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mikogalateaKanae is one of the characters I feel most sorry for in Utena, so unsurprisingly, there have been times where I've thought about the crappy deal she got and realised she had it even worse than I'd previously believed. I made a couple of posts about it on Tumblr, and since they're both fairly short, I'm reposting them both here together.
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Flowers on desks during Kanae's duel [originally posted around 5 years ago]
Just had a thought regarding some possible symbolism here. I know the implications behind the specific kind of flowers present in that duel have been discussed elsewhere in the fandom, but I feel like approaching them from a somewhat different angle that’s more about why they're on the desks in the first place. I don’t mind being corrected if I’m way off base with this. >>;
In Japan, when a student passes away, a vase of flowers is traditionally placed on the deceased student's desk. When such a vase is placed on a living student's desk, however, it's a bullying tactic that basically amounts to saying "I wish you would drop dead".
Although many of the other Black Rose duellists have items on desks that are important to them (Wakaba's hairclip, Keiko's umbrella, etc) I think it's safe to say that they didn't put them there themselves; the same goes for Kanae. So who did put them there?
Akio did, essentially. He's the one who pretty much creates the entire duelling arena with his projector, after all, so it would make perfect sense if the things on desks were just as much part of the illusion.
In other words, if Akio put flowers on the desks for Kanae's duel, then one implication may be that he's wanted her dead since long before he and Anthy poison her near the end of the third arc!
If that's the case, then yet again -- poor, poor Kanae.
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Fridge horror, starring Kanae Ohtori [the post originally titled such; originally posted around 4 years ago]
I've just been thinking about how Utena often denies her crush on Akio because he's an engaged man ("After all, he has Kanae-san to think about!") and how some people in the fandom get annoyed at her for bringing it up as much as she does, and something quite sad has hit me about it: Utena is the only character in the series who comes anywhere close to giving half a damn about Kanae!
Akio neglects her, lets her be turned into a Black Rose duellist and later poisons her, Anthy keeps passive-aggressively snubbing her and also participates in the later poisoning, her mother clearly isn't all that concerned about her, her father is too ill... the poor girl doesn't really have anybody, does she? Even Utena's "concern" has more to do with giving herself an excuse to be in denial than with Kanae herself; she just gets points for thinking of her at all!
And while I mention her sick father, IIRC, Kanae was the one who'd been taking care of him since he fell ill. With that in mind, if we assume that Kanae did indeed die, what would happen to her dad? I have trouble picturing Mrs Ohtori looking after him in her stead, considering that she claims to not care about her husband (and even poisoned him in the first place at Akio's prompting, if we believe Enokido's notes). Maybe I'm overthinking this and missing something obvious that could contradict this fridge horror, but what if Kanae's death indirectly led to her father's condition getting worse -- or even, worst case scenario, his death as well?
It's a chilling thought.
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I might try getting more old meta I still like over here in the next few days, so apologies in advance if I end up making a bunch of posts like this in relatively quick succession!
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Flowers on desks during Kanae's duel [originally posted around 5 years ago]
Just had a thought regarding some possible symbolism here. I know the implications behind the specific kind of flowers present in that duel have been discussed elsewhere in the fandom, but I feel like approaching them from a somewhat different angle that’s more about why they're on the desks in the first place. I don’t mind being corrected if I’m way off base with this. >>;
In Japan, when a student passes away, a vase of flowers is traditionally placed on the deceased student's desk. When such a vase is placed on a living student's desk, however, it's a bullying tactic that basically amounts to saying "I wish you would drop dead".
Although many of the other Black Rose duellists have items on desks that are important to them (Wakaba's hairclip, Keiko's umbrella, etc) I think it's safe to say that they didn't put them there themselves; the same goes for Kanae. So who did put them there?
Akio did, essentially. He's the one who pretty much creates the entire duelling arena with his projector, after all, so it would make perfect sense if the things on desks were just as much part of the illusion.
In other words, if Akio put flowers on the desks for Kanae's duel, then one implication may be that he's wanted her dead since long before he and Anthy poison her near the end of the third arc!
If that's the case, then yet again -- poor, poor Kanae.
-
Fridge horror, starring Kanae Ohtori [the post originally titled such; originally posted around 4 years ago]
I've just been thinking about how Utena often denies her crush on Akio because he's an engaged man ("After all, he has Kanae-san to think about!") and how some people in the fandom get annoyed at her for bringing it up as much as she does, and something quite sad has hit me about it: Utena is the only character in the series who comes anywhere close to giving half a damn about Kanae!
Akio neglects her, lets her be turned into a Black Rose duellist and later poisons her, Anthy keeps passive-aggressively snubbing her and also participates in the later poisoning, her mother clearly isn't all that concerned about her, her father is too ill... the poor girl doesn't really have anybody, does she? Even Utena's "concern" has more to do with giving herself an excuse to be in denial than with Kanae herself; she just gets points for thinking of her at all!
And while I mention her sick father, IIRC, Kanae was the one who'd been taking care of him since he fell ill. With that in mind, if we assume that Kanae did indeed die, what would happen to her dad? I have trouble picturing Mrs Ohtori looking after him in her stead, considering that she claims to not care about her husband (and even poisoned him in the first place at Akio's prompting, if we believe Enokido's notes). Maybe I'm overthinking this and missing something obvious that could contradict this fridge horror, but what if Kanae's death indirectly led to her father's condition getting worse -- or even, worst case scenario, his death as well?
It's a chilling thought.
-
I might try getting more old meta I still like over here in the next few days, so apologies in advance if I end up making a bunch of posts like this in relatively quick succession!
