Can someone please explain this to me???

MikageNoMiko · Post by **MikageNoMiko** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 2:35 am

OK, I'm going insane, I can't figure out the significance... look for yourself...

http://members.tripod.com/forkinstudios/id52.htm

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 2:42 am

It appears to be a master/servant themed pic. OR early interracial, dominant/submissive porn. OR just a wacky coincidence.

Wonka · Post by **Wonka** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 2:43 am

I am slightly less intelligent for looking at that.

MikageNoMiko · Post by **MikageNoMiko** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 2:47 am

kthulhu wrote:It appears to be a master/servant themed pic. OR early interracial, dominant/submissive porn. OR just a wacky coincidence.

It's not a coincidence, they're WAY too alike. And it's not what the painting is that gets to me, rather what the significance of it being used in that way on Mikage and Mamiya from Shoujo Kakumei Utena... I don't get the correlation, the reason for it being that way... THATS what I need explained -_-

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 2:48 am

Well, I haven't seen Utena, so count my opinion as that of an uninformed observer

.

priuscomet · Post by **priuscomet** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 3:47 am

hmm... i've never seen utena either so i'm a bit confused why its such a big deal that the pictures are similar. i mean, so what? so the artist wanted to have an artistic reference. big deal.

MikageNoMiko · Post by **MikageNoMiko** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 4:01 am

priuscomet wrote:hmm... i've never seen utena either so i'm a bit confused why its such a big deal that the pictures are similar. i mean, so what? so the artist wanted to have an artistic reference. big deal.

The big deal is that Utena is an anime series on which symbolism weighs heavily. Everything has a symbolic meaning, and usually I've been able to figure it out... but this one... I just can't break -_-

Squall3X · Post by **Squall3X** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 1:24 pm

I think I know. But listen i dont mean to be racist by saying this...
Ok, I've never seen Utena either but I'm guessing the dude with the flowers is sort of like the guy in the bed's assistant, sidekick, slave, whatever. And in the painting, there is a black person giving flowers to the naked chick. Now, during this time maybe the blacks were still slaves so the people who made Utena were probably trying to bring out more of the little flower guy's slave and assistant characteristics. I dunno, that's just what I think.

Kenny12 · Post by **Kenny12** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 4:38 pm

i think you should ask the director of what ever anime that came form ~!

SarahtheBoring · Post by **SarahtheBoring** » Tue Aug 27, 2002 8:33 pm

*stops squealing and jumping up and down at that username* ...though I have to say I really prefer Nemuro to Mikage. Even if he dresses like a dork. Mmm, creepy levels of intelligence mixed with extreme repression.

*cough*

Beyond Pink (a Mikage & Nemuro shrine) has an analysis of the similarity between the painting and that scene - I think I've seen it on another site too, but I'm not sure.

Anyhow, that one's http://www.bunnybeth.net/beyondpink/ - and the analysis itself is http://www.bunnybeth.net/beyondpink/celeste.html (The section you're looking for in this case would be <i>Olympia</i>.)

I remember one key factor was that - if you notice - the cat at the foot of the bed is missing. As seen earlier in those eps, a black cat was a symbol for Tokiko and the family unit of her, her brother, and possibly Nemuro (at least he wishes ;P). One of their theories pertains to that.

And yes, the fake Mamiya is basically Mikage's sidekick. Though I haven't watched that scene in a couple of months, my guess is that the absence of the cat plus Mamiya acting as Nemuro's sidekick would mark the beginning of Mikage's building his little dreamworld - Tokiko is nowhere to be found (she was of crucial importance in his real past, but in his "frozen" world she doesn't even exist), and real Mamiya didn't want "eternity" while this one is asking for it. What's more, a) real Mamiya was deathly ill by this point and b) he never acted like Nemuro's sidekick/slave.

So. *cough*