Proof that the remaining 10% is worth losing your rose for here.
These are recommendations made by Tropers for Revolutionary Girl Utena fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.
You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.
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Authors and Websites
Symphony of the Sword
by Eyrie Productions Unlimited
- Recommended by: Looney Toons
- Synopsis: In her second year at Worcester Prep, a prestigious private school on Earth, fourteen-year-old Kaitlyn Hutchins acquires a new roommate — a pink-haired girl with haunted eyes, named Utena Tenjou. Although both are wounded in their souls they bond, becoming fast friends — a friendship which ultimately changes the fates of many worlds.
- Notes: Part of the Undocumented Features universe.
1 Review- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Comments: This author writes mainly, but not only, post-anime Utena/Anthy.
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Comments: This author writes mainly oneshots about either Anthy/Utena or Touga/Kyouichi, with a fair bit of character analysis thrown in.
Satellite of Revolution by Chris Rain
- Recommended by: Yukikaze 1010
- Status: Dead
- Synopsis: Utena fanfiction gets the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, with the Duelists (and Akio) as the riffers, launched into orbit by Mikage and Mamiya (ably filling the Dr. Forrester and Frank roles). The series has a special focus on self-insert fanfics, and indeed those self-inserts are utterly insufferable. The fic, sadly, has been dead since the early-mid 2000s, but the ten extant chapters are some of the funniest Utena fanfiction on the Internet. (The original site is long since dead as well, so the chapters are currently hosted on the prominent Utena media/analysis curation site Empty Movement.)
- Tags: MST, Crack Fic
General Fics
Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.
Archimage by Jude McLaughlin
- Recommended by: Looney Toons, Lectito Ergo Sum, SuddenFrost, Lightice, Axel White , Y.S.Jennis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Years after the events of the series, Utena and Anthy have finally reunited and now live together. But Akio's not yet ready to let go of them yet, and events seem to conspire to force them to gather together the rose duelists to confront him one final time.
Ten Years After by Chris Davies
- Recommended by: Looney Toons
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Ten years after the events of the anime, Juri Arisugawa receives a mysterious, anonymous invitation to a reunion of those involved in the Rose Duels that lifts the fog over her memories of the Rose Tournament. Curious, she attends — but no one whom she meets there admits to being the one who sent the invitations, and both Anthy and Utena are missing...
Ma Vie Et Roses by Scott Johnson and Scott Jamison
- Recommended by: Looney Toons
- Status: Dead
- Synopsis: What would happen if you got self-inserted into an anime you knew almost nothing about? Ma Vie Et Roses attempts to answer that question and subvert the Self Insert paradigm at the same time. Anime fan Skyler Sands wakes up to find himself the newest Rose Duelist at Ohtori Academy — not that he knows that at first. All he knows is that he's been involuntarily shoved into an anime; he eventually works out which one, but he's damned if he can figure out why, or what he's supposed to do there.
Jaquemart by Alan Harnum
- Recommended by: Lightice, SuddenFrost
- Status: Dead
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Utena and Anthy are living together in relative peace in Hokkaido, when Utena learns from a newspaper article that a young boy has been killed in a duel in Ohtori Academy. Realizing that Akio is continuing his old work she is determined to stop him, but Anthy is unwilling to ever get involved with Ohtori's affairs again. Going after the enemy alone, Utena manages to gather unlikely allies from some former members of the Student Council, while Anthy discovers painfully that the past isn't willing to let her go, and decides to take reins in her own hands.
Beneath the Skin by Alan Harnum
- Recommended by: Glasswalker
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon.
- Comments: This fic sets its focus on Nanami, who struggles to redefine herself in the wake of the series finale, and finds inspiration in an unexpected source. Well-written and -characterized, this fic also does what few other fanfics manage: presenting a post-series Akio as a redeemable figure without putting him in leather pants.
Kaishaku by NekoLeo
- Recommended by: Ru Tsuna, Bardota
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis:
- Comments: An interesting take on the Akio arc focusing on Saionji and Touga. Notable in that it utilizes believable Alternate Character Interpretation quite effectively.
- Bardota: Enthusiastically seconded. This version of Saionji is a revelation.
Utena Quest by Moo
- Recommended by: running_dogs, bearsthethird
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Utena wakes up in her dorm room knowing three things. 1. Something awful has happened. 2. She needs to find Anthy and Wakaba. 3. She needs to leave Ohtori with them.
- Comments: This is a story told on tumblr in the same style as Ruby Quest, the art style its drawn in is also in the Ruby Quest style. It has mystery and filled with really creepy parasitic roses. It takes somewhere around arc 3 but according to the author elaborating would be a spoiler. It is so fascinating because of all the mystery surrounding how Ohtori turns into a horror scene that I caught up to it in one night! Please read it.
- Fascinating and creepy AU with a unique reader-driven storytelling style. As of now, it's a pretty fast read to get caught up. -Bearsthethird
The Second Princess by khilari
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Rescuing a princess from a dragon while trying to avoid the fate of a prince.
Idylls of the Rose Prince by Jougetsu
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Dormant
- Synopsis: Ten years after the events of the anime, Nanami and Himemiya probe the mystery of Utena's disappearance. Of course nothing is ever easy when a witch and a Kiryuu are involved.
The Butterfly Bride by khilari
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Touga thinks becoming the next Rose Bride is the first step in his new plan to grasp world revolution, although it turns out Akio did not fully explain the amount of stabbing involved. Nanami and Saionji think Touga should stop manipulating them, but they can't exactly leave him to suffer.
The Limitations of Wax by Ember Keelty
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Utena isn't answering the doorbell anymore. If Wakaba can't figure out how to get to her, she's going to have to figure out who she is without her.
The Prince's Quest by khilari
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Utena finds herself in a (more overtly) fairytale world. As usual she accepts the weirdness and focuses on what's really important — finding Anthy.
accept your absolute Destiny! by lonelyghosts
- Recommended by: crystalqueer
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Kanae Ohtori becomes a princess and a wife.
Shipping Fics
Stories focused on the romantic relationships between the cast.
Roses Grow by sharnii
- Recommended by: Blazar
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Anthy finds Utena, but the shocking events of the last duel seem to have taken their toll. And only time will tell if Anthy can grow past being the Rose Bride. Meanwhile Akio moves out of Check...
- Pairing: Utena/Anthy
- Notes: Has a dead sequel, Thorns Wither.
- Comments: A Continuation Fic that is always true to character and captures the mood of the series perfectly, especially the dark menace that was built up slowly throughout the canon series. The Utena/Anthy relationship was also in-character and well-developed, but be warned: the M rating is there for a reason.
Reaching by Death Quaker
- Recommended by: Gaston 1991
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Shiori tries to puzzle out Jury and her past and future relationships with her.
- Pairing: Shiori/Juri
Speak Now by Ember Keelty
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. Utena Tenjou is a normal woman about to have a normal wedding that certainly isn't one last desperate attempt to quell the constant phantom pain in her chest. The florist has other ideas, and when the flowers arrive all semblance of normality crumbles into bizarre, bittersweet memories and a surrealistic struggle against ancient forces.
- Pairing: Utena/Anthy
- Notes: Alternate link here.
Not to Imply by gveret
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: The games have always been fruitless, and sometimes she wonders if he ever expected them to be otherwise. But, after all, as the Rose Bride, she isn't required, supposed or inclined to care.
- Pairing: Utena/Anthy
Untangled by emilyenrose
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Anthy searched the world for Utena Tenjou. It is, of course, only when she gives up than she finds her.
- Pairing: Utena/Anthy
Crisis by femslashfatale
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Post-canon. There are so many ways Anthy and Utena could have found each other again.
- Pairing: Utena/Anthy
Something Eternal by Panny
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Time Loop AU. If Saionji Kyouichi had been the kind of man to remember his dreams, he would have defined them by the carol of bells.
- Pairing: Touga/Kyouichi
Crossovers
Revolutions by Jen-chan-shaw
- Recommended by: spartenx, Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Crossover with: Destiny of the Shrine Maiden and My-HiME
- Synopsis: "Did you hear? Did you hear? Have you heard the news?" The Hime and Miko are caught again in the eternal struggles between the Prince, the Demon, and the Obsidian Lord. Bonds of love and friendship are forged and tested between the casts of MaiHime, KannaMiko and Utena.
- Notes: Has a sequel, Revolutions FuMoofu.
Seinen Kakumei Utena by gorgeousshutin
- Recommended by: Rose Bride, checkreality, Bardota
- Status: Complete
- Crossover with: Penguindrum
- Synopsis: Upon their ten year reunion, the Duelists initiate a survival strategy against the ends of their world.
- Comments: A well-researched Continuation Fic to Utena/Penguindrum that reads like canon material and not just fanfiction. This engaging story never loses steam throughout its vast length, but instead cumulates in an awesome ending compliant with both series’ central messages. Definitely a must read. (Bardota)
Utena, Duelist of the Roses by MechaManiac
- Recommended by: Rose Bride
- Status: Dead
- Crossover with: Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Synopsis: Utena with a children's card game as stand in for the regular swords duels? better believe it.
- Comments: even tough this is a Yu-Gi-Oh! croosover, this troper found it entertaining to read, so far the fic has only one chapter, but it looks pretty well its almost unbelieveble how well the Duel Monsters blends in with the Utena setting, even if you are averse to the franchise, its worth give this chapter a try.
history of the rose by Esmenet
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Status: Complete
- Crossover with: Princess Tutu
- Synopsis: The Tale of the Rose. A small volume, bound in fine red cloth. Five authors are listed, four credited only with annotations.
The Apocalypse Job by ryfkah
- Recommended by: Dame-Amaryllis
- Crossover with: Leverage
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Scenes from the Leverage team's cunning infiltration of Ohtori Academy.
Something Eternal by Entame Witch Lulu
- Recommended by: robinb
- Status: Ongoing
- Crossover with: Penguindrum, YuriKumaArashi and Sarazanmai
- Synopsis: Anthy leaves. Making Ohtori a memory will be more difficult than she wants it to be. And Tenjo Utena is a difficult person to find. But still. Anthy leaves. And the world outside the egg's shell spreads out before her. Promising perhaps, something eternal.
- Comments: A very interesting fanfic of Anthy going in search of Utena after the series ends. She runs into characters from the other series Ikuhara has done. It's very surreal and interesting and I highly recommend it.
