The Sedgwickian Queerness of an Anime Lesbian: Reading Revolutionary Girl Utena

Abstract

A tentative response to Eve Sedgwick's timely question "How to bring your kids up gay?" lies at the heart of Kunihiko Ikuhara's anime TV series Shōjo Kakumei Utena (1997). This article explores the affective sustenance that Revolutionary Girl Utenaoffers to some queer children and teens in the face of a somber heteronormative reality. This essay performs a close reading of Episode seven "Unfulfilled Juri", and it focuses on one of the queer feminine formations that the show cultivates, the tragic (joyful) anime lesbian. Paradoxically, and fortunately, the anime lesbian far from being an abject figure, becomes a site for queer identificatory projections and desires.

Keywords

• anime
• lesbian
• queer
• Revolutionary Girl Utena