Author: Saito Chiho
Copyright © 1999 Saito Chiho, Be-PaPas

To many people both inside and outside of Japan, SHOUJO KAKUMEI UTENA is an anime series that garnered a lot of attention as being directed by "the same person who did SAILOR MOON." While that person, Ikuhara Kunihiko, certainly deserves great credit for his excellent work, the other driving force is manga creator Saito Chiho. Saito, a veteran author with her own impressive list of credits, tends to be overlooked by Western fans because none of her works have been released in English. That is a pity, for her non-UTENA series have become a staple with teenage girls for their beautiful shoujo art and hopelessly romantic stories.
This reviewer was not a fan of Saito's manga, but had picked up the SHOUJO KAKUMEI UTENA volumes after being captivated by the anime. It was a disappointing purchase, for in print the manga lacked everything that made the animated version special. In trying to tell something apart from a traditional love story, Saito had faltered and produced a meandering, lukewarm experience.
If there are those who feel the same way and pass over the movie edition SHOUJO KAKUMEI UTENA—ADOLESCENCE MOKUSHIROKU manga, however, that is most certainly a loss. UTENA fans with a reasonable command of Japanese will find this newest manga well worth the time. At only one volume, it is short but tightly composed, hitting all the major points of the ADOLESCENCE MOKUSHIROKU movie without being a mere adaptation. Indeed, it was published before the movie played, and because of all the differences it can be thought of as a separate interpretation.
The basic plot is the same—Utena is a girl who, after heartbreak, vows never to wait around for a prince but to become a prince herself. She dresses in boys' clothes and one day transfers to Otori Academy, where she meets her old love Touga, and is drawn into the mysterious game for possession of the Rose Bride, a girl named Himemiya Anthy. Utena wins and is engaged to Anthy, and though it is a strange relationship, together they begin to heal each other's old, forgotten wounds.
What makes this manga succeed better than its previous installment is that Saito has returned to what she does best: writing love stories. ADOLESCENCE MOKUSHIROKU is about finding your own path by breaking out of a fantasy world, but it is also about daring to let go of old loves for new. It has the focus that the original did not quite manage to find.
In addition, fans who feel somewhat mystified by the movie may gain some insight into various elements left unexplained or only hinted at in the film. What is Anthy's power? What is Akio's true being? In this sense, it is not a simple love story by any stretch of the imagination. The same twist and turns and revelations concerning the magical reality in UTENA still hold.
Of course, many questions are also left unanswered, and therein lies the problem with this manga. Fans of UTENA who have seen the entire anime series will grasp and take for granted the otherworldly concepts and subtle character plays that infuse ADOLESCENCE MOKUSHIROKU, but the casual reader will simply be very confused, UTENA being the unexpected blur of reality and unreality that it is. Readers of Saito's other works may also be thrown off by the rather untraditional relationships portrayed here, for the role of hero, suitor and heroine are not so easily picked out.
So in the end, the ADOLESCENCE MOKUSHIROKU manga is an excellent complement to the UTENA anime, but unfortunately it does not have enough development to stand on its own. That said, it is still quite a good manga in its own right, and may prove an interesting read for those looking for something a little more imaginative than the usual shoujo romance.

Published by Shogakukan
1 vol, completed
192 pages; Black and White
ISBN4-09-136089-0
¥390
Available now in Japan
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