A lot of thought went into making Revolutionary Girl Utena, so there isn't much about it that's accidental. That said, it loves absurdist humor and moves between drama and bathos with such speed and fluidity it's hard to tell sometimes if you're meant to be on the edge of your seat or laughing.
General
- Akio consistently rides the line between bathos and narm, and both of his Japanese voice actors struggled with it. Ikuhara had to convince Akio's TV series voice actor, Jurota Kosugi, that the hood-flip sequence should play to Rule of Cool instead of Rule of Funny. Ikuhara also reminisced in an interview about how many takes Akio's movie voice actor, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, needed to actually make the exclamation during his hood-flip sound genuine instead of silly.
The Series
- Because of the rather stiff and careful (almost rhythmic) delivery the English dub actors were directed to use, there are too many moments of narm to count - to the point that they occur in pretty much every other scene. Watching the series dubbed is a surreal experience and arguably magnifies the show's unique bizarre qualities.
- Touga's last duel with Utena decides which of them will be "the one to revolutionize the world," so the stakes are high. Touga uses obfuscation to try to get the better of her, vanishing from her line of sight to reappear...on a motorbike with a side-car which figured in another funny scene earlier in the episode. Touga, with help from Saionji in the side-car, motorcyle jousts with Utena even though she is still on foot, and loses nevertheless. All made doubly ridiculous by the fact that both he and Saionji have their shirts open from the moment they appear on the motorbike.
The Movie
- The scandalous videotape scene is dramatic and horrifying in most respects, it reveals that Akio repeatedly drugged and sexually abused Anthy. As the scene goes on, Akio becomes increasingly distraught and violent, eventually ripping down the curtains of an open window as if he is the one intoxicated rather than Anthy, and tumbles over the the window rail with a yell that sounds so surprised, it seems like you're supposed to laugh. Viewers often do burst out laughing, as evidenced by Jesuotaku and Oancitizen's co-op review of it. It's even cathartic to people who watched the TV series and wished Akio would get some proper poetic justice.
- Saionji's Goblin Face expressions are legitimate Nightmare Fuel, but goblin face can tip into comedy. And especially in the movie, Saionji reaches a level of exaggeration sufficient to tip.
- Shiori's randomly rhymed speech when she reveals the Video Tape footage after Akio's body is found. It's like the movie momentarily becomes a Dr. Seuss cartoon, if Dr. Seuss ever make a cartoon about underage incestuous rape.
