4:56 pm- November 18,1999. Here I sit. Sitting in silent recovery. 24 hours its been. 24 hours since the world was still sane. 24 hours since I arrived home and learned the wonderful news I had been awaiting- that I had mail. 4 tapes to be exact- the final arcs of Shoujo Kakumei Utena. 24 hours ago- I thought I knew. Oh, I was well accquainted with the plot. The summaries. The still shots. The intense discussions and debates. The artbooks. The filmbooks. The full series of soundtrack cds. I thought I knew. I thought I was prepared. I was wrong. Why do I sit here, feeling the way I do? How you must laugh, and point, at the girl who lost herself in a show. A.....(cartoon) An anime. A work of fiction- a show in which everything was not only made up, it was entirely unreal. Never could be real. The Black Rose Arc had hit me hard. The day I received those 3 tapes, I sat down and watched them straight through. And then, again, the next day, straight through. Absorbing, watching, learning, searching. I dont think I could watch these again so soon. Oh, sure, I rewatched the final 2 episodes this morning, and the duel in episode ? many times this afternoon.. But I couldn't subdjicate myself to another session of ...that....again, so soon. In pieces, maybe. But for now I sit in silence. The silence of the hum of the heater, the street noise far below me and outside, the quiet tick of a clock, the occassional bump of a neighbor, the echo of music in my head, powerful, drowning, barely ignorable. I have heard complaints regarding the end of Shoujo Kakumei Utena- Some claim they feel it fails to live up to the potential in the series. To others, their ideas of Revolution are too narrow to accept the end as Revolution. For some, because of the build up, the final note has been a let down. I was utterly enthralled. Entirely captivated. Throughly crushed. Immensely elevated. So rare is the show that sends, mutiple times, such strong shivers down my back. A show I can barely tear my attention from. A show that leaves me reeling at the end of every other episode. I am a cynical, sarcastic person. Shoujo Kakumei Utena made me feel naveie. I would like to offer a blanket, universal recommendation to view this series from start to finish. But I'm not too naveie for that. I don't recommend this show for children. I don't recommend this show for people who have the enertainment tastes of children. I don't recommend this show for people who have no intrest in 'recreational thought'. I don't recommend this show for people who have narrow ideas on what to expect from enertainment. I don't recommend this show for people who want their questions throughly answered quicky and easily. I don't recommend this show for people who are unpleasantly uncomfortable with violence, sex, or human emotion. If you choose to watch it, keep an open mind. This is a throughly wonderful series.