Little kid; big blades
Mitsuru grows frustrated with the lack of progress in his relationship with Nanami. He is desperate to discover more about sexuality, love, and become an adult so he can romance Nanami, which makes him a target of Mikage."Mitsuru's Growing Pains" provides examples of:
- Awkward Kiss: When Tsuwabuki tries to kiss Mari he purses his lips with his mouth open so he looks like a gulping fish. Mari smacks him for his impertinence and storms off.
- Compliment Backfire: The moment when Nanami tells Tsuwabuki "I like you the way you are now" cements his resolve to attend the Mikage Seminar.
- Face-Revealing Turn: Tsuwabuki is facing away from Utena when she arrives at the dueling arena, and when he looks over his shoulder at her, she is shocked to see her challenger is Nanami's grade school lackey.
- The Gadfly: After Utena awkwardly tells Mitsuru she thinks you need experience in adult things to be an adult, Anthy "innocently" adds "Miss Utena, there are lots of adult things about us."
- Gray Rain of Depression: Rain falls continuously during this episode and is it used to mark Tsuwabuki as different from the older characters. He wears a raincoat, but eveyone else carries umbrellas. The rain doesn't let up, and Tsuwabuki becomes more and more frustrated. When he becomes a Black Rose duelist the weather clears.
- History Repeats: Tsuwabuki's duel goes much like Nanami's did—he initially overwhelms Utena with speed, but she regroups, knocks his sword into the air, and cuts his rose. The similarities end there, however; the Black Rose duelists always suffer a breakdown after the loss of their rose, but Nanami kept fighting even after she lost.
- Indirect Kiss: Mari helps herself to a chocolate bar that Tsuwabuki bought, but tells him eat the rest when she leaves. He can't bring himself to take a bite out of it after thinking of this trope, although he doesn't seem to know what it means to him.
- Innocent Innuendo: Occurs multiple times:
- Tsuwabuki knocks it out of the park while discussing the bento he's making for Nanami.
Tsuwabuki: [Gripping a banana] If she eats this, I'll be satisfied.
Mari: That's filthy!- The scene between Utena, Anthy and Tsuwabuki hinges on the word "iroiro" which means "various," but literally reads as "many-colored," and in East Asia "color" has an underlying connotation of sex and desire. Yamada, Tanaka, and Suzuki react weirdly because all the talk of "iroiro experience" sounds salacious, and they change color as a visual pun. When Anthy chimes in, making the innuendo decidedly not innocent, she says that she and Utena are "iroiro adults."
- The shadow play is about a girl proudly announcing that she had her first time and got proof of her adulthood. Her parents are dismayed...but it turns out she donated blood for the first time rather than whatever scandalous thing they were imagining.
- Matryoshka Object: The item on the desks during the duel is a haniwa-like figurine holding the chocolate bar that Mari took a bite out of. During the duel, when Utena sends Tsuwabuki's sword flying, it breaks one of the figurines and it is caught by a smaller figurine hidden inside. One interpretation of this is that within the desire to become an adult through sexual experience is the urge to do harm to others.
- Mysterious Note: Utena opens her locker and there's no sign of the duel invitation. But there is an umbrella in there that she seems surprised to see, and when she opens it, the invitation is taped to the inside.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Characters throughout the epsiode belittle or exclude Tsuwabuki for being the youngest character in the series. In some cases his questions make them too uncomfortable to give him straight answers.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Nanami asks Tsuwabuki if Mari is his girlfriend, and he's a little too emphatic in denying it.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: During the duel, Tsuwabuki says that to become an adult, he must defeat an adult. While this statement isn't necessarily murderous on its own, the stated intent of all Black Rose duelists is to win Anthy in order to kill her.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When Tsuwabuki trespasses on the student council meeting, Nanami throws her weight around a little, saying that since she's the acting president, it's okay for him to be there.
- Speed Blitz: During the duel, Tsuwabuki attacks Utena before she gets a chance to draw her sword. Since he is power copying Nanami he is very fast, and it may be a little difficult to catch but he cuts a few strands of Utena's hair when she dodges.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: Mari talls Tsuwabuki that Nanami is going to use him up and abandon him.
- Taught by Television: After talking with Utena and Anthy about how "adultnote experience" is necessary to be an adult, Tsuwabuki watches a compilation of kiss scenes from movies. Subverted in that when he tries to kiss someone, it goes poorly.
