It's not clear to me what Mikage thinks recruiting Utena would accomplish. Utena can't really duel herself and doesn't seem likely to murder Anthy.
It's not clear to me where Mikage picked up the idea that making Mamiya into a Rose Bride by killing Anthy is metaphysically coherent. It seems like if Akio wanted Anthy dead he could do so in a less inefficient way.
Utena dreaming about the coffin flashback does tie into the idea of eternity well. I feel like there's some ambiguity as to whether that's how she remembers her past or whether the storybook version is more how she remembers it.
There's a lot of feeling of time being messed up this episode, like last episode but expressed differently.
Mikage's superpower revealed: creepily photographing things he shouldn't have been there for! ^_^
Not sure what to make of Utena being conflated with Tokiko.
Oh, framing the black rose duelist's emotional problems in terms of memories is an interesting perspective. They were clinging to a distorted version of the past. And that implies interesting things regarding Mikage and Utena's versions of the past also being distorted, in different ways.
<3 Utena punching Mikage in the middle of the ritual. Though it's still hard for me to picture what Utena becoming a black rose duelist would've entailed.
Utena challenging Mikage is interesting. What would it really prove? Sorta feels a bit protest-too-much-y or like he's her Persona 4 shadow.
Ok, so Utena's getting conflated with Tokiko because Mikage's stuck in his memories of the past? What does that imply for Tokiko visiting Akio last episode? She wasn't talking like Utena to him, but was still getting conflated with the shadow puppets.
This episode's shadow play seems pretty on the nose about the ridiculousness of clinging childishly to past memories. And Wakaba interacts with them, so maybe Tokiko doing so last episode isn't meant to be a big deal?
Utena skips the staircase! What is the world coming to!
Mikage ends up looking a bit pathetic, having lost touch with reality and failed to preserve his memories. I guess Akio must be related to why he remembered Mamiya incorrectly, but what was the purpose or significance of that?
Huh, this whole season's being framed as illusory? No rumors of 100 dead boys any more?
And fake Mamiya is Anthy? I guess that sorta makes sense as Akio's preferred tool of manipulation, and casts Anthy's relationship with Utena in a problematic light.
Where things stand now I'm finding the whole Black Rose Arc a bit unsatisfying. The duels feel a bit quantity over quality, and while weaponizing divergent memories is an interesting concept where things stand right now I'm not sure what Mikage really accomplished or why Akio wanted him to get people to keep trying to kill Anthy. I was sorta expecting either Mikage or Utena to draw a sword from someone other than Anthy this episode.
Actually, is the focus on Utena drawing the Sword of Dios rather than the staircase here analogizing that action to black rose duelists drawing swords from student council members? That feels like it'd imply that Utena and Anthy have divergent memories of the past. Was the coffin memory from Anthy's perspective somehow? I wonder how Touga fits into all this, since it was his memory the first time we saw it, right?
And next, a Nanami episode to lighten things up a bit.