Revolutionary Girl Utena: Utena Tenjou & Wakaba Shinohara
Authors: Cooper, Allegra, Jamie, “Laurence”
In this project, we will examine the use of gendered features in Japanese, comparing two characters in Japanese fiction. Gender can be performed in several ways in Japanese through the use of particles, politeness, vocabulary, and many other choices, which are left to the individual. It was our goal to analyze the choices these characters made and what effect they had on their gender performance. Our group decided to pick an anime that is known for having a subversive main character to compare her use of gendered language to another female character in the anime.
Our method consisted of first watching the first two episodes of the anime in order to gain context of the setting and story for the characters. We choose to focus on the second episode since the dialogue clearly showcased both of their personalities. Using the episode’s dialogue, we highlighted gendered speech that both characters used, categorizing them as either feminine or masculine. Utena’s gendered language expressions were counted and organized into a table by masculine first-person pronouns, masculine second-person pronouns, masculine sentence ending particles, masculine question forms, masculine attention-calling particles, masculine requests, and any feminine gendered language. Wakaba’s gendered language and expressions were counted and differentiated by being either masculine or feminine.
The anime we used: Revolutionary Girl Utena is a magical girl anime that pushed against gender norms and some of the stereotypes of the magical girl genre. The plot involves the girl Utena Tenjou who was given a ring with a rose sigil on it by a mysterious prince one day in her early childhood. Utena is so inspired by the man, she decides to become a prince herself. She has a habit of dressing in a guy’s uniform when she goes to her school. The anime follows her as she duels members from the student council that possess similar rings to hers and fights against their tyrannical influence.
Our characters and why we chose them: We picked two female characters from the anime that had notably different language use and gender expression. In analyzing their language, we assumed that one would greatly favor masculine expressions while the other would tend towards feminine expressions, and thus we could also gain more insight into their personality.
Utena Tenjou
Utena is the main character of the story. She is a 14 year-old girl, a second year at Ohtori Academy who dresses in a guy’s uniform (to the dismay of her teachers). Utena is a hardworking, intelligent, and brave student. She has a bit of a quick temper and is passionate when she believes in something. After defeating a duelist from the student council, she finds herself in more duels and defeating more opponents, all while defending the “Rose Bride” that she won from the duel. She continues to become stronger and more confident as the series progresses.
Wakaba Shinohara
Wakaba is Utena’s best friend in the series. She has a tendency to cling onto Utena and call Utena her “boyfriend”, but it’s all taken in stride and acts consistently as a good friend for Utena. Her demeanor seems a lot more traditionally feminine than Utena and acts in accordance with more of the female gender stereotypes. She does have a crush on a guy named Kyouichi Saionji at the beginning of the series, but is publicly mocked for the love letter that she wrote. Wakaba tries to figure out her place in the world, especially since her best friend becomes a hero.
Utena’s Gendered Language
Utena represents the phenomenon of women using masculine gendered language.However, Utena does not dip as far as gehin or low-class/vulgar masculine language–bc of her aim to be a prince, her masculine language remains pretty much within refined (or at least not “rude”) forms use (using kimi rather than omae or yarou, boku rather than ore)
The reason why Utena utilizes masculine gendered language stems from an event that occurred during her childhood. As a child, her parents had died, but a prince appeared comforting her with the words, “Never lose that strength or nobility even when you grow up.” This spurred Utena to aspire to become a prince, altering how she started to present herself to the world through her language and appearance.
One of the most strikingly gendered features of Utena’s speech is her use of the personal pronoun 僕 (ぼく), which is traditionally used by males. However, it is important to note that Utena’s use of a male pronoun does not indicate that she identifies as male. This is made clear in episode 1, when Utena takes offense to being asked to join the boys’ basketball team, saying 「あのね、僕は女子」 (“excuse me, I’m a girl”). Rather, Utena’s use of 僕 indicates her desire to present some of the masculine characteristics of a prince. In this way, it is not unlike how she wears a male school uniform: the pronoun, just like her outfit, presents a masculine image, but does not necessarily indicate anything about the person ‘underneath.’
Utena’s use of second-person pronouns functions in a similar way. She frequently refers to other characters as 君 (きみ), a masculine word for “you.” Again, this exemplifies Utena’s desire to present traditionally masculine characteristics, but not her desire to be male. In situations of conflict, Utena doubles down on this impulse, referring to Saionji as お前 (おまえ), during their fight. Here, お前 functions as a derogatory and masculine second-person pronoun that reflects both Utena’s distaste for Saionji as well as her own assertiveness. 君 and お前, whether used when chatting with friends or when in a tense situation, help Utena build up her princelike, assertive, and masculine image.
Particles are another noticeably masculine feature of Utena’s speech. Unlike the pronouns 僕 and 君, which are gendered but simply mean “I” and “you” respectively, some male particles have distinct meanings on their own in addition to being gendered. For example, Utena uses さ as a particle seven times in episode 2, with さ adding both masculine-sounding energy and context-specific meaning. Saying 「しょうがないさ」instead of simply「しょうがない」makes Utena’s claim that “it can’t be helped” sound more assertive. The particle な also adds masculine energy and a gruffness while functioning similarly to the particle ね, as seen in Utena saying 「参ったな」instead of simply「参った」.
Although the majority of Utena’s speech leans towards masculine due to her prince persona, she does utilize feminine gender features occasionally. Examples can be seen in episode 2 when she talks to Wakaba using 「ねえ」and to Anthy using「なの」. This ties back to how Utena identifies as female with regard to her social class. Utilizing feminine speech allows her to showcase a part of her that normally goes unseen. Furthermore, in the two instances above, she is broaching an unknown subject with another girl, which might indicate that this is Utena’s way to approach topics in a more sensitive way. The first time, it was to see how Wakaba was feeling the day after she was humiliated publicly. Using 「ねえ」let Utena feel out the situation regarding Wakaba’s state of mind without coming across as harsh, neural, or apathetic. On the other hand, with Anthy, Utena was inquiring about the situation she had gotten herself into. Utena implements 「なの」at the end of her sentence, most likely trying to appear more approachable to Anthy, a girl she barely knows.
Wakaba’s Gendered Language
Wakaba, Utena’s best friend, takes great joy in expressing herself. When talking to Utena, she uses whatever language is most helpful for conveying her emotions. Usually Wakaba favors feminine speech, but she casually dips into masculine language when wanting to convey a stronger message.
Unlike Utena, Wakaba does not use gendered language to live up to some grand ideal, or to intentionally project a specific image. Instead, her gendered language, as used in episode 2, mostly functions as a way to express her own emotions, and to show her closeness to Utena. Importantly, Wakaba frequently jokes with her friend, so some gendered features indicate her ‘playing a character’ in some sense, not necessarily genuinely expressing herself – most people would not address their friend as「ウテナ！ウテナ！ウテナ様！」. This humorous style of speaking accounts for her masculine language in episode 2. The phrase「さらば」along with the ending 「じゃ」conjures an image of a gruff old man saying “farewell,” not a middle school girl. In other words, Wakaba uses male language as a means to have fun with a friend.
Wakaba’s female speech, though still exaggerated, functions as a more straightforward way for her to express her emotions. Most of her feminine language appears in the form of sentence final particles. She uses よね without a preceding だ or わよね three times, which both emphasize her sentences and add a tone of friendliness to her speech. Another feminine ending particle she uses would be かしら, which is the more feminine version of かな. This choice suggests she enjoys expressing femininity. Wakaba also uses あたし instead of わたし when talking with Utena, yet another indication that she feels comfortable enough to express her femininity.
Comparison of Gendered Language Breakdown/Conclusion:
From the analysis above and the graphs, it’s clear to see that Utena uses many more masculine expressions than Wakaba does, although she still occasionally uses some masculine expressions, which is not too uncommon for women to do for certain situations, even when they are traditionally feminine otherwise. Utena and Wakaba utilize masculine language for different purposes: Utena uses it to act tougher and more princely, while Wakaba utilities simply as a means to show her closeness and casualness with her friend.
This investigation into gendered language shows the complexity of gender performance and language choices in the Japanese language. There’s a degree of flexibility within the language for what effect the individual wants to get across. It’s very situational and depends on one’s personality. Although it should be noted in general, women have more flexibility with the language, and the results may have been different if two male characters had been analyzed.