Akio is unable to open the Rose Gate and reclaim his past power. Despite Anthy's betrayal, Utena uses her remaining strength to free her from Akio's clutches and end her eternal torment.
"Someday, We Will Shine Together" provides examples of:
- An Aesop:
- A person can only leave a toxic environment by their own free will.
- If you're trying to help someone escape an abusive relationship, you need to have patience and genuine empathy for their situation. You can't force the person to escape, but showing how much you care about them can give them the strength to choose to leave.
- And the Adventure Continues: The story ends with Anthy departing on a quest to find Utena in the world beyond the school.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Utena to Akio during his Hannibal Lecture about how she's powerless to change anything no matter how hard she tries.Akio: That's how the world works-
Utena: SHUT UP! - Bittersweet Ending:
- Utena has vanished, and everyone but Anthy and Akio has forgotten about her at Ohtori Academy.
- The Student Council and the former Black Rose Duelists have moved past their issues, but the stage is set for a replay of the previous events but with a different power structure.
- Akio's going to restart the duels, but Anthy leaving him makes it very unlikely he'll be able to get very far if he can restart them at all now.
- Anthy is no longer scared of her brother or the outside world, and leaves him powerless as she goes off to find Utena and finally be her own person.
- Call-Back: Wakaba's new best friend, who glomps her the way Wakaba would glomp Utena, is the girl who teased her way back in the very first episode.
- Condescending Compassion: What the spirit of Dios spews at Utena as she's left on the arena floor, telling her she did okay "For a girl" and congratulating her on how far she got. As Dios tries to kiss her for sympathy, Utena slams her fist in the ground and gets up no matter how painful it is just to make the vision stop and save Anthy. (It has been posited by some fans that Dios was being Cruel to Be Kind in order to get Utena back on her feet.)
- Determinator: Utena gets stabbed in the back and has her sword broken, is psychologically torn apart by both Akio and Dios, but she drags herself towards the Rose Gate and pries it open with her bare, bloody hands in an effort to free Anthy from her torment.
- Gory Discretion Shot: After the Swords of Hate violently zoom down towards Utena, the scene suddenly shifts to Wakaba outside the tower and then back as the swords destroy everything in their path.
- Here We Go Again!: Subverted Trope. After Utena sacrifices herself for Anthy, the show seems to be setting the audience up for a downer ending where nothing has changed. The world still turns in Ohtori Academy, and Akio is settling in to plan a new game to cultivate another idealistic princeling who undoubtedly will suffer like Utena did. Then Anthy shatters his plans by resigning as Rose Bride and leaving Ohtori to look for Utena.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Utena experiences this when Anthy's coffin plummets from the arena, staring into the abyss and begging Anthy to forgive her for thinking she could be a prince.
- Non-Protagonist Resolver: The person to rescue Anthy and end the duels is Anthy herself. Utena merely provides the (literal and metaphorical) vehicle for her to leave. Truth in Television as you can't rescue someone from an abusive relationship, they have to want to leave.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Despite she can barely stand, Utena somehow managed to make it across the gap between the arena and the Rose Gate with no problem.
- Oh, Crap!: Akio freaks out when he sees the Swords of Hatred have stopped moving, and that Utena is actually opening Anthy's coffin.
- Opt Out: After Utena wins the tournament and then mysteriously disappears, Anthy decides that the whole "Rose Bride" thing is meaningless. She quits school in order to search for Utena, leaving Akio at a loss as to what to do next.
- The Power of Love: Utena's true love of Anthy, personified as her blood, sweat, tears, and pain as she desperately tries to pull open the Rose Gate with her bare hands, not only allows her to open the doors to reach Anthy's coffin but freeze the Swords of Hate before sending them into a swarming frenzy.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Anthy leaves Akio stammering after delivering this utterly brutal one.Anthy: You really don't know what's happened, do you?
Akio: Huh?
Anthy: By all means, stay in this cozy little coffin and continue to play prince, but I have to go now. - Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- The image of Dios returns to the illusory carousel, representing his return to the empty cycle of "playing Prince," after Utena screams at Akio to shut up. Dios won't help Utena, but he won't stick around to watch Utena suffer.
- A MUCH more triumphant version of this occurs at the end after Utena vanishes; Anthy flat out tells her brother that he can continue playing the prince, but she’s leaving, and she walks out of Ohtori with Chu Chu to finally have her own life and to find Utena, despite her brother’s pleas.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Akio tries to lecture Utena about the pointlessness of trying to change the world until she finally screams at him to shut up since she's trying to focus on opening the Rose Gate.
- Swiss-Army Tears: Utena cries as she describes how much Anthy means to her, and her tear opens the Rose Gate as if it was the entrance to the dueling arena.
- Take My Hand!: Utena reaches into Anthy's coffin, begging her to take her hand so she can get out. That Utena continues to do so, despite everything Anthy did and the high possibility Utena will get killed by the Swords of Hate, is what finally convinces Anthy she has value as a human being and reaches towards Utena. While Utena can't pull Anthy out physically, the use of this trope gave Anthy the strength she needed to leave her coffin on her own.
- Taking the Bullet: What being stabbed by the Swords of Hate amounts to. In Anthy's case, she took on the world's anger in place of her beloved prince. In Utena's case, she takes on the world's anger for Anthy's sake.
- Uncertain Doom: The last thing we see of Utena is her about to be impaled by the Swords of Hate in Anthy’s place. However, Anthy says that Utena ‘isn’t gone, she’s just left Akio’s world’, and she’s going to find her no matter how long it takes.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- When Anthy's coffin is opened and falls from the arena, the Swords of Hate go into an unhinged frenzy at their favorite target being freed before joining together so they can all attack Utena at once as vengeance.
- Anthy leaves Akio pathetically screaming after her once she declares she's leaving Ohtori and he can't stop her.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: While a majority of the Rose Duelists are still in Ohtori High, many of them are in much better places then before.
- Miki is now tutoring Mitsuru while his sister watches on with interest.
- Touga and Saionji are shown engaging in a friendly sparring match while Nanami makes tea for them.
- Juri is teaching fencing to a new legion of girl students with Shiori being one of them.
- The three nerds are turned down by Nanami's former stooges.
- Wakaba is shown hanging out with her Onion Prince and gets a new friend who treats her the same way she treated whats-her-face.
- And as Akio prepares to start another tournament, Anthy chews him out for his delusions and leaves him to venture the world and reunite with her cherished friend.
- You Are Worth Hell: Utena proves this to Anthy, and seeing how much Utena's doing to free her is what gives Anthy the strength she needed to leave her brother and Ohtori Academy once and for all.
