Revolutionary Girl Utena is a show that plays with gender, sexuality, taboos, power, and the nature of stories and fairly tales in a surreal, sinister, and subversive manner. As the series goes on the tone can get pitch black in approach as it vivisects the shojo genre. But it is not all doom and gloom despite having a song named Absolute Destiny Apocalypse. There is a good deal of humor in series from Chu-chu’s antics to Saionji’s obsession with his exchange diary to break up what would otherwise be a relentless down note. There are even a few episodes that are purely comedic such as Take Care, Miss Nanami and Curried High Trip. And the one character who is at the center of all the purely comedic episodes is Nanami Kiryuu. She can be a dangerous character but most of the time she is used as comedic relief.

Nanami is a source of endless entertainment in the first season of Revolutionary Girl Utena and truly this is not celebrated enough. She fits in with the eccentricity of the show for sure and certainly exudes more sinister and creepy qualities, but you have to love her antics which usually blow up in her face.

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