Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Bakemonogatari addpermalink

Both are love stories laden with weird symbolism and a French New Wave style of art direction that's just perfect for pretentious academically-inclined wankers such as myself! 

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Simoun addpermalink

Both animes have very deep character development, unique style and, of course, gorgeous music. 

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Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon addpermalink

Utena's chronicles and Usagi's saga have an overall similar mood and imagery: we have fighting beauties, fantasy/magic elements, romance, friends, uniforms, roses.
The female cast is wide and (mostly) strong, the shoujo-ai (sub)text is there, the bishounen can be either princey or a nightmare - sometimes both. 

report Recommended by RenaPsychoKiller

Gankutsuou addpermalink

Firstly, you'll notice the elegant, luxurious, aristocratic aura.
Secondly, you may be captured by the artsy music, design and direction.
Then, you can appreciate the melodrama, the duels, the now avengeful, now conflicted characters, the romantic and complex relationships.
Lastly, enjoy the not-nearly-as-subtle-as-they-think shoujo-ai/shounen-ai hints, and be surprised, or disgusted, or both, by the incest. 

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Uta∽Kata addpermalink

Both are magical girl shows with an underlying darker element, and explore psychological themes. They also both focus on friendship between two girls caught up in a malevolent being's game. They are both pretty artistic and feature very good, original scores. 

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Akuma no Riddle addpermalink

Main protagonist wants to protect a girl from being taken from a group of maniacs, although Akuma no Riddle has a heavier focus on violence and less on thought, and Utena has more of a focus on psychological and character development.

In my opinion Utena executes the concept better though. 

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Wolf's Rain addpermalink

Both shows create (or attempt to, that is an individuals opinion) an allegory. They are both slow paced and somewhat hard to understand completely.  

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Anime: Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna

Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna addpermalink

Both have weird animation effects and delve deeply into the psychological aspects of the characters. 

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Romeo x Juliet addpermalink

Juliet Capulet, the heroine of Romeo x Juliet, is the Utena Tenjou of a new generation. She's tomboyish, independent, and passionate, but, like Utena, her romantic dilemma slowly comes into conflict with her tasks as a hero. If you're tired of seeing moe schoolgirls and crabby tsunderes as female leads and want more heroines like Utena, give Romeo x Juliet a try. You might just end up rooting for the House of Capulet. 

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Yuri!!! on Ice addpermalink

Both anime address themes of queerness in a respectful way. They both stay outside the traditional boundaries of the yaoi/yuri genres. 

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Houseki no Kuni addpermalink

Legs, swords, elegance, and a focus on interpersonal relationships. Similar character designs, competition between characters, artsy scenes. Both are fairly unique series but share many visual and thematic elements. 

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Haibane Renmei addpermalink

These two series have different look and feel, yet they take you to the same depths and heights. If you believe that Utena is just about sword-fighting or weird relationships or runaway kangaroos, just skip this recommendation. However, if you're into the spiritual/mystery layer of Utena, then welcome to the town of Glie for another bunch of shockingly right questions and answers. Likewise, if you're a Haibane fan in search of another mind-blowing story of true Friendship and Forgiveness, then Ohtori Gakuen is waiting for you (if only you don't mind some sword-fighting / weird relationships / runaway kangaroos). 

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Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto addpermalink

If you like FABULOUS fighting, transformation scenes, a song that's played before each battle and questioning your sexuality after watching each episode you'll love both of these.  

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Boukyaku no Senritsu addpermalink

Half the staff list, that's the similarity. Hence the same aestheticism, surrealism, mixture of reality and fairy-tale... Main characters are also pretty similar, and some images and devices from Utena have been reused in MoO. Only MoO has much more parody and fanservice elements, but still it's a must-see for Utena fans. 

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FLCL addpermalink

People usually use Eva as an example of symbolism, but when it comes down to it, Eva's imagery is usually consistent with the rules of the world it takes place in. Utena and FLCL take symbolism to another level. These are both shows where the environment does not play by the rules of the plot. You don't know what you're going to see next with these shows. Utena and FLCL's style is true mind screw. 

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Ribbon no Kishi addpermalink

The protagonist is a tomboy with a sword that acts in the role of a "prince". Thoug Utena is more of a deconstruction, in its time Ribbon no Kishi was also quite revolutionar with its protagonist role. 

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Shinsekai yori addpermalink

1-Both are full of messages, multi-layer concepts and social critic
2-Both talk about adolescence, madurity and sexuality in actually original way
3-One view is not enough to understand the whole
4-Action and drama without topics or cheap fanservice
5-Complex relationships

Utena is more complex and deep, but both are much enjoyable if you wish an intelligent anime. 

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Anime: Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works addpermalink

both are mature stories taking place in and around high school, both feature teenagers struggling to fulfil their inherently flawed ideals, both main characters enter into a tournament where the grand prize is to grant miracles, sword fights are metaphors for idealogical clashes and finally I find Akio & Archer to be very similar characters. 

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Shadows House addpermalink

The storyline might not be similar, but the eerie atmosphere of both shows, the peculiarity of the theater-like setting, the music choices and the characters have definitely the same vibe. If you like one, I believe you’ll enjoy the other as well. 

report Recommended by karineyn

aside from the immediately obvious use of literal-to-metaphorical (sometimes both) shadow silhouette characters playing an obtuse and strange role in the storytelling...

both shows have themes of a world where there is a conspiratorial or mysterious, occult hierarchy of "pseudo-nobility" and a strong hierarchy to the sprawling yet claustrophobic places that the characters spend most of their time in (the school in utena vs the mansion in shadows house)

both shows have protagonists that, while completely different in personality and style, do not conform to the surreal expectations of the almost dark fairytale worlds they live in. (interestingly, there is 1 *supporting* character in Shadows House who would fit into the world of Utena flawlessly though)

both feature very strong relationships between female characters, although Shadows House does not have yuri themes (in my opinion) as the MCs in SH are primarily children while the MCs of Utena are older. the 1 character i mentioned from Shadows House who would fit into Utena world, might be the exception to this, as they sometimes have what *could* be considered romantic yuri undertones to many of their interactions with other characters. however i will leave this up to the viewer to decide.

there are also many rivalries of the same "tone" or feeling between the cast, distrust and decet, as well as elitism and causing pain either because of jealousy or the sake of it.

overall, both ask why the strange and conspicious, sinister society that the characters exist in, came to be this why and what secrets may lay hidden.

i may edit this rec if i think of more similarities with utena, as i haven't watched it for a couple years now and may have forgotten other aspects that the two shows share in common. they are certainly connected by many of the same feelings they evoke in the viewer as well as certain aesthetic tropes that they choose to employ, though. read more

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Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid addpermalink

Utena and Valkyrie Drive, each in its own idiosyncratic way, employ homoeroticism as means of furthering plot developments and use physical transformations in the pursuit of unearthing thematic implications. Set in enclosed worlds, the characters in these anime seek to break through limitations imposed by their respective societies. However, whereas Utena is usually concerned with stimulating the mind and is steeped in symbolism, Valkyrie Drive tends to concern itself with stimulating other bodily organs.    

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Sonny Boy addpermalink

Is similarly allegorical and symbolic with its own setting, however, unlike SB, does not outright assault the viewer with the surrealist imagery, rather preferring to start out normal and literal, before easing the viewer into more and more surrealist plotlines by using episodic formula's involving repetitive imagery, and deconstructionist plotlines examing tropes from shojo anime and fairy tales, and overall ramping up the symbolic and allegorical imagery slowly, arc by arc until the final one, where it is a symbolism storm that expects the audience to understand most of it by using the prior described methods. 

Both are surrealist coming-of-age stories involving a couple of youths' experiences involving their own adolescence,  while sequestered from the outside world in a highly allegorical setting representing the education system. The nature of youth and adolescence and how it relates to society as a whole is explored via plotlines involving  symbolic imagery. read more 

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