Hmm, this Touga listening to a skipping phonograph thing is going to be an ongoing motif? I was sorta expecting we were done with Touga at least for a while.

Boy, there's a lot of intrigue in this episode. It's interesting that Micky and his sister have like a mutual jealousy thing going on, right after Nanami gets an out-of-context focus bit. I assume that Micky's sister's going to use his heart sword as a black rose duelist?

New Nanami-featuring student council stock footage! I guess the Student Council does not exactly operate via democratic elections.

Akio does seem to be courting Utena in some way, but less punch-you-in-the-face about it than Touga was.

This blender milkshake vampirism sequence is not something I was expecting. Not sure what to make of that, maybe drawing a sword from someone is about shared memories or a distorted relationship? The butterflies recur when she draws the sword, interestingly, reminiscent of the reverse butterfly sequence from the elevator.

It is interesting how Utena interacts with the shadow puppets now. This seems to be about… contrariness?

I do feel like the upgraded stakes to killing Anthy make me less willing to believe that one of these two-bit challengers is going to win. Also, are there really going to be like twelve characters with a grudge against Anthy specifically this season, or will some of the black rose duelists have other angles?

Oh, this is the episode that that meme about Anthy and the milkshakes is from, isn't it? That's very interesting. I assume there will be other someone-elses-sword duels, will be interesting to see what parallels there are. Actually, last episode I interpreted the lilies as just being in memory of the black sword guys, but maybe they actually had to do with fiance girl in some way? (If she turns out to be a lesbian that'd be wild. ^_^)

This is the first time Utena uses the Rose Bride blessing thing Touga used that one time, right? It's not really apparent that the black rose made Kozue any better at dueling than Micky is.

I haven't been paying as much attention to the single roses that seem to appear alongside magic sometimes, but it's interesting that one appears both when Black Rose Kozue is luring Micky in and when Micky kisses Kozue at the end. That sorta feels like it's all a Jasmine Apocynum thing where being made into a Black Rose duelist draws power from your unhealthy relationship but ends up repairing it in the end. It'll be interesting to see how consistent that is.

Anthy saying Micky's version of Chu-Chu's name at the end is also amazingly interesting. It's definitely not clear to me how Anthy thinks about her relationship with Micky. Also these bits with Anthy and Akio are just very creepy.

(Next Episode: Nanami's player uses the Agony Rite to reinterpret what "Dying of Animals" means to something new.)