Characters / Revolutionary Girl Utena The Student Council Members

Revolutionary Girl Utena Main Character Index
Main Characters | The Student Council Members | The Black Rose Duelists | Other Characters

The Student Council in general

The school’s Student Council, who secretly participate in duels for the Rose Bride, with the goal of revolutionizing the world.

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• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: They apparently have enough pull with the powers-that-be at the school that they can get students expelled, and it’s implied they’re responsible for campus security. Even school faculty fears ending up on their bad side. And that's before getting into any of the talk about "revolutionizing the world," which is as absurdly powerful as it comes. Beautifully subverted when it turns out that none of them know what "revolutionizing the world" actually means or what the purpose of the dueling game is. Not even Touga knows those answers, even though he is more-or-less a shill for the End of the World that keeps the others invested in the game.
• Affably Evil: They’re all generally pretty cordial towards Utena. How they act towards Anthy tends to reveal their true intentions.
• Elite Four: The first arc has four duelists competing with Utena: Saionji, Juri, Miki, and Touga. These four make up the Student Council which seems to control the school, they are vying for the power to revolutionize the world, and they are the primary antagonists - in the beginning at least. Later on in the series, the antagonistic dynamic breaks down as the characters go through their respective development arcs.
• Graceful Loser: In the end, they all accept Utena was the better duelist and spend her final duel having a barbecue together and hoping for her safe return.
• Recurring Boss: All of them fight Utena at least twice.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A lot of weird things happen in their council room. This include a baseball game happening offscreen, random objects appearing, and at one point a train passes through. None of them bat an eyelid.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Akio, just like basically everyone else.

Touga Kiryuu

Touga Kiryuu

Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Crispin Freeman (English) ^{Foreign VAs}  Alfredo Gabriel Basurto (Latin American Spanish)

The president of the Student Council, who leads the council meetings with his signature speech: a permutation of a quote from the book Demian. Touga is a notorious playboy whose charming and princely presentation is a front for his abusive behaviour and selfishness. As time goes on, he is drawn to Utena as she is the only girl in Ohtori Academy who openly resists and challenges his behaviour.

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• Abusive Parents: In Adolescence of Utena, his adoptive father raped him after his birth parents sold him and his sister to the Kiryuu family. According to Enokido, it was also supposed to carry into the TV series as well.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Had black hair with red forelocks in the manga. In the anime and later illustrations, his hair is red with the exception of a slightly lighter forelock. His eyes also changed from brown to blue.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • While his behavior and personality are still open to multiple interpretations, in Adolescence of Utena, he is more genuinely chivalrous and heroic than in the anime.
  • The same applies in the manga where he tries his best to save Utena from End of the World, but eventually gives up on her due to her stubbornness when his convincing went ignored, even after she found out the truth.
• Aloof Big Brother: Nanami is very fixated on him, and while he occasionally shows her affection, it later becomes clear that he's actually very distant and even callous towards her most of the time. When Nanami realizes they may not be blood siblings and is very distraught over the idea, he lets her believe it, only to later reveal to Akio that he and Nanami are blood siblings and he just let her think otherwise for the fun of it.
• Always Someone Better: Just as Saionji feels inferior to Touga, Touga is envious of Akio's power (at least partly because he's glimpsed far more of that power than any other duelist). It's heavily implied that his habit of really getting around is his attempt to emulate Akio's similar behavior.
• Big Fancy House: The Kiryuus are very wealthy.
• The Casanova: He has many multiple girlfriends.
• Cassandra Truth: Near the end of the final arc, Touga undergoes something of a Heel Realization and tries to prevent Utena to fall for Akio's manipulation. Unfortunately by that point Touga's own previous manipulations and Lack of Empathy had already completely burnt his bridge with Utena and she refuses to believe him.
• Catchphrase:
  • "If the egg's shell does not break, the chick will die without being born. We are the chick; the egg is the world. If the world's shell does not break, we will die without being born. Break the world's shell! For the sake of revolutionizing the world!"
  • Also, in the Akio Arc: "If your soul hasn't given up entirely, then you should be able to hear this sound, running about the Ends of the World. Now, come with us, to the world which you desire!"
• Crying Wolf: Tries to warn Utena about End of the World and the Rose Bride but is ignored.
• Dead All Along: In Adolescence of Utena, he is actually a ghost that only Utena, Juri, and Shiori can see.
• Death by Adaptation: In Adolescence of Utena, it's revealed that he was the boy who died trying to rescue the girl who was drowning in the lake long ago.
• Demoted to Dragon: Touga's return to prominence in the Akio arc sees Akio supplanting him as the Big Bad, with Touga now serving as his accomplice to get the rest of the Student Council to take part in the duels again. Togua shifts into becoming a Dragon with an Agenda when he starts to have second thoughts about Utena's involvement in Akio's scheme.
• Depraved Bisexual: He seems to have picked up Akio's book of tricks, using the protagonist, his childhood friend, and everyone else to get what he wants. He also is implied to have raped Miki in the novel whom he already hits on when stating Miki's cute like his sister.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's the main antagonist of the first arc and even defeats Utena in their first duel.
• The Dragon: Appears to be the closest to Akio.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Eventually questions Akio's scheme and starts reaching out to Utena.
• Even the Guys Want Him: While his attractiveness to the girls of Ohtori Academy is obvious from the beginning, he also shows clear signs of Pragmatic Pansexuality. He'll use his charms on anyone if it advances his goals, as shown when he comes on to Miki. It's no real surprise when he's shown literally in bed with Akio, or that Saionji is implied to have feelings for him.
• Dub Name Change: Tommy in the Latin American dub.
• Evil Redhead: He has vibrant scarlet hair. He gets his friend Saionji expelled from school and burns the exchange diary right after Saionji entrusted it to him. Later, he tricks his sister Nanami into thinking that they were Not Blood Siblings and that he never loved her, even though they were just merely adopted by into the same family and Nanami was too young to be able to remember.
• False Friend: Towards Saionji even though the former resents and also trusts him. Later averted at the end of the anime after Utena's disappearance when they reconcile between them and become true friends.
• Freudian Excuse: According to Enokido, in both the series and The Movie, his adoptive father raped him after his birth parents sold him and his sister to the Kiryuu family — and, moreover, that he leaned into it to keep them from abusing Nanami as well. While it does not excuse the way he is, it does explain his promiscuous behavior, a common warning sign in children who have been sexually abused.

• Heel–Face Turn: To some extent late in the anime. He duels Utena one last time in an attempt to prevent her from falling into Akio's hands, and tells her to be wary of End of the World and the Rose Bride. Of course, she doesn't believe him since she's become more aware of his manipulative nature.
  • More blatantly in the manga, where instead of falling into depression after his defeat, he moves in with Utena and Anthy.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In The Movie, he was the boy who died trying to rescue the girl who was drowning in the lake.
• Hypocrite: In a Nanami episode, he mistakenly believes Nanami to be a lesbian and gives a lecture that homosexuality is wrong; at this point, he is sleeping with Akio. Touga's hypocrisy goes far beyond this one example; put simply, he's no prince.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Touga falls in love with Utena because she seems to be the one girl who doesn't immediately fall under his charm. Getting his ass kicked by her at the end of the first arc seemed to help, too.
• Karma Houdini: With regards to his treatment of Nanami in the third arc. He never gets any comeuppance for the crap he pulls on her, nor does he even show remorse for it.
• Knight in Shining Armor: In The Movie, though this may or may not be Utena's idealization of her deceased childhood sweetheart.
• Knife-Throwing Act: One of the Student Council meetings had Touga and Miki doing this with Touga as the knife-thrower.
• Ladykiller in Love: Deconstructed. Being rebuffed by Utena causes him to develop genuine feelings for her, but his "love" for Utena doesn't keep him from trying to control her anyway, and in the end, she doesn't love him back.
• Lonely Among People: Touga is wildly popular with many of the girls at Ohtori and has multiple girlfriends and sexual conquests, but he doesn't have any actual emotional connection to anyone outside of the Student Council, and even that is shaky due to how he treats everyone. This is best exemplified by the fact that, during the Black Rose arc, the only person Mikage was able to find a strong enough connection to Touga to take his soul sword was Keiko, his sister's nondescript lackey. She's only had like five minutes of actual conversation with him, and even then her psychological issues were more about Nanami then Touga. Mikage was basically grasping at straws, and this says a lot about how lonely Touga really is.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has long hair and is very popular with the female students at Ohtori Academy thanks to his good looks and superficial charm.
• A Man Is Always Eager: It becomes apparent as the series goes on that Touga has a rather narrow-minded view on sexuality, believing that carrying on flings with no emotional attachment is somehow pushing him further down the road of maturity of adulthood. By the final arc it becomes rather blatant that part of this is due to Touga's transparent attempt to emulate Akio's lifestyle.
• Manipulative Bastard: He manipulates Utena into thinking he's her prince, he sets Saionji up for a major fall early on, and he plays all sorts of mind games with Nanami, even letting her believe they're Not Blood Siblings near the end.
• Not Blood Siblings: Nanami is crushed after finding out Touga is adopted and therefore not really her brother after all. This is then subverted when it turns out that Touga was just playing with her head — while he is adopted, Nanami was also adopted from the same family and thus they actually are blood siblings. For the record: This is the Double Subversion of the Inversion of a trope — a prime example of how Mind Screwy this show is.
• Out of Focus: He barely appears in the Black Rose arc and has no lines when he does, thanks to Takehito Koyasu being exceptionally busy at the time.
• Parental Abandonment: He and Nanami are both adopted kids (see Not Blood Siblings above) and it's never said what happened to their birth parents. Made considerably more disturbing in The Movie, in which it's stated that his birth father sold him.
• Pet the Dog: Or more accurately, the kitten.
• The Pornomancer: Interestingly, Touga is a better example of this trope than Akio, based on the many girls depicted throwing themselves at him. He does little to attract them other than be Touga Kiryuu.
• Rape as Backstory: In The Movie, his adoptive father raped him after his birth parents sold him and his sister to the Kiryuu family. According to Enokido, it was also supposed to carry into the TV series as well. Part of Saionji and Touga's conflict is because Saionji felt Touga was somehow more mature and worldly than him, even if Saionji couldn't understand why. It's because Touga's adopted father was raping him, and Touga was keeping his hair long and letting himself be used so that their father wouldn't target Nanami.
• Red/Green Contrast: He's a redhead, and he is very close to Saionji, who has green hair.
• Really Gets Around: He has a well-founded reputation as a playboy who has numerous flings with various girls. While he seems to be mainly into girls, he also hits on Miki in an early episode, has quite a lot of subtext with Saionji, and sleeps with Akio. And with Miki, in the light novels. It soon becomes apparent that sex is less about sexuality for Touga and more about power, and it's heavily implied that he gets around so much in order to emulate Akio's similar behavior.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Chapter 24 of the manga, he literally says to hell with Utena and resigns from being her servant when she just refuses to stay away from Akio, even after being warned that he's End of the World.

  Touga: I can't live as your servant, anymore...or as your friend. If you wish to do what Ohtori says, then you're on your own.

• Status Cellphone: He stands out as the only character who owns a cellphone. As the series first aired in the late 90s, this helps to signify that he's rich and is such a ladykiller he needs a way for all his girlfriends to contact him quickly.
• Student Council President: According to the game, it's only because he's the oldest.
• Shirtless Scene: Played up to the point of parody, and comes in both Fanservice and Fan Disservice flavors.

• Smug Snake: He is very handsome, charming, and manipulative — but ultimately, he's a horrendous Jerkass even to his sister, and he can't hold a candle to Akio.

• Two Girls and a Guy: With Utena and Touga in the manga; he moves in with them and becomes Utena's "servant" after she defeats him. Until Chapter 24 when he gets fed up with Utena's nonsense.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Toyed with. On one hand, Nanami's childhood memories of him paint him as a much kinder big brother than he is in the series' present. On the other, the flashback he shares with Saionji portrays him as something much closer to a Creepy Child; he casually plays with Utena's hair, has virtually no reaction to her situation, and already shows signs of becoming the Manipulative Bastard he is as a teenager. Later, it's strongly suggested that even his past kind behavior towards Nanami was an act, as he claims that he never really loved her and only pretended to care because his father wanted him to. Finally, Word of Enokido is that he really was a sweet kid a very long time ago, but changed drastically soon after he and Nanami were sent to the Kiryuus.
• Villain in a White Suit: Like most of the student council, wears a sophisticated white millitary uniform while in the dueling arena. He's a suave and sophisticated Princely Young Man from a wealthy family who manipulates and betrays everyone around him, and he's the Arc Villain of the first arc and a protege of the Big Bad.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: To gain Utena's sympathy in the first arc, he takes an attack meant for her from Saionji and plays up the injury; as a result, Saionji is kicked out of school and Utena takes Touga's side. This lets him play on her feelings during their duel when he pulls another WGG by pretending to give up when she is about to attack him; she hesitates, and he strikes.

Juri Arisugawa

Juri Arisugawa

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese), Amanda Goodman ^note  credited as Mandy Bonhomme (English) ^{Foreign VAs}  María Fernanda Morales (Latin American Spanish)

The captain of the fencing team. Juri is an incredibly skilled fencer and duelist who wields high levels of influence over the students and teachers of Ohtori Academy. Although she is outwardly popular and powerful, she spends most of the series trying to deal with the emotional wounds from a breakup that happened before Utena arrived at Ohtori; and is thus provoked by Utena's naivety and idealism.

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• Action Girl: She's the captain of the fencing club and gives Utena a really hard time in their duels.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Had blonde hair and brown eyes in Saitou's earliest color illustrations, but orange hair and blue eyes in the anime and later manga illustrations.
• Adaptational Badass: Played with. In Chapter 11 of the manga, she gives Utena hell, but Utena manages to defeat her head-on. This isn't the case in the anime, where not only does Juri still gives Utena a hard time, but she also counters the Power of Dios and remains the only duelist in the show that Utena has never outfought.
• Adaptation Personality Change: To some extent in the manga, where she is shallow and immature compared to her anime counterpart and basically replaces Nanami as the Alpha Bitch of Ohtori Academy.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Lesbian in the anime, straight in the manga, Ambiguously Bi in the movie. Granted, Everyone Is Bi is in play for much of the franchise.
• Ambiguously Bi: In the movie, Juri's attraction to Shiori is alluded to but made less explicit. She also appears to hit on Miki, but may have been joking (she was interrupted before we could see).
• Alpha Bitch: In the manga, after Touga takes the hit for Utena when Saionji attacked her in an elevator, Utena goes out of her way to bring him flowers when Juri shows up to tell her they'd end up rotting away with the rest Touga received from his fans. Later on, Utena laments that Juri flipped over her food tray and volunteered her to sing lead in chorus practice. All of that took place in one chapter (Chapter 11).
• All Love Is Unrequited: In the manga with Touga, and to some degree, Shiori. Poor girl can't catch a break.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Only mildly in her first duel with Utena. Otherwise, as the captain of the fencing team, she's devoted to her students and has even tended to an injured classmate in Episode 29. However, she's definitely this trope in the manga.
• Badass in Distress: Ruka pins her to a wall and forcefully makes out with her, until she's able to bite his lip and push him off her. Once she's free, she's heavily breathing and looks extremely uncomfortable.
• Berserk Button:
  • She clearly has a thing for Touga in the manga, and it doesn't sit too well with her when she's reminded by Saionji about the concept of Bros Before Hoes and that Touga is obviously into Utena.
  • Seeing Ruka use, humiliate, and disregard Shiori's feelings pisses her off so much, not so much that it was Shiori alone but that he is genuinely treating her like complete garbage, pisses Juri off so much she goes into a violent rage and tries to beat the shit out of him. Though one must note that what really sets her off is when Ruka snidely asks who in their right mind would want someone as awful as Shiori for a girlfriend, aware that Juri wants her. Juri's pissed off because Ruka's mocking her for wanting Shiori by saying only an idiot would love a lying, two-faced manipulator like Shiori.
• Bifauxnen: Juri's typical attire is gender-neutral, and she does model gowns when not wearing the Student Council uniform, but her cool, icy bearing and fierceness lead to her giving off this impression.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A mild case, though she's more Affably Evil in reality; in Episode 7, she strikes up a friendly conversation with Utena after getting her out of the trouble with the counseler, then later bitch-slaps Anthy right after Utena leaves for "taunting" her. Her true intentions come out when she physically tries to strip Utena of her Rose Seal and challenges her to a duel in an act to counter her belief in miracles. After that, she's pretty cordial towards Utena and eventually becomes her friend in Episode 37.
• Break the Haughty: Just like Nanami in the anime, as the Alpha Bitch of the manga, Juri has one hell of a day in Chapter 26:
  • She's notified first thing in the morning by Miki that someone's shown up claiming they were the new fencing team captain, which understandably riles her up, and is then defeated in a Single-Stroke Battle by who turns out to be Ruka. Discomposed by her loss, Juri overhears Miki uncharacteristically teasing that she liked Ruka, followed by Anthy recalling she had a thing for Touga who liked Utena, who then expresses that Juri doesn't see it that way when clearly she does. Juri's left in awe, and then subjected to Ruka ripping her a new one for losing to Utena, that her head isn't in the duels, and that she outright sucks. This is coming from the man she emulated as a hero to hone her fencing skills, and he practically embarrassed her in front of her team for the sake of teaching her a lesson. She then witnesses him giving lessons to Utena with Touga in her ear, rambling about Ruka's belief that Utena has much more potential than her before "apologizing" for letting that remark slip. Even worse, Ruka pits her against Utena in a duel for the Fencing Captain position, and she loses after realizing he taught Utena a technique he never taught Juri. After that, she overhears Touga and Ruka conversing and learns that everything was a setup to get her to duel again, and that she truly loves Ruka, but placed her feelings onto Touga because "they didn't have a place to go. And after that, she's back in the arena with Utena and so fed up with everything that she just drops her sword and leaves, leaving Ruka to face her and collapse from his illness just as he comes close to defeat Utena. Thankfully, through all of it, she bounces back after learning that Ruka's intentions were to make her realize her potential. However, even after being informed about Ruka's death, she refuses to believe it, claiming he's "alive in her heart" and that he'll come back some day. Life just wasn't being too kind to Juri.
• Broken Ace: Juri is rich, beautiful, stylish, intelligent, and easily the best swordfighter in the student council, and is both admired and feared by the rest of the school for these traits. However, she's also deeply bitter, cold, and even outright vicious to people who anger her, not to mention troubled by her inability to let go of her feelings towards Shiori.
• Broken Bird: She is fierce and bitter; certain that her miracle will never come, and by extension that there is no such thing as miracles. She's been carrying a torch for Shiori for a long time even though Shiori deliberately hurt her out of envy, and the dynamic between them is so scrambled that Juri cannot bring herself to have an honest conversation with Shiori about how she feels.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Subversion — she throws her locket into a lake in Episode 17; by the end of that episode, it's back with her again. However, she ends up finding it because the locket was planted there, not by sheer chance.
• Combat Pragmatist: She's the first duelist to introduce the fact that shoving is perfectly fine in duels; she has no problem parrying Utena's strikes and pushing her from behind, thus causing her to trip.
• Composite Character: In the manga, where she is basically an expy of Nanami.
• Cool Big Sis: Acts like this to Miki, in a way.
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionaly deals a subtly cutting line.
• Death Glare: When she backhands Anthy in Episode 7.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's pretty damn cold primarily, but gradually warms up throughout the series. In fact, she even jokingly asked for Utena's picture to put in her new locket.
• Dub Name Change: Julie in the Latin American dub.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Very popular with fangirls, both in-story and in the fandom. And unbeknownst to her, Shiori was in love with her all along as well, as confirmed by Ikuhara.
• Everyone Has Standards: In the manga, even she found Touga's manipulations of Utena stripping her of the Power of Dios via victory in their first duel to be vile. She even stated that she was disgusted by Touga.
• Expy: Of Oscar from The Rose of Versailles, for a start, and several aristocratic, ringleted characters from Chiho Saito's other series.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Woman!: In Chapter 11, she bitchslaps Utena for lamenting Touga getting injured in his attempt to protect her from Saionji, and doesn't hold back in letting her know that he did it in order to ensure her continued participation in the duels, not because he cares about her.
• Gray Rain of Depression: Her second duel with Utena ends with a downpour of heavy rain when the latter unintentionally destroy her locket, though she's more broken by the revelation of her problems than the destruction of the locket.
• Her Story Repeats Itself
• Horrible Judge of Character: Juri sees Shiori as naively ill-intentioned, which is initially true. However, Shiori becomes more manipulative as the series progresses.
• Hypocrite:
  • Begrudges Shiori for not knowing her feelings for her, but doesn't try to understand Shiori's own feelings in general.
  • Claims she only wants Shiori to be happy, regardless if her feelings for the girl are acknowledged. The shock of her locket being destroyed proves she very much indeed wants Shiori to acknowledge her feelings.
• It's All Junk: How she regards her locket after chucking into a river. Unfortunately for her sanity, it comes back to her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After Ruka cruelly breaks up with Shiori and humiliates her in front of the entire school, Juri disregards her mistrust of Ruka and tells him to go back to Shiori if it will make her happy. She then immediately reconsiders this when Ruka assaults and almost rapes her. It then reaches a point when Juri makes it clear she has no interest of dueling to gain power to make Shiori recognize her feelings, but rather, to make it so Shiori is no longer despairing over him.
  • This is yet another trope that gets deconstructed as it's shown Juri fighting so hard for the happiness of someone who only wants to hurt her despite claiming she doesn't need Shiori to acknowledge her feelings is not healthy. And ultimately she does indeed want to believe in miracles if it means Shiori will miraculously love her back. Her locket being destroyed symbolizes her brutal but much-needed wake-up call Shiori will never be able to properly reciprocate her feelings in the context of the patriarchal Ohtori Academy, and Juri's just going to keep being miserable waiting for it to happen.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Refuses to believe in miracles to try and hide her emotional weaknesses. She's pretty pissed when Utena wins their first duel with an insane coincidence.
• Lady of War: Her elegance and maturity elevates her to this rather than Action Girl. In her duel with Utena, she effortlessly parries the latter's attacks with a very casual expression.
• The Lancer: In the manga to Touga, and in Chapter 10, she assumes the role of Council Vice President after Saionji is suspended.
• Letting Her Hair Down: In Episode 7.
• Lightning Bruiser: She's called the "Beautiful Leopard" for a reason in the manga; she's incredibly swift in her movement and strong enough to pin Utena down in their fight.
• Loving a Shadow: Seems to be more in love with an over-idealised mental image of Shiori than with the actual person.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Juri is The Stoic captain of the fencing club. Miki is a gentle Bishōnen and a skilled pianist.
• Memento Macguffin: Her locket represents memories that are important to her - it is both this trope and a Tragic Keepsake, since the memories are bittersweet and associated with her Cynicism Catalyst. The travails of the locket over the course of the series reflect Juri's process of reconciling with her past and confronting the aspects of herself that are holding her back.
• Mirror Character: Juri has a lot in common with Utena: they're both master swordfighters who manage to rise to a high position in a patriarchal structure and form a strong relationship with a highly complicated woman. And like Shiori, Anthy ultimately turns her back on Utena. This makes her something of a look into what Utena could have become, had she not freed Anthy.
• Not So Stoic: Whenever the situation starts directly involving Shiori. When she found out Ruka had Shiori become his Rose Bride and later dump her in front of the whole school in his plan to "save" Juri, she is pissed.
• Ojou: Implied to possibly be even richer than the Kiryuus, based on the way she casually one-ups Nanami at the beginning of Episode 16.
• Ojou Ringlets: She has multiple pairs of ringlets framing her face. She's part of The Beautiful Elite and implied to be particularly refined even by Ohtori Academy standards. It's implied that she does actually use a curling iron for at least some of it as she's seen on occasion (and in The Movie) with her hair straight, though her bangs remain curled even in flashbacks.
• Passing the Torch: In After the Revolution, Utena's spirit guides Juri to achieving the same goals she herself sought in life.
• Pet the Dog: In Chapter 23 of the manga when she stresses it wasn't Utena's fault that Anthy ended up in a coffin after Akio manipulates both Utena and Anthy into performing the ritual to retrieve the Power of Dios when Saionji said so. Not only that, she knows that Akio was the real culprit of situation, so considering her antagonism towards Utena back in Chapter 11, that was pretty sweet.
• Poor Communication Kills: Some of the problems between her and Shiori are caused by Juri's own inability/refusal to communicate properly with her. It's understandable that she Cannot Spit It Out with regards to her feelings for the other girl, but the fact that she makes no effort to have a proper conversation with her doesn't help Shiori's inferiority complex at all.
• Redemption in the Rain: Utena unintentionally striking and destroying her locket in their second duel symbolizes the freedom from the most toxic, one-sided relationship in her life, where a heavy downpour of rain then ensues.
• Red String of Fate: Shows up in her flashbacks.
• Regal Ringlets: How she wears her hair in the daytime, but flashbacks show that she never used to at the back.
• The Reveal: The twist ending of the episode that reveals her crush on Shiori.
• Shower of Angst: Episode 17.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Shiori's betrayal caused Juri to become bitter and reserved, losing her belief in miracles and becoming angry towards idealists like Utena. Despite this, Touga implies that she might actually want to be proven wrong, which she doesn't deny.
• Slave Collar: Her locket is a necklace variation of this. Its breaking at the end of her story symbolized her finally being free of her self-destructive, one-sided relationship with the person found inside the locket.
• The Smurfette Principle: She is the only female member of the Student Council until Nanami joins after Touga gets his friend Saionji expelled from school.
• Spell My Name With An S: Juri/Jury. It's spelled Jyuri in After the Revolution.
• This Cannot Be!: In Episode 7, she practically won her first duel against Utena while rebuffing the latter's belief about miracles...until Utena's sword which flew out of her hand earlier falls back down and literally slices the rose from Juri's chest. Literally and humorously, it took a miracle to grant Juri's defeat.
• Token Good Teammate: Arguably she fills the role more closely than Miki does. She supports Utena during her second duel with Touga, even giving her a sword, and while her relationship with Shiori is a messed up one, Juri truly care about Shiori's happiness without wanting Shiori to love her in return. That and her friendship with Miki being one of the only healthy ones in the series makes it clear Juri's pretty much the only member of the council capable of treating people decently without any underhanded motives.
• Tragic Keepsake: Depending on whether you see her locket as a link to the happy days Juri shared with Shiori and the Nameless Boy, or as a reminder of Shiori's betrayal.

Kyouichi Saionji

Kyouichi Saionji

Voiced by: Takeshi Kusao (Japanese), Dan Olk ^note  credited as Jack Taylor (English) ^{Foreign VAs}  Yamil Atala (Latin American Spanish)

The vice president of the Student Council, and the captain of the kendo team. Kyouichi is the betrothed to Anthy Himemiya at the very beginning of the show, but quickly proves himself to be abusive and toxic to Anthy and all the women around him. Kyouichi's actions are driven by a strong inferiority complex - especially towards Touga - resulting in a desperation to assert his power and masculinity in very unhealthy ways.

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• Ambiguously Bi: Has some sort of attraction to Anthy, it's ambiguous if he has feelings for Wakaba or not, and he also has lots of Ho Yay with Touga.
• Ax-Crazy: In Chapter 9, he has tried to kill Utena in an elevator...while she was unarmed in her nightgown.
• Always Someone Better: No matter what he does, Touga just seems to be one step ahead of him.
• Calling the Old Man Out: To Akio in Chapter 23 of the manga.
• Character Development: In After the Revolution, Saionji refuses to financially support an artist who is a known sex criminal and child abuser - a pretty big change for a character who started out as the most amoral Jerkass in the series, with the exception of its principal antagonist.
• The Chew Toy: In Nanami episodes, and it's cathartic.
• Combat Pragmatist: Easily the most brutal of the Duelists, only matched by Wakaba during her time as Black Rose Duelist. Notably, he literally kicks Utena during their duel and had her dead to rights before she triggered the Power of Dios.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's a total asshat, but he does give Utena a rather hard time in their fights. Also, being the bethroted to the Rose Bride at the start implies he has defeated the other duelists one-on-one.
• Domestic Abuse: He claims to love Anthy, but his behavior is more in line with this. In every continuity, his physical abuse of Anthy is what spurs Utena to try to save her.
• Dub Name Change: Kevin in the Latin American dub.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a domestic abuser, but he called out Akio, of all people for his antics.
• Evil Laugh: Does this a few times. His English voice actor makes it rather deranged.
• Green and Mean: A domestic abuser with green hair.
• Green-Eyed Monster: His relationship with Touga is defined by this.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Just wanted to a) beat Touga once and b) find something eternal.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: It's hard to figure out how sympathetic he's supposed to be. But when your best friend makes it look like you violently assaulted him and gets you expelled to further his own goals, that's a clear sign your life sucks.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Acts arrogant in his duels and with regards to Anthy, but he's a deeply insecure guy who lashes out at others and abuses women to cover it up.
• Innocent Inaccurate: When he sees Utena in the coffin, he doesn't really understand that she's trying to commit suicide.
• Irony: A major part of his motivation involves having met a young girl who was suffering from a massive Despair Event Horizon as a result of her parents' death. While we never learn the girl's name, the fact that she had pink hair is enough to confirm that it was young Utena before her prince pulled her out of her stupor. The irony lies in the fact that he wants to achieve eternity based on her despair-filled words and not having been able to help her, but he winds up despising her years later for having defeated him.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Being the current betrothed of Anthy inflated his ego to dangerous levels...then Utena beats him. Upon requesting a rematch, she beats him again. After that, he starts to have serious issues.
• Jerkass: Of the student council, Saionji is by some distance the biggest jerk, being introduced physically abusing Anthy and mocking Wakaba by putting the love letter she wrote to him on public display. Unlike Touga, who is his biggest competition in that field, he makes very little effort to conceal this, preferring instead to throw his weight around and drop nakedly misogynistic statements.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He's actually one of the more perceptive members of the main cast, but it's not like people listen to him (for understandable reasons)...
• Kendo Team Captain: Until he gets expelled, at least. The trope is played with since he does have many admirers due to his good looks and status as Ohtori's kendo team captain, but he's still not as popular as Student Council President Touga, much to his frustration.
• Large Ham: In the dub.
• Last-Name Basis: Everyone calls him by his last name. Yes, even his "best friend" Touga. The sole exception is Nanami.
• Loincloth: His Shower Scene in the Sega Saturn game reveals that he wears fundoshi.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: His hair is just as long as Touga's, though it's much wavier, and he's also considered quite good-looking by the female students (with Wakaba in particular having a crush on him). His hair is usually let down, but he puts it in a ponytail while training.
• The Masochism Tango: He does have some sort of unrequited attraction to Anthy, but his claims that she should be head-over-heels for him fall short when he backhands her every couple of scenes. You could probably also make an argument for him and Touga.
• Morality Adjustment: The events of the series have caused an enormous shift in his moral compass by the time After the Revolution is set.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Reacts with utter dismay when he inadvertantly slashes Touga across the back.
• Only Sane Man: He certainly isn't in the beginning, but some time after he loses his third duel with Utena, he's the only one in the council who senses that something is awry with the End of the World and Anthy, and he's also the only one who questions Touga's odd, power-driven behavior. He even stops chasing Anthy (impressive, given how driven he was to pursue her). Nanami eventually joins him after she finds out that Anthy's in a incestuous relationship with the school's director.
• Perpetual Frowner: Except for when he gives a Slasher Smile.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When he's rooming with Wakaba in episode 20, especially when he makes a little hairclip for her. Too bad he botches it by taking up Mikage's offer and giving the hairclip away in exchange for being able to return to Ohtori. Thus, the hairclip goes to Anthy instead, and poor Wakaba goes Cute and Psycho.
  • In Chapter 23 of the manga, he actually gets a chance to call out Akio, of all people, for his antics such as the manipulation of his sister.
• Red/Green Contrast: With Touga.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: A green-haired Starter Villain
• Shirtless Scene: Near the end — clearly he's been taking lessons from Touga.
• Slasher Smile: Tends to give a lot of these - he easily has the most deranged expressions of any duelist when he gets pissed off. They're downright scary in The Movie.

• Sore Loser: He starts as cool and stern in the dueling game, as he is the current betrothed of Anthy. When Utena defeats him in her first duel, he refuses to admit his loss and requests a rematch, only to be beaten by her again.
• This Cannot Be!: His reaction when Utena wins the first duel.
• Troubled Abuser: Is hinted to have issues with self-loathing, and his inferiority complex with regards to Touga drives him to overcompensate and assert his masculinity in horrible and abusive ways.
• Uke: A Deconstruction of one. A lot of his problems stem from a mix of his love/hate relationship with Touga and the feelings of inferiority of always being second best and in his shadow. Ultimately, he wants to seek eternity to preserve the equal friendship he and Touga once shared. This also leads to him asserting his masculinity in very unhealthy ways, notably his abysmal treatment of Anthy.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The younger Saionji we see in episode 9 wasn't half as horrible as the teen Saionji we met.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Despite having the personality and temperament of an ogre, he's quite popular with the girls on campus (including Wakaba) for his looks and status.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: On his end with Touga. Saionji, especially after episode 9 can't talk to Touga without insulting him or telling him how much he hates him. Yet, they're still plotting and hanging out together.
• We Used to Be Friends: Played for Drama. He and Touga were really best friends during their childhood which suddenly came to its end when they met the young Utena at the church inside the coffin. Utena was in a state of depression because of her parent's death and was attempting suicide. Saionji then witnesses Touga consoling Utena which ended up bringing her out of her depression after he told her what is something eternal. Saionji demands Touga to tell him what it is but he refuses to say it. Saionji begins to resent him for it until Utena comes into their lives once again at Ohtori Academy and Touga admits that he really doesn't know what is something eternal which meant that he fails to snap Utena out of her depression and reveals that Akio was responsible for the truth told to Utena to help recover from her depression. Saionji finally understands and reconciles with Touga subverting this trope.
• Would Hit a Girl: Beats Anthy like a ragdoll, and has tried to kill Utena in their second duel. In the manga, he even ambushed her in an elevator with a sword!

Miki Kaoru

Miki Kaoru

Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese), James Carter Cathcart ^note  credited under his usual alias "Jimmy Zoppi" (English) ^{Foreign VAs}  Carlos Hugo Hidalgo (Latin American Spanish)

A genius and polymath who is most well-known as a talented pianist. He quickly strikes up a genuine friendship with Utena, and is generally more friendly to her than the other members of the Student Council. He also has a curious habit of constantly using a stopwatch to time something, but no-one but Miki knows just what exactly he is timing. Throughout the series, Miki is searching for a piano partner who can inspire him the same way that his sister did when they played piano together as children; for this reason, he develops a crush on Anthy after hearing her play, but struggles to work out if he wants to love her (as a woman) or possess her (as his personal muse).

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Had brown hair and brown eyes in an early color illustration for the manga, but Saitou quickly modified him in later artwork to match his anime color scheme (blue hair, blue eyes).
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Deconstructed and played with; he's certainly not lazy with his academics, but he doesn't have that much resolve when it comes to dueling.
• Character Tics: Timing something on his stopwatch. Nobody knows why he does this, or what exactly he is timing: not even the other characters (and especially with Ikuhara's habit of leaving his answers vague or deliberately off-base).
  • The anime has Miki claim that it's a "kind of fortune-telling", but he gives this answer in a somewhat-jokingly and evasive manner.
  • The musical adaptation Bud of the White Rose has Miki claim that he uses the stopwatch to time exactly how long he spends hating the Student Council. (The exact percentage of time was apparently ad-libbed on every night of the show's run.)
  • A good theory is that Miki is timing the length of the dialogue of whoever spoke right before, as he has realised that time is somehow distorted within Ohtori Academy, and this is his means of investigating.
• Deadpan Snarker: Despite being the resident Nice Guy, he has a lot of these moments, especially with Nanami.
• Dub Name Change: Micky in the Latin American dub, which is still pronounced the same, and technically breaks the One-Steve Limit with Akio (who is named Mike in that dub).
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Most of the guys in the series have very pretty faces, but unlike them Miki lacks broad shoulders and is short. He's noted to look very similar to his sister, and no one would mistake her for a boy.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: In the manga, he kisses Utena while she's taking a nap.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Besides his fangirls, Touga hits on him as early on as the fifth episode, and his piano teacher is implied to have a less than savoury interest in him. The light novels (which are an Alternate Continuity) take this to another level, in that Touga flat-out sleeps with him.
• Expy: His anime version is a perfect male expy of Sailor Mercury from Sailor Moon, down to having the same VA.
• Friendly Enemy: He and Utena are fast friends, and Utena is caught off guard each time Miki challenges her to a duel. After they duel, they quickly return to their friendly rapport.
• Half-Identical Twins: With Kozue; aside from his hair being shorter and a different shade of blue, and Kozue wearing lipstick, they otherwise look exactly the same. When Utena sees both of them together for the first time, she even comments on how similar they look.
• Hypocrite:
  • He was at first against the dueling system for Anthy, yet at the end, he dueled to possess her and when he loses he promises to Utena he'll win the next time.
  • He says he found his "shining thing" in Anthy but what he sees in her is a replacement of Kozue's past self.
  • He doesn't want to be a "dirty adult" like the father who abandoned him and his sister for a woman, yet in Akio's car he has an Imagine Spot of Anthy in a very suggestive pose.
• In-Series Nickname: "Mickey".
• Innocent Blue Eyes: A naive boy with blue eyes.
• Innocent Innuendo: In the Black Rose arc.
  Nanami: Hey, hey, by the way...how did it feel?
  Miki: How did what feel?
  Nanami: You know what I mean...did it hurt?
  Miki: * goes beet red*
• Just Friends: With Utena.
• Like Brother and Sister: He and Juri have a close, mutually respecting relationship, and in the series there's no apparent romantic tension. However, in the movie she seems to hit on him, though she may have been teasing him.
• Lonely Piano Piece: He often plays "The Sunlit Garden" alone, remembering how he used to play it with Kozue.
• Loving a Shadow: At least in the beginning, his feelings towards Anthy stem from the fact that she reminds him of Kozue when she was younger—or rather, how he remembers Kozue.
• Luminescent Blush: Tends to do this when embarrassed or talking to Anthy.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: He loves Anthy, whom he sees as entirely virginal and passive because he sees her as basically the foil of his promiscuous sister, Kozue, whom he is sexually attracted to. The theme appears to be that he sees them as two sides of one woman, and by extension seeing neither as a full person in her own right.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Juri is The Stoic captain of the fencing club. Miki is a gentle Bishōnen and a skilled pianist.
• Nice Guy:
  • Miki is one of the few genuinely good-natured characters and is certainly the Student Councilor least inclined to use others as punching bags for his own issues. This being Utena, he does have flaws, but he is one of the few characters that never slaps Anthy. He's also one of the only people aside from her brother that Nanami has a respectful relationship with.
  • In Chapter 11, when he officially meets Utena, she hugs him and is overjoyed by that he's not pursuing her like Saionji and Juri.
• Nostalgia Filter: He has very rose-tinted memories of his childhood with his twin sister Kozue, when they would play piano duets together and they were both considered musical prodigies. The truth is that he's the real prodigy, and Kozue is rather mediocre at the piano. He also tends to project how he remembers Kozue onto Anthy.
• Not So Above It All: He openly expresses his attraction to Anthy when she's doing traditionally "feminine" things, like cooking and cleaning, and he has been treating his sister pretty coldly ever since she stopped playing the piano. Also, he's openly less attracted to Anthy in "Curried High Trip" (or rather, when Utena is in Anthy's body) because Anthy isn't acting like her usual demure self. Which means Miki doesn't like Anthy as much when she's actually sticking up for herself instead of letting people slap her around.
• Parental Abandonment: His and Kozue's parents are not only divorced, but it also seems that they are rarely in contact with the twins. Not to mention it's heavily implied that Anthy is their father's mistress, or at the very least manipulated their father into calling Miki to push him into a duel.
• Polar Opposite Twins: He and Kozue are this trope and also one of the several Red Oni, Blue Oni pairs in the series. Miki is mannered, thoughtful, and very accomplished but also very inhibited. Kozue is direct, self-centered, and does not seek anyone's acknowledgement or permission for anything.
• Premature Aggravation: His first duel with Utena is fought over the fact that she could order Anthy to give up the piano, despite there being no evidence that Utena had any intention of doing so.
• Psychological Projection: Miki's main character flaw is that he tends to project his own thoughts and feelings onto women, and assume he knows what they are thinking. He does it with Kozue by assuming that she loved playing the piano as much as he did, and completely failing to notice the vast disparity in their skill levels. It happens again when he gets a crush on Anthy and starts believing he understands her on an intimate emotional level: this draws him into the Rose Crest Duels when he invents entire motivations and "hidden desires" out of what is polite reciprocation at best.

• Signature Song: "The Sunlit Garden", which was composed by Miki In-Universe. It serves as more than that, though; it's a leitmotif of the show and played during key scenes that invoke certain memories, whether real or imagined.
• Teen Genius: Taking college classes in seventh grade! He's also a brilliant fencer on a technical level.
• Theme Twin Naming: "Miki" means "trunk" while "Kozue" means "treetop".
• Token Good Teammate: The nicer and kindest member of the Student Council.
• Twincest: Implied, particularly in the movie; while it comes more from Kozue, the fact that Miki essentially projects an idealised version of his sister onto Anthy is just a tad suspicious.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Also very innocent, albeit not quite as naive as Utena.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Why he states his refusal to duel Utena when they first meet in the manga.

Nanami Kiryuu

Nanami Kiryuu

Voiced by: Yuri Shiratori (Japanese), Leah Applebaum (English) ^{Foreign VAs}  Christine Byrd (Latin American Spanish)

Nanami is the younger sister of Touga Kiryuu, and joins the Student Council (and the Rose Crest Duels) later in the series. Nanami is introduced as a haughty and immature bully with a particular grudge against Anthy. She has a powerful crush on Touga which is ultimately portrayed as tragic, as the imaginary and idealised relationship with her older brother prevents her from forming genuine attachments with other people.

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• Alpha Bitch: Being the younger sister of Touga and an Ojou, she constantly flaunts her superiority over others and has a Girl Posse to help her keep other students from crossing her. She ultimately represents a deconstruction of the trope; Nanami positioning her social life on being the leader of a Girl Posse means that she doesn't actually trust any of her friends on an emotional level. She also is unable to affect anything she actually cares about because her older brother has even more social power than her.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: To Touga in episode 31, right before telling him to go away, as she no longer wants to live with him after becoming convinced that they're Not Blood Siblings.
• Animals Hate Her: She is antagonized by various animals, including elephants on surfboards and a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves. Her bizarre misfortunes may be due to a curse laid by Anthy, the local animal lover. It could also be karmic punishment for killing Touga's kitten when she was younger.
• Animal Motifs: In one episode, she thinks she's turning into a cow. In the movie, she actually is a cow.
• Ax-Crazy: She once murdered a kitten for getting too close to her brother and her response to losing her first duel to Utena is to pull out a dagger and try and murder her.
• Big Brother Attraction: Deconstructed, as her fixation on her older brother Touga is portrayed as tragic since all of her attempts to flaunt her superiority hinge on him. On Touga's end, he hardly ever gives her the time of day and eventually starts screwing her over for his own ends. Nanami also does feel something sexual for Touga (such as when she watches him shower), but when she sees a real case of Brother–Sister Incest, she is so horrified by it that she quickly lets go of her feelings towards Touga and learns to see him in a healthier light.
• Big Fancy House: They hold balls there.
• Braids of Action: She's a Dark Action Girl who wears her hair in a crown braid.
• Break the Haughty: Oh boooy, does this girl have a bad day: After discovering that her brother, whom she loved ever since she was a child, was not her blood sibling, she feels like the connection she had her whole life was a lie. After that, she runs away from home, into the house of a pair of close, happy siblings... only to walk in on them having sex. And after that she walks in on her brother making out with a member of her old gang, to hear that her brother said he not only never loved her to begin with, and to have her ex-friend claim she has no connection to her anymore. And then after that she gets the Akio Car treatment, where her brother attempts to rape her, much to her horror. Her proceeding duel ends with her breaking down in tears, claiming that she doesn't have any connection to the brother she loves, and is horrified at being just like the other girls he sees absolutely nothing in. It's very hard not to feel sorry for her after all that, even if you thought she was a raging Rich Bitch.
• Butt-Monkey: Oh GOD yes. Anytime some nonsensical stroke of bad luck happens, it happens to Nanami nine times out of ten.
• Character Development: She starts as one of the most toxic and deluded characters in the show, but by the end, she's the first member of the Student Council to completely cut ties with End Of The World and quit the Rose Crest Duels; representing her breaking free of the toxic dream which compelled her to compete.
• The Chew Toy: Gets turned into a cow, chased by elephants, scared by snails, snakes and a plastic octopus etc.
• Children Are Innocent: Subverted. She killed the kitten she gave her brother because she thought it was taking away too much of his attention.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She's rather merciless to anyone she feels is getting between her and Touga.
• Close-Call Haircut: Her braid gets cut when she breaks her sword after her first duel.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Her overactive imagination and conspiratorial mindset converge to form epic and alarming flights of fancy, and most of the cast thinks she's out of her mind. She's naïve enough that she genuinely doesn't know that a "cowbell" is a bell worn around the neck of a cow, and manages to convince herself she has laid an egg, complete with Imagine Spots the of what she thinks the social consequences of this will be.
• Combat Pragmatist: She didn't take her abrupt defeat by Utena very well, so she whips out a hidden knife and proceeds to incessantly attack Utena.
• Combat Stilettos: Has no difficulty charging for Utena in heels during her second duel at an impressive speed.
• Comical Overreacting: Part of her Large Ham tendencies.
• Crying Wolf: Tries to tell Utena about Akio and Anthy after accidentally learning exactly what their relationship is like, but her warnings are ignored. This is a slightly different take on the trope—Utena doesn't think she's lying, but that she's deluded, since by this point in the series it's become clear that Nanami is (in most contexts, anyway) exceptionally gullible and paranoid. Adding to the problem is the fact that Nanami finds Akio and Anthy's incest so disgusting that she can't bring herself tell Utena any specifics.
• Custom Uniform: She wears the standard girls' uniform when she's first introduced, but when she takes over as Student Council President she gains a new, yellow military-style uniform.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • In the movie, Nanami only appears in an in-universe video (where she is inexplicably in cow form) that has no relevance to the plot. Considering Touga's radically different character, it's ambiguous if she actually exists at all in the movie's continuity.
  • In the manga she only ever shows up in one photograph and doesn't even make an actual on-panel appearance.
  • In After the Revolution, she doesn't appear beyond being mentioned by Touga.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: "Nanami's Egg" is an extended metaphor about puberty...in a show that is itself an extended metaphor about puberty, as well as Teen Pregnancy and her own abandonment issues.
• Drama Queen: Never misses an opportunity to ham it up.
• Dual Wielding: Both a sword and a knife. She only has the sword during her duel in the third arc, however; if you think of the sword/dagger combo as representing Touga and herself, then it makes sense as her relying purely on her own strength in that fight. Fittingly for her Character Development, she actually puts up more of a fight during that duel than her previous one, showing that she's stronger than she thought and doesn't need Touga to be a complete person.
• Egg Sitting: For the egg that she apparently laid. She gets really attached to it.
• Evil Phone
  Nanami: What time do you think this is, moron? Who is this? At least give me your name.
  Akio: The Ends of the World. Kiryuu Touga is waiting for you.
• Expy: She seems to be one of Hanako Kidouin, a character from Chiho Saito's earlier work Waltz wa Shiroi Dress de who also had an Alpha Bitch streak and older brother complex.
• Fallen Princess: Becomes this in the third arc.

• The Fool: In more ways than one. Despite putting on a Rich Bitch facade, Nanami is very naive and relatively "innocent". By the same token, she can sometimes acknowledge and even speak the truth in ways more jaded/ "mature" characters cannot or will not.
• Forced Transformation: Is tricked by Anthy into putting on a "fashion bell" that gradually turns her into a cow.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: In the 2010s' stage musical revival, when she scolds the audience for not applauding hard enough for one of her songs.
• Girly Bruiser: She may be a priss, but she has a very aggressive fighting style.
• Girl Posse: Aiko, Yuuko, and Keiko.
• Hysterical Woman: She's prone to emotional extremes and often jumps to the worst, most far-fetched conclusions.
• Imagine Spot: When Nanami is trying to embarrass Anthy (and win Miki's affection) by planting weird stuff in her room. She envisions each ploy going off without a hitch, only to have them fail because Anthy is already keeping weird stuff in her room. And Miki finds it cute.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Has surprisingly low self-esteem under her Rich Bitch exterior, which becomes apparent when Touga (who just about all her feelings of superiority hinge on) starts screwing her over.
• Innocent Innuendo: See above, with Miki.
• Insane Troll Logic: She runs on this for most of the egg episode, where her immediate thought to finding the egg in her bed is that she must've laid it instead of assuming someone put it there. She then somehow gets the mistaken idea that everyone lays eggs when Miki explains some mammals do indeed lay them and spends the episode hiding the egg she found because she doesn't want to be mocked for being a late bloomer.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Like Saionji, by the end of the series Nanami has actually figured out a lot of what's going on, but given how she acted earlier no one is inclined to believe her. See also Crying Wolf.
• Large Ham: Especially in the English dub, where she seems to be incapable of speaking below a certain volume.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Repeatedly.
  Mitsuru: No matter how she (Nanami) hurts people, she ends up getting hurt the worst!
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Near the finale, she eventually becomes somewhat of a friend to Utena. And even before that, she shows signs of this when around certain people like Miki and Tsuwabuki.
• Mistaken for Lesbian: When she takes care of an egg in the anime, she asks Touga if he prefers boys or girls (she's talking about the gender of whatever is inside the egg). He believes that she is talking about his sexuality and answers "Girls, obviously," which then Nanami replies with "Really? Me too." Cue a lecture about "Homosexuality is wrong" by Touga.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: And it's not even her own! When Touga gets hurt in the Student Council arc, Nanami is quick to blame Utena and Anthy for her brother's injuries.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Her behavior when she drops the box containing Touga's kitten in the river suggests that she did not realize the full implications of her actions until it was too late. She tries to justify it to herself by claiming that the kitten was stealing her brother's affections from her, but she's horrified to the point of tears nonetheless.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: Her signature laugh, which is fitting given her status as a haughty Ojou and Alpha Bitch.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Downplayed, but her eyes are drawn with flesh-colored sclera, even in close-up shots. It makes her stand out, since she's the only character who's designed this way.
• Ojou: What she tries to be, anyway. She's certainly rich and she tries to pass herself off as refined, but when it comes down to it she's more of a Rich Alpha Bitch.
• Parental Abandonment: See Touga's section. The flashback in episode 10 implies that Nanami didn't get a lot of love from their parents.
• Pet the Dog:
  • She does put herself in danger to save Tsuwabuki from a rampaging kangaroo in his premiere episode, and later tells him not to beat himself up so much over being a kid because she likes him the way he is. The last one kind of backfired though...
  • She chooses to fill in for her brother as Student Council President while he spends most of the second arc in a depressive state, and later tries to cheer him up by throwing a party.
  • "Nanami's Egg" consists almost entirely of this. She comes to really care about that thing.
  • She even tried to tell Utena about Akio and Anthy, but because it's Nanami, Utena didn't believe her. She also suggests swapping places with Miki in Akio's tower, but immediately takes back the offer when she realises that Miki would be even more vulnerable in that position than she is.
  • The biggest moment concerning Utena was when Juri tells a story about her older sister drowning before a boy dove in the water to save her. An adult came by and saved Juri's sister, but the boy died in his heroic act. Juri felt slight disdain at her sister for forgetting the boy's name before realizing she too couldn't remember his name. This tragically foreshadowed Utena's erase from existence and her friends' memories, and Nanami is broken up over this.
  "Why would you tell us a story like that?"
• Rich Bitch: A very typical case, at least at first.
• Skintone Sclerae: Her eyes notably have no whites in them, though this isn't always consistent.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: In one episode, she thinks that someone is trying to kill her: "These attempts must certainly be the result of someone being jealous of my cute looks, my popularity, and refinement!"
• Spoiled Brat: She's a Rich Bitch who is used to being accommodated.
• Third-Person Person: Does this sometimes around Touga, likely to make herself look cutesy.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Episode 32, she battles Utena with more ferocity than she's had before, giving the latter a much harder time. When Utena goes for the finishing strike, Nanami evades the attack with an impressive jump, soaring over Utena and then knocking the latter down. It's even better that since she's only using her sword and not Dual Wielding, it symbolizes that she's very capable of kicking ass on her own.
• Troubled Fetal Position: When things get especially bad.
• Tsundere: To Utena after they become friends. She gives her advice and insults her in the same breath. And then smiles softly when thanked.

• Vocal Evolution: For the first two episodes Leah Applebaum uses a more mild voice for Nanami instead of the No Indoor Voice she has for the rest of the series. It's especially noticeable in episode 11 when they revisit the first episode and Nanami sounds completely different.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Anthy named a cow and a hen after Nanami. This is obviously not meant to be flattering.
• Yandere: She's so obsessed with Touga that as a child she drowned his pet kitten out of jealousy.

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