Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a 1997 Japanese anime television series created by Be-Papas, a production group formed by director Kunihiko Ikuhara. The series follows Utena Tenjou, a teenaged girl drawn into a sword dueling tournament to win the hand of a mysterious girl who possesses the "power to revolutionize the world". Ikuhara was a director on the television anime adaptation of Sailor Moon, and conceived Utena in response to a lack of creative control in directing an adapted work. Utena has been described as a deconstruction and subversion of fairy tales and the magical-girl genre, making use of avant-garde and surrealist elements to comment on themes of gender, sexuality, and coming of age. The series received domestic and international critical acclaim, particularly for its treatment of LGBT themes and subject material, and has influenced subsequent animated works. In 1999, Adolescence of Utena was released as a follow-up film to the series.
