Revolutionary Girl: Utena (manga) Volume 1

Well, I was at my not-so local library, where I found out they have a gratuitously large selection of manga. Although not all of it piqued my interest, I had heard of this one by reputation by a friend…

*flashback*

“Dude, you should totally check out Utena man. It’s got like deep references to Buddhism, philosophical implications, and LESBIANS”

*end flashback*

Based on the criteria above, I decided that this was totally worth checking out. After, I like deep plots (when they aren’t pretentious) and I haven’t read a girl’s love book yet, so why not, right?

Anyway, this story starts out with an introduction to our main character, Utena Tenjou, a self absorbed girl who will stomp through any person in her way. While she does irritate me as a whole, a lot of main characters do at the start. The first chapter is about Utena uncovering a conspiracy set up by her prince charming in order to get her to go to some weird school in another part of the country.

After all that, we find the whole thing was a prologue that has very little to do with the rest of the book, aside from establishing Utena’s motivations in a long winded manner. We then skip to her being at an entirely different school, which looks a lot like Cross Acadamy from Vampire Knight, minus the vampires. (I know this came out first) We are then shown some guy slapping some girl around. We later establish that the guy is known as Saionji, an egotistical jerk, and the girl is known as Himemiya, who is apparently a magnet for being slapped. Based on this volume alone, I would infer that her face has a special property that causes people’s hands to be attracted to it in a violent manner.

Utena ends up challenging Saionji to a duel, which leads to him drawing a live blade against Utena (wielding a wood sword.) Utena manages to win the duel for some reason, which seems to have repercussions later. But for now, due to some weird contracts, this leads to Utena being engaged to Himemiya. Himemiya seems to have no issue with this, making her seem kinda creepy…

Anyway, despite getting a slow start, I believe this book may or may not have potential. I was not greatly feeling this first volume, due to the slow start. However, I will probably get the second volume from the not so local library next time I am there, just to see where this winds up going.

Coming soon: volume 2!

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