Is Eternity Within Our
Grasp?
ciaan
All alone in space and time
There’s nothing here but
what’s here’s mine
Something borrowed,
something blue
Every me and every you.
-Placebo,
“Every You Every Me”
There are a few basic
questions that can be asked about the nature of time. Some of them are: Is time
something that actually exists in an objective sense, or is it totally
dependent on subjective perception? Is time uniform throughout the universe, or
does it vary? Is time connected to change and motion, something that can pass,
or is time static and eternal? Do the past and the future exist? Thus the
importance of loss, change, motion, eternity, memory, and subjectivity in discussions
of time. These questions and concerns have been answered in different ways by
many people. The musings that will be looked at here are from Oliver Sacks,
Albert Einstein, Augustine, and the show Revolutionary
Girl Utena.
I’ve never analyzed a film
or TV series in a paper before, so this is a new experience for me. I was
worried that I would have only my memories of the show to use in this paper,
and no good way to provide concrete examples from it. I found a way, however. I
am using quotes from the English translations of the scripts available online
at the Utena Encyclopedia.
The anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena has time as one
of its main themes. In the series, the Student Council members of Ohtori
Academy are dueling each other for the chance to be engaged to the Rose Bride,
Anthy. The one who possesses the Rose Bride will gain the power to
revolutionize the world and grasp eternity. This power is contained in the form
of Dios, who is captured in the magic castle suspended in the sky over the
dueling arena. A new girl at the school, Utena, challenges one of the Council
members when he humiliates her best friend, and in beating him becomes the one
engaged to the Rose Bride. She spends the rest of the series attempting to
protect Anthy and draw her out of her emotional shell. One by one, the Student
Council members duel Utena, but she beats all of them and keeps Anthy.
In the second story arc, a
new level of the story opens up. The featured character in this arc is Mikage.
Mikage wishes to beat Utena and then kill Anthy, so that he may replace her and
make his companion Mamiya into the new Rose Bride. Then he and Mamiya may grasp
eternity together. This story arc highlights the importance of memory in the
perception of time. It is also in this arc that it becomes apparent that time
at Ohtori Academy is not the same as time in the rest of the world. It also
introduces Anthy’s brother Akio, the deputy trustee chairman.
Every character in the story
has a certain precious memory that they treasure above all other things. This
one memory is the basis of their character and provides them with meaning in
life. Most of these memories are connected to a certain person that the
character is in love with, causing a lot of obsessive romantic relationships in
the series. Mikage says to Utena at one point, “I see. It's that memory that's
been supporting you up until now. No need to be ashamed. Because the memory you
possess is a worthy one. Only those with beautiful memories are allowed to
wish, ‘If only those days could last forever, if only I could still be what I
was back then.’ I know that you're the same as myself. Your eyes are like those
people who can't help wanting to make memories last forever.”
Utena’s precious memory is
of her prince. When she was a small child, both her parents died. The prince
appeared to her and showed her something eternal, something that allowed her to
go on living. He gave her a ring, and told her to always be noble and brave.
She decided at that time to become a prince herself, so that she could live up
to those ideals. She came to Ohtori Academy in the first place seeking her
prince.
Mikage’s precious memory is
of Mamiya and his sister Tokiko. Before he met them, he was a “computer-like
man.” The research he was working on at Ohtori Academy, toward grasping
eternity, was merely an intellectual puzzle to him. He fell in love with
Tokiko, however, and her brother Mamiya. Mamiya was sick and dying, and Mikage
wanted to grasp eternity in order to save Mamiya. Then he discovered Tokiko
with Akio, and Mikage was devastated. Since then, Mikage has been working for
Akio, and organizing the downfall of the Rose Bride. All his actions are based
on this one desire of his, to save Mamiya and regain Tokiko, to have eternal
love.
It is revealed at the end of
the story arc that Mikage’s memory was false and he was being manipulated by
Akio all along. In truth, the whole thing with Tokiko happened decades ago.
Mamiya died at that time. Since then, Mikage has been imagining Mamiya’s presence,
and this has been aided by Anthy masquerading as him, and Akio’s ability (at
that point unexplained) to manipulate reality on the school grounds. Mikage,
Anthy, and Akio have all been there for decades, unaging. Mikage was unaware of
the passage of so much time. It is not said how long he thought it had been,
but maybe only months, maybe a few years. Tokiko visits the school briefly, and
she has aged about 20 years. This is where it becomes clear that time in the
outside world and time at the academy are not the same.
The tragedy of this section
is that Mikage had forgotten even what Mamiya looked like. His memories of the
real Mamiya, and his death, had been replaced by memories of a false Mamiya,
who looked entirely different, and very similar to Anthy. Mikage had
transferred memories of certain things he had done over to Mamiya, thinking
that Mamiya had done them instead. If he remembered that he had been the one to
do them, he would have remembered that Mamiya was already dead at that time.
Mikage had been fighting all this time on the strength of his memory, and that
memory was false. He did many bad things in order to save a boy who had already
died, and whom he had forgotten the truth about.
Mikage doesn’t age because
he doesn’t know in his own mind that time is passing. Akio says to Mikage, once
he realizes what has happened, “I exploited the illusion you cherished in your
memory so much that you even halted your own time. The period where you hid the
possibility in your heart, not growing up, was useful.” Time is here presented
as a subjective thing, based on awareness and memory. There is no water of life
at Ohtori Academy, no way to physically extend the life span. Those who are
there do not age merely because they do not feel that enough time has passed
for them to age.
Mikage, because his memory
doesn’t progress past a certain point, ceases to age. Oliver Sacks, on the
other hand, tells of someone whose memory ceased progressing, and yet that did
not stop time from having its way with him. Sacks describes a patient of his,
Jimmie G., who lost all memories of events after 1945. He thought he was just
19 years old. He was unable to form new conscious memories. He could, however,
gain familiarity with the layout of a place, so that he could find certain
rooms and objects within rooms. Sacks says, “…none of us had ever encountered,
ever imagined, such a power of amnesia, the possibility of a pit into which
everything, every experience, every event, would fathomlessly drop, a
bottomless memory-hole that would engulf the whole world (p.35).”
This is a complete loss of
long term memory: the inability to store new information for more than a minute
or so. Jimmie could not remember the beginning of a conversation once it had
been occurring for a few moments. This memory loss did not develop until around
1965, meaning he also retroactively erased his memories. But Sacks was very
moved by the way in which Jimmie could still experience deeply affecting
moments: when he was in church, taking Communion; and when he was working in
the garden. These experiences would remain in his emotions for a while after
they had passed, so that although he might no longer consciously recollect
them, he was still living within their sphere of influence, still feeling the same
things as he had been. This is in contrast to the brevity of the terror he felt
whenever anyone would show him something that didn’t fit into his world of the
past, such as his own aged face in a mirror, or a picture of astronauts on the
moon. These terrors would disappear at the same rate as his memories of the
stimuli. But the calm and joy inspired in him by gardening and church would
remain after the stimuli ceased.
For this man, subjective
time stopped. And yet objective time continued. The others around him knew
that, in reality, time had passed. Jimmie continued to physically age. He was
utterly shocked anytime he saw his own face, and couldn’t reconcile that with
his perception of self. This moment when he was faced with the truth of the faultiness
of his memory, the truth of the passage of time, inspired a reaction in him
similar to the one Mikage had when he realized that his memory was false. But
the difference between Mikage and Jimmie is that Mikage’s new realization
continued, it became a new permanent memory, and all the old repressed
experiences of time, and of the things he, not Mamiya, had done, stayed with
him. When Jimmie was shocked into the “present” instead of the “past” that
shock was brief. The memory of it did not stay with him, and he soon reverted
back to his 1945 self.
For Sacks, time is something
real. It is an objective fact, and continues to pass, even for those who do not
notice its passing. Jimmie is wrong, plain and simple, when he believes that
the world is still in 1945. And yet, it can be argued that since subjective
experience is the only way a person can know anything, then time, as with all
else, actually is as we think it is. When Jimmie experiences it as being 1945,
that is the truth. When Jimmie experiences his face in the mirror, and realizes
that it cannot be true both that this is his face and that it is 1945, then it
is the truth that time has passed. When Mikage believes Mamiya to be with him,
and experiences his presence, then that is the truth. When Mikage experiences
his memories of Mamiya’s death, then that is the truth. When Sacks experiences
Jimmie as someone who cannot remember the present, and forgets from moment to
moment, then that is the truth. The question, of course, is where do these experiences
come from? What does it mean when two people have differing experiences? How is
the truth determined then? We could say that it is the truth that Jimmie has a
memory loss, because more people perceive it that way. We could say that it is
the truth that it is no longer 1945, because Jimmie can be brought to realize
that fact for a while, and Sacks cannot be brought to experience the present as
being 1945 (or at least, he is not brought to experience this). We could say it
is the truth that Mamiya is dead, but what evidence do we have? The claim of
the illusion of Mamiya, speaking directly into Mikage’s mind. Akio’s claim,
Tokiko’s claim. Maybe this experience is the delusion? Maybe a true memory is
replaced by a false one? How can we tell? Especially in this part of the story,
where it is never quite clear exactly what happens, or why.
After losing his duel with
Utena, Mikage “graduates” from the school. What this means is that he
disappears and is never seen again. Not only that, but no one else remembers
him. It is assumed that Anthy and Akio do, but they never mention him again
after that, so there is no proof. Utena
presents time as at once subjective and objective. It is “the truth” that
Mamiya is dead, this is made clear in the storyline. And yet, the power of
subjective experience is so strong that it can cause people to cease to age. It
can cause buildings to appear and disappear, for large groups at once. The
place where Mikage’s office is burned down decades ago, and yet to all the
students it seems to be there. After he leaves, however, it reverts back to
being a burned ruin. So which was true, Mikage’s experience of time not
passing, or Tokiko’s experience of time passing?
To answer these questions,
in a way, one can turn to Albert Einstein. Einstein views time and space as
fundamental properties of the universe. Both are bound together into one
continuum, the framework in which the universe is existing. Time and space are
created by the presence of matter. They can be measured by coordinate systems.
An object’s spatial coordinates change as it moves through, and the object can
pass back and forth in many different directions. Objects also move through
time, but only in one direction, forward. Or at least, that is how they move
from their own perspective. The point that Einstein makes with the theory of
relativity is that there is no universal perspective from which space and time
can be measured. The system of coordinates and measurement is always made from
a certain frame of reference, and what appears to an object from its own frame
is very different than what appears to some other object.
Any object can be viewed as
being stationary and the center of a coordinate system. Thus, for the sun, the
earth and everything else revolve around it. For the earth, the sun and
everything else revolve around it. The velocity of the earth as measured from
the sun is not the same as the velocity of the earth as measured from Pluto.
Time and space flow differently depending on the system of reference. The popular
portrayal of this is the spaceship that blasts off from the earth, achieves 99%
of lightspeed, and traces out a path that takes it away from the earth for a
while and then brings it back. For the people on the ship, only a small number
of years will have passed, while for the people on the earth, millions or
billions of years will have passed. And if the ship reaches actual lightspeed,
time on it “stops.” An infinity of time could happen on earth, and no time
would have happened on the ship.
However, when most people
imagine time stopping, they don’t actually imagine the absence of the passing
of time. They imagine the cessation of motion and change, but still with a
sense of time occurring. It’s like when a movie has a frozen frame: nothing
moves, but the seconds still tick by in thought. Mamiya says at one point,
“Eternity means lasting forever, right? For years, decades, centuries,
millennia, eons, and on and on. My life may be just a moment, but… Eternity
means that this moment lasts billions of billions of years, without end. I...
I... I want eternity.” But this is not how it is according to Einstein. No
matter how fast it is traveling according to the earth, from its own view, the
spaceship is stationary. Time on the spaceship passes at the same rate for its
inhabitants as it always has. Whether one ship-second is “equivalent” (as
measured by elapsed time once the ship returns to earth) to one earth-second,
or to 100 earth-years, or to one billion earth-years, doesn’t matter. Each and
every second on the ship is just as long as every other second on the ship. If
Ohtori Academy were a spaceship, the difference in time between it and the
outside world could be easily explained by the theory of relativity.
Established physics could present it as a fact, described with many equations.
The difference between relativity and Utena
is that the different time frames in an Einsteinian universe are caused by
physical acceleration, while in the Utena
universe they are caused by mental or spiritual “acceleration.” It is emotions
and desire that affect the rate of time, not velocity. But in each it is a
universe of infinite frames of reference, all true and also all false. There is
no universal center, no ether that permeates everything and has x-y-z
coordinates drawn on it in the handwriting of God.
There may, however, be
coordinates draw in the hand of the Devil, Akio. At the end of the series it is
revealed that (but not really revealed how) Akio manipulates people’s
perceptions of reality through the “Internal Clock, Municipal Orrery” in his
observatory. This machine can create the illusions of the dueling arena, the
illusions of Mikage’s office building still standing, whatever form of
projection Akio wishes. This observatory is also symbolically tied in to Akio’s
car, a snazzy red convertible that’s been clocked doing thousands of miles per
hour. Akio takes the characters for rides in his car before showing them the
Ends of the World, the observatory. With this machine he alters space, and
according to Einstein, altering space changes time as well. Akio’s desires and
projections might be seen as the “universal reference system” of Ohtori
Academy, the coordinates against which all things must be measured. And yet it
is implied that maybe somewhere behind his projections is another level, a
level of objective reality which he obscures with a veil of illusion. Else, why
would he have to project anything? At the very least, there is a world
outside the Academy. If there is no objective reality, then at least there are other
subjective realities that are just as powerful as Akio’s. Even Akio’s frame of
reference is not the ultimate one, in the sense of being the only truth. It is
just another object in motion, comparing itself to other objects. And in the
end, both Utena and Anthy win free of Akio’s world, like the spaceship breaking
out of the earth’s gravity well. Although both the earth and the spaceship have
gravity, that of the earth is greater. It does not, however, mean that the
greater must prevail. The subjective reality of one does not necessarily
destroy the subjective reality of another.
In an Einsteinian universe,
time is tied to motion. It flows and passes. This is quite different from a
perception of time as Eternity, which is persistent and static. Time is related
to loss, Eternity to permanence and keeping everything, because nothing is
destroyed and all times are always present and existent. In time as a flow, the
future isn’t real, can’t be, because it hasn’t happened yet, and the past can
never be retrieved, either from being destroyed or merely moved beyond reach.
In Eternity, the future, the present, and the past are all equally real.
Augustine examines time as a
thing that passes, and questions what its nature could be as such. “What, then,
is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh,
I know not: yet I say boldly that I know, that if nothing passed away, time
past were not; and if nothing were coming, a time to come were not; and if
nothing were, time present were not. Those two times then, past and to come,
how are they, seeing the past now is not, and that to come is not yet (p. 40)?”
Augustine wonders where the future is before it becomes the present, and where
the past is once it has ceased to be the present. He concludes that, in time,
neither the past nor the future really exist. And since the present is all that
ever is, how can we measure duration? Any measurement of time is based either
on memory or expectation, but both the memory and expectation only exist in
this moment of the present. Thus time cannot be measured, for as something that
passes it is always only one moment. “We measure neither times to come, nor
past, nor present, nor passing; and yet we do measure times (p. 50).” Even
though time does not exist, cannot exist, and cannot be measured, we measure
and experience it. “It is in thee, my mind, that I measure times. … In thee I
measure times; the impression, which things as they pass by cause in thee,
remains even when they are gone; this it is which, still present, I measure,
not the things which pass by to make this impression. This I measure, when I
measure times. Either then this is time, or I do not measure times (p. 50-51).”
Time, then is all in the mind.
Time is in the minds of
humanity, and Eternity is in the mind of God. “Certainly, if there be a mind
gifted with such vast knowledge and foreknowledge, as to know all things past
and to come, as I know one well-known Psalm, truly that mind is passing
wonderful, and fearfully amazing; in that nothing past, nothing to come in
after-ages, is any more hidden from him, then when I sung that Psalm, was
hidden from me what, and how much of it had passed away from the beginning,
what, and how much there remained unto the end. … Far, far more wonderfully,
and far more mysteriously, dost Thou know them. For not, as the feelings of one
who singeth what he knoweth, or heareth some well-known song, are through
expectation of the words to come, and the remembering of those that are past,
varied, and his senses divided, -not so doth anything happen unto Thee,
unchangeable eternal, that is, the eternal Creator of minds (p. 53).” In time,
only the present exists; in Eternity, all times and all presents exist. Nothing
is dependent on memory or expectation, for all is there.
Eventually the human mind
shall fail, and death shall come. “Thy years neither come nor go; whereas ours
both come and go, that they all may come. Thy years stand together, because
they do stand; nor are departing thrust out by coming years, for they pass not
away; but ours shall all be, when they shall no more be (p. 40).” And thus the
human mind, too, longs for Eternity. But one cannot gain Eternity in the
passing of time. “Who shall hold it [the human mind], and fix it, that it be
settled awhile, and awhile catch the glory of teat ever-fixed Eternity, and
compare it with the time which are never fixed, and see that it cannot be
compared; and that a long time cannot become long, but out of many motions
passing by, which cannot be prolonged altogether; but that in the Eternal
nothing passeth, but the whole is present; whereas no time is all at once
present: and that all time past, is driven on by time to come, and all to come
followeth upon the past; and all past and to come, is created, and flows out of
that which is ever present (p. 38-39)?” In Augustine’s view, Eternity and the
Eternal are the Creator of time, and thus when joined with the Creator a person
ought to be able to reach Eternity. Maybe during life, maybe not until after
death, I don’t know.
The characters in Revolutionary Girl Utena wish to grasp
eternity. It is the over-riding preoccupation of many of them. A great many of
the characters also want to return to the past, when things were better than
they are now, and they still had the shining, beautiful things they have now
lost. The characters try to preserve their precious memories at all costs. They
wish to live the “Utopian-Past-Tense Incantation”-- (“Time Machine/To the past,
to the future, whoosh, zip, zoom!/Time Machine/To the time of all my dreams and
wishes/…/These are all my soul/Oh, my dream machine.../…/To the faraway ancient
me/Ten, two, one, zero... Take off!”). But in the end, only one can be engaged
to the Rose Bride, revolutionize the world, and ascend to the castle where
eternity dwells. This is why they duel.
Mamiya: “Eternity means that
this moment lasts billions of billions of years, without end. I... I... I want
eternity.” Saionji: “No! I am the one who will save her this time. The castle
said to contain eternity... the power to revolutionize the world... will all be
mine.” Mikage: “Eternity is right here before my eyes! I'll defeat you and
grasp the power to change the world with these very hands!” But does the
revolution of the world bring Eternity to all, or only to one? What is the true
nature of Eternity, after all?
After her parents die, the
child Utena hides in a coffin next to theirs. She is found by young Saionji and
Touga. Utena: “Why does everyone go on living knowing they'll end up dying
anyway? I wonder why I never realized that until today. Eternity couldn't
possibly exist, could it? And so, it's all right now. I will never leave this
coffin.” Touga, despairing of any way to help her, turns to leave. Saionji
cries, “Wait! Don't you think she might do something stupid if we leave her
like that?” Touga responds, “Then, why don't you show her something eternal?”
Since then, Saionji and Touga have longed to know something eternal. Now, they
are duelists at Ohtori Academy.
Utena was indeed shown something
eternal, after they left. Dios came to her, and showed her the eternal
suffering of the Rose Bride, imprisoned and tortured for taking her brother out
of this world and away from the demands of those who wanted him to help them,
despite his being worn down by constantly protecting everyone. He was Dios
then, and now he is Akio. Utena resolved to become a prince, so that she might
free Anthy from her suffering. That memory has since faded with time, and she
now thinks she only wants to be a prince because the one that rescued her was
noble and brave. She no longer remembers ever having seen Anthy before. So none
of the duelists know that the eternal thing in the castle they are trying to
reach is a thing of pain.
However, the eternal
suffering of Anthy is not Eternal. It endures, and lasts and lasts throughout
time, but is still within time. It is a durational suffering, not a timeless
suffering. So what, then, is Eternity?
There seem to be three main
ways of grasping Eternity: nirvana, the Redemption of Time, and the single Now.
The third, the single Now, can be illustrated with Sack’s patient Jimmie. Sacks
describes Jimmie taking communion in church, “…I was moved, profoundly moved
and impressed, because I saw here an intensity and steadiness of attention and
concentration that I had never seen before in him or conceived him capable of.
... Fully, intensely, quietly, he entered and partook of the Holy Communion. He
was wholly held, absorbed, by a feeling. …he was no longer at the mercy of a
faulty and fallible mechanism- that of meaningless sequences and memory traces-
but was absorbed in an act, an act of his whole being, which carried feeling
and meaning in an organic continuity and unity, a continuity and unity so
seamless it could not permit any break (p. 37-38).” Without memory or
expectation, time flows continuously through the Now, and all that is perceived
is the Now. This Now may still be ever-changing, but without memory or
expectation, no change is noticed. There is always only one moment. If change
is not perceived, then it does not exist. This is not the kind of Eternity that
seems to be portrayed in Utena.
Eternity may also be seen as
nirvana. In nirvana, time ceases to exists. Although, in most Buddhist texts,
nirvana can only be explained through negation, so time does not exist, it does
not not exist, it does not neither exist nor not exist, nor does it both exist
and not exist. It is the same for all other things: space, objects, the self.
Thus, the precious things, the memories, cannot be kept. It differs from mere
loss of memory or living in the Now because there is no self to experience the
Now.
There are ways to interpret Utena to show that this is the type of
Eternity in the show. In Buddhism and Hinduism, the phenomenal world, samsara,
is composed of maya, illusion. In Utena,
the world of Ohtori Academy is composed of Akio’s illusions. Thus, it is more
correct to refer to him as Maya, the demon of illusion and desire, than as the
Devil. He creates perceptions of the world using his orrery. He manipulates
people through sex and other forms of temptation. He promises what someone
desires most, and then fails to deliver. Since perception is the only way to
gain knowledge of the world, when Akio manipulates seeming he also manipulates being.
He can alter time, space, and reality. How can we ever know the truth in a
world of error? Buddhism and Hinduism teach that it must be recognized that the
world is error and illusion, and then we know the truth. Thus, once we realize
time is all in the mind, we can change our minds so that we no longer have
time. Mikage changes time with the power of his mind, but he did not grasp
Eternity. Even though his time was different, it still existed.
At the end of the show,
Utena frees Anthy from her suffering. Then the spirit-swords that have been
tormenting Anthy all fly at Utena. Just as they reach her, the scene cuts out.
Life at Ohtori Academy is continuing, and Utena is no longer there. The
students are all forgetting her. It is just like what happened to Mikage. Akio
thinks he can start the whole process over again, grooming another noble soul
to use so that he can regain the power and status he once had as Dios. Then
Anthy walks into his room and tells him goodbye. She leaves the Academy,
setting out into the world to search for Utena. Did Utena reach nirvana? She
may have. But no one else in the show did. In this case, Eternity would only be
gained by one person. Utena clearly won free of Akio, realized all he did as
manipulation and illusion. She may be said to have vanquished Maya. It is,
however, uncertain whether she truly surpassed the entire world. She probably
just left the Academy.
The explanation that seems
more in line with the series is that Eternity is rather like how Augustine
describes it. Instead of being no-time, or one time, it is all times. All times
are always existent, and the world forms a static whole. Thus, nothing can ever
be lost, since everything always exists. Furthermore, the show gives the
impression that Eternity is the true reality, what everyone is living in, and
the flow of time, the very existence of Time, is an illusion. Not an illusion
perpetuated on others by Akio, an illusion perpetuated by everyone on
themselves, including by Akio on himself. There is no need to “grasp” Eternity,
because it is already here. We only need to realize that that is the case.
There are not really many clues to this view in the dialogue of the show. The
closest anyone ever comes to saying something of the sort is when Utena and
Touga duel for the final time. Utena asks, “How many times have I fought with
you here?” Touga answers her, “This is the third.” “How strange...” Utena
muses, “it feels like we've fought so often...” This dialogue occurs while the
screen is a frozen frame. It is the use of cinematographic tools such as this
that give the show the feeling of Eternity.
The entire show is full of
frozen frames and repetitive scenes. Single scenes appear over and over again.
Flashbacks abound. One scene is cut off in the middle, another is acted out,
and then the earlier one is finished. Certain patterns and motifs occur
multiple times. It is often easy to know what will appear next, although hard
to tell what will happen next. For example, in the Black Rose arc, all the
duels are set up the same way. The arena is covered in desks, with a certain
symbolically important object on each desk. The floor is covered in outlines of
fallen bodies, like at a crime scene. When someone loses the duel, the desks
all slide together on the sides, and the person falls exactly on one of the
outlines. This is a very shocking and frightening scene when it first occurs.
But in later episodes, the viewer knows exactly what will happen. The details
are, of course, always different, such as what is on the desks. This provides a
sense of newness and discovery with each episode. There is also a duel pattern
in the Student Council arc, and in the Akio Car arc. The effect is the same.
Beyond these general
patterns, there are certain scenes that occur exactly the same many times.
These include the Student Council members reciting a certain credo before each
meeting, Utena and Anthy going to bed in the third arc, the “Absolute Destiny:
Apocalypse” song and entrance scene to the duel arena, the bells ringing at the
close of a duel, and the scene where the Sword of Dios is magically pulled from
Anthy’s heart before the duels. For the Sword, the same footage is used each
time it occurs in the first arc. These are clearly conscious stylistic choices
of the director, and they seem to be designed to cause a feeling of something
beyond just the linear motion of time. The repetitive patterns could be seen as
indication of a cyclical view of time, but they are also constantly evolving,
and do show time as something that flows past hurriedly and is gone. This is
evident in the preoccupation with memory, and trying to hold onto a vanished
past. The past is clearly passed and gone, never to return again in time.
Why am I arguing that the
past is gone? That is the nature of time, but not of Eternity. Eternity, with
every moment still existent, is often likened to a series of photographs: each
Now frozen forever as a moment, all moments present, spread out like pictures
in an album. In this view, all moments are separate. The image of the frozen
frame is very important in Utena. One
of the more striking and exaggerated examples is when Juri duels Utena in the
Akio arc. Ruka acts as her Bride, and when he pulls her spirit-sword from her
heart in preparation to fight, the picture of the two of them is turned into a
still, drawn in an intensely detailed and shaded style different from that of
the general animation. It looks like a painting suddenly added into the show.
The picture remains on-screen for almost a minute. This is the most artistically
set-apart example, in that the drawing style differs from the rest of the show,
but it is only barely longer than many of the other frozen frames.
The height of the action of
the show is probably the duel scenes. They are not necessarily the scenes most
important to the plot or characterization, but they are action. And in general,
in a duel, one would expect to see a lot of fancy sword-play and impressive
feats of motion. This is not how the duels are. The actual techniques of
fighting are less important than the song playing at the time. The climax of
the duel is when someone cuts off the rose fastened to their opponent’s chest.
This scene is never shown as a scene of motion and action. The two duelists run
at each other. The scene is frozen as a silhouette, it is impossible to see who
is doing what, and the only motion is stylized roses whirling in the corners,
acting as a frame. The moment has no duration, internally. To the watcher it
still does, of course.
The final shot of the show
is Anthy walking away from the audience. However, she is not really walking, in
the normal sense. There is a static background, a road running through hills
with sky above it. She is not part of the scene, though. She is just a flat
picture in the upper right hand corner, a figure whose legs move up and down
repeatedly. But she does not change position compared to the scenery, or the TV
screen. She does not diminish in size. Is she walking or standing still? Is
time passing or not?
All these stylized shots and
scenes, these frozen frames and repetitions, serve to build up the sense that
all moments are still present, always present, in Eternity. I don’t think,
however, that the overall effect is one of Eternity as an infinitude of
disconnected snapshots. I think that rather, Eternity forms a seamless whole.
For how can there be separate moments, when a moment is a now, and now is only
there in the flow of time? How can even the flow be turned into these ultimate
pieces, these atoms of time? Whether time flows, or whether Eternity is
present, it seems it must be a single, indivisible unity. All moments, all
places and times, all objects and people, all relationships, always there,
always static and unmoving, yet always vibrant and in motion, for all motion is
always there too. No need to weep over lost loved ones, no need to fight so
hard to get back the past, for it hasn’t gone anywhere. If time, as so many
seem to agree, is only our perception of it, then all we have to do to grasp
Eternity is to change our perception. Does this mean that Eternity is true and
time is false? Or does it mean that both are true? Or is time the truth, since
it seems to be the experience everyone has?
If desire and emotion can
truly shape the world, as is shown in Utena,
then the question of truth is less important. What one wants, what one has, are
true. When the things we wish would remain, love, friendship, the good times,
all pass away, and the things we would rather not have, the pain and suffering,
remain and endure longer than we would like, we do not want that to be the
truth. It is this experience of time as loss and suffering that leads us to
desire to grasp Eternity, to call out “...for the revolution of the
world!”
Works
Cited
Augustine.
“Some Questions About Time” from The Philosophy of Time. ed. by Richard
M. Gale. New Jersey, Humanities Press, 1978
Einstein,
Albert. Relativity: The Special and The General Theory. New York: Three
Rivers Press, 1961
Sacks,
Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. New York: Harper &
Row,
1987
Utena
Encyclopedia: www.duellists.tj Scripts
translated by Robert Paige and Yasuyuki
Sato, from the series created by Chiho Saito and Kunihiko
Ikuhara