YMMV / Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA-

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Sanshi's obsessive devotion to Tamonten a shining bastion of virtuous Undying Loyalty, a hilarious Running Gag, kinky masochistic submission, or way overblown and unhealthy and indicative of his needing to get a life?
  • On the topic of Sanshi, does his only knowing how to make kenchinjiru just conveniently happen to match Tamon's preference, did he intentionally only learn to cook it to please Tamon, or did Tamon develop a fondness for it because of Sanshi's cooking?
  • On the other hand, is Kannon's still not having quite moved on from his and his brother's tragic death, still treating it as My Greatest Failure and doting on Seishi because of it a believable reaction, or is it Wangst and an excuse to spoil Seishi rotten and not let him grow up?
  • Is Ashuku a positive representation of trans women or is her playing Girly Girl tropes dead straight in an attempt to land in with human women reinforcing sexist stereotypes?
  • Is the dōmori a necessary presence in NamuAmi canon, or are they a tired, unoriginal Follow the Leader in the tradition of the admiral, saniwa and librarian that adds nothing to the setting and plot? The fact both the 2016 and anime canons do well without them seems to support the latter.
  • On the other hand, is scrapping the dōmori from the anime and giving their role to Shaka a good decision?
  • Does Kujaku's whining when put into internal affairs with Ususama mean he doesn't like him, or does it mean he considers Ususama the only one he feels comfortable saying his real feelings about housework to?
  • Even the mechanics can be subject to this. Is the Nobody Can Die mechanic a much-needed Anti-Frustration Feature, or does it take away the challenge and make the game just another strategy card game?
• Angst? What Angst?: Though it can be argued these are Buddhas and their psychology may be different from humans'.
  • Being abandoned on an island to starve to death doesn't do much to Seishi's psychological well-being.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: The premise of depicting Buddhist figures as controllable units and attractive men having hijinks has raised concerns about blasphemy not only from outside but also inside Japan. In fact, "I might receive divine retribution for playing this game" is a minor meme among the Japanese fandom.
• Awesome Music: Sora Uta itself, thanks in large part to Masaaki Mizunaka's deep and powerful vocals.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Given the amount of bare skin on good-looking men in this game, it's inevitable. One popular case would be Seishi's Sexy Backless Outfit.
• Common Knowledge: That the subtitle of the game is read -Rendai UTENA-. The game's full name as read aloud on the title screen clearly says otherwise; UTENA is the Alternate Character Reading for 蓮台, which would be read rendai in normal circumstances.
  • That the game is based off of Touken Ranbu. As covered extensively on the main page, it is based off of Bungo to Alchemist (though that game is indeed based on Touken Ranbu). The anime however indeed takes after Touken Ranbu - Hanamaru.
  • The Japanese fandom takes Ashuku as a Dude Looks Like a Lady, even though she is identified as female on the official website, refers to herself as a "maiden" in the game, and becomes annoyed when referred to as male. Interestingly enough, the anime adaptation makes this mistake too.
  • Nearly no one outside of Japan knows -UTENA- is a remake.
• Designated Hero:
  • Leader is supposed to be the capable Reasonable Authority Figure of the Eight Offerings who propels them to success, but he's on occasion shown The Sociopath tendencies and some measure of willingness to ignore his performers' feelings in the name of promoting the troupe. The fact he uses Kaoru as a brand name to sell products without his permission when he could have just asked him beforehand – keep in mind Kokūzō is given shit for doing the exact same thing – and feigns resignation to popularize by controversy without telling the performers the fact, leaving them too devastated to perform, makes him look rather morally shaky, if not a straight-up Corrupt Corporate Executive for some.
  • Kujaku comes off as too Easily Forgiven for bailing out of a battle only he can win because the enemy doesn't taste good enough, yet in the end is still treated as a hero and rewarded with a huge feast even though he already ate all he wanted at a restaurant during the very battle he ran off on.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The ensemble of Tamon, Sanshi, Rasetsu and Bishamon. They're sometimes dubbed the "Northern Quartet" (even though Rasetsu rules the Southwest).
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: The fandom will be quick to call you out if you call -UTENA- or its anime a Touken Ranbu ripoff despite numerous fundamental differences between two works (think of it as calling Touken Ranbu a KanColle ripoff), and Buddha help you if you call it Chinese TouRabu despite the worldbuilding's relentlessly slapping you in the face that it's set in Japan.
• Fanfic Fuel: Apparently being eaten turns Nanda on, as shown by his attitude about Karura. Does he feel the same about Kujaku, who has the same ability?
  • -UTENA- shut down with many Buddhist deities' never getting a chance at appearing in the game. What would the game's version of Kongara and Seitaka, Aizen Myōō, the rest of the Eight Dragon Kings (especially when one of them is Nanda's brother), etc. be like?
• Fan Nickname: The Buddhas are sometimes referred to by the fanbase as "Imu" due to how the kanji for "Buddha" 仏 resembles the katakana i and mu イム.
  • This very wiki has its own nickname for the game itself: Buddha to Alchemist, for reasons that should be obvious.
  • Amida is called "Mida".
  • Kongōyasha calls himself a "shadow" due to his Ninja skills. The fandom elevates this into a nickname for him.
  • Sanshi is sometimes called "34" by way of Goroawase Number. Similarly, Yakushi has been called "894".
  • Bishamon is often called "Shamo", a type of chicken.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Fugen and Monju are sworn rivals who fiercely compete with each other for Shaka's trust. Naturally, they are shipped.
  • Sanshi is openly antagonistic towards Rasetsu and Rasetsu doesn't seem overly fond of him either. Of course, they get shipped a couple of times.
  • Shaka and Māra are sworn enemies and their conflict is what started the game's story in the first place. They're also a ship.
• Fridge Brilliance: This game doesn't have a perma-damage/perma-death mechanic because Buddhas are divine beings who have transcended life and death, while its predecessors feature either breakable objects (KanColle and Touken Ranbu) or actual humans (Bungo to Alchemist).
• Fridge Horror: Like Karura, Kujaku is a bird deity capable of Eating the Enemy (he doesn't enjoy it, mind). Unlike Karura, he does not have a bird form to transform into before doing so. One can only imagine what this Princely Young Man still in his humanoid form biting off and chowing down on those beasts must look like depicted in detail…
  • Nanda has always been devoted to and obsessed with Shaka since the latter was born. One can only imagine what that could mean…
• Friendly Fandoms: Obviously with Touken Ranbu and Bungo to Alchemist; players of this game are likely to play one or both of the above.
• Funny Moments: There is no shortage of this considering the game's generally Denser and Wackier tone, but here are a few gems:
  • The very prologue: Māra is rallying forces, the dōmori is missing, humanity is in danger. Shaka calls for his two trusted underlings and is seemingly about to give them a serious order… only to tell them to clean the temple. Not helping is the fact Jizō is seemingly the only one taking the situation the least bit seriously.
  • Unlike predecessor games, the sortie can still proceed even when the captain is blown out of the field. The hilarity comes from the fact said knocked-out captain can still play voice clips like normal.
  • Amida is a walking study in comical seriousness; on the one hand, he's an incredibly powerful, respectable and dignified Buddha, but on the other hand, he's a Pungeon Master who constantly churns out puns while maintaining a generally cool and unfazed facade.
  • Promoting Hana to attendant ensures the highest quality comedy gold among the game's attendant conversations. Everyone's reaction to his deciding to strip on the main screen ranges between shouting at him to stop, snarking at him, admiring his stripping skills/body, getting uncomfortable and embarrassed, etc. but especially…
    Bishamonten: No.
  • Sanshi and Nanda's recollection, which boils down to a contest to see who can repeatedly shout the names of their objects of admiration louder.
  • The name of Nanda's 5-star event-only spell. One has to wonder what will become of it if it triggers Calling Your Attacks.
• Good Bad Bugs: An error during summoning can sometimes cause summoned Buddhas' voice to echo eerily, which one might argue sounds even better and more fitting for divine entities, or sound robotic.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The reason Shaka goes down in the dumps and quips along the lines of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" in the anime, revealed to be that his favorite taiyaki is discontinued, becomes a bit hard to enjoy with the knowledge that the game was closed in 2020.
  • Seishi's Big Eater habit is a funny and endearing Running Gag until you find out this is because he died of hunger as a child.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The infamous Nanda and Sanshi recollection is hilarious as it is, but becomes more so when one realizes Nanda is voiced by the same actor as Tamonten.
  • Tamon × Sanshi becomes extra hilarious if one knows their voice actors are also behind Yumeno Gentarō and Arisugawa Daisu respectively, who are also a big ship in their fandom.
  • Daiki Yamashita would go on to voice Zǐtuī Swallow in the Japanese voice track of Shiwuyu/Tale of Food, also a handsome young man with large feathered bird wings whose voice is deeper than the actor's usual range. The character however, even more hilariously, is the polar opposite to Karura both in terms of design and personality.
  • Yūma Uchida would go on to voice Swan Soup (Hú Gēng) from the same game, who utilizes the exact same voice, speech pattern and politeness as Kannon.
  • Starting from Jul 28, 2021, Bungo to Alchemist starts to copy this game – it introduces the element mechanics and removes perma-damage/death.
• Ho Yay: As is standard practice for games with an overwhelming Cast Full of Pretty Boys.
  • The two attendant mechanic, in which absolutely any and all Buddha trigger special responses from their partner regardless of in-story relationship, meaning any two random Buddhas can feasibly be a couple the second you put them on your main screen.
  • Taishakuten/Bonten can be safely assumed to be the number 1 ship since they're basically this game's Yamatonokami Yasusada and Kashū Kiyomitsu – contrasting designs and Red Oni, Blue Oni personalities despite close relationship and serving the same person, and are the main characters of the anime.
  • The number 2 pairing in this fandom would be Dainichi & Fudō with their Like an Old Married Couple and petulant boss/responsible underling dynamic.
  • You can bet that any "sanzon" trios will have the two servants paired off with each other, leading to Fugen/Monju, Kannon/Seishi (though usually more platonic bromance than straight-up Incest Yay Shipping) and Nikkō/Gakkō.
  • Amida is almost always shipped with Shaka.
  • Hōshō is shipped with either Fukū due to their friendship or with his reincarnation Gundari due to being the only person the latter is nice to.
  • The Eight Offerings are four ready-made ships waiting to happen – they are canonically partnered up in pairs, which makes it too easy for the fandom to elevate them into ships: Leader/Hana, Ureshī/Kaoru, et al.
  • General Sanshi is loyal to and obsessed with Tamonten to a ridiculous degree, can't go five seconds without bringing up "Tamon-sama" and can be borderline Yandere in his devotion. Thus, it's pretty much inevitable that Sanshi is rarely ever shipped with anyone else.
  • Nanda is shipped with either Shaka, Kōmoku or Karura for obvious reasons.
  • It's unknown exactly how close Kujaku and Ususama are, but their special interactions seem to suggest a Vitriolic Best Buds or Like an Old Married Couple relationship.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Yakushi/Ashuku is sometimes called "Suama", a celebratory confection colored white and pink, due to their color scheme.
• Memetic Mutation: Everything Hana says.
  • Tamon's soft spot for kenchinjiru is only mentioned in a one-off reply to Kangi, but the fandom quickly latches onto this and flanderizes it into oblivion, elevating it into a comically overblown obsession with the dish, often accompanied by Sanshi's being all too happy to comply.
  • "Shaka Nyorai-sama Shaka Nyorai-sama SHAKA NYORAI-SAMA!" "Tamon-sama Tamon-sama TAMON-SAMA!"
  • The so-called "Cursed July the 31st" of 2020, nickname courtesy of this dengekionline article, where this game along with several others were hit with the service termination bat.
• Mentor Ship: Tamon & Sanshi. Just Tamon & Sanshi, which may be considered one of the all-times major ships in this fandom.
  • To a lesser extent, Shaka is most frequently shipped with Amida.
• Misaimed Fandom: Try to count the number of fan sites that list trans woman Ashuku as a "trap".
• Moe: Seishi, big cuddly teddy bear in the body of a powerful hunk. His deeply tear-jerking backstory and past life with Kannon only strengthens his adorableness.
  • Sanshi is adorable in the Great Hall – he smiles a lot more often, and one of his animations features his beamingly snuggling up to an omamori.
• Nightmare Fuel: Buddha death and sortie fail animations (plus the bell tolls in the latter) are positively chilling.
• Scrappy Mechanic: A frequent complaint is that the game, especially the PC version, is very heavy, which leads to slow loading and jittery animation.
  • Acquiring new characters isn't done via the "crafting" mechanic of predecessor games, but is merged with skill summoning in a Memoria-like gem gacha. This wouldn't have been so bad, except getting enough gems to summon anything worthwhile, much like the Memoria feature itself, is hell for free players.
• Sequel Displacement: People are far more likely to remember this game as its -UTENA- iteration than the defunct 2016 original.
• Theiss Titillation Theory: Hana's robes are just a tiny slip away from baring his nipples. However, since this is Hana, potentially accidentally baring his nipples might be the least outrageous thing about his fashion sense.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: The manga adaptation of the 2016 game is printed in a shōjo magazine, but the -UTENA- manga is in a josei magazine. Keep in mind that the game the latter is based on is Lighter and Softer and cuts back most of the seriousness and drama potential found in its predecessors, and its manga even has the tagline of "bringing to you the pleasant everyday Buddha life".
• The Woobie: Kannon. Left to starve with his brother on an island and still tormented to this day about helplessly watching Seishi die in front of him.