This has been the same all along, but "possibly the ring was an engagement ring" for Utena's ring feels interesting with the whole Rose Bride deal.
The bit with the shadow UFO being on a fishing line is cute, it does imply an illusory nature to something, but I'm not sure exactly what. Is something going to undermine last episode's victory? And starting the episode with the shadow puppets feels a bit ominous.
Yo dawg, I heard you like repeated transition texts, so I added a diegetic tape recorder so you can repeat your repeated transition texts.
Ok, now there are two Utena's Prince-looking dudes? Is it one guy split in half, or two different guys? This feels like it's positioning Ghost Prince/Dios as Anthy's father and New Prince as some sort of higher-level manipulator? Ghost Prince does look more like Utena's Prince than this new dude.
A lot of parallels between the first duel and last episode's duel.
Doing the full stock footage in a clip episode seems a bit weak. I guess they wanted to highlight the bit with Anthy's magical costume blessing?
This hourglass motif reminds me of the stopwatch motif I also don't know what to make of. But the hourglasses seem to be measuring the "active life" of each opponent, using their highlight colors? And the window colors also match, except for the first hourglass/window which are red. This interestingly implies that Utena's first duel with Saionji was actually with Touga somehow, and also that his Touga's true highlight color is red even though he's been getting the princely white for rose borders?
So, the duels are:
- Friendship, where she fights for Anthy's sake.
- Choice, where she chooses to not give up and this activates the ring/Ghost Prince.
- Reason, where Micky loses because he let his fantasy of Anthy/his sister blind him to reality.
- Love, where Juri loses because of… something? The theme is about her unwillingness to believe in miracles and Utena having them in the form of Ghost Prince, but it's not clear what exactly the moral is. I guess it's Juri's heart being closed after her heartbreak, or something.
- Adoration, where Nanami loses in a relatively straightforward way presumably due to her relatively straightforward vice?
- Conviction, where Utena lost because Touga impaired her conviction re: princliness.
- Self, where Utena won to get part of her self back but also due to reminding Anthy of something.
Sometimes the duel names seem like strengths, and sometimes they seem like weaknesses. Maybe it's a moderation-in-all-things deal, like the way to lose a duel is to have too much or not enough of a quality?
Utena's cleared seven duels, despite losing one of them, interestingly.
Who's established this structure of duel names? End of the World? Why is Ghost Prince Dios accusatory towards New Prince-esque Guy?
Dropping the pink Utena-esque rose onto a floor revealed to have the images of many other roses suggests that many duelists have tried and failed in the past.
Anthy was waiting for New Guy? Are they both her father? (Based on the next episode teaser I guess he's her brother and Ghost Prince Dios is both of their fathers?)
More UFO imagery and an unclaimed ring???
It's interesting how this episode focused on everyone except Touga, despite Touga being sorta central to season 1.
Looks like things are not going to get any less confusing next episode!
