| Title | : | Revolutionary Girl Utena, Vol. 3: To Sprout |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1591162076 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781591162070 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 200 |
| Publication | : | First published August 22, 1997 |
Revolutionary Girl Utena, Vol. 3: To Sprout Reviews
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It's not hard to see why the manga was such a hit, and this series would still be a pretty good read 15 years after this was published.
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The last volume for today! I would love to just race through this series, but I know I will regret that. :P But this series is just too fabulous, too fun, too wonderful.
In this one we find out a little more about the World's End (though I still want to know more, especially now THAT happened near the end of the volume), about Dios (who may just be Utena's prince o.0), about Anthy. Though I am only disliking Anthy more and more with each volume. I loved her in the first one, I was worried about her, I wanted her to have a good life, but with volume 2 and 3... eh. With what she did at the end of volume 3 especially I just wanted to shake her good and well and see if maybe that would bring some sense into her. But I am still curious about her as well.
We meet yet another character and I didn't trust him from the start. The way he picked up Utena (in believe she was his sister).... no. Just no.
I am also still going with the whole they are 15-17 and not 13-16 thing. Because there are some scenes in here which are just a bit too creepy if you take in account that Utena is 13 officially.
I am still not sure what to think of Touga though. He seems to have no real bad intentions and he seems genuinely interested in Utena. He may just want to change his techniques for getting her to accept him though. :P
The art is still fabulous and I am just amazed at the amount of details!
The side-stories were pretty fun to read, a real change from the normal stories. I thought it was quite fun that they were mostly from the monkey's POV.
Review first posted at
https://twirlingbookprincess.com/ -
Touga shows that he can be quite charming, knows his way to someone’s heart, and can manipulate that knowledge to a frightening degree. This gives him insight into other manipulators which he shares with Utena even while he schemes to take her power and Anthy away from her. Not that he’s stopping there. He plots to make Utena herself his as well as much as he’s plotting anything. He also provides insight into the reasoning behind the dueling game, why the student council throw themselves and their swords into this elaborate scheme. Utena doesn’t understand it, but she finds her own reasons for dueling, driven forth by her courage and her innocence. Both of these qualities have touched not only Touga’s heart, but Anthy’s as well. Anthy, however, is even more bound to the dueling game than Touga, in service to a far greater manipulator who has set his sights upon Utena. This prince is one Utena may not be able to resist, even as she gets closer to both her prince and his power.
Much of the pageantry from the anime isn’t possible, yet I can still feel the pageantry. The characters leap from the pages with striking beauty, drawing me into Utena’s journey and the emotions of everyone involved with this exquisite, menacing, and specific setting, laden with hidden meaning and metaphor. Reading this book was a unique experience unlike any other. -
More slapping female characters and all the love interests suck. Even the Rose Prince dude. I mean what's his deal, sending cryptic letters and showing up just long enough to keep Utena interested.
I'm going to keep reading and maybe by the end it'll make sense? -
Mi favorito hasta el momento.
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Utena truly is finding herself in her journey into adulthood. Relatably, she grew up wanting to be a prince, the same sort of prince she secretly wanted to be saved by. But as she feels new sensations and meets new people, she finds herself thinking it might not be so bad to be a normal girl.
However, after recovering from her slump, she’s finding that she doesn’t really want to be a normal girl nor a prince. As her journey continues, she vows to find and reclaim herself whilst protecting Anthy and seeking out her prince.
Deep inside of Utena, despite her desire to protect, she wants to be saved. She’s just a young girl, albeit strong and brave. And she is slowly coming to terms with an identity that can contradict itself in a way society doesn’t ordinarily expect.
Touga Kiryu’s desires seem to come from a place within himself that feels suffocated and repressed. Touga is someone who obvious has to hide his true self and stifle it, when all he wants is to be free, to be himself, to be Touga Kiryu. But he can’t. He feels like with the power of Dios, he and the entire world, can be free from this societal suffocation and breathe in new air as their inner selves, whomever that may be.
As for the story itself… what?
And it’s true, there is symbolism on every page, so much so that I choose to ignore it and flip through like it’s a normal manga. I used to love it but it’s honestly too much for me right now. Even so, I still believe that Revolutionary Girl Utena has continued to age magnificently. -
Today’s post is on Revolutionary Girl Utena, Vol. 3: To Sprout by Chiho Saitō, Be-Pas . It is 200 pages long and is published by Shojo Beat. The cover is an illustration of Utena and Touga as they duel. As it is the third in the series, you need to have read the first two volumes to understand the story. There is no foul language, no sex, and comedic violence in this book. The intended reader is someone who likes intense plots with lots of twists. The story follows the main character, Utena. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- Utena finds herself closer to the prince she so desperately seeks. Meanwhile, she must try to repel Touga's romantic advances and figure out what role the new boy, Akio, will play in her life.
Review- Utena loses her first fight in this volume to Touga, who gets in her head to win. He wants the power of World’s End but he also has become inflated with Utena. So Utena has a small crisis of self in the middle of the volume but she remembers who she is and what she wants from life and herself. We learn more about Anthy and what she is and the fact that she has a brother named Aiko. He wants World’s End's power too but the siblings are far more than what they appear. I think that Aiko is going to be the real villain of the series but I don’t know. As this is a short series, only three volumes are left.
I give this manga a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money. -
This volume has been truly spectacular and full of intrigue. I have come to suffer a lot from Utena's fate with the duels and I have witnessed both the destruction of the character and her rebirth.
Although I know the story from having seen the anime twice, I can only say that I am in front of one of the best manga I have ever read. It is clarifying for me many things that the animated series did not make clear to me. -
Chapter 3, and a bonus about... a wish-granting statuette! Duels with Touga... yep, plural! Akio Ohtori is introduced and the truth is revealed - at least to the reader. Anthy's character becomes more problematic... what is going to happen next?!
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-oh my god i hate touga so much
-any path to power, though!
-he's just the worst
-i'm so glad that in the manga the first glance at ohtori makes sense, geographically and architecturally, but like, every Important Student essentially has their own mansion. the best dormitories in the world. -
i’m glad that in this volume we learned more abt what the world’s end is, but i’m still a little confused (hence the 4 stars). i love the art so much and the structure of the manga overall, hoping to see some of these plot holes covered in the next volumes
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En cuestión de historia y desarrollo de personajes, me gusta más el anime.
Bueno, ¡faltan dos! -
WHY CAN'T I GET BOOK 4 THROUGH MY LIBRARY SYSTEM
WHY -
Pending.
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Unbelievable! We are finally getting somewhere with this story.
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2,5 stars
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Utena and Anthy working their way into my heart from page one.
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Genial
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Im still confused by the plot but i love these lesbians
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:O
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it's interesting to see how friendships evolve and betrayal sets in. chuchu is adorable. he should have been in the regular storyline more. alas he was not. anthy still remains hard to figure out, but i guess that's just how she rolls. wakaba was classic too. but she's freakishly straightforward. as utena finds out more about world's end, another mystery arises: anthy and her purpose, utena's prince's role, and just who is akio anyway?
you know, i don't think that i've mentioned this yet, but i love how it's focused around fencing. well, swordplay, not so much fencing. but fencing is awesome, and i'm so glad that it's center stage in a descent series. it's a sport that not many people do anymore, so it's nice to see a "revival" of sorts. -
Another frustrating book in this supposedly classic series. If the very clear incest isn't enough to squick, certainly the men forcing themselves physically and emotionally on the women should do the job.
Ugh this series. I cannot wait for it to be over.
Thank god for the little shorts at the end with Chu. Those are possibly the most redeeming parts of this whole series. -
Things start to pick up in this volume, with lots of manipulation and mysteries added on to mysteries. We're starting to see some emotional depth in the characters, and the plot is definitely heating up.
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The amount of face slapping in this series is a little over the top.
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Series is getting real interesting.
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Well, we have a betrayal and a new revelation. Still bizarre and not that interesting to me, but I'm still curious.
Has anyone else fallen completely in love with Chu?? So cute! -
See my review for volume 1.
