Strikes resonant feminine chords in bemoaning the unrealistic expectations of young girls' hearts, but doesn't insult its male audience by waxing maudlin or saccharine. Melodramatic at times, but makes up for it with lots of hot lezbo action. Incredible animation puts this one over the top.

The complexity with which director Kunihiko Ikuhara renders his fictional world and the character interactions within it confounds, but the plot manages to stay intriguing. The overall emotional progression of the story becomes clear by the end.

"Utena" uses characters as lenses through which to analyze various adolescent romantic ideals. Characters' arcs are strictly subordinate to this primary purpose, and therefore only a few main characters, such as Utena and Anthy, undergo much change. Nevertheless, even incidental characters are, from the start, well fleshed out as Ikuhara has had plenty of time to develop them in his series of the same name.

Creative character design concepts. Masterful scenery work. Stunning, evocative use of several interpretive styles of animation. No joke: an amazing visual experience. I don't give out tens.

The movie is still in progress and, having only seen it in the cinema once, commenting on the translation would be unfair.

Despite the language barrier, the inflections of the actors' deliveries added to the pathos of the scenes. The subtitles filled in meaning nicely.

Mild violence, mild nudity, very adult situations.

Wispy, long haired, big eyed, tantrum throwing bishounen would be unidentifiable as male were it not for their campy voices.

These chicks can turn into cars!

When a green-haired fruitcake named Saionji brandishes a katana and challenges her to a duel, Utena picks up a piece of bamboo and says, "This will do."