We have made it! The final discussion for the show! Of course, we will be back in two weeks with an episode on Adolescence of Utena, hopefully with Special Guest Star Autumn Blake (we still haven't even recorded it).

We start with a decent synopsis section and talk a little bit about what’s left after this episode (the movie and the manga), then get into a discussion of the end of the show. Topics covered include the various myths and fables of the prince and his encounter with the orphaned girl; the themes of becoming a prince and Utena’s fight against gender essentialism and its ties to themes of nobility; the final episodes of the series; Utena and Anthy’s relationship and understanding Anthy’s betrayal of Utena; different readings of what is happening in the series overall and its competing “realities”; Juri and Shiori's relationship and its comparison with Utena and Anthy's relationship; themes of queerness throughout the series and how it relates to ideas of representation, resonance, and other topics; and a final look at how maybe Saionji and Touga are fuckin.

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The Myth of the Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade, translated by Willard Trask

Impalement and torture

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Happy New Year! It’s our first annual New Year’s Special and we hope you enjoy it.

If you will permit us, we start with a bit of self-indulgence as we look back at the first year of the podcast, including us ranking our favorite series we’re covered on the show.

If you will not permit us, you can jump to 1:29:30 where we start our discussion of Halldór Laxness’s Independent People. We start with a fairly lengthy section of Niamh providing historical context around the novel before getting into our conversation around the themes of the novel. We then finish with some emails from fans!

You can check out our notes from Independent People here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zIDcah4_tid-1GnNNPsle08DzYMovtAixqTiLWQclGY

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A History of Icelandic Literature edited by Daisy Neijmann

“Halldór Laxness and the CIA” by Chat Lemoine

"Do not praise that piece of shit Bjartur: Independent People, reviewed" by Sam Knight

Slavery / indentured servitude

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Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! We got you a gift of this discussion episode for what might be some of the darkest episodes of the series (although I suppose we haven’t gotten to the Apocalypse Saga yet, have we?)

We start our discussion of the Ohtori Akio Saga with a lengthy synopsis of the arc, then start with the lightest material we can by looking into the “Cro High” episodes around Nanami that help ease us into the series’ darker series around the exploitation of sexuality before zooming out into a broader discussion of the general themes across the entire arc. In running through the episodes, we hit on topics including Akio as the tempter and grand manipulator; Akio’s car as a symbol of toxic (and phallic) masculinity; the temptation of Nanami and the way she is confronted with her desires in the form of Akio’s abuse of Anthy; the sympathy the show presents around Juri and how it pairs her desire to save someone else up against Utena’s desire to save Anthy; the relationship between Juri, Shiori, and Ruka and the competitive desire between Shiori and Ruka to possess and control Juri; an extended look at what’s happening with Utena, Anthy, and Akio; and the way the show understands and frames what is happening to Utena as grooming and rape even as it depicts her own struggles with the feeling she wants it and blaming herself for what happens.

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Incest

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We’re trying something new for this episode where we just very intentionally do a synopsis of the entire arch right at the top and then get into a more freeform discussion. The synopsis honestly takes a while because we have a lot to cover, so if you want to skip it, you can jump ahead to 55:35. Just be aware that we do include some commentary as we go.

After the synopsis, we get into a discussion of the themes of the Black Rose Saga, including the contrast of above and below; visual parallels between Mikage Souji and Chida Mamiya and Utena and Anthy; the tensions between reality and uncertainty or incoherency; the psychological tensions for the need for liberation vs. the danger of unrestrained ego and individualism; the way that the series tests Utena’s intentions and actions; the metatextual figuring of the minor characters of the series as the duelists in this arch; the continuation of the series’ focus on religious practices with an additional tying in of psychoanalysis and psychology through its parallels with Catholic confessionals, and how these relate to deviant forms of desire; the complexities of the relationship between Juri and Shiori and also the way it complicates our understanding of the relationship with Utena and Anthy; some specific discussion of individual characters; an extended take on how Revolutionary Girl Utena and Cromartie High School relate thematically; and more!

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

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Arson and death by burning

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Welcome to Ghost Divers, the foremost podcast for tracing the influences on Cromartie High School.

We’re here to discuss the second half of the Student Council Saga spanning episodes 8 through 13 of Revolutionary Girl Utena! We talk about Anthy’s intentions in even a goofy episode; how the show complicates issues of intention and will and demonstrates the difficulty of moving outside the limits defined by systems of oppression; our hatred of the straight shipping of Utena x Touga; the flashback and the interrelation of myth, fable, past, memory, and present; theory bullshit about Eliade’s Myth of the Eternal Return; the character of Nanami and her role is both comedic foil and dramatic rival in her own right; an unplanned announcement about our upcoming Cro High manga read-through podcast; all the gender happening in this series; and more!

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The Myth of the Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade, translated by Willard Trask

Sexism

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This episode is dedicated to all the GL-loving long-haul truckers in the audience. We see you, we support you, we will always be here for you.

Anyway, we start our discussion of Revolutionary Girl Utena with a deep dive into the first half of the Student Council Saga spanning episodes 1 through 7! We try to untangle everything that is introduced early on in this series including cyclic time, fairytales, gender roles, the tension between reality and unreality in the show and the evocation of the artifice of theatre and animation, the series’ immediate engagement with patriarchal systems, portrayals of queerness, the interiority of Utena’s characters (especially Anthy), the difficulty of resisting a system from within it, how Utena must have influenced Cromartie High School, the overt lesbianism in the series, and Touga’s creepiness and what Connor as anticipating as the series continues.

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Abusive relationships, especial physical abuse

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Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was an awkward teenager pretending to be a boy, and they were very sad because they were bullied out of watching Magic Knight Rayearth. Before the teen appeared another magical girl anime on their girlfriend’s bookshelf. It had a regal bearing and a distinctive style. The anime wrapped the teen in a rose-scented embrace and wiped the tears from their eyes.

Dive into Revolutionary Girl Utena!

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[S1E1] Intro: October 29, 2021

The Myth of the Eternal Return by Mircea Eliade, translated by Willard Trask

Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz

Sexuality

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Connor and Niamh are joined partway through by Autumn for the Question Bucket and we are basically just hanging out and having fun.

We start out with some updates! The Intro episodes for our next series is no long going to drop on the same day as Question Buckets just to give us all a little more time and breathing room. But if you’re sad about the potential loss of content, don’t worry, we also announce the first of what will be our annual New Year’s Day Special! Every January 1st, we’re going to release a bonus episode about whatever we want, and our very first one will be talking about the Icelandic literary classic Independent People by Halldór Laxness! If you want to read the book and write in, we’ll announce the actual recording date when we know it but it’ll be no earlier than mid-December.

Anyway, sorry that this is a mukbang podcast now but we’re reviewing some beer and food on this. We talk a little about the manga and then Niamh just yells for a while about the OVA and how bad it is before getting into the actual questions, including what car we would be named after if we were Rayearth characters and what our color and element would be, which Rayearth character kiss the homies goodnight and tuck the homies in goodnight, what fast food restaurants the Rayearth characters love, and the favorite vtubers of the three Magic Knights.

We then talk a little about Brandi Carlile’s new album In These Silent Days, which is maybe the most serious part of this otherwise goofy episode. We also take some shots at the new Kacey Musgraves album, sorry if you like it.

You can write into future Question Buckets at [email protected] and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod

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Alcohol, tobacco, and drug usage

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We are finishing out our discussion of Magic Knight Rayearth Season 2! These are some of Niamh’s favorite episodes of anime ever! Connor and Autumn think they are just good but it’s fine.

In between recording the last episode and this one, Niamh read all of the manga, and so we start with a little discussion about how the manga and anime differ. We also talk about the pacing of season 2 and how it might relate to the unwillingness of the Magic Knights to fight after the tragedy of season 1; why the show can’t really develop Hikaru x Lantis because what it’s more interested in is Hikaru having to confront her need for love from others so that she can ignore her own self-hatred; how Hikaru and Eagle just talking through the problem is actually a sign that both characters are at a place where they can talk openly and in opposition to the Pillar System; an actual discussion of the Asmi ship and why we keep mocking Connor about this; the historical ubiquity of straight readings of old anime and how canonically Hikaru wants to marry her entire polycule (it’s in the fucking manga); Niamh’s updates to the Rayearth car names document for season 2 and also this ad for the car that fake Presea is named after; Hikaru x Nova and how it ties in with the end of season 1; a brief history of modern concepts of sexuality and Niamh finally reading from Cruising Utopia; Cephiro as a “stage” for the imagining of a new queer polyamorous utopia for Hikaru; and “queerbaiting” old anime like Rayearth as a “stage” for the imagining of queer possibilities.

Also, don't forget that we will be recording the Question Bucket soon. The deadline to write into our Question Bucket for this series is Sunday, October 10, 2021. You can write into ghostdiverspod@gmail and follow us on Twitter!

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Connor’s tumblr post

exportaud.io/asmi

The NeoRayearth.net Fan Rants page that Niamh mocks

Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz (esp. chapter 6 "Stages: Queers, Punk, and the Utopian Performative")

Mental health issues, self-hatred, and suicidality

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We run a tight ship over here at Ghost, Divers, and Associates LLC. Nobody forgets to open the Google doc. No one accidentally uses their webcam’s mic to record half the episode. And definitely there is no bratty antagonizing of one of the hosts for misremembering a scene from the anime by another one of the hosts. We just focus right in on discussing episodes 31-39 of Magic Knight Rayearth.

We start our discussion with some of the character design elements and uhhh none of us had read the Rayearth 2 manga at this point so we say some wrong things about which characters appeared in the manga as well. We then dive into a lengthy discussion of the series’ bathhouse episode (it’s actually pretty interesting!) and how it relates to queerness and the impositions of straightness in Magic Knight Rayearth; the way Lantis problematizes Hikaru’s relationships with other characters she loves; queerbaiting; what’s going on with Presea and this short motherfucker Clef; the difference in the structure of these episodes compared to earlier in the series; Eagle and Geo and how Eagle clearly isn’t over his ex; the weird extended queerphobic joke around the Djinn Raccoon and Rasheen; the Clemi ship and the possibility that Clef is Umi’s beard; Umi & Chizeta; Fuu & Fahren; and Hikaru & Nova.

Also, here’s the Rayearth car names document for season 2 if you need it again.

Write into our Question Bucket at [email protected] and follow us on Twitter!

The Show: @ghostdiverspod

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"Deviant Male Identities in Japanese RPGs: Heterosexual Heroes, Gay Villains" by Juan F. Belmonte, presented at the 2016 Different Games Conference

Ethnic stereotypes

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