Nanami sabotages Anthy's and Utena's home economics class, resulting in them being hospitalized after an explosion. After they recover it is quickly discovered that Anthy and Utena have swapped personalities. Touga makes Nanami and her gang travel to India in search of the magic spice that will turn them back to normal.
"Curried High Trip" provides examples of:
- Covert Pervert:
- When Keiko, Aiko, and Yuuko start selling photos of Utena and Anthy, Miki buys the whole Anthy collection.
- Utena peaks at a shirtless Saionji.
- Dull Surprise: While everyone else freaks out as Saionji and Chu-Chu eat Anthy's curry, Touga only barely looks slightly alarmed.
- Everyone Has Standards: Nanami and her lackeys only planned to prank Utena and Anthy by having them eat curry that was far too spicy. When told the spice they used might've been even spicier than that, and then seeing the explosion, the four all look immediately regretful.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Anthy and Utena swap bodies, and Utena walks a few miles in Anthy's shoes, dealing with her bullies and trying to negotiate Saionji's awkward courtship. At the end of the episode, the same thing happens to Saionji and Chu-Chu.
- Gratuitous English: When flying off to India, Nanami calls back to Touga, "I shall return!" in English.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The shadow play girls discuss the concept of "Divine Justice," when bad things happen to you because you do something bad. B-Ko shoots a machine gun at A-Ko, but A-Ko ducks and a bullet ricochets and hits B-Ko in the back.
- Hypocritical Humor: Touga criticizes Nanami for selling photos of Utena and Anthy, only for Aiko to immediately reveal that he bought all the film negatives for himself.
- Innocently Insensitive: While stuck in Anthy's body, Utena complains about how she doesn't want to be a sacrifice to the Rose Seal. While Anthy, in Utena's body, is right there. It's no wonder Anthy cheerfully waves goodbye as Saionji drags Utena off in her body.
- Large Ham: Utena, when returning the exchange diary to Saionji, really overdoes "Anthy's" supposed joy.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Nanami and her Girl Posse go to India and are repeatedly menaced by African elephants in extremely unusual places, such as chasing them on giant surfboards while the girls are boating or stampeding across a rope bridge far too narrow to fit an elephant.
- New Body, Old Abilities: Utena is just as athletic in Anthy's body as her own, even though Anthy seemingly never participates in sports.
- Pun-Based Title: The "Freaky Friday" Flip episode is titled in Japanese as "Curry-naru High Trip"; the "curry-naru" ("karē-naru") is a play on "karei-naru" ("magnificent").
- Running Gag: During Nanami's trip to India, she and her Girl Posse are constantly attacked by elephants, even when they're in the middle of the ocean.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Nanami travels to India and faces all sorts of peril (and surfing elephants!) to find the magic spice. When she returns they discover that the curry was never sabotaged in the first place. Anthy's cooking was just that bad.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Utena starts to feel slightly sorry for Saionji, whose feelings for Anthy seem to be genuine. (It doesn't last.)
- Voices Are Mental: In the Japanese version, Utena and Anthy still speak in their own voices when they swap bodies. Surprisingly, it goes the other way in the English dub, where Utena and Anthy's voices remain the same but their actresses do impersonations of each other.
