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Yes. I enjoyed it and would watch it again.

Thank you! But I recommend watching for the sake of enjoyment! It’s really fun to set aside the critical perspective and just relax while watching.

Sorry, I only recently learned how to use the program, so I just saw your comment...

To answer your question, a 10/10 rating for me personally means that I enjoyed the work, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect whether it truly deserves a 10/10 or not.

For example, the anime Ranma doesn’t deserve a 10/10, and I wouldn’t recommend watching it. It’s too long, the story is incomplete, and there’s a lot of filler. But I love the characters and got attached to them, so I gave it a 10/10.

Stay night was good, i just didn't find that entertaining to put a higher score on it, an 8 is a good solid score for it

Noted!

Thank you for the recs! I should go back to sailor moon at some point-- trying to get through my massive PTW list. I have like, 800 entries? + including live action tv shows. Right now I have everything in a randomizer, so I'll get to it eventually, lol. I know vaguely that those two became cousins in the english dub, and I'm honestly trying to figure out if I should go with the Japanese sub for the sake of accuracy, or the english dub for the sake of how iconic it is.

Edit: Oh, not Lucy! The blue hair girl? Wendy! That's who I was thinking of.

Oh, lol, the reason why all of it is on hold or dropped is because I watched one episode of the show six, eight, or ten years ago---when I was very young--and never got back to it. I am really, really, really bad at watching television. I have a hard time making time for it/coming back. It took me so long to watch six episodes of the bear that a new season came out while I was watching the second one, and I started the second season when it dropped. The only reason I got through gundam/RGU was because I had my best friend sit and watch it with me. I do plan on coming back to all of those shows. The reason why a lot of it is shounen was because... that's what all the top anime recommendations/top aniyoutubers said, or at least that's what I saw. I think I also saw the first episode of Sailor Moon on YouTube as well.

Fairy Tail was a show I watched when I was like, 10, so I can't say I remember too much. I remember enjoying the first season a lot, but getting kind of bored midway through the second season, probably because I stopped being able to find the dub. It was the arc where they were introducing Lucy I think? They were in a jungle. That's probably the one show I won't come back too, as I haven't heard amazing things about it. I really don't have any poignant thoughts about it beyond that, because I was 10. I do remember that the female characters were pretty naked, which while I'd never ever want to censor another person's work, is still a turn-off for me personally. But that's really the only negative thing I remember, and that's not enough to completely turn me off from a show, at least nowadays. I think maybe I found the fight scenes particularly long? I really do think it was because the show stopped having a dub around the time I was watching it. Oh, now I remember. I think I definitely found the later arcs to be too long. Thought they were in that jungle forever. I was mostly unused to arcs as a storytelling method atp.

But if or when you come back to RGU, I hope you enjoy it. Or if you end up not, well I'm sorry in advance.

You raise a good point. I will say that RGU does focus more on women's experiences within the patriarchy, but it does not undermine or ignore what men go through. The story is told through a woman's perspective as she grapples with the patriarchy. At the end of the day, the story does follow two female protagonists. I'm trying so hard not to spoil everything here, lol, but within the show, everyone is both an enforcer of patriarchy and it's victim--regardless of gender. Like I said before, at the end of the day I was rooting for everyone in the cast--even the male characters who were the worst enforcers of patriarchy. (Well, save for one character, though I did sympathize with some of what happened to him.) Based on that, I think RGU does a pretty good job of presenting things equally. I would say more, but we are getting high-key into spoiler territory. To be as honest as possible, I can see someone reading RGU as talking down to men, as you stated before, but I really don't think it pushes them to the side. But I think that's up to personal interpretation, especially since the story does focus on how women enforce and suffer from the patriarchy.

I haven't watch SWWTRH, so I can't know if it's similar to RGU. I will say though, just because something is shojo doesn't entirely mean it wasn't meant to be experienced by men. Shouen wasn't made with girls like myself in mind, but that doesn't mean I can't at least learn what stories men keep with them. I'm pretty sure this isn't what you meant when you said "shojo is not meant to be consumed by men," but it's really just something I wanted to say. We can all learn by looking at what the others are saying about themselves, the world, and us.

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad what I wrote wasn't too overwhelming. I didn't realize I had that much to say!

I think RGU strikes a good balance between having an agenda and having a story to tell. I think it focuses a lot on the agenda part, but by the end of the series, I still felt for every character, and wanted all of them--even the antagonists--to find their peace by the story's end. The characters of RGU are definitely vessels for the thematic ideas Be Papas wishes to express, but I find it never comes at the cost of their humanity.

RGU at times is definitely confusing. There were definitely episodes where I didn't know what the fuck was going on. But it never impacted my understanding of the overall plot, even if I, at times, couldn't discern the thematic ideas discussed in a given episode. Particularly, I had the most difficulty with the Nanami episodes, but despite this, I still found her arc satisfying/poignant. I truly did not know what was happening with her at some points in the story, but somehow, she came out in my top five characters, which I think is a sign of good writing. I will say, the final arc was when things really started to make sense for me, and the breakneck revelations that came with it were particularly exciting. RGU sticks the landing.

RGU's best parts are its animation/direction. It's beautiful 90s cell animation. Some episodes are off-model, but these are generally the "filler" (i.e sidequest episodes that still discuss the same thematic points/work on a character's personal arc, not like, useless wasteful episodes.) Once you get to the later half of the show, the animation never stops being beautiful. The direction is also masterful and a huge part of what makes RGU so damn good. One scene that sticks out to me in particular is a kendo duel between two characters, Saionji and Touga. During the duel, the kendo swords at the back of the classroom are shown on screen, with the joyful screaming of Saionji and Touga's fans overlayed as the swords rattle around. It's a metaphor for how Saionji and Touga compete with each other by using women as tools as proof of their worth; and at the same time, these women are nothing more than identical swords that can be switched out and broken at any time. This is only one of the many, many, many, many great presentation choices the series director, Kunihiko Ikuhara makes. I am not an expert in cinematography, so maybe this is basic stuff, but I personally found how Utena was shot to be very beautiful.

That's not a very unbiased perspective on things, but I hope it at least helped you. If anything else, you might at least enjoy the movie-- Adolescence of Utena. Like I stated earlier, it is a re-imagining of the story, so you don't technically need to have watched the show. It's a very condensed version of RGU, so I think it's best enjoyed after completing the series, as you have greater context of what RGU is. While Utena and Anthy's relationship and the themes of patriarchy are much more explicit, I find that everything is a lot more interestingly portrayed in the show--but only really because the show has way more time than an hour and forty minute movie. But it's up to you.

Thank you for reading!

Edit: Oh my god this is so long, I'm so sorry.

Well, I think I have good news and bad news?

First off, you're right, RGU is not at all like a traditional shoujo romance/story. You are right to clock it as such. If you don't fuck with the aesthetic, there's not much I can say to you. The aesthetics don't change throughout the show, as they serve as metaphors/thematic devices to explore the show's central thesis of "patriarchy harms men and women in every facet of it, even the facets that we deem "romantic." The rose frame is a metaphor, the opening story is a metaphor, everything is a goddamn metaphor. It's not at all a traditional romance. People talk about RGU like the best facet of it is its representation, which, don't get me wrong, is good and is there, but that's like the smallest sliver of what RGU is. You should not watch RGU if all you're interested in is representation, because RGU goes so much deeper than that.

Secondly, Utena is not actually royalty. She was called a princess in the OP, yeah, but that's also metaphor. At risk of spoiling, the prince that rescues Utena in the opening is not like an official man of an official royal house that we'll meet later. He's still a prince, but that's because they call that character "Prince." There's no intra-kingdom politicking and whatnot. "Prince" and "Princess" are terms deconstructed for the sake of illustrating RGU's main theme: how patriarchy harms men and women. Prince represents ideal manhood, princess ideal womanhood, and the castle/nobility as systemic patriarchy. They do a lot with Utena emulating princehood beyond just being a crossdresser, if you're curious, and I think it's very good.

As for Anthy, her being an object is the point. As I said, RGU comments on patriacrhy, and the largest aspect of patriarchy it harps on is how women are treated as objects. Her and Utena's romance is not at all like a traditional shojo. It's explicit in the fact that it's a queer romance, but they're not really going on any dates or having shojou moments. RGU explores lesbianism as it exists under patriarchy, and that's its primary focus rather than it being a romance. I really love the girls' dynamic as the show goes on, but it is in no way a traditional romance. There is another WLW duo that's significantly more in line with our traditional expectations of how romance is portrayed in media, but it's less "lesbian couple" and more "lesbian situationship from hell." So take that as you will.

Personally? With the many ways in which anime can forget or mistreat it's women, I recommend RGU as a reprieve from it all. It's also helped me look at female anime characters from any series in a brand new light. However, it can be really, really confusing, especially in the middle. However, the final arc really makes up for it IMO, but it really isn't for everyone.

There's also the RGU movie, Adolescence of Utena, which is a re-imagining of the series. It's a lot less subtle, and IMO just as good, just in a very different direction. Utena and Anthy have a much more traditional shojou romance in it, and Anthy is a lot more active in the plot. IMO the movie is best enjoyed after finishing the series, though you technically don't have too-- I think the AOU does a not great job at portraying it's supporting cast, when the supporting cast is one of my favorite parts of RGU. Watching the show would help you be less confused about the supporting cast in the movie, but you may enjoy the movie more than the main show.

Sorry, that was a lot, but you had some great points. TLDR:... it's up to you? I think RGU is worth the watch because of it's very candid discussions of patriarchy, rather than just the queer/desi representation alone. however, it can be very confusing, especially if it's your first watch, so the aesthetics/theme heavy story telling won't be for everyone. The movie, Adolescence of Utena, might be a better way to familiarize yourself with RGU/it's themes before stepping into the show.

What turned you off about it?

Sounds about right, not gonna lie lol. Its also adapted from the mobile game if you like mobile games.

Its a decent show, the movie is also nice tho i prefer the heavens feel movies.

Any anime I rate 5 and up I enjoyed watching. I just rate it between 6-9 based on how much I enjoyed it. I don't mind tsunderes. That never bothered me. I'd consider giving it a 7 but I honestly don't remember Toradora very much since it's been so long

"Horizon" manga just try it. It's short manga you can finish it in one go(only 3 vol), i really liked it,and tell me how was it after reading.