mikage could be a protagonist of a gothic horror novel. juri could also be a protagonist of a gothic horror novel but its the horror of being a teenager and also a lesbian
No but now I have already two separated times encountered this downright traditionally homophobic reading of Nemuro/Mikage. That Nemuro was originally straight and happily in love with Tokiko, but in the result of manipulation and grooming of Akio (and Anthy), he projected his feelings to Mamiya. And as Mikage, those original pure heterosexual feelings appear as bad and dirty homosexual feelings. But that's only due brainwashing, because queerness is due brainwashing. Seriously, this perspective, queerness as something that occurs only due manipulation, that people are being spoiled, is at least decades old reactionary mindset. Especially with older queer literature, where homosexuality was not explicit, there usually was this heteroconventional reading of these stories, that instead of e.g. romance, they are about someone being forced and manipulated to adopt this dirty identity. And what comes to RGU, I have also seen someone mentioning this reading had also been applied to Utena or Anthy herself (???), but I haven't encountered these in the wild. But the Nemuro one, sigh.
ik that this scene didn't really happen and its only in Nemuro's mind and its supposed to be reference to that one painting and symbolic etc but its funny to imagine asf. Is it Tokiko and Mamiya's house or not. Did Nemuro just find a random bed and decided to rest there and Mamiya followed him around. Why is Nemuro lying like a corpse, is he sleeping like that on daily basis or did he just do that. Why is Mamiya holding full bouquet of roses out of nowhere. Like why did they get there in the first place. And most importantly why is Nemuro lying in the bed with boots on.
[ID: an image showing two screencaps of souji mikage and professor nemuro. a speech bubble over mikage reads, “i scam people” while a speech bubble above nemuro reads, “i like men.” fiery text below them reads, “THE MLM BROTHERS” End ID]
throws this at you & runs away
Mikage appearance is very utena-like but he wears a blue jacket and whites pants. His uniform connects him with the black rose duelists, who are the opposite of the student council. I think mikage wearing a blue jacket rather than a black one is because he isn’t in mourning. Utena wears a black because he still grieving over his parents while mikage never knew mamiya is dead.
Also blue symbolizes illusion