History YMMV / RevolutionaryGirlUtena

** This wiki used to have this series listed as AnimeFirst because Chiho Saito was the last member to join [=Be-PaPas=] -- which may be true, but the manga was being published several months before the anime started airing, which is referenced by Saito-sensei in the early volumes. It's also worth noting that many tropes that are deconstructed in the anime series are played much straighter in the manga.

** [[spoiler:Anthy herself]] is eventually revealed to be this. [[spoiler:She was forced to eternally bear the pain of 100 swords being stabbed into her body at once for trying to protect her brother, who would gradually devolve into a CompleteMonster in the centuries to follow. Akio rapes and regularly abuses her despite him being related to him, and she's used as a prop to be abused by him and those manipulated by him for years before watching the first person she made a true connection with [[NotQuiteDead possibly]] die. On the other hand, she went along with and facilitated his horrifying schemes, which included raping numerous other people and well as murdering them, if mostly because she doesn't see any other way to be and out of fear that the outside world would be even worse.]]

** [[spoiler:Anthy herself]] is eventually revealed to be this. [[spoiler:She was forced to eternally bear the pain of 100 swords being stabbed into her body at once for trying to protect her brother, who would gradually devolve into a CompleteMonster in the centuries to follow. Akio rapes and regularly abuses her despite him being related to him, and she's used as a prop to be abused by him and those manipulated by him for years before watching the first person she made a true connection with [[NotQuiteDead possibly]] die. On the other hand, she went along with and facilitated his horrifying schemes, which included raping numerous other people and well as murdering them.]]

* FauxSymbolism: Various weird visual cues, the most common being rotating stylized roses, which don't appear to have any particular meaning. Ikuhara doesn't help either -- he gives vague, non sequitur comments like saying the Shadow Girls are aliens (which ''would'' explain the repeated flying saucer imagery in their performances...). On the other hand, the pointing fingers in episode 22 seem to stand for ShipTease.

* EvilIsSexy: Akio Ohtori. He's quite the charmer ([[EvenTheGuysWantHim whose wiles know no gender limits]]), and is privy to many a ShirtlessScene.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Coupled with ValuesDissonance, but some modern viewers, especially Western ones might see Utena as a little flat, all her quirks and ticks have been copied to death, the fact that she's tomboyish might fly over people's heads who now not only don't see anything odd with it unlike back in the day, but in the west almost expect it. Also, her motivation to protect Anthy like a prince to his princess by confronting her abusers is not easily understood since in the west that would be the logical, decent thing to do unlike the "don't get involved" Japanese custom. This can come to a point where they think Utena to be flat ''until'' she starts showing more emotional vulnerability and stereotypically feminine behavior later in the series. To make matters worse, Utena herself is a very reactive character rather than proactive usually dealing with the stuff thrown at her for about the first 30 episodes.

*** [[TakeAThirdOption Or]] [[spoiler:she has been rendered borderline insane and barely has grips of herself.]]

** Nanami, while her unbalanced mental state isn't questioned; Is she a spoiled RichBitch that wants everything her way or a pampered girl that, when push comes to shove she, surprisingly, of all people proves to have morals if skewed points of view?

%%* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The series.

* RealismInducedHorror: Despite being in a surreal MindScrew series that [[WorldOfSymbolism largely operates on symbolism]], Akio is still a disturbingly realistic villain. Unlike most fictional pedophiles, you wouldn't suspect much from the guy at first glance. He's [[{{Bishonen}} handsome,]] [[FauxAffablyEvil sophisticated, charming and polite]] to such an extent that it's easy for him to make people let their guard down, he subtly emotionally manipulates them and serenades them with gifts and applause along with attempting to deflect blame onto them when he's called out for being a rapist, and his victims are generally people he knows and are close with, [[spoiler: most horrifically extending to his own younger sister.]]