I was sitting in front of my ancient analog TV, watching a nth-generation video from a shady video rental service at the localest Japanese mall to me, some 45 minutes away by car. I was sharing this moment with a young woman my wife and I had become acquainted with through something else, and as she turned out to be interested in anime, we had her over for an anime night. The movie was Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie: Adolescence of Utena. My wife and I had seen the whole TV series, and I had read about the movie, but this was my first chance to see it.
As the roses poured off the dueling ground, our young friend looked at us, eyes shining, and said, “This is what anime is supposed to look like right?” and we smiled and said, grinning hugely back at her, “Yes. This is what it’s supposed to be like.”
I was in a shockingly right place and right time. I wrote the rights holder, Central Park Media and asked if I could get them to submit the movie to LGBTQ film festivals. CEO John O’Donnell had me in and we talked about how they could promote the movie – and by extension, anime – to a whole new audience. John took me seriously. In fact, CPM was the first company to ever do so. Yuricon owes a lot to CPM and I owe a lot to John.
I went on to present the movie at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco (at the Castro Theate, to 1200 people, that was terrifying), the London LGBTQ Film Festival and Tampa LGBTQ Film Festival. I was supposed to have also presented it at the NY LGBTQ Film Festival, but on the way into the city, there was an accident and 2 hours later I wasn’t even over a bridge and Yuricon 2003 was starting the next day. I bailed. (I’m still irritated about that one.)
It was that movie which introduced me to public speaking, which I love, and standing in from of microphone, which I don’t. I strongly dislike standing in one place while I talk. Blecch.
All this while I was, of course, writing tons of fanfic. Fanfic Revolution member Alan and I spent long, long hours discussing this series…and we still do when we get together, which is kind of amazing.
Duels, a floating castle, loss and betrayal, a Girl Prince, a Witch…and love that surpasses time and space. There can never be enough stories about Revolutionary Girl Utena. Here are mine.