Episode
Revolutionary Girl Utena: Gracefully Cruel - The One Who Picks That Flower
Overview
Having observed the last five duels, Touga is now positive that he has completed collecting sufficient data to defeat Utena. Touga has been implying to Utena that he is the prince she has been looking for. One day, in the rose garden, Touga shows Utena that he is her prince in concrete terms. However, he challenges Utena to a duel. Believing that Anthy wants to quit being the Rose Bride, become an ordinary girl, and make many friends, Utena decides to beat her prince for Anthy's sake.
Details
- Series
- Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 11
- Air date
- 1997-06-11
- Runtime
- 24 min
Episode context
Gracefully Cruel - The One Who Picks That Flower is Episode 11 in Season 1 of Revolutionary Girl Utena. It aired on 1997-06-11. The runtime is 24 min.
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Episode 10: Nanami's Precious Thing
Taking the Rose Bride to the Arena without a duel besides inflicting a wound to Touga, Saionji is now expelled from school. Nanami blames Utena for Touga's wound. Utena apologizes, but Nanami doesn't forgive her. A memory crosses her mind that she gave a kitten to Touga as a birthday present when they were very young, and later, from jealousy she killed the kitten. At Touga's birthday party, Utena brings a bunch of flowers to express her gratitude. But Nanami is very upset. Touga suggests them fighting a duel on the Arena by the code of the
Episode 12: For Friendship, Perhaps
Utena was defeated. But the real shock for her was not the fact that she was defeated, but the fact that from Touga's explanation, she learned that Anthy was just playing the role of the bride around Utena, which means Anthy pretended she wanted to quite the bride, become an ordinary girl, and make many friends, *because* Utena, or the Victor of the Duel, so wished. Utena now loses herself. Wakaba, although she knows nothing about what's going on with Utena, she tries to cheer her up. Gradually, Utena gets back to herself. Utena goes to the rose garden to see Touga. Touga thinks she's come to accept his date offer. However, she challenges him to a duel.
More episodes from this season
Episode 9: The Castle Said to Hold Eternity
In the Kendo Dojo, Saionji and Touga are fighting a Kendo duel. Touga defeats Saionji by a narrow margin. Utena hears from Saionji that they has fought hundreds of duels in the last ten years. Saionji also tells Utena that he wants to win the duels and take Anthy to the midair castle above the Arena. A memory crosses his mind about that raining day when he was a young boy... One day, he receives a letter from the Ends of the World, in which they say the castle will fall down to the Arena today. On the other hand, Utena gets a phone call from someone and he says Anthy is being kidnapped at the Forest of the Arena.
Episode 13: Tracing a Path
In this episode, we review episodes 1 through 12 with Ohtori Akio's monologue (In the next episode, we will learn he is Anthy's brother). When he appears in the Arena, the midair castle falls down. Akio talks to Dios sleeping in the castle. He calls each of Utena's duels as follows: 1. friendship (amitie); 2. choice (choix); 3. reason (raison); 4. love (amour); 5. adoration (adoration); 6. conviction (conviction); 7. self (soi). Akio says Utena might be the one they (Akio and Dios?) have been looking for. At this rate, she could reach to the duel called "revolution" and Dios could be released.
Episode 8: Curried High Trip
Somehow, Anthy's curry and rice explodes and that shock switches Utena and Anthy's personalities. Now Utena is feminine while Anthy is tomboyish. The cause of the incident seems to be Nanami's practical joke, trying to mix in the curry the "100X Curry, an Indian Specialty Hot Enough to Make You Breathe Fire". which has mistakenly been replaced with the "Super Spicy 900 Billion X Curry, So Hot It Will Blast You to Smithereens and Make Phantom Elephants Trumpet Loudly". Scolded by her brother, Nanami flies to India to obtain more of the same spice.
Episode 14: The Boys of the Black Rose
Utena meets Anthy's brother, Akio. Akio has been engaged to Ohtori Kanae whose father is the chairman of the board of trustees of Ohtori Academy. Her father is deceased, so Akio is the acting chairman. Mikage Souji is a twelfth grader who organizes Mikage Seminar, aka the Black Rose Association. He is such a genius that he even writes papers for professors. The building of Mikage's office is called Nemuro Memorial Hall, where it is said that one hundred boys were buried alive long ago. Chida Mamiya has a right to become the Rose Bride. Mikage says he will do whatever it takes to make Mamiya the Rose Bride, and will obtain the Power of Dios and the eternal secret. Mikage says the End of the World admitted Mikage and Mamiya. They say they need a duelist good enough to beat Utena. In the elevator of Nemuro Memorial Hall, Kanae confesses she is suffering. She can't get along with Anthy no matter how hard she tries. Taking advantage of that, Mikage makes her a Black Rose Duelist.
Episode 7: Unfulfilled Juri
Juri believes there are no miracles. In the past, she secretly loved someone, but she couldn't win the person's heart. She thinks if there were miracles, she could have achieved her love. One day, Juri talks with Utena, and she gets enraged by Utena's words that she believes in miracles for the destiny between her "prince" and herself. Juri challenges Utena to a duel and tells her to show that there are miracles by defeating Juri by a miracle.
Episode 15: The Landscape Framed by Kozue
Mikage and Mamiya figure that they can make use of the Student Council members to make duelists strong enough to defeat Utena. They say they were defeated just because they couldn't control their minds, not because of their skills. They say if they arrange someone whose mind they can control and make him/her draw the sword and skill from a student council member, then maybe it is possible to make a duelist and have him/her defeat Utena by mind-controlling.
Episode 6: Take Care, Miss Nanami!
Lately, someone has been trying to take Nanami's life. Overhearing a conversation between Anthy and her brother Touga, Nanami misunderstands that Touga is the one who is trying to kill her. After that, someone saves Nanami out of a danger and she falls in love with him, who turns out to be a young boy. Nanami asks him to be her boyfriend, but she does not seem to know the difference between a lover and a henchman.
Episode 16: The Cowbell of Happiness
Nanami holds a party to show off her designer's brand pendant. However, Juri shows up with a more gourgeous pendant. Luckily for Nanami, a packet comes for Nanami and according to Juri and Miki, the designer's brand is the top class. Nanami decides to wear it. However, the thing appears to be just a cowbell. Not knowing what a cowbell is for, from then on, Nanami is always wearing it and showing it off. Other people are aware of it, but can't bring themselves to tell her the truth. What's worse, Nanami is gradually turning into a cow because of the curse of the cowbell.
Episode 5: The Sunlit Garden - Finale
In the tune Anthy just casually played, Miki found a "glow" that he had been seeking. He has a twin sister, Kozue, who used to play a tune with a "glow". However, she does not play the piano anymore because (he thinks) of his fault. Miki wishes to protect Anthy's "glow" in her tune; however Anthy tells him that, because she is the Rose Bride, by the Rose Signet Code, she must obey the Victor of the Duel, or Utena at the moment. She even says that, if Utena told her not to play the piano anymore, she would not. Since he thinks it is his own fault that he lost Kozue's "glow" in the past, not to lose a "glow" again, Miki challenges Utena to a duel and tries to set Anthy free and protect her with his own hands
Episode 17: The Thorns of Death
Shiori, who Juri got a secret crush on, has transferred back to Ohtori Academy. Juri, however, is so cold to her. Shiori thinks the reason is that she took a guy she thought Juri had a crush on away from her. But Juri tells her that she didn't even care about that. Shiori wonders then whose picture is in Juri's locket. One day, Juri finally decides to throw her locket away. However, someone picks it up and puts it in Shiori's dorm room so that Shiori will find what's inside. Now Shiori knows that Juri has been suffering from the secret crush on her. Shiori feels relieved from the sense of inferiority that she has been suffering from and struggling to get over with for a long time. Besides, she even feels a sense of superiority to Juri. However, she is also upset with the way Juri has been looking at her. "I understand." says Mikage to Shiori "I suppose you have no choice but to revolutionize the world. The way before you has been prepared."