, Juri's second duel, the last photoshoot with Akio, Touga, and Saionji...and yes. *The* scene in episode 33. See below for a complete list of the changed scenes.
I've added to the Historia Arcana section a text file of the interview with Saito and Ikuhara that came with the After the Revolution manga installment in September. You can put it through Google Translate, or some enterprising soul is welcome to take a stab at it!!
We have several new doujinshi, almost none of them remotely safe for work, so look below to get to them, but be warned the content is uh...well. One of them includes Akio and Utena on the hood of his car, sooo...

New Site Sections:
Comedie Musicale Utena: La Fillette Révolutionnaire - The 1997 Utena musical, now available in high-definition with subtitles on YouTube!

Addition to Analysis:
Revolutionary Girl Utena Reference Resource - A perpeturally incomplete list of references the series makes! Check it out, and please add to it!

Addition to Historia Arcana:
Saito X Ikuhara Special Talk - This is the interview included with After the Revolution in the September 2017 issue of Flowers. I've transcribed it to text, to help encourage translation!

Additions & Changes to the Gallery:
The Rubber strap collectibles from the Utena 20th anniversary exhibition.
Early Saito Character Designs: Design sheets (files 2-8) included in volume 4 of the new manga reissue in Japan. These have been lovingly translated by Hiraku and Dallbun, and are absolutely insane and hilarious!! I've also updated existing images in this section with better copies. These images, now that they have translations, appear to explain the existence of Ursula's Kiss! Check out Yasha's HUGE Tumblr post introducing us all to Team Eleganza!
Character Designs: This entire section got overhauled to include new design sheets from the 10th Anniversary design book, the Duelist Bible, Hardcore of Utena, and upgrades of scans from the Utena Art Collection. These mostly include alternate outfits like Utena's baseball outfit, design sheets such as Utena's trashed uniform at the end of the series, and a couple characters that were previously missing, namely Ruka. There are too many changes to list here. A few examples, though:
Screencaps: With the arrival of the Japanese Blu-ray so lovingly donated to our site by way of fundraising, I've been hopping around replacing key scenes with upgraded gorgeous screenshots! You'll notice the naming convention includes things like 421b.jpg, this is so that previously existing links to the gallery for specific screenshots remain intact, because I know a lot of direct links to the gallery exist outside my site and I love you guys enough to bother to preserve that. <4
Episode 29: Azure Blue Paler than the Sky
Replaced Juri's last duel from them stepping in front of the Akio Car, to Ruka and Juri standing in the rain after.
(Series_ep29_113 - Series_ep29_201)
Episode 30: The Barefoot Girl
Replaced the scene of Akio kissing Utena after he removes her shoe. You know. Cuz. (Series_ep30_111a-Series_ep30_150)
Episode 31: Her Tragedy
The Touga in the shower sequence, holy crap his face shot came out nice and I didn't think it would, hnnng. (Series_ep31_029-Series_ep31_038)
The last two scenes in the episode, first when Touga tries to make Nanami come home, and then later in the night, Nanami waking to find Akio and Anthy in flagrante. (Series_ep31_191-Series_ep31_234)
Episode 32: Romance of the Dancing Girls
The sequence in Touga and Nanami's home leading up to her car ride, when she tries to ask Touga if she can leave.
(Series_ep32_118-Series_ep32_130)
Episode 33: The Prince Who Runs in the Night
Utena's face. You know. THE scene. It's fucking beautiful, god damn they spent their entire budget on this.
(Series_ep33_088a-Series_ep33_128)
Episode 37: The One Who Will Revolutionize the World
The photoshoot with Akio, Touga, and Saionji. I swear, someone asked for this and it wasn't Yasha and it wasn't me.
(Series_ep37_068-Series_ep37_086)
Episode 38: The Ends of the World
The ending, starting from the point where Akio shoves Anthy at Utena, to the end when Utena crumples on the floor from being stabbed.
(Series_ep38_280-Series_ep38_305a)
8 New Doujinshi:
***THESE ARE ALL HENTAI, consider yourself warned!!!
Angel's Tears - Shiori X Juri, you know it's what you're here for. <3 This is not especially explicit hentai, but hentai enough.
Crown of Thorns - Ruka X Juri, same artists as above, probably not as much peoples' cups of tea. That said, I think it's all in his head?
O Rose de Nobles Sentiments - A Juri, Shiori, and Ruka story, fairly short, not really hentai although two pages do have Shiori nude in them.
Hotel California 2 - Short and sweet H-doujin
Toufuya - Pieces of a compilation hentai doujin. One is Miki and Kozue, and one is the best thing I've ever seen in that it's the only time I've seen Akio drawn accurately on model, including in the show, and it ends better than I could ever have imagined.
Para Paro Oukoku - The Utena-centric bits of a graphic H-doujin. Scenes included: Akio going to jail. People getting drunk. Girls with penises.
EUG - A scene from a hentai compilation where Miki gets dressed up like Kozue? And then Sex? And then he smacks Anthy or something, I don't know.
Rose Revelation - A short hentai doujin with a few full color images and a lot of that yuri goo.

Miscellany:
- Updated the Complete CD Box Booklet in Historia Arcana, as it was missing a page, ironically, the one with information about the new CD. Sorry about that! The current file is corrected.

Historia Arcana:
Utena? (Oh My!) UTENA! (Newtype Magazine Supplement) - A collection of mostly black and white art pieces drawn by the various members of the Utena production team, mostly animators. Much of this is cross-linked to the gallery.
Duelist Bible (Animage Magazine Supplement) - A focus on the first arc, but with lots of rare character design stuff and tidbits, including...instructions to make a Chu-Chu plush.

Additions to Doujinshi:
Azure Promise A massive, beautiful love song to the least popular ship in the English-speaking fandom: Ruka/Juri.
Virtual Star Embryology Softcore, with the main thrust of the doujin being Akio taunting Touga about Utena during sex. So you know...regular Friday night.
Epee Chibis, cute shorts, Ruka in a Rose Bride dress and Akio with a cat ear hat.
Septieme Recit Juri/Shiori, very sparse art style and honestly not amazing. But hey. Juri and Shiori!
Setsu Same circle as the above one, same kind of content. Not beautiful really, but hey.

Changes to the Gallery:
2 New sections:
Chibis: Added a folder for Chibis to series artwork, cross referencing the chibis where they appear elsewhere in the gallery.
Utena? Oh My! UTENA!: Replaced the folder called 'Newtype Special' in the Series section with this, to reflect that I now know where these came from. The new section uses my scans of the originals, which include new images and huge upgrades to the previous ones. This book is also downloadable in full at Historia Arcana. This section is only for the artwork.
New Artworks:
(Japanese Halloween Animerica Cover)
(New Artwork: Utena and Anthy in Rose Bride Dresses)
(Animage Cafe Utena chibi coaster)
(Animage Cafe Anthy chibi coaster)
(Utena chibi from 2017 exhibition's admission swag keychain)
(Anthy chibi from 2017 exhibition's admission swag keychain)
(Animage Cafe Akio chibi coaster)
(Animage Cafe Touga chibi coaster)
(Animage Cafe Nanami chibi coaster)
(Animage Cafe Saionji chibi coaster)
(Animage Cafe Juri chibi coaster)
(Animage Cafe Miki chibi coaster)
(Taken from the Nozomi teaser trailer for the US release of the Utena Blu-Rays in 2017.)
(Taken from the Nozomi teaser trailer for the US release of the Utena Blu-Rays in 2017.)
(Taken from the Nozomi teaser trailer for the US release of the Utena Blu-Rays in 2017.)
(Taken from the Nozomi teaser trailer for the US release of the Utena Blu-Rays in 2017.)
(Taken from the Nozomi teaser trailer for the US release of the Utena Blu-Rays in 2017.)
(Repeating pattern based on a bag that will be sold at the 20th Anniversary exhibition.)
(Based on a set of items produced through Animation Addict store.)
(Shamelessly stolen rose pattern background from 20th Anniversary site.)
(Hey cool, invisible logo!)

Replaced/Improved on Artworks:
(Beautiful Utena and Anthy, Outfits, Wings, OMG Animerica Cover)
(Baseball Utena)
(Beach Utena)
(Spooky Halloween Animerica Cover)
(Miki and Anthy from the Hatena omake book)
(Sexy pose Utena, huge upgrade from previous.)
(More sexy Utena pose.)
(haha huge upgrade to the Akio nip pic)
(The neat thingie with Akio and Anthy shadows over the student council's shadows, from the Utena? (Oh My!) UTENA Animedia book.)
(Saito art with Utena and Anthy in less clothing than usual, from the Utena? (Oh My!) UTENA Animedia book.)

Miscellany:
- Changed front page layout to be more readable and easier to see
- Fixed cross-browser compatibility issues in Historia Arcana
- Half-ass fixed vertical visibility in some pages of Analysis for mobile
- LOL never changed the Gallery front page message
- Updated the top bar menu in the Gallery to reflect new content and sub-folders.
Added link to Utena.su

October 24th, 2016 - The addition of Young Hopes, a new section of the site devoted to the two novels written for Utena shortly after its broadcast in Japan. Translated and hosted with permission from Dallbun!

January 12th, 2016 - The Analysis section has been completely overhauled. Several new essays have also been added, most of them (5 out of 6) in the narrative section, with the last in personality.
Several new high resolution scans have been added to the Gallery, covering the first arc and the first ending credits. Aside from their own sections, these have been incorporated into the episodes as well.
I've uploaded 16 new doujinshi, all from physical copies donated by cscratch, to the Doujinshi Gallery. They are spread across the Under 40 Pages and 40-69 Pages sections. None of them are hentai.

December 17, 2013: The gallery overhaul has been completed and moved to Gallery3. Episodes 1-3 have been cross linked in the forum's archives to maintain links. (This will be a slow process.) Several new pieces of art were added, including the first high resolution scans from Hardcore of Utena, and the Blu-Ray covers. The massive Utena Doujinshi Gallery has been launched, with thousands of high resolution, carefully cleaned and aligned pages of SKU fan goodness. A donation information page has been added to the main site, and the new content has been incorporated into the current layout. The site information section has been completely overhauled for content, since we haven't updated it since the end of the Second Age and the beginning of the Dominion of Men.

2013-10-22 - Some of you may have noticed already, but we have three new Analysis essays and new Gallery software. New content will continue to be added to the Gallery as we receive it.

2013-08-08 - EM got a Tumblr!

2011-12-06 - It wouldn't do to leave the last box set's release unnoted! Here's comin' at you with a little update that took a huge amount of work. :(
Due to some new changes in how web hosts manage accounts like this one, I've had to do massive under-the-hood work, so much of the effort of this update should go unnoticed. Don't wanna bore you guys with the details, suffice to say I've done about a month's coding and troubleshooting and want to set the world on fire.
HOWEVER, I don't come empty-handed!
• A new section in the Akio shrine: The Machines. A work in progress, the current offering is an extensive analysis of his favorite toy car. Check out Things That Go Vroom in the Night!
• Thanks to Rhyaniwyn of IRG, a new interview is available at Mouths of Babes. This moderated IRC chat with Chiho Saito from at least a decade ago actually includes yours truly. My god, I've been around for a while, and since I ask about Saionji and use 'Akio-no-Miko' as my chat handle...can't say as I've grown much.
• Extensive and ridiculous code and database changes in the gallery. I won't bore you with details, but in theory, you shouldn't notice much different, except that images unrelated to the actual series are now on a separate database with different URLs. The gallery functions as before, with the exception of no longer having a search feature. (It was never implemented, anyway.)
• Updated the links section with some new stuff, and stripped the dead links.

2011-05-29 - As you can imagine, Empty Movement's not going to sit by and let an event like this go unmarked! Here's comin' at you with a super awesome site update, with a new subsection and a new hosted site! And more! And so go on...
• All new subsite! From the Mouths of Babes is a compilation of the interviews, commentaries, and goings on of the creators of Utena, primarily Be-Papas. Here you'll find Ikuhara's movie commentary, interviews where Enokido discusses guns versus swords for the series, and information about Be-Papas. Explore, enjoy, and laugh at Nanami-cow! (Also, this is my almost pure CSS layout. I know, late for that party...)
• New gallery artwork! Mostly stuff from the Japanese remasters! Several new images of Utena and Anthy, with a few more from the CD boxes. Also some miscellany, and a couple images that got color-corrections.Does anyone have a better scan of this Animerica Extra cover?
• Clarice of In the Rose Garden offers up two analysis essays for our enjoyment. For The Garden Where All Love Ends: A Discourse Upon The Black Rose Saga, may be familiar to some of you older fans, as it circulated several years ago around the fandom and effectively schooled all of us on how to analyze the show critically. Sometimes I wonder if this essay isn't where it really started for this section, and it's an honor to be able to offer it now. She also offers a deconstruction of Nanami, uncovering what we weren't looking for, and making us appreciate what we saw all along.
• Two cool new fanarts of the Shadow Play Girls, thanks to evrim!
• Linn has donated the transcriptions of episode 38 and 39 of the show in Japanese with romanizations! Hit up the script section and study hard!
• A link added to the pages for the 7th and 8th soundtracks in Audiology leads to translations of several of the Seazer tracks!
• Obviously, a new front page. :) The old one was getting dreary, no?
• (Non-EM) Dirty Hands is a website for the translation project of Shounen Ou (Boy King), a novel with visuals that was created after SKU as a collab between Enokido and Hasegawa of Be-Papas. It has changed hands many times, and now is no where to be found! I recovered it from the Wayback Machine long ago, and host the content exactly as I found it, in hopes that new fans will get to experience this ah...unusual...piece of work!

7/3/10
RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME NEWS: Nozomi Entertainment, known for their sparkly awesome releases of fan-favored anime have picked up the REMASTERS of SKU! That's right, we folks have coming our way real, shiny, remastered releases of the story we all know and love. I've been very jaded about state-side releases of SKU in the past, I had the crappy VHS releases of ONLY ONE ARC and the subsequent horrible transfers to DVD, I have bought the rest of the series on DVD only to have the company go belly up. Now I'm looking forward to our little show finally getting the release it deserves in the US. Does this rev me up for a site update? I think so, my poopykins. :) In the meantime, here's the information we on the forums gathered about the import--something to whet your appetites!

03/14/10
I still hate children. (Pediatric nursing definitely not for me.) I do, however, love my humble little website! I know, embarrassingly miniature update, but see how much you get done when you're writing a care plan that's 81 pages long. And not finished. Not kidding. Not double spaced. KILL ME NOW.
So what'd I do? I cleaned up and added to the gallery the last three remaster DVD album covers. These are all my favorite characters, which naturally means the artist utterly lost any capacity whatsoever to draw the characters in proportion. That or it turns out Akio was a Chinese woman back when footbinding was 'in'. But they're new art, they're huge, and they're here!
• Cleaned and uploaded three new high resolution DVD cover images to the gallery:
Nanami & Her Henchmen
Touga, Saionji, and the Car
Akio, Anthy, and Utena

02/16/10
Happy birthday and Happy Valentine's Day to me! And you all! Ohtori.nu's moved to a new server host because I tired of downtime, and these days, one can get a lot more space for the money! Expect some perks coming up, like the SKU video game available for download! In the meantime, excuse a couple kinks as I work out the server move, though it was far and away the easiest I've ever done thanks to my awesome hostfolks.

1/11/10
It's a new year, and Giovanna's absolutely swamped with Obstetrics and Pediatrics. (PS. She hates kids.) The site? Definitely not forgotten--I've got something special lined up that will be getting a huge boost by the upcoming summer off. In the meantime, this is a super-mini update and a brief moment of silence.
I went though the links in the site info section, and I'm sad to say I thinned it out rather a lot. Several sites that were big cheese long before my humble little offering are gone now: utena.net and Tsuwabuki's Opera Glass in particular. I also removed a few young upstarts that were given up on, and several shrines I'd absolutely adored, including the reason I've never built a Saionji one myself.
It's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with a fandom that's old enough to bear children, but I can't help also notice that people just don't build their own fansites as much anymore. With so many other means of worship on the net, site building seems to be reserved for the upper crust of fan-fanatics.
But I can still mourn the passing of an age, and of a string of websites that sculpted and contributed to the fandom surrounding the story I love. I can also say that barring the death of the internet, this one will never come down. It may someday become permanently static, but it will always be here. I hope it provides some inspiration also for those that do still want to build fansites of their own, and for the love of God I encourage you to do so if you ever had the inclination at all.
It's like what I keep hearing about childbearing. It's hard, it's frustrating, and it's absolutely rewarding.

• One fanart added to fandom. Go Tamago!
• Links for No Angel Came and Empty Cage updated
• Several links removed from link list in site info

10/14/09
Just in time for In the Rose Garden's third birthday! The forum thrives, because it's full of awesome people. LOVE LOVE. <3

In the meantime, Ikuhara and I had the same thought when it came to celebrating Utena’s 10th anniversary! While I was fixing the awful image quality of the DVD screencaps…Ikuhara was fixing the awful image quality of the series. Sadistic.
Still Ikuhara, we love you! Though a US release of these gorgeous box sets, three in all (one for the soundtracks, two for the series/movie/musical), seems unlikely, thanks to Geneon, SKU's US distributor being out of business, they are available through the import lines if you have insane amounts of money to spend. I’ve compiled information on the releases, what’s in them (including extras!), and a couple suggestions as to where to obtain them. This information is compiled from a thread on In the Rose Garden, and a special shout-out goes out to Almaser, Mylene, IceQueenChigusa, and Copyman for being particularly helpful on getting translations and images.
Wanna know more about the Brand Spankin’ New Utena DVD and CD remaster releases? Click here!

Of course, I haven’t been sitting on my ass doing absolutely nothing with this site. Though my available time may have dwindled to nearly nothing, SKU is still near and dear to my heart, and Empty Movement, always on my mind. There was a time when an update of this magnitude was a monthly occurrence, but there was also a time when I had entire weekends (and work shifts, heh) to put into them. These days the updates are going to come a little slower, but I promise, there will always be one coming. Nursing school may be the means to the end, employment in a thriving career and all that jazz, but Empty Movement? My baby. Yasha's too- she's currently on hiatus, but sends her love and wants to hump Touga's leg as usual. Oh and if you couldn't tell--the blog is more or less dead. That's not us falling off the face of the earth--that's the world changing! It's all Facebook these days. I kinda feel like a tool though. =/

Enough with the apologies though! We want goodies, don’t we? Yes we do. The bigger part of this update is an overhaul of the multimedia section. This experimental effort uses blogging software (Wordpress), to allow me to categorize the entries, so instead of sorting through a hundred wallpapers chronologically, you can now search by character! (I figured this was how most people chose their wallpapers.) The swirlies in the layout? Courtesy of boredom in my Pharm class last year.

In addition to this overhaul, several new items in the gallery have been added, new artwork and background designs provided by Mylene, Copyman, and dundundun of the forums and cleaned up by yours truly. Direct links provided in the breakdown. Also, some new analysis by me—or really, it’s old analysis, an essay on Saionji’s body language in the Black Rose Arc that I’ve been working on for the better part of two years, little by little. Like body language? Enjoy! I also cleaned up the Akio shrine's image section, which has been broken for ages. And of course, there's some sweet donation stuff, as always, including, thanks to Almaser, the new remaster CD's extra bonus UTENA IN THE CLUB. Hop over to Audiology!

• New in the gallery!
  Three high-res artwork images from the remastered DVD covers!
  Color background caps fresh from the remasters! Over 300 to oogle! :)
• Brand new Multimedia section, with navigation by character thanks to Wordpress!
• Addition of a release information page on the new remasters from Japan
• 1 analysis essay written by me (gogo Saionji!)
• 1 submitted essay in analysis
• Redid the Photography section of the Akio shrine to cross link it to the gallery
• 5 donated fanfics, including a couple long ones!
• 1 donated fanart
• 1 donated fan dream
• The bonus Utena in the Club CD available for download in Audiology
• Added a bit of information to the CDs about US releases, although they're mostly gone now due to Geneon's bankruptcy.

In the meantime, Ikuhara and I had the same thought when it came to celebrating Utena’s 10th anniversary! While I was fixing the awful image quality of the DVD screencaps…Ikuhara was fixing the awful image quality of the series. Sadistic.
Still Ikuhara, we love you! Though a US release of these gorgeous box sets, three in all (one for the soundtracks, two for the series/movie/musical), seems unlikely, thanks to Geneon, SKU's US distributor being out of business, they are available through the import lines if you have insane amounts of money to spend. I’ve compiled information on the releases, what’s in them (including extras!), and a couple suggestions as to where to obtain them. This information is compiled from a thread on In the Rose Garden, and a special shout-out goes out to Almaser, Mylene, IceQueenChigusa, and Copyman for being particularly helpful on getting translations and images.
Wanna know more about the Brand Spankin’ New Utena DVD and CD remaster releases? Click here!

Of course, I haven’t been sitting on my ass doing absolutely nothing with this site. Though my available time may have dwindled to nearly nothing, SKU is still near and dear to my heart, and Empty Movement, always on my mind. There was a time when an update of this magnitude was a monthly occurrence, but there was also a time when I had entire weekends (and work shifts, heh) to put into them. These days the updates are going to come a little slower, but I promise, there will always be one coming. Nursing school may be the means to the end, employment in a thriving career and all that jazz, but Empty Movement? My baby. Yasha's too- she's currently on hiatus, but sends her love and wants to hump Touga's leg as usual. Oh and if you couldn't tell--the blog is more or less dead. That's not us falling off the face of the earth--that's the world changing! It's all Facebook these days. I kinda feel like a tool though. =/

Enough with the apologies though! We want goodies, don’t we? Yes we do. The bigger part of this update is an overhaul of the multimedia section. This experimental effort uses blogging software (Wordpress), to allow me to categorize the entries, so instead of sorting through a hundred wallpapers chronologically, you can now search by character! (I figured this was how most people chose their wallpapers.) The swirlies in the layout? Courtesy of boredom in my Pharm class last year.

In addition to this overhaul, several new items in the gallery have been added, new artwork and background designs provided by Mylene, Copyman, and dundundun of the forums and cleaned up by yours truly. Direct links provided in the breakdown. Also, some new analysis by me—or really, it’s old analysis, an essay on Saionji’s body language in the Black Rose Arc that I’ve been working on for the better part of two years, little by little. Like body language? Enjoy! I also cleaned up the Akio shrine's image section, which has been broken for ages. And of course, there's some sweet donation stuff, as always, including, thanks to Almaser, the new remaster CD's extra bonus UTENA IN THE CLUB. Hop over to Audiology!

• New in the gallery!
  Three high-res artwork images from the remastered DVD covers!
  Color background caps fresh from the remasters! Over 300 to oogle! :)
• Brand new Multimedia section, with navigation by character thanks to Wordpress!
• Addition of a release information page on the new remasters from Japan
• 1 analysis essay written by me (gogo Saionji!)
• 1 submitted essay in analysis
• Redid the Photography section of the Akio shrine to cross link it to the gallery
• 5 donated fanfics, including a couple long ones!
• 1 donated fanart
• 1 donated fan dream
• The bonus Utena in the Club CD available for download in Audiology
• Added a bit of information to the CDs about US releases, although they're mostly gone now due to Geneon's bankruptcy.

• OVERHAULED THE FUCKING GALLERY. Trying to itemize what's changed would be absurd. Just fucking go.
• Wrote a new essay on Akio and Sex to replace 'Akio Ohtori in Bed'. This one's much larger in scope.
• Added CD information for the Star Mania compilation to Audiology. Thanks Sunnie for the info!
• Updated the forum software and added BBC code to the PM system.
• New front page layout that lists hosted sites.
• Added my own dream to the dreams section.
• Removed a couple link buttons from the site section because they referred to the old domain. Oops.
• Added a link to the links out, as well as updated some of the random information on the site information section.
• Added example screenshots to 'Sex, Torment, and Body Language', the body language analysis of Utena losing her virginity. Slight edits were also made to the text for cleanliness.

Donations:
• Added 2 donated essays by awesome forum members. Kozue? Non-verbal communication? Go go!
• Added a Spanish translation of Razara's essay on Shiori in the analysis section. Cool!
• Added a donated transcription of the Japanese script of episode 1 to the scripts section.
• Added 10 new fanarts.
• Added 7 new fanfics.
• Added 8 new wallpapers.
• Added 4 (or 7, depending on how you look at it) donated vector traces to the repository.

• One lovely Shiori analysis from our lovely Razara!
• Sixteen new fanarts! And there are some real doozies this time, just wow.
• Three new long dreams, and one short dream. Dream needs to come by more often.
• Five new fics! As well as another part of a continuation (finally) of one of our multipart stories.
• Seven new wallpapers, and might I mention here that Shiori's getting sweet love in almost every section?
• One link in the link section. Hi-res scans ahoy!

9/9/2003 - I'm about to be late for work, so I'll make this fast! WHEE! Finally updated! Lots of new analysis, the usual pile of donations (keep 'em coming!), and a new front page layout. Next update: Yasha and I are working on a special something for the analysis section, so that's something for ya to look forward to. (Suspense!) I'll add more yapping later or something. Gonna be late gonna be late gonna be late. GO READ THE NEW FICS.
Gio:
° New front page layout, cuz Blade's been wanting a Keiko layout for a while.
° New essay in analysis. Boring yapping about the body language Utena displays in THE OMG LUNCH scene I bitch about rather frequently.
° Misc tinkering in the gallery under the hood.
Yasha: Woohoo! Here’s my part of the update, and it’s pretty big! I don’t know how Gio managed to do it all by herself for so long… but anyway, there’s lots of new stuff here, and I MADE CONTENT FOR ONCE. Kick ass.
° Four new wallpapers! Thanks to all who donated, and everyone GO CHECK THEM OUT NOW. REALLY.
° So Yasha got off her lazy arse and finished up the essay that’s been sitting on her computer forever. Check it out—FANGIRL analysis! ‘Touga and the Fangirls that Adore Him’, the sister essay to ‘Akio and the Fangirls that Hate Him’.
° One donated, and may I say, very insightful, essay on Anthy, by Azusa Kuraino! Lots of love, Azusa!
° Four, count ‘em, F-O-U-R new fanarts (hey, don’t burst my bubble, this is the biggest haul since the rules were put in place) and one giant inferiority complex for me. Dammit, I wish I could draw.
° Three new short dreams, and one dream story. You know, sometimes I wonder if we’re just nurturing psychoses here… and then I remember that psychoses are fun, easy to grow, and only need water once a week. Like Chia pets.
° *drooling* Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiics… Go see new fiiiiiiiiiiics… Three characters who have been lacking in adoration lately get some lovin! (And in one of the three fics, it’s literal. *grins* I like this.)
° We got a donated linkbutton! See, I’m all excited because this is the first time I got sent something like this.
° Minor tinkering with stuff—changing emails, site links, html, stuff like that. H’ray!

7/12/2003 - MAJOR GALLERY UPDATE. (And lots of new Analysis, too! Donated and otherwise!) Though it might not seem like it to a lot of you, more time went into this update's new content than I've put into Empty Movement in a LONG time. How? I took on several major image restoration projects, logging a godlessly unreal number of hours in Photoshop. I lost track around the 4th day of non-stop 10 hour stretches of image editing, but I've been doing this almost every day for 2 weeks now, and I think my eyes will leap out of the sockets and run away from me if I launch Photoshop one more time this month. Hopefully I shouldn't be doing any Photoshopping images or making layouts for a while. My eyes hurt. Ow.
   This is Yasha's first site update! (Kinda.) And she still likes working on the site. Curious girl. Anyway, on to the specific updates:
MrsAkioOhtori:
° TOTAL OVERHAUL of the first Miscellaneous section of the gallery.
° Donations in the Misc. section of the gallery thanks to Idan, Blade, Himemiya, and wanderingstar. ALL KINDS of new art from the series, movie, and manga!! DAMMIT GO LOOK THERE'S TOTALLY NEW NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN ANY DECENT SIZE ART. WE HAVE A BIG COLOR VERSION OF UTENA AND ANTHY AS CHILDREN HUGGING OMG.
° Several images in the Misc section update took MAJOR editing in Photoshop. This means many of them don't look *exactly* the same as the original artwork, since I'm not god (Akio wouldn't like that at all!). For example's sake and for showing off, here's the original source images for the major edit jobs I took on. The first three were the major projects, obviously. All that jpeg compression? That was there to begin with, folks.
° Added the rewrite of my essay on Touga's Seitokai Arc duels to analysis. IT'S REALLY LONG OMG
° A lot of editing of the content in LLOM. I seem to have had an ellipses fetish. Fixed the bazillion dead links in the image section caused by the gallery moving chaos. Added a few donations to the Absurdity lists.
° Updated a lot of stuff in the site info section. Added stuff to About, Thanks, and updated my ICQ number in Contact.
° Minor changes in the donation rules in Fandom, OST 5 information in Audiology, and content disclaimers in Analysis. Changed a couple monikers/e-mails at request.
Yasha:
° Two donated analysis essays. JURI ANALYSIS (You know you want it.) and the Akio Arc according to Celeste. (Someday my analysis essays are gonna be able to compare to her epics.)
° Proofread my Touga duel analysis.
° Two donated fanarts.
° Three donated dream stories.
° Three donated wallpapers.