Mikage Souji / Prof. Nemuro (Revolutionary Girl Utena)
Title: Frozen Time
Author: sarahtheboring
Spoilers: Up to ep 23, definitely; in comparison, spoilers up to the end of the series (though only in the last section of the essay). Only deals with the series, not movie- or mangaverse.
Email: climbingaswefall@yahoo.com
Personal site: It's in complete disrepair. All I can plug are my journal, my AMVs, and some extremely old non-related fic.
Essay:
All quotes are taken from the scripts on the official English release.
The Shadow: Who is Mikage?
Mikage is, essentially, a one-season villain, masterminding the "Black Rose" story arc of the anime series (eps. 14-23). He doesn't turn up in any of the other permutations of Utena, to my knowledge, although at least some of his lackeys are in the manga and the movie. [Edit: My mistake; misled about the manga. He is in the manga. Which I haven't finished, so this deals only with the series. Carrying on.]
The plot that Mikage masterminds is, in effect, When Minor Characters Attack: background players who have been content to hang around in the sidelines decide that they deserve the spotlight (more often than not, this means the attention of an unrequited crush) and challenge the system to serve their own, usually selfish, ends. Each of them has her/his own reasons for this, but to Mikage, the point of all of it is to remake reality in line with your own desires. If you want it, make it true. Even if you don't deserve it; even if you hurt people to get there; even if it's completely impossible. His goal is to seize that one shining moment of life and make it into everything, to make it last forever.
Mikage
These are all members of the Mikage Seminar. They all had memories they couldn't forget. Very, very precious memories. And they all fought to preserve them... In short, they were all people who tried to change their lives according to their memories.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 23, "The Terms of the Duelist"
Naturally, this isn't possible. It becomes increasingly clear that Mikage is not in his right mind, and the extent of this comes out eventually. Still, personally I find his quest intriguing and touching, however twisted and misguided. Both Mikage and Nemuro's quasi-love interest, Tokiko (more on her later) refuse to let anything good or beautiful die, even when it makes no sense to keep them going, perhaps to the point where it starts becoming ghoulish. It's a bit like "A Rose for Emily" in that aspect, though the means Mikage uses tend to be imaginary rather than literal.
Mamiya
Here. Please try one. They're sugar-preserved roses. My sister made them. These dried flowers, too. Tokiko just hates to see flowers wither and die... This way, she can make even these short-lived flowers last a little bit longer.
But... I wonder if the flowers like being made to last longer.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena, ep. 22, "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
The Scientist: Who is Nemuro?
Professor Nemuro is Mikage's old self. He leads a mysterious research project at Ohtori Academy, an unspecified number of years (somewhere over 20 and probably less than 40) before the main action of the series. After one cataclysmic experience, he ditches his old life and goes on with a new name and a fairly altered personality as Souji Mikage, who claims that Nemuro is dead but remembers being Nemuro all the same. His appearance is brief, but sheds some light on what Mikage is trying to preserve.
Mikage, on the other hand, is less reserved and more jaded than Nemuro, and, notably, is stuck in time. Year after year, he remains at the Academy, not aging, not moving on, apparently scheming without end. The world outside the Academy has gone on, but he can't let go of the past, and so he never grows up.
Note, before I go on - The canon is extremely vague about what Nemuro and Mikage actually are. It's suggested that Mikage doesn't exist, that Mikage is a persona created by Nemuro, that Nemuro is dead - they may represent a violent personality change on Nemuro's part, or they may be two different personalities. Mikage remembers everything that happened to Nemuro, but he's rewritten the memories to the point where nothing can be taken as literally true. Nemuro seems to be alive at the end of his story arc, and returned to his old self, but what happens to him is never stated. This series can be very vague on a lot of points, and this is perhaps one of the vaguest of all. So fanon interpretations, justifably, vary across the board.
The Villain; The Muse
As an antagonist, Mikage tends to be very low-key and works behind the scenes. Some of the series' protagonists, including Utena herself, converse with him without any idea that he is pulling strings against them. (This is a theme that comes up elsewhere in this series; the Black Rose subplot is full of foreshadowing on the main plot.) He is imposing to others because of his intelligence and fairly cold demeanor; even though he's technically a senior in high school, the administrators of Ohtori Academy treat him with nervous respect. It's not too hard to see where this comes from; Mikage's manner is cold, offhanded, and aloof, and his "Mikage Seminar," which is apparently another name for his squad of disenfranchised bit players, is seen by the public as a fairly prestigious academic group.
Mikage is inspired by, and ultimately led by, an enigmatic muse he calls Mamiya. In reality, Mamiya, a young friend of Nemuro's, has been dead for decades, but Mikage - again, refusing to let good things die - believes he is still alive. Though canon is vague on this, it's suggested that Mamiya is being play-acted by an agent of Mikage's nemesis, Ohtori Akio, in order to control Mikage. Mikage doesn't know this, however, and neither do the viewers until the end of the story.
Eternity and Revenge: The Quests
Everyone in Revolutionary Girl Utena has a quest - a quest, and usually an internal block, the overcoming of which ends up being the true quest.
Mikage wants his memories to last forever, first and foremost. He wants to remake reality in the image of his memories. He intends to overthrow Utena and seize her power and that of Anthy, the Rose Bride, in order to do this. But oddly, for all his talk about preserving precious memories, the memories he seems most intent on preserving are those of vengeance.
And this is where we go back to Nemuro.
Nemuro (voiceover)
Yes, I was a living computer back then...
Computers were superior machines, but machines by themselves lack purpose.
I was a dry man passing dry days.
- "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
Nemuro was a researching machine, a genius cut off from his own humanity - called "the human computer" by his colleagues/students, who never bothered to relate to him on a personal level and all but called him disposable. In the Greek-chorus counterpoint that runs through this series, Nemuro's symbol is a robot.
Enter Tokiko, a young woman working for Ohtori Academy, who was sent to check up on Nemuro's research. She is several things that Nemuro is not - emotional, hopeful, with a strong bond to her terminally ill brother. Nemuro befriends both of them, talking about his research with Tokiko's brother Mamiya, and seems to be growing fond of Tokiko. It's suggested that he is starting to become a part of their family.
Tokiko
Do you have someone who's important to you? Or could it be that it isn't possible for a genius to develop close relationships with others.
Nemuro
Perhaps you're right...
(voiceover)
That's how it's been up until now.
- "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
The latter line is delivered over a shot of Nemuro and his students planting trees. Nemuro's story is of revival, of spring releasing humanity from winter. But his nemesis Akio, again, realizes this and makes his move - not only suggesting a devil's bargain with Nemuro, but giving him an impetus to abandon his newly awakening life and take him up on that offer.
After meeting with Akio, Nemuro comes across Akio and Tokiko kissing in an empty room. Nemuro turns away from his life, burns down the research building and kills all one hundred of his students inside it, and takes on a new life as Mikage.
That moment of horrified discovery is the moment Mikage keeps coming back to; it isn't the awakening he seems to want to preserve, but the betrayal. As he speaks to Utena about preserving one's most precious memories, the two of them stand in front of a wall of photographs which are emblematic of Mikage's life - and he is standing in front of a photograph of that moment, of discovering his enemy and the woman he perhaps loved.
The reasons for this are up for interpretation, as is much of the rest. Perhaps it was the worst kind of abandonment to "leave" him just as she had pulled him out of his shell. In any case, that moment in which Nemuro came across the two of them is the memory he apparently wants to preserve forever.
He also wants revenge.
Mikage
Dammit... All she does is hurt me and surprise me. Tokiko really has come back to me. To finally settle things once and for all.
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
Just as he projected a muse onto the illusionary Mamiya, he projects a nemesis - Tokiko - onto Utena, the series' champion. There are some similarities between the two; they are idealistic, passionate, impatient, and dedicated to their loved ones. Mikage goes one step too far and believes that one is the other, that by defeating Utena he will defeat Tokiko as well. But as he realizes, too late, the antagonism is all in his head.
Mamiya (echo/dream sequence)
My sister exists in your memories, and there you will never beat her.
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
The block that stops his real progression - in the show's symbolism, the coffin of his own making - is his refusal to see the past as it really was, and to let go of it. His muse speaks to him as he fights to preserve his revised history, and tells him to see the truth. And as he does, his story reaches an end.
Mikage (over intercom)
Deeper. Go deeper...
- every Black Rose Arc episode
The Puppet Mastermind
The easiest trap for a fan of villainous characters is to over-praise them and gloss over their flaws, to whitewash all their evil deeds. And though ultimately Mikage's role in the big picture is as little more than a tool - most of the characters in this series are Akio's puppets at some point or another, if not through the whole story - he has done his share of harm.
The first hints we see of Mikage and the Black Rose story arc are dropped at the very end of the previous arc - the glowing tank where the illusionary Mamiya grows black roses; the signet ring given to all of Mikage's lackeys; and a shot which is repeated several times in key moments: the hundred dead boys. We don't know at once who these boys are when they're first shown, but the shot is vaguely unsettling all the same.
One of Nemuro's last acts as himself is to burn down the hall where his students are celebrating the end of their project, killing all of them. It's never fully explained why he does this. In a flashback, which may be one of Mikage's faulty memories, he says that they are a sacrifice in order to bring the project to fruition. (Though it's not explained very clearly, in a nutshell the project which Nemuro and his team created was the foundation for the rest of the series - they opened the arena in which Utena and company fight.) However, his speech about necessary sacrifice doesn't seem quite in line with the outlook of the rest of the series, in which martyrdom is a trap and solves nothing. Nor is it entirely clear how this is connected to Tokiko's "betrayal," or whether Akio orchestrated all of it. Regardless, the boys, bystanders all, no names given and most of whose faces are never shown, remain dead.
During his fight with Utena, Mikage insists that his team of Black Rose duelists, the ones who rose up in jealousy to attack their friends, all came into his employ of their own free will. And there are signs that he doesn't actively mislead them - one interesting side note to the storyline involves a boy who attempts to join them, but is rejected because he is too noble and his motives too unselfish. And yet he does work behind the scenes, arranging circumstances so that the Duelists are pushed to the limit and crack on their own. Someone - either Mikage or Akio, and most likely Mikage - arranged to have Jury's locket retrieved from the pond where she threw it and delivered to Shiori, exposing Jury's secret and spurring Shiori to revenge. Mikage directly hatched the plan to turn Wakaba's blissful ignorance into jealousy by having a keepsake from her crush delivered to another girl - and in doing so offered a Mephistophelean bargain to said crush, promising to restore him to high status in the school if he would break Wakaba's heart.
However, through all of this, unbeknownst to himself and the viewers, he is being played by his own nemesis in order to wear down Utena. His group of fighters are little more than cannon fodder in the big picture, and a way to crack the armor of another, more important group of people, Utena's friends and major adversaries. His own muse is an illusion created by his own delusional mind and aided by a helper of Akio's, who plays the part of Mamiya and leads Mikage in the direction Akio wants. Few things go on in the world of this series without Akio pulling the strings, and despite his beliefs to the contrary, Mikage is no different.
In the long run he was little more than Akio's puppet, but he thought he was a mastermind, and acted accordingly. I don't call him a one-season villain for nothing, after all.
That said, even with all a character's evil deeds in mind, I do often find them intriguing.
The Lonely Robot Fan Club: Why?
Shadow Play Girl C (as robot)
Robots-are-never-troubled.
[...]
Robots-do-not-feel-lonely.
Tokiko
But it breaks my heart when I see you like this now...
- "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
Why on earth is this minor sidetrack one of my favorite characters on this already intriguing series? And why does he capture the attention of a handful of other devotees? Of course, each fan's reasons are different, but these are some of mine.
As with all of the Black Rose Arc characters - those bit players who thought they could steal a moment of glory - Mikage's motivations tread the line between tragic and pathetic; they are selfish, miserable, romantically doomed, and very, very wrong. They fight for all the wrong reasons, and most of them don't deserve what they want, or even understand what it is they're asking for - but I can't help but feel for them anyway. They are highly sympathetic villains, as villains go, even though it's clear from the start that none of them have pure motives. It's a sort of id-based revenge drama, a momentary selfish impulse writ large. I wish I could date the coolest guy in school. I wish I could get back at the one who hurt me. Most people realize that this is wrong, but Mikage and his troupe charge on anyway, and fail spectacularly.
Throughout Utena there is a theme of freeing oneself from one's past, or from the flawed logic and human failings that everyone carries around. In this case the character is literally, endlessly stuck in the past. This whole theme is fascinating to me to begin with; a theme of personal growth underpins what could otherwise have become an A vs. B, A vs. C, repeat-ad-nauseam fighting show.
I am endlessly intrigued by Nemuro's abortive revival. It's a common storyline to have a cold-hearted character Magically Brought to Life By Love, but not as common to have it go so drastically wrong. I find the "what if/if only" factor sad and touching. He was so close to finding his humanity, and then let it all go. It was there, but he didn't reach out for it in time. To Tokiko he said that perhaps geniuses can't love other people. It was only to himself that he said "...until today." It's melodramatically frustrating.
Mikage, on the other hand, is deeply twisted, and to someone who loves dissecting character motivations, he's a bit of a gold mine. He finds the other Black Roses' weak points and lures them into a contract to overthrow Utena, but can't see that he's being played as a pawn himself. He makes a muse and (it's very strongly suggested) a lover out of the ideal of a boy who's been dead for years, a boy who was, by all indications, like a brother or a son to Nemuro. He fights to preserve a past that never happened, in which he was wronged by a fickle woman and blameless for Nemuro's multiple homicide, and lives in an endless cycle of dwelling on the past. He is a psychological mess, and if you like that sort of thing, it can be interesting to think that over.
And to someone who loves dissecting characters, this series is ripe for interpretation anyway. It's maddeningly vague nearly all the time, several major plot points are never spoken aloud, and great meaning seems to be attached to just about every minor action. It seems to be intentionally this way, which can either annoy viewers or (as it does for me) give them something to think about.
I am also intrigued by the Tatsuya incident. Tatsuya is the boy rejected from the Mikage Seminar for being too noble, and his confession, which usually ends in being made a Black Rose Duelist, comes to a screeching halt. It underscores the idea that Mikage acts as a string-puller, but doesn't actually corrupt anyone who isn't already starting to be corrupt; he only amplifies and enables what's already there. This is an interesting thing in an evil mastermind.
Tatsuya
But it doesn't matter... No matter what happens to her, she'll come back to me in the end. Because I love her! That's right... Love has to win out in the end, doesn't it? I know I can make you happy. I'll do anything for you! I... I... WHY AM I NO GOOD?!
Mikage
You are a truly good person. That's why the path you must take does not lie here. Leave now. This isn't any sort of place for someone like you.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 19, "A Song for a Kingdom Now Lost"
Personally, I think it also underscores the idea that in this series, every battleground is internal. The focus isn't on what others "make" us do, but what we do to ourselves.
And although I haven't gone into it much here because it's hard to explain without visuals, the entire series is full of symbolism, and this arc is particularly full. In Nemuro's scenes it's laid on so thick that the director seems to be indulging in self-parody, literally pointing out one symbol after another. None of these, of course, are explained, leaving the interpretation-crazy viewer to figure out what it could mean. Butterflies turn up again and again, suggesting transformation; Nemuro is fixated on a teacup that Tokiko once drank from; Tokiko's intent to cling to her brother's fading life is illustrated by preserving flowers; Mikage's base of operations is a crypt lined with the coffins of the boys he killed, reached by an elevator in which people confess their darkest secrets; a series of photographs line the hall to Mikage's office, each a frozen moment in time; in one scene that pulls the Symbolism Squad to its limits, the framing of a shot mimics a painting, with what is not in the picture representing the most telling clue. (There is a great analysis of that particular coup of rampant symbolism at the Beyond Pink website, linked at the end of this essay.) The entire series is artfully bizarre, and Mikage's subplot is perhaps second only to the very end of the series in this aspect.
Though these reasons are less important to me personally, the character also has a fairly major following because he is eminently slash-friendly - Mikage's relationship with the illusionary Mamiya, although technically not what it seems, is one of only two confirmable m/m relationships on the series. For this reason a lot of the fandom revolves around slash. Which, of course, isn't a bad thing, but it is a major draw in the fandom. Also, this is a fairly dark sideline to the series, without the psychological-torture elements prominent in the other dark sidelines of the series, so fans of dark/mysterious themes may gravitate toward it because of that. It's visually arresting, and the closest this series gets to romantic decadence. Crypts, secrets, backstabbing and betrayal, and mystery by the truckload are this arc's stock in trade.
And some of us really dig buttoned-up mad scientists.
Hall of Mirrors: The Big Picture (warning: spoilers for the end of the series are in this section)
In Utena fandom, this character and the Black Rose arc in general are often dismissed as pointless filler. While they are a digression from the pattern of the main plot, I do have to try to defend their place in the larger story.
In short, the Black Rose subplot is about what not to do when attempting to revolutionize the world, or, more clearly put, a bizarro-world version of the main plot in which everyone acts for the wrong reasons. The goal of life in this series is to rise above one's past and limitations, and the Black Roses seek to serve their own failings. Mikage dwells on his past and nurses his wounds for decades, instead of letting go.
Each of the characters also throws light on the dark side of one of the main characters - Mikage, in his fixation on a past that may or may not have happened, is a foil to Utena.
Mikage [to Utena]
The moment I first saw you, I knew! You met someone important to you in the past as well, didn't you? And that person changed your life significantly, didn't they? You stand here now because of that illusion you created! .... Am I wrong? In the end, you and I are the same!
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
He built his life around the woman who he thinks has wronged him, and crafted a revenge fantasy out of it; she built her life around her "prince," a noble figure from her childhood who may be more imagination than reality. Mikage tempts her to give in to those fantasies and live in them as he lives in his own, but she rejects him. She goes on to transcend them, to break free of the roles of prince and rescued princess that have dominated others, to outdo her own hero. Mikage cannot let go of his dream, and so he never succeeds. He is eventually freed of his shadow-life of endlessly reliving the past, but not to victory; he simply vanishes from the story, as if he never existed. No one can even remember his name, and in his wake he leaves nothing changed. This foreshadows the end of the series, in which the situation is somewhat different, and leaving others as better people than when you met them is the real meaning of "revolution."
Akio
The time you spent not growing up as you kept hope alive in your heart proved useful to me. However... that's all over now. The path you must now take is not prepared for you. It's time to graduate, Professor...
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
Recommendations
Analysis:
Beyond Pink - a Mikage fansite with a whole section on analysis, hooray! This is one of those "site that launched a fandom" sort of sites.
Empty Movement - probably best known for their fantabulous gallery, but also home to many essays on almost the entire cast.
Anthropopathism - let's face it, if you don't like tons of analysis you probably aren't a Mikage fan.
More analysis at nemurokinenkan.net, whose URL I still envy. ;)
Comms:
cult_of_mikage
Stories:
I really suck at finding fic. It's vexing. In addition, the vast majority of fic out there is centered on Mikage/IllusionaryMamiya smut, with not as much about the characters individually. If anyone wants to speak up with recommendations, I'd be very grateful, for myself as well as my essay. This is what I have found, though:
Study in Scarlet by claireoujisama - a post-series short about Nemuro
Roses are Red, My Love by Gabi-hime - shippy, but draws on the parallels between Mikage and Utena. (Note, though I didn't mention it in the essay because it's shippy, Mikage's crush on Utena is canon. He's quite vocal about it.)
Ghosts by darcenciel - even shippier, but an intriguing piece on Tokiko, whose point of view isn't explored very much in canon.
Thanks to roselinedcoffin as well for some pointers toward fic.
Other Fanworks:
Most of my involvement with fandom is through AMVs, but unfortunately the character has limited screen time, which isn't conducive to vid-making. Still, there are a few out there.
Both of the following may be available at Kestrel's Music Video page; the full slate of videos is available on a rotating basis. (Possible alternate links are here and here.)
"Bury My Lovely" - artist: October Project - goes over three stories: Jury's, Utena's, and Mikage's. This was my first exposure to this storyline.
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - artist: Tears for Fears - an introspective profile of the Black Rose Duelists, and I'll admit, the reason I titled the cut with a line from that song.
I've also done one, Imaginary World (the song is REM, "World Leader Pretend"). A direct link is here (again, as of this writing). Don't mean to promote; if there were any other ones I would suggest them.
As a final note, please feel free to offer debate on any of these points, or to speak up if you think I'm veering too far into fanon, or to offer differing interpretations. Because we all know that nearly everything is up for interpretation in this series.
Thank you.
Author: sarahtheboring
Spoilers: Up to ep 23, definitely; in comparison, spoilers up to the end of the series (though only in the last section of the essay). Only deals with the series, not movie- or mangaverse.
Email: climbingaswefall@yahoo.com
Personal site: It's in complete disrepair. All I can plug are my journal, my AMVs, and some extremely old non-related fic.
Essay:
All quotes are taken from the scripts on the official English release.
The Shadow: Who is Mikage?
Mikage is, essentially, a one-season villain, masterminding the "Black Rose" story arc of the anime series (eps. 14-23). He doesn't turn up in any of the other permutations of Utena, to my knowledge, although at least some of his lackeys are in the manga and the movie. [Edit: My mistake; misled about the manga. He is in the manga. Which I haven't finished, so this deals only with the series. Carrying on.]
The plot that Mikage masterminds is, in effect, When Minor Characters Attack: background players who have been content to hang around in the sidelines decide that they deserve the spotlight (more often than not, this means the attention of an unrequited crush) and challenge the system to serve their own, usually selfish, ends. Each of them has her/his own reasons for this, but to Mikage, the point of all of it is to remake reality in line with your own desires. If you want it, make it true. Even if you don't deserve it; even if you hurt people to get there; even if it's completely impossible. His goal is to seize that one shining moment of life and make it into everything, to make it last forever.
Mikage
These are all members of the Mikage Seminar. They all had memories they couldn't forget. Very, very precious memories. And they all fought to preserve them... In short, they were all people who tried to change their lives according to their memories.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 23, "The Terms of the Duelist"
Naturally, this isn't possible. It becomes increasingly clear that Mikage is not in his right mind, and the extent of this comes out eventually. Still, personally I find his quest intriguing and touching, however twisted and misguided. Both Mikage and Nemuro's quasi-love interest, Tokiko (more on her later) refuse to let anything good or beautiful die, even when it makes no sense to keep them going, perhaps to the point where it starts becoming ghoulish. It's a bit like "A Rose for Emily" in that aspect, though the means Mikage uses tend to be imaginary rather than literal.
Mamiya
Here. Please try one. They're sugar-preserved roses. My sister made them. These dried flowers, too. Tokiko just hates to see flowers wither and die... This way, she can make even these short-lived flowers last a little bit longer.
But... I wonder if the flowers like being made to last longer.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena, ep. 22, "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
The Scientist: Who is Nemuro?
Professor Nemuro is Mikage's old self. He leads a mysterious research project at Ohtori Academy, an unspecified number of years (somewhere over 20 and probably less than 40) before the main action of the series. After one cataclysmic experience, he ditches his old life and goes on with a new name and a fairly altered personality as Souji Mikage, who claims that Nemuro is dead but remembers being Nemuro all the same. His appearance is brief, but sheds some light on what Mikage is trying to preserve.
Mikage, on the other hand, is less reserved and more jaded than Nemuro, and, notably, is stuck in time. Year after year, he remains at the Academy, not aging, not moving on, apparently scheming without end. The world outside the Academy has gone on, but he can't let go of the past, and so he never grows up.
Note, before I go on - The canon is extremely vague about what Nemuro and Mikage actually are. It's suggested that Mikage doesn't exist, that Mikage is a persona created by Nemuro, that Nemuro is dead - they may represent a violent personality change on Nemuro's part, or they may be two different personalities. Mikage remembers everything that happened to Nemuro, but he's rewritten the memories to the point where nothing can be taken as literally true. Nemuro seems to be alive at the end of his story arc, and returned to his old self, but what happens to him is never stated. This series can be very vague on a lot of points, and this is perhaps one of the vaguest of all. So fanon interpretations, justifably, vary across the board.
The Villain; The Muse
As an antagonist, Mikage tends to be very low-key and works behind the scenes. Some of the series' protagonists, including Utena herself, converse with him without any idea that he is pulling strings against them. (This is a theme that comes up elsewhere in this series; the Black Rose subplot is full of foreshadowing on the main plot.) He is imposing to others because of his intelligence and fairly cold demeanor; even though he's technically a senior in high school, the administrators of Ohtori Academy treat him with nervous respect. It's not too hard to see where this comes from; Mikage's manner is cold, offhanded, and aloof, and his "Mikage Seminar," which is apparently another name for his squad of disenfranchised bit players, is seen by the public as a fairly prestigious academic group.
Mikage is inspired by, and ultimately led by, an enigmatic muse he calls Mamiya. In reality, Mamiya, a young friend of Nemuro's, has been dead for decades, but Mikage - again, refusing to let good things die - believes he is still alive. Though canon is vague on this, it's suggested that Mamiya is being play-acted by an agent of Mikage's nemesis, Ohtori Akio, in order to control Mikage. Mikage doesn't know this, however, and neither do the viewers until the end of the story.
Eternity and Revenge: The Quests
Everyone in Revolutionary Girl Utena has a quest - a quest, and usually an internal block, the overcoming of which ends up being the true quest.
Mikage wants his memories to last forever, first and foremost. He wants to remake reality in the image of his memories. He intends to overthrow Utena and seize her power and that of Anthy, the Rose Bride, in order to do this. But oddly, for all his talk about preserving precious memories, the memories he seems most intent on preserving are those of vengeance.
And this is where we go back to Nemuro.
Nemuro (voiceover)
Yes, I was a living computer back then...
Computers were superior machines, but machines by themselves lack purpose.
I was a dry man passing dry days.
- "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
Nemuro was a researching machine, a genius cut off from his own humanity - called "the human computer" by his colleagues/students, who never bothered to relate to him on a personal level and all but called him disposable. In the Greek-chorus counterpoint that runs through this series, Nemuro's symbol is a robot.
Enter Tokiko, a young woman working for Ohtori Academy, who was sent to check up on Nemuro's research. She is several things that Nemuro is not - emotional, hopeful, with a strong bond to her terminally ill brother. Nemuro befriends both of them, talking about his research with Tokiko's brother Mamiya, and seems to be growing fond of Tokiko. It's suggested that he is starting to become a part of their family.
Tokiko
Do you have someone who's important to you? Or could it be that it isn't possible for a genius to develop close relationships with others.
Nemuro
Perhaps you're right...
(voiceover)
That's how it's been up until now.
- "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
The latter line is delivered over a shot of Nemuro and his students planting trees. Nemuro's story is of revival, of spring releasing humanity from winter. But his nemesis Akio, again, realizes this and makes his move - not only suggesting a devil's bargain with Nemuro, but giving him an impetus to abandon his newly awakening life and take him up on that offer.
After meeting with Akio, Nemuro comes across Akio and Tokiko kissing in an empty room. Nemuro turns away from his life, burns down the research building and kills all one hundred of his students inside it, and takes on a new life as Mikage.
That moment of horrified discovery is the moment Mikage keeps coming back to; it isn't the awakening he seems to want to preserve, but the betrayal. As he speaks to Utena about preserving one's most precious memories, the two of them stand in front of a wall of photographs which are emblematic of Mikage's life - and he is standing in front of a photograph of that moment, of discovering his enemy and the woman he perhaps loved.
The reasons for this are up for interpretation, as is much of the rest. Perhaps it was the worst kind of abandonment to "leave" him just as she had pulled him out of his shell. In any case, that moment in which Nemuro came across the two of them is the memory he apparently wants to preserve forever.
He also wants revenge.
Mikage
Dammit... All she does is hurt me and surprise me. Tokiko really has come back to me. To finally settle things once and for all.
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
Just as he projected a muse onto the illusionary Mamiya, he projects a nemesis - Tokiko - onto Utena, the series' champion. There are some similarities between the two; they are idealistic, passionate, impatient, and dedicated to their loved ones. Mikage goes one step too far and believes that one is the other, that by defeating Utena he will defeat Tokiko as well. But as he realizes, too late, the antagonism is all in his head.
Mamiya (echo/dream sequence)
My sister exists in your memories, and there you will never beat her.
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
The block that stops his real progression - in the show's symbolism, the coffin of his own making - is his refusal to see the past as it really was, and to let go of it. His muse speaks to him as he fights to preserve his revised history, and tells him to see the truth. And as he does, his story reaches an end.
Mikage (over intercom)
Deeper. Go deeper...
- every Black Rose Arc episode
The Puppet Mastermind
The easiest trap for a fan of villainous characters is to over-praise them and gloss over their flaws, to whitewash all their evil deeds. And though ultimately Mikage's role in the big picture is as little more than a tool - most of the characters in this series are Akio's puppets at some point or another, if not through the whole story - he has done his share of harm.
The first hints we see of Mikage and the Black Rose story arc are dropped at the very end of the previous arc - the glowing tank where the illusionary Mamiya grows black roses; the signet ring given to all of Mikage's lackeys; and a shot which is repeated several times in key moments: the hundred dead boys. We don't know at once who these boys are when they're first shown, but the shot is vaguely unsettling all the same.
One of Nemuro's last acts as himself is to burn down the hall where his students are celebrating the end of their project, killing all of them. It's never fully explained why he does this. In a flashback, which may be one of Mikage's faulty memories, he says that they are a sacrifice in order to bring the project to fruition. (Though it's not explained very clearly, in a nutshell the project which Nemuro and his team created was the foundation for the rest of the series - they opened the arena in which Utena and company fight.) However, his speech about necessary sacrifice doesn't seem quite in line with the outlook of the rest of the series, in which martyrdom is a trap and solves nothing. Nor is it entirely clear how this is connected to Tokiko's "betrayal," or whether Akio orchestrated all of it. Regardless, the boys, bystanders all, no names given and most of whose faces are never shown, remain dead.
During his fight with Utena, Mikage insists that his team of Black Rose duelists, the ones who rose up in jealousy to attack their friends, all came into his employ of their own free will. And there are signs that he doesn't actively mislead them - one interesting side note to the storyline involves a boy who attempts to join them, but is rejected because he is too noble and his motives too unselfish. And yet he does work behind the scenes, arranging circumstances so that the Duelists are pushed to the limit and crack on their own. Someone - either Mikage or Akio, and most likely Mikage - arranged to have Jury's locket retrieved from the pond where she threw it and delivered to Shiori, exposing Jury's secret and spurring Shiori to revenge. Mikage directly hatched the plan to turn Wakaba's blissful ignorance into jealousy by having a keepsake from her crush delivered to another girl - and in doing so offered a Mephistophelean bargain to said crush, promising to restore him to high status in the school if he would break Wakaba's heart.
However, through all of this, unbeknownst to himself and the viewers, he is being played by his own nemesis in order to wear down Utena. His group of fighters are little more than cannon fodder in the big picture, and a way to crack the armor of another, more important group of people, Utena's friends and major adversaries. His own muse is an illusion created by his own delusional mind and aided by a helper of Akio's, who plays the part of Mamiya and leads Mikage in the direction Akio wants. Few things go on in the world of this series without Akio pulling the strings, and despite his beliefs to the contrary, Mikage is no different.
In the long run he was little more than Akio's puppet, but he thought he was a mastermind, and acted accordingly. I don't call him a one-season villain for nothing, after all.
That said, even with all a character's evil deeds in mind, I do often find them intriguing.
The Lonely Robot Fan Club: Why?
Shadow Play Girl C (as robot)
Robots-are-never-troubled.
[...]
Robots-do-not-feel-lonely.
Tokiko
But it breaks my heart when I see you like this now...
- "Nemuro Memorial Hall"
Why on earth is this minor sidetrack one of my favorite characters on this already intriguing series? And why does he capture the attention of a handful of other devotees? Of course, each fan's reasons are different, but these are some of mine.
As with all of the Black Rose Arc characters - those bit players who thought they could steal a moment of glory - Mikage's motivations tread the line between tragic and pathetic; they are selfish, miserable, romantically doomed, and very, very wrong. They fight for all the wrong reasons, and most of them don't deserve what they want, or even understand what it is they're asking for - but I can't help but feel for them anyway. They are highly sympathetic villains, as villains go, even though it's clear from the start that none of them have pure motives. It's a sort of id-based revenge drama, a momentary selfish impulse writ large. I wish I could date the coolest guy in school. I wish I could get back at the one who hurt me. Most people realize that this is wrong, but Mikage and his troupe charge on anyway, and fail spectacularly.
Throughout Utena there is a theme of freeing oneself from one's past, or from the flawed logic and human failings that everyone carries around. In this case the character is literally, endlessly stuck in the past. This whole theme is fascinating to me to begin with; a theme of personal growth underpins what could otherwise have become an A vs. B, A vs. C, repeat-ad-nauseam fighting show.
I am endlessly intrigued by Nemuro's abortive revival. It's a common storyline to have a cold-hearted character Magically Brought to Life By Love, but not as common to have it go so drastically wrong. I find the "what if/if only" factor sad and touching. He was so close to finding his humanity, and then let it all go. It was there, but he didn't reach out for it in time. To Tokiko he said that perhaps geniuses can't love other people. It was only to himself that he said "...until today." It's melodramatically frustrating.
Mikage, on the other hand, is deeply twisted, and to someone who loves dissecting character motivations, he's a bit of a gold mine. He finds the other Black Roses' weak points and lures them into a contract to overthrow Utena, but can't see that he's being played as a pawn himself. He makes a muse and (it's very strongly suggested) a lover out of the ideal of a boy who's been dead for years, a boy who was, by all indications, like a brother or a son to Nemuro. He fights to preserve a past that never happened, in which he was wronged by a fickle woman and blameless for Nemuro's multiple homicide, and lives in an endless cycle of dwelling on the past. He is a psychological mess, and if you like that sort of thing, it can be interesting to think that over.
And to someone who loves dissecting characters, this series is ripe for interpretation anyway. It's maddeningly vague nearly all the time, several major plot points are never spoken aloud, and great meaning seems to be attached to just about every minor action. It seems to be intentionally this way, which can either annoy viewers or (as it does for me) give them something to think about.
I am also intrigued by the Tatsuya incident. Tatsuya is the boy rejected from the Mikage Seminar for being too noble, and his confession, which usually ends in being made a Black Rose Duelist, comes to a screeching halt. It underscores the idea that Mikage acts as a string-puller, but doesn't actually corrupt anyone who isn't already starting to be corrupt; he only amplifies and enables what's already there. This is an interesting thing in an evil mastermind.
Tatsuya
But it doesn't matter... No matter what happens to her, she'll come back to me in the end. Because I love her! That's right... Love has to win out in the end, doesn't it? I know I can make you happy. I'll do anything for you! I... I... WHY AM I NO GOOD?!
Mikage
You are a truly good person. That's why the path you must take does not lie here. Leave now. This isn't any sort of place for someone like you.
- Revolutionary Girl Utena, episode 19, "A Song for a Kingdom Now Lost"
Personally, I think it also underscores the idea that in this series, every battleground is internal. The focus isn't on what others "make" us do, but what we do to ourselves.
And although I haven't gone into it much here because it's hard to explain without visuals, the entire series is full of symbolism, and this arc is particularly full. In Nemuro's scenes it's laid on so thick that the director seems to be indulging in self-parody, literally pointing out one symbol after another. None of these, of course, are explained, leaving the interpretation-crazy viewer to figure out what it could mean. Butterflies turn up again and again, suggesting transformation; Nemuro is fixated on a teacup that Tokiko once drank from; Tokiko's intent to cling to her brother's fading life is illustrated by preserving flowers; Mikage's base of operations is a crypt lined with the coffins of the boys he killed, reached by an elevator in which people confess their darkest secrets; a series of photographs line the hall to Mikage's office, each a frozen moment in time; in one scene that pulls the Symbolism Squad to its limits, the framing of a shot mimics a painting, with what is not in the picture representing the most telling clue. (There is a great analysis of that particular coup of rampant symbolism at the Beyond Pink website, linked at the end of this essay.) The entire series is artfully bizarre, and Mikage's subplot is perhaps second only to the very end of the series in this aspect.
Though these reasons are less important to me personally, the character also has a fairly major following because he is eminently slash-friendly - Mikage's relationship with the illusionary Mamiya, although technically not what it seems, is one of only two confirmable m/m relationships on the series. For this reason a lot of the fandom revolves around slash. Which, of course, isn't a bad thing, but it is a major draw in the fandom. Also, this is a fairly dark sideline to the series, without the psychological-torture elements prominent in the other dark sidelines of the series, so fans of dark/mysterious themes may gravitate toward it because of that. It's visually arresting, and the closest this series gets to romantic decadence. Crypts, secrets, backstabbing and betrayal, and mystery by the truckload are this arc's stock in trade.
And some of us really dig buttoned-up mad scientists.
Hall of Mirrors: The Big Picture (warning: spoilers for the end of the series are in this section)
In Utena fandom, this character and the Black Rose arc in general are often dismissed as pointless filler. While they are a digression from the pattern of the main plot, I do have to try to defend their place in the larger story.
In short, the Black Rose subplot is about what not to do when attempting to revolutionize the world, or, more clearly put, a bizarro-world version of the main plot in which everyone acts for the wrong reasons. The goal of life in this series is to rise above one's past and limitations, and the Black Roses seek to serve their own failings. Mikage dwells on his past and nurses his wounds for decades, instead of letting go.
Each of the characters also throws light on the dark side of one of the main characters - Mikage, in his fixation on a past that may or may not have happened, is a foil to Utena.
Mikage [to Utena]
The moment I first saw you, I knew! You met someone important to you in the past as well, didn't you? And that person changed your life significantly, didn't they? You stand here now because of that illusion you created! .... Am I wrong? In the end, you and I are the same!
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
He built his life around the woman who he thinks has wronged him, and crafted a revenge fantasy out of it; she built her life around her "prince," a noble figure from her childhood who may be more imagination than reality. Mikage tempts her to give in to those fantasies and live in them as he lives in his own, but she rejects him. She goes on to transcend them, to break free of the roles of prince and rescued princess that have dominated others, to outdo her own hero. Mikage cannot let go of his dream, and so he never succeeds. He is eventually freed of his shadow-life of endlessly reliving the past, but not to victory; he simply vanishes from the story, as if he never existed. No one can even remember his name, and in his wake he leaves nothing changed. This foreshadows the end of the series, in which the situation is somewhat different, and leaving others as better people than when you met them is the real meaning of "revolution."
Akio
The time you spent not growing up as you kept hope alive in your heart proved useful to me. However... that's all over now. The path you must now take is not prepared for you. It's time to graduate, Professor...
- "The Terms of the Duelist"
Recommendations
Analysis:
Beyond Pink - a Mikage fansite with a whole section on analysis, hooray! This is one of those "site that launched a fandom" sort of sites.
Empty Movement - probably best known for their fantabulous gallery, but also home to many essays on almost the entire cast.
Anthropopathism - let's face it, if you don't like tons of analysis you probably aren't a Mikage fan.
More analysis at nemurokinenkan.net, whose URL I still envy. ;)
Comms:
cult_of_mikage
Stories:
I really suck at finding fic. It's vexing. In addition, the vast majority of fic out there is centered on Mikage/IllusionaryMamiya smut, with not as much about the characters individually. If anyone wants to speak up with recommendations, I'd be very grateful, for myself as well as my essay. This is what I have found, though:
Study in Scarlet by claireoujisama - a post-series short about Nemuro
Roses are Red, My Love by Gabi-hime - shippy, but draws on the parallels between Mikage and Utena. (Note, though I didn't mention it in the essay because it's shippy, Mikage's crush on Utena is canon. He's quite vocal about it.)
Ghosts by darcenciel - even shippier, but an intriguing piece on Tokiko, whose point of view isn't explored very much in canon.
Thanks to roselinedcoffin as well for some pointers toward fic.
Other Fanworks:
Most of my involvement with fandom is through AMVs, but unfortunately the character has limited screen time, which isn't conducive to vid-making. Still, there are a few out there.
Both of the following may be available at Kestrel's Music Video page; the full slate of videos is available on a rotating basis. (Possible alternate links are here and here.)
"Bury My Lovely" - artist: October Project - goes over three stories: Jury's, Utena's, and Mikage's. This was my first exposure to this storyline.
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - artist: Tears for Fears - an introspective profile of the Black Rose Duelists, and I'll admit, the reason I titled the cut with a line from that song.
I've also done one, Imaginary World (the song is REM, "World Leader Pretend"). A direct link is here (again, as of this writing). Don't mean to promote; if there were any other ones I would suggest them.
As a final note, please feel free to offer debate on any of these points, or to speak up if you think I'm veering too far into fanon, or to offer differing interpretations. Because we all know that nearly everything is up for interpretation in this series.
Thank you.