/lit/ - Literature

>>11250559
>maybe make an effortpost
alright I'll give it a shot
here's some songs to accompany this post, watching a few will give you an idea of what the show is covering thematically
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=EAPVwTawBR0
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=E83hl6hDfKQ
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=elG2L2VKSgg
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=hCuS6VBgIjc
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=5ISlt_OTGwY
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=jdsMC6ilA2w
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=boMUy-fI0Ok
https://hooktube.com/watch?v=Ak11WgTr7AM
>only other anime to even touch eva's depth is maaaaybe berserk
Utena is often pitched to people as "Evangelion for girls" to get them interested, and while I would agree with that to a large extent, there are significant differences between the two shows.
Evangelion in my opinion was crafted with a single purpose in mind: to create a subconscious block that causes the subject to avoid suicide, perhaps one of the highest aims a work of art can hope to achieve. (Anno set out to make the viewer identify with Shinji and then reveal a cyclic conflict that has two outcomes; accepting of the self leading to happiness, and rejecting of the self leading to a "disgusting" return to primordial Adam and Eve. Associating the return to the beginning of existence with rejection of the self is where the subconscious block comes in; there was an aversion in my mind at least to having to eternally repeat the same things over and over. This in itself could be a series of posts, but hopefully you get the idea, if you want me to expand on it I can.) The use of repetition as a way of getting the viewer to break out of a cycle is present in Utena as well, which I'll get to in a bit.
If the purpose of Evangelion is to convince the viewer to live, the purpose of Utena is to convince the viewer to become a hero. This is done through an inversion of some of the standard "Prince saves the Princess" tropes; the goal is not for the Prince to save the Princess, but for the Princess to save herself, and subsequently help other Princesses save themselves. From a Jungian perspective I found this more effective at achieving the original purpose of these stories, which is for the man to rescue the princess within, the feminine part of his soul; by portraying the feminine to be active, it is showing that the man does not have to rescue the feminine part of himself, merely teach the feminine part of his soul to save itself (I can only speak about this as a man, women certainly have a different experience that I can't speak to).
I'll continue in a bit, want to make sure the thread doesn't die