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ANIMONDAYS: Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie (1999)

  • We Luv Video 100 North Loop Boulevard East Austin, TX, 78751 United States (map)

Bright steel finds its mark;

Wind-toss'd petals flutter down:

A bride for a prize.

ANIMONDAYS exists to exhibit great works of animation from all over the world (but mostly Japan). This month we're delving into a wild fairy tale with Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie!

On paper, Utena shouldn't work. The film compresses an entire season of magical girl high school television into 90 minutes, discarding context and racing through character motivations at a break-neck pace. Despite this, the filmmakers pulled off something miraculous - what's left after distilling the plot is wave after wave of fairytale images and violent implications rolling over one another, mixing into a micro-dosed cocktail of rose petals and winding stairways. You don't understand the plot, but you damn well FEEL it.

If you have any love for the off-beat, the artistic, the grossly flamboyant, or just a good coming-of-age-story, you owe it to yourself to experience this fever dream of a film. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles. Rated PG-13 (our best approximation) for sexual themes, partial nudity, implied abuse, and sword violence.

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April 13

Family Matinee: The Princess Bride

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April 15

ODD WORLD: The Stupids (1996)