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shadow: What're you gonna do when you graduate?
shadow: I'm going to high school, of course.
shadow: No, I mean in your future.
shadow: Haven't decided yet.
shadow: I wanna be an actress.
shadow: Do you really believe you can pull that off?
shadow: Man, you're dead serious about becoming one.
shadow: Well, look forward to our ten year reunion.
shadow: Hey...
shadow: And what about you?
shadow: What about?
shadow: Your future.
shadow: I guess I'll get married to some high-ranking man.
shadow: There she goes.
shadow: There she goes.
shadow: Hey, aren't women supposed to be good at nabbing handsome guys?
shadow: Get a load of this!
shadow: This little tramp just started going out with the man of her dreams.
shadow: She's the one who kept going "Utena-sama, Utena-sama" all the time.
shadow: Hey, you got a problem with that?
shadow: Hey, who was Utena-sama again?
shadow: What, don't you know?
shadow: Remember? She's that girl who always dressed like a guy.
shadow: She got hassled by the teachers all the time.
shadow: Oh, now I remember. Her!
shadow: But didn't she get hurt real bad and hospitalized a month or two ago?
shadow: Huh? Hospitalized? I heard she got betrayed by a friend or a lover or something and switched schools.
shadow: I heard she got in trouble with the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and expelled.
shadow: Well, not like it matters.
Finally, at the very last episode, we have the shadow girls talking about "normal" things -
or rather, they're just not doing one of their plays.
This conversation does a couple of things. First, it informs you of Utena's fate - or rather,
it deliberately doesn't. All of the shadow girls' explinations are close to the
mark, but they never really tell you what happened to her.
It's of my opinion that Utena "graduated" from Ohtori. Like Mikage, who was forgotten as
soon as he left, nobody knows or cares what happened to her.
Juri tells the story of the boy that valiantly tried to save her sister's life. She remembers
the incident, but cannot remember the boy's name. Such is the mark that Utena left on
Ohtori - nobody really remembers her, but she changed the lives of everybody involved.
The second is a little more complicated. One of the main themes of Utena is growing up and
the difference between children and adults. All of the students in Ohtori are children, as
are the shadow girls. When the shadow girls discuss what they are going to do when they
grow up, they are making the transition between childhood and adulthood. They, like the
other characters, have decided to take control over their own lives - whether it be by
deciding to become an actress or marry a very rich man. ;)
The shadow girls' conversation also shows that Akio no longer has any power at Ohtori
anymore. They would always talk about his influences while he was there, but now that he
no longer has any influences, they are talking about "more important things". Akio's
was in control only as long as the students of Ohtori remained children, and as soon as
they decided not to be controlled by either leaving completely (like Utena or Anthy) or
by merely not doing as he wishes and following their own descisions.
Anyway, with the end of Utena, Akio loses and Utena wins, which is how anime works, right?
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