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For the Garden Where All Love Ends

The following essay was written by Celeste Goodchild. And is reprinted here with her permission. Titles and quoted lines included from T.S. Eliot.

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:

Who was Professor Nemuro?

'I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.'

The tragedy of Professor Nemuro can be likened somewhat to the "journey" of the narrator in T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land." Take for example the beginning of the poem; it has an extract in Latin and Greek which translates to I have seen with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in the jar, and when the boys asked her "What do you want?" she replied "I want to die." They are the words of one trapped in life and unable to die; this is what Mikage is. The imaginary living body, Professor Nemuro is Souji Mikage and is unable to die... until he becomes one of the few graduates of Ohtori Academy and leaves the garden where no child can ever become an adult.

Professor Nemuro was a genius - a young genius, as befits the nature of Ohtori Academy. It is not a place for "adults;" indeed, it seems that Akio Ohtori works his best manipulations through the minds and dreams of children, of young people. Nemuro enters the Academy as a disinterested scholar, a genius that can't be tied down to earth - and this genius is eventually trapped in the Academy when memory and desire are twisted and tangled, creating for him his own coffin below the depths of "Nemuro Memorial Hall."

Souji Mikage is another version of Nemuro, or so it appears. It is unclear to us exactly what happened to Professor Nemuro after the fire at the Hall where he worked, but it is clear that Mikage and Nemuro were once the same person. Mikage does not revert back to being Nemuro until his memories are truly "quickened." However, while Mikage has been existing merely through the power of memory, the memories he has are not real. They are what Akio has given to him.

But what were the memories that Mikage cherished so much, the memories of Professor Nemuro that Akio Ohtori exploited so callously? They are the key to Mikage's very existence, the Hell that is his past remembered happiness. Akio uses the memories he twists to make the hourglass run slow - and he shows Mikage, the "honourable shadow" of Professor Nemuro, fear in a handful of dust.

The Burial of the Dead:

Black Rose Symbolism

'I was neither living nor dead, and I knew nothing.'

Some of the key symbolism of the Black Rose Arc is found principally in the two episodes that deal with the past of the non-existent building, Nemuro Memorial Hall, its non-existent master, Souji Mikage, and its non-existent resident, Mamiya Chida. The symbols that surround Professor Nemuro and Souji Mikage in episodes 22 and 23 are perhaps the most penetrating - as they relate directly to the memories of Professor Nemuro and shaped the man Souji Mikage would become - and it is to these we must look for insight into who the "imaginary living being" truly was.

The first thing that one might notice is the allusions to Professor Nemuro's existence as "a computer-like man," as he is nick-named by the students he supervises. Upon entering the school, Professor Nemuro begins to notice things that he has never noticed before. We are shown this by the way a hand appears, similar to a cursor of a mouse, accompanied by a computer-like beeping (notice this hand is the same hand that directs people to the Mikage Seminar... every student comes to the seminar only when their eyes have been opened to something they themselves never really saw before). This happens with a number of things as they catch Professor Nemuro's attention. Each symbol is apparently communicating to us something significant. We are shown: a cat in the window, a teapot, a butterfly, another cat, again a cat, two students holding hands, lipstick, Mamiya and Tokiko, the lipstick again, and finally Tokiko and Akio. Each is a symbol associated with either affection, friendship, rebirth and regeneration, or love. These are three things Nemuro has never known until now; the computer-like man doesn't understand the workings of the heart... until he is drawn into the world of Ohtori Akio.

The Symbols That Open the Professor's Eyes

Treating each symbol in turn, we firstly look at the three cats, who appear one after the other in Tokiko's window as she speaks to Nemuro about the research going on at the school. They appear to be symbolising a family, which becomes very important in determining the relationship between Mamiya and Mikage as opposed to the relationship between Professor Nemuro and the boy. There are two larger cats and one smaller cat. They are a family: Nemuro, Tokiko, and Mamiya. Of course, one can also take them as the classical symbol of bad luck, and they do say bad luck always comes in threes... and Professor Nemuro certainly gets his fair share of bad luck in Akio's Academy.

The teapot is merely symbolising affection; making tea for another is a gesture of friendship, something it may be fair to say Nemuro doesn't get a lot of. He reacts to the student on the staircase earlier in the episode almost rudely when asked about the snow, and is never terribly warm towards the student in the spontaneous, "break the ice" conversation. The student later remarks to his colleagues "The man himself is quite dry" and implies that Nemuro himself is simply a person who doesn't care. Nemuro even makes a point of asking Tokiko at the outset of their meeting in her house over the tea, "You've called me all the way out to your house, so what do you want?" apparently showing that he isn't terribly used to the idea of friendship for friendship's sake.

The butterfly is a symbol that has its roots in earlier episodes of this Saga, and is deeply associated with the leaf symbol in these two episodes and Mikage's elevator. In Mikage's elevator, as a student descends to their "heart of darkness" we are shown several things on the specimen box on the elevator wall. It begins as a butterfly, moves through to a chrysalis, to a caterpillar, to a leaf (perhaps with eggs on it). This is an indication of a journey; the person is reverting to a state in which they can be reborn, which obviously happens with each of the Black Rose Duellists. They are reborn - a green leaf symbolises springtime, the period of Easter, of death and rebirth - as different people are forced to duel Utena Tenjou for the Rose Bride. Nemuro's first transition is not so outwardly sinister, though it becomes obvious later that Nemuro's change is possibly not for the better in the end. However, Nemuro is indeed "reborn," coming to life as it were. The mechanical man takes on a new vitality; his students notice that he is excited and enthusiastic about the research now. Nemuro is a changed man, having seen for the first time the way to love somebody.

As he is talking to Tokiko, Nemuro receives something of a flashback to some of the hundred youths ascending the staircase to the Hall. He noticed that two of the young men are holding hands. This could be taken as either simple friendship or something deeper, but its impact on Nemuro is the same. It is a sign of affection, of love, be it platonic or romantic. In fact, the ambiguity is in fact possibly intentional, for the two loves Nemuro discovers he can feel are both. He is romantically in love with Tokiko and platonically in love with her brother.

The lipstick on the teacup is related to two things in the context of the episodes; the first is that it is a symbol of the friendship Tokiko and Nemuro are building up "over the teacups." It reoccurs slightly differently later in the episode when it is seen again, when it is to do with the contract Nemuro is asked to enter into and the nature of what he must do to fulfil his duties.

The next - major - thing shown to us and Nemuro by the cursor-hand is Tokiko and Mamiya themselves, and the relationship between the pair. It seems safe to assume that the pair's parents are dead or absent, leaving Tokiko alone to bring up her younger, ailing brother. Nemuro is astonished by the passion of Tokiko as she tells her brother "What I hate the most is someone who doesn't look after themselves!"

The importance of this devotion is what obviously strikes a chord with Nemuro, because when Mikage overhears Utena Tenjou use a similar phrase to Anthy Himemiya, the automatic association he makes is to Tokiko. It is this relationship between sister and brother - and Tokiko's later tears over the matter, the "first" time Nemuro had seen someone cry - which opens his eyes to love and what he feels can be his family.

The last symbol is perhaps the disturbing shattering of the illusions Nemuro has been building from these symbols. When Nemuro chases the coffin the evening Akio gives him the Rose Signet - passing by a black rose on the journey - he comes across a scene that breaks him.

It is Akio and Tokiko caught in a passionate embrace.

This is where the lines between Nemuro and Mikage become indistinct; this is the key turning point, the true rebirth of Nemuro himself as Souji Mikage, the principal Black Rose Duellist. But this is tied up with the fire that ultimately destroyed the building where the research took place, one of the most tangled memories of the Professor and the key to understanding Mikage. However, before the fire is explained, there are numerous other symbols to be taken into account.

The Contract and the Rose Signet

The Rose Signet is placed in the cup Tokiko has been drinking out of, and indeed, Nemuro's acceptance of the contract seems partly based on his desire to please the woman to make her love him... but the Rose Signet itself, worn by all the hundred boys and potentially by Nemuro, is a very important symbol in itself. It is a contract, emphasising Nemuro's earlier statement that he is involved in the research "Purely for business reasons." In fact, this is one of the indications that this is how Nemuro brought himself to burn the building down in the first place. There are three things that let his conscience rest somewhat, become lax enough to light the fire. The first is that it would allow him to grasp eternity, thereby releasing Mamiya from his illness and making Tokiko happy. However, he states that "...even if I do grasp eternity by doing this, she won't be very happy." He is in fact further compelled to do so by Mamiya's peculiar change of heart. While Mamiya has previously insinuated that he did not want to live forever, Mamiya later comes to Nemuro - caught in the web of indecision over whether or not to undertake the "required sacrifice" - and insists he wants eternity after all.

The third thing is the simple matter of the contract - the boys are being treated as "spare parts, so to speak." Akio insists they have a contract; Nemuro later uses this as his excuse to Tokiko as to why he did what he did. "Those boys had a contract." He also seems to justify it to himself with a scientist's detachment - "Those boys had a contract. Ancient creatures died and left naught but fossil fuels, like coal and petroleum. Without that sacrifice, our present energy civilisation would not exist. That sort of sacrifice is what is always demanded." Whatever Nemuro's true feelings were, when he put on the Rose Signet, he became a tool of the Ends of the World. He himself had a contract with Akio - and even though Mikage later insists "I've done nothing more than make a deal with you. There's no reason for me to obey your orders," it becomes clear to us that he is compelled to continue the grasp for eternity... for the ward so constantly at his side.

Time and Photographs

The hourglass is an important symbol in this arc because of the ambiguity of time in this world. It is never entirely clear how much time passed between the fire at the Hall and the present of the series, though we are given indications, the key one being Tokiko's apparent age when she returns to the Academy. The passing of time is also indicated by numerous other things - the pictures are one example. In the past, there is a picture of Tokiko and Mamiya that is later displayed in the montage in Nemuro Memorial Hall. However, it is no longer in colour - it is in black and white, seeming to indicate that it is in the past, lost like the sands that slip so reluctantly through the hourglass.

Of course, the pictures themselves are symbolic of several things. They are symbols of the past; perhaps they are also Mikage's way of clinging to the memories of Professor Nemuro, no matter how inaccurate they can and do become. There is a picture of Mamiya on the desk Mikage sits at, forever keeping his goal in front of him - as a scientist, Mikage needs something to work for. The pictures on the wall are also symbolic of the past and rebirth. Utena, Nemuro, Tokiko, Mamiya, Kanae, Kozue, Shiori, Tsuwabuki, Wakaba, Keiko... the Black Rose Duellists have their rebirth as those bitter individuals forced to duel with Utena in the sky. Tokiko is "reborn" through Mikage's misconception that the woman is working through Utena to destroy him. Mamiya is reborn through the false Mamiya, the mask behind which Anthy hids. Utena has been reborn from the girl hiding in the coffin to the girl who wishes to become a Prince. Nemuro has been reborn as Mikage, his purpose being to grasp eternity for Mamiya. The pictures are the past that drives them forward.

However, the hourglass is a symbol of how time is manipulated by Akio. "I exploited the illusion you cherished in your memory so much that you even halted your own time." When Tokiko returns to the Academy, it is obvious to her that the time is skewered... something that she noticed earlier when she was making Professor Nemuro tea. "I wonder if even an hourglass can run slow," she says in confusion, though when she returns so many years later, the strangeness of time does not appear to bother her so any longer... she merely states "there's something wrong with that, though," when Akio says no child becomes an adult in the Academy. There are two hourglasses associated with Mikage and Professor Nemuro - Tokiko's, and Akio's. Tokiko's merely seems a symbol of how a "normal" person in the Academy could notice the oddness of time - perhaps Miki Kaoru is the only other person likely to notice this, what with his stopwatch fetish - while Akio's is a symbol of how he is in fact controlling Mikage and manipulating his memories so that his time is in fact halted.

Time and eternity - nothing at all - are very important ideas in this arc, naturally. Nemuro's first thoughts on this subject are obvious; he makes a clear indication that the thought of building a perpetual motion machine is silly, as well as being impossible. He thinks mechanically, does this computer like man, and his machine-like brain cannot grasp the concept of something so utterly metaphysical. It is not until his mind is opened to the emotional world of love and affection that he realises that it is a worthy dream. This is echoed by the fact that he reaches a stalemate later on in his zealous mission to grasp eternity - he can't solve the final equations, the last analysis. He needed to do it another way, a way not so mathematical, not so reasonable; and it was perhaps it was his realisation of this that made him more open to Akio's highly irrational plan to sacrifice a hundred youths to open the road to eternity from the Academy.

The Tears

There is also a little to do with tears as symbols. Water falls into the black rose aquarium, to touch upon the roses, the water. This is perhaps more a symbol of opening gates - they resemble the water droplets that open the waterlock of the gate leading to the Duel Arena, and later Utena's own tears, which open the Rose Gate that seals away the Power of Dios - but they could perhaps be the tears of Mamiya. He does, after all, sometimes allude to an abhorrence of what he and Mikage are doing, much as the true Mamiya once expressed a dislike for the thought of making something last forever even when it perhaps really wanted to die. At one point, Mamiya does call Mikage "A wicked man." More tears seen in association with Nemuro are the tears of Tokiko, the ones she sheds when detailing her brother's tragedy. When she apologises for crying in front of him, Nemuro makes a strange response for the uncaring computer-like man: "It's all right. It feels like this is the first time I've ever seen a person's tears." Nemuro is alluding to the fact that real tears are a symbol of true emotions that he has not understood until introduced to Tokiko; it is part of his awakening or rebirth.

Finally, Mikage's tears symbolise his emotions. He weeps in the elevator he is at last ironically taking down himself; the supposed puppet master has fallen so low that he is subjected to his own psychological analysis. He seems fascinated by his own tear, as if he didn't think he could cry. It is a part of Nemuro displayed prominently in Mikage; the computer-like man can be broken. C-ko's statement that "...a robot does not worry... a robot is not lonely," seems to be untrue. Mikage is falling ever deeper into the realm of strong emotion... the realm that kept this imaginary living being as a prisoner of the Academy for so very long.

Mamiya and His Roses

Mamiya Chida is a very intriguing character. Long before he was to be made into the Rose Bride, he had an interest in roses... he tended to them as Anthy Himemiya herself does. In fact, even though he is dying and knows he should be in bed, his main concern is the roses in the greenhouse. Consequently, his roses come to be descriptive of his very character and who he is precisely.

The key symbol his roses represent are the fragile nature of life itself. Cut flowers, of course, will not live long... but even the flowers on the bushes still will not last forever. Mamiya alludes to the fact that he himself is a rose... he implies his sister makes rose sugar pickles and dry flowers because "She doesn't want to see the flowers scatter, you see." Tokiko is of course trying to do the same for Mamiya, to make him last forever... but what does Mamiya have to say on the matter?

"But I wonder if the flowers themselves are happy, being forced to last so long."

Nemuro is apparently insulted by this remark, thinking Mamiya is ungrateful of what Tokiko and the Professor are trying to do for him. Mamiya insinuates that it isn't so, but he also seems to warn Nemuro under the statement "Eternity doesn't exist in this world, does it? It's just that one could think that a heart that longs for eternity is beautiful." It seems to be a subtle warning on the boy's part that eternity is not what it seems... and indeed, if Mamiya was made eternal by becoming the Rose Bride, his fate would not be entirely pleasant.

Mamiya's roses are the symbol of the price of eternity... and the indication that Mamiya is perhaps the only one of the three who does not want the eternity they struggle for. Does Mamiya want to die? Does Nemuro realise this? Certainly, he later seems reluctant to do anything drastic about grasping eternity after speaking to Mamiya... but when Mamiya has a change of heart, the Professor seems ready again to strive towards such things...

However, Mamiya's roses also lead into another symbol... the peculiar reference to a controversial work of art.

Olympia

One scene in the episode 'Qualifications of a Duellist' is perhaps very unusual in the manner it alludes to two famous paintings. It is most closely associated with Manet's Olympia, which is in turn a nineteenth century pre-Impressionist work based on Titian's sixteenth century work Venus of Urbino. That in itself is perhaps an indication of why it is there; there are two versions of the painting, and there are two versions of the man principally in the "painting" as shown in the anime. There is Professor Nemuro, and then there is Souji Mikage.

The figure prominent in Olympia is very different to the prominent figure in Venus. While the latter is a goddess, the former is a courtesan. In fact, Olympia was widely condemned by critics of the time for precisely that reason - it was not customary to paint such woman in such a manner. The way the painting was executed is also in a manner the critics called "childish" with obvious strokes and a very realistic "wart and all" impression. In fact, it has been said of the painting: "Instead of the carefully constructed perspective that leads the eye deep into the space of the painting, Manet offers a picture frame flattened into two planes. The foreground is the glowing white body of Olympia on the bed; the background is darkness." This is reminiscent of Mikage; a two-dimensional "shadow" surrounded by darkness.

Of course, the most interesting thing is the composition of the painting. Why is Mikage/Nemuro represented as a courtesan? Why does Mamiya offer him roses? Why is the cat in Manet's picture missing? All are very symbolic answers. In Manet's painting, there is a black cat; this cat is missing from the scene depicted in the anime. Think back to the earlier symbols of the cats; they represent a family. In this scene, Nemuro has realised that he can not create a "family" situation - like the cats in the window - with Tokiko and Mamiya because Tokiko is involved with Akio. And so, the black cat - an implication of Tokiko's presence - is noticeably missing.

Mamiya is shown in the scene to be presenting Nemuro with a bunch of roses, just as the servant girl does for the courtesan in the painting Olympia. They are said to be in the original painting a gift from a client of the courtesan - and this is a heavy inference that Akio had in fact interfered with Mamiya himself. After all, Mamiya once told Nemuro he didn't want to go on forever, like the dried flowers his sister took such pleasure in making. It wasn't until Akio asked Nemuro to burn the building down that Mamiya apparently changed his mind on the subject. This sudden change of heart - mixed with the implications of the roses Mamiya offers Nemuro - seems to indicate that Akio talked Mamiya into telling Nemuro he wanted to live forever.

And Nemuro/Mikage as the courtesan? The courtesan in the painting is perhaps identifiable with Mikage, while the Venus of Titian's painting is identifiable with Nemuro. Why is this? Mikage is the "earthy" side of Nemuro, more sexual and more capable of manipulating people to his own ends. And it was "doubly disturbing" of Manet's painting that the subject had a real identity, just as Mikage himself had a "real" identity - Professor Nemuro. And of course, what is a courtesan? "A woman whose body is a commodity." Indeed, Mikage, the imaginary living body, is a commodity, a possession Akio does away with when he decides he has no further need of him.

(This particular frame - the one resembling Olympia and Venus at Urbino is found in episode 23, when Mamiya discusses with Nemuro the nature of eternity).

The Snow

When we first see Professor Nemuro, he is being questioned on the staircase to the research Hall about the snow. The student asks him "It doesn't seem to disappear too quickly, does it, Professor Nemuro?" This theme is repeated later with the comment Professor Nemuro makes to Mamiya along the same lines - "The snow in this garden doesn't disappear so easily, does it?" Both are indicating that the winter is slow and unwilling to leave, which is perhaps an indication that time is running unusually slow in the Academy.

However, this theme could be taken in the context of April, the month of Easter, of green leaves and rebirth. 'April is the cruellest month, breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire, stirring/Dull roots with spring rain./Winter kept us warm, covering/Earth in forgetful snow, feeding/A little life with dried tubers.' Professor Nemuro is an emotionless creature, buried underground in frozen soil, seeming not to care about the world above him. As time passes at the Academy - no matter how peculiarly - he begins to grow. He is reborn into the world, a man of feeling, emotion, desire. The indication that the "snow doesn't melt too easily" is perhaps just saying that Nemuro was not easy to turn. However, he does grow up out of the frozen ground. He seems to realise this, because when he says to Mamiya that the snow doesn't disappear too easily, he sounds vaguely wistful. It is only the reluctance to let go of the past that drives him to say this, perhaps; after all, it is soon indicated to us that Professor Nemuro will cling to his memories at any cost.

The Butterflies and the Elevator

This idea ties in very firmly with the earlier ideas of rebirth and journeys. As was shown in the analysis of the symbols that opened the Professor's eyes, the specimen box in Mikage's descending elevator is a repository for several symbols that indicate this journey through an emotional waste land of negative feelings. It is a journey in fact comparable with Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness; those in the elevator sink deep within their human psyches and find nothing there but murderous hate. This is of course partly Mikage's fault, but it is also tied up with the popular literary/evolutionary idea that humans are savages at heart. Mikage's elevator is a portal to the darkness inside... such as Mikage himself is perhaps the darkness inside of Nemuro's own heart. The elevator allows Mikage to "rebirth" those who enter the elevator... is this a mirror of how Nemuro himself was apparently reborn twice? Once, the computer-like man became a sentient being... and then the one who loved not wisely but too well left himself wide open for the machinations of the greatest Iago of them all.

The Fire At "Nemuro Memorial Hall" and the Coffins Beneath

The infamous fire. It is safe to assume that perhaps the hundred boys did die in this fire, but the exact manner of their deaths is unclear. It seems that perhaps they were in fact buried alive; Miki Kaoru mentions that there is a rumour of that nature going around about Nemuro Memorial Hall. Mikage himself tells Utena that the one hundred boys who died in the fire were trapped in the building and burned to death.

Perhaps it is more likely that they were trapped in their coffins and suffocated as the building burned down... indeed, in the first episode of this Arc, Kanae hears distinct knocking from inside the coffins. It is as if they, too, are trying to escape the cruel fate but are shuttered away into these coffins, coffins they were locked into by their contracts with the Ends of the World, their mysterious "You Know Who."

The major symbol of the tomb beneath Nemuro Memorial Hall is of course these coffins themselves. Later on in the series, Kyouichi Saionji makes the bold statement that they (the present Duellists of the Academy) are all still in the coffins that the Ends of the World made for them - and indeed, in Professor Nemuro's case, this seems very much true. Throughout the time he is working under Akio without being fully aware of the fact, he is haunted by the sound of the boys pushing long, white-shrouded boxes around the hall. It isn't until he sees Tokiko kissing Akio that he finally sees that they are in fact coffins. It is a very unsubtle hint that Nemuro took to burn the place to the ground... as much as one can burn stone to the ground, at any rate. What is most unsettling about these coffins, however, is that it appears that Nemuro has a coffin himself... in his duel, we are shown a brief picture of Nemuro pushing a coffin forward. Of course, this may indicate that Nemuro started pushing the coffins around himself to speed up the process so he could bring death to all the boys, but it seems more that Nemuro was building his own prison, his own eternity in a coffin... imprisoning himself in his own memories, much as Anthy Himemiya is imprisoned in her own coffin. Is this perhaps an indication that Nemuro is dead...?

The missing shoes in the "morgue" are perhaps only circumstantial, but it is possible that they symbolise something to do with the question of Nemuro's mortality. The shoes are all lined up beneath the coffins set into the room - which Mikage claims leads to the Ends of the World - and Mikage himself stands amongst them. Whether Mikage is alive or not is difficult to pinpoint exactly. He seems to have his place among the dead of the Hall, but unlike the hundred dead boys, he does not hold a black Rose Signet. His is white, the same colour of those of the living duellists of the Academy. It is apparent that Mikage is alive, but at the end of the arc, Akio claims that Mikage was more or less a figment of his imagination, a spectre kept alive and functioning only through the manipulations of memory and former desire.

The fire itself is another highly complicated incident in this arc. There are two different interpretations one can make from it - the first is that Mamiya burnt the place down as part of his unexplained change of heart, because, as he told Professor Nemuro, "I... I... I want eternity." This is the explanation we are first led to believe; it is not until later that we come to understand that it was Professor Nemuro who burnt the place down... and the ill-conceived memory that Mamiya did was something that Akio gave Mikage to prevent him from being overwhelmed by guilt at having been the one to murder all those boys.

It is clear to us at the end of the series that the fire itself was in fact completely unnecessary; technically, Akio had no need for the sacrifice he insisted to Professor Nemuro was required. After all, Professor Nemuro did not make the Duel Arena appear, nor the road to it, nor the castle said to hold eternity - all are mere projections from Akio's Observatory that never really existed. The demand that Akio placed on Nemuro seemed merely for the point of testing Nemuro's devotion towards Mamiya... for what Akio really needed was a person to have something they desperately wanted to cling to. Nemuro's memory of Tokiko and desire to save Mamiya seemed to be exactly what Akio needed to manipulate the "puppet master" he would make of Souji Mikage.

The symbols of the Black Rose arc are deeply tied up with the experiences and fate of Professor Nemuro himself, which is why they are so important in the end. Professor Nemuro, in the short time he spent at Ohtori Academy - a short time soon to feel as if it were an eternity - made for himself a precise coffin, one built by the Ends of the World to his specifications. However, the memories would not stay hidden; when the snow melted, they rose again... and these roses were not the same as the bulbs that had been planted. The "God" of the Academy and his attendant Bride saw to that.

"'That corpse you planted last year in your garden,

'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?

'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?

'Oh, keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,

'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!

'You! Hypocrite lecteur! - mon semblable, - mon frere!'"

Shantih shantih shantih:

Tokiko, Nemuro and Mamiya

'The peace that passeth understanding.'

The relationship between these three is in fact fairly simple to explain from the point of view of Professor Nemuro himself, less so from the viewpoints of Tokiko and Mamiya Chida. What happened to Professor Nemuro upon meeting these two was something that turned his life around. He was shown a beautiful woman and her ailing brother, and led to believe that he could take the third place in their lives; the place of surrogate "father" and older brother to Mamiya, and the role of lover, friend and confidant to Tokiko.

This was a family Nemuro believed in his heart he could be a part of, and very much desired to be a part of. His attitude towards Tokiko is obviously that of a man in love; he treats Mamiya as a son, a younger brother. While Tokiko seems unaware of Nemuro's interest in her, it seems that Mamiya is almost painfully aware of it. He tries to assure Nemuro of his sister's potential interest - "My sister came to Ohtori Academy to meet you" - and tries to put in good words for the Professor, "I'll be sure to tell my sister that you're worried about me."

But what does the woman herself feel for Nemuro? Tokiko is perhaps interested in Professor Nemuro, though it is never entirely clear. Her questions as to his marital status are suggestive - "Is there someone important in your life? Or perhaps those people known as geniuses never fall in love with other people?" - but her later words as an elder woman that same episode may indicate otherwise. She watches the shadow play that tells us of Nemuro's resemblance to a robot that mechanically carries out its duties without emotion nor drive and remarks "But those who look at you get lonely." This may be trying to say that Tokiko was concerned for Professor Nemuro, and thought he needed love in his life, but not necessarily any love she herself could give him. Was it pity that made her ask him if he had ever fallen in love, or was it her own interest in him?

Mamiya's attitude towards Professor Nemuro seems to be that of a younger man to an elder. He states clearly that he respects Professor Nemuro, has even read his thesis - it appears the pair are both precociously intelligent for their respective ages. Given that Mamiya is trying to set Nemuro up with his sister, it must be that he likes him as a person. One could say that Mamiya is expecting to die soon and so presses Nemuro and Tokiko together so his sister would not be alone when he inevitably died. This "sempai" relationship of a younger boy being respectful to his superior is perhaps the most accurate interpretation of their relationship. Mamiya obviously has nothing against Professor Nemuro as a person and actively encourages his desire to be with his sister.

This is the family Nemuro wishes to be a part of - the family the Academy has opened his eyes to. He looks to them and sees a peculiar peace he never knew before, and finally understands what he thinks is the nature of love, affection... it is only when he sees this dream slipping out of his fingers that he groped his way blindly forward, only to discover that the path before him had been prepared in a most horrific manner...

Mixing Memory and Desire:

Mikage and Mamiya

'By this, and this only, have we existed

Which is not to be found in our obituaries

Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider

Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor

In our empty rooms'

Souji Mikage and Mamiya Chida had between them a very different relationship during the "present" of the Black Rose arc. In fact, at the beginning, there were distinct undertones of a relationship that had a great deal to it, more than mere friendship. It is indeed obvious that the relationship is far different than was between the two in the hazy past.

Mikage makes several comments during the series that would lead anyone to believe that he feels for his "ward" more than something strictly platonic; he tells Mamiya he will make of him "a real bride," he tells Mamiya he is "beautiful," teases him gently that Mamiya pricked his own finger purposely to have Mikage suck the poison from his fingertip. And indeed, there is even the comment of the secretary in episode 23: "But the person I fell in love with wasn't a boy younger than me, like you." The sentence taken in a manner that is indicative of the relationship between Mamiya and Mikage, that Mikage is making little secret of his affection for Mamiya. He does, after all, have a picture displayed of the young man on his desk.

Mikage and Mamiya, despite never being shown to actually have anything more than a friendship between them, still have a camaraderie tinged by the thought of love. This is not what was apparent between Mamiya - the real Mamiya - and Professor Nemuro, however. Mikage, the living embodiment of Nemuro's tampered with memories, has had his perceptions warped. The memories that "stopped his own time" are not in fact the true memories. And it is in this way that memory and desire have been swirled together in Akio's peculiar garden.

Mikage's attitude towards Tokiko is very different at the end of the Black Rose arc; he walks past her without acknowledgement in a hallway, and when he thinks that Utena is Tokiko, come back to punish him for the "accident" at the Hall where Nemuro Memorial Hall now stands, he is exceptionally hostile towards her. Yet, he is forever gentle towards Mamiya. The memory of Mamiya and the desire Nemuro had for Tokiko seemed to have been pushed together in Mikage's mind, concentrated into one thing towards one person - the Mamiya we see in the Black Rose arc. Mikage seems to be rebuilding the family Nemuro thought he could once have with Tokiko and Mamiya Chida, but his family consists of only Mikage and Mamiya, hence the change in the relationship. Mamiya is both son and lover in this case.

Mamiya and Mikage have a very unusual twist on their earlier relationship... and it is an indication of the differences between Nemuro and Mikage to have this demonstrated to us in such a way. It very much fits in with Akio's very sexual manner of manipulating those about him as part of his grand plan to regain the Power of Dios. While he does not manipulate Mikage in an obvious sexual way as he did with so many others - Anthy, Kanae, Kanae's mother, Touga, Utena, to name just a few - he does so vicariously through Anthy, who plays the false Mamiya to Nemuro's Mikage. It becomes clearer that Mikage is perhaps the darker side of Nemuro - is it only a game of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...?

Ash Wednesday:

Nemuro and Mikage

'Because I know that time is always time

And place is always and only place

And what is actual is actual only for one time

And only for one place.'

As has been stated earlier, Professor Nemuro and Souji Mikage are the same person. However, each is a distinct personality due to their time in the story and their interactions with the characters.

While Nemuro was in love with Tokiko, and fatherly towards Mamiya, Mikage is a different story all together. He has an apparent interest in Mamiya that has almost sexual overtones, though nothing is ever aptly demonstrated to us to ascertain this for sure. Nemuro was in love with Tokiko, while Mikage is dismissive and outright hostile towards Tokiko and his memories of her. However, while Mikage was subtly different from Nemuro - he was able to manipulate people as the puppet-master without qualm, while it is questionable whether or not Nemuro could have done the same thing - the two are tied together by shared memories, though Nemuro has a different recall to Mikage.

One other interesting difference between the two is in fact Professor Nemuro's glasses. He wears tinted purple glasses - which he appears to actually need to see, given he is rarely without them, and the only time he is seen without them on, he needs to put them back on to see Akio properly and to read the letter - while Mikage does not at all. Why is this? It is never said... but there is a memory relating to this. When Tokiko discovered Nemuro had set the fire, she slapped him. Hard. She knocked his glasses to the ground, completely stunning Nemuro, who must have expected her to be grateful for the fact that he was saving her brother's life. This is perhaps part of the transition between Nemuro and Mikage... upon realising he cannot have Tokiko at all - that slap was a pretty good indication - he leans forever closer to the darker side of himself, the shadow known as Souji Mikage.

As it is, Souji Mikage actually appears to be one of the three "graduates" of Ohtori Academy. Only two other students left the Academy directly; Ruka Tsuchiya and Utena Tenjou, though Ruka is perhaps debatable. Ruka left the Academy through death, as such; but then, one can never be sure if Mikage or Nemuro actually existed outside the Academy either.

However, what links the three "graduates" is the fact that each of them appeared to set someone free. Utena obviously released Anthy from her coffin, which is where she had imprisoned herself to further her brother's desire for the Power of Dios. Ruka released Juri Arisugawa from the metaphorical chains - the physical locket -of the unhealthy love/obsession the duellist had for Shiori Takatsuki. Mikage was slightly different... Mikage appeared to set Professor Nemuro free from his memories.

The final duel of the Black Rose arc is of Utena Tenjou and Souji Mikage, with the aptly named duel song I Am An Imaginary Living Being. Mikage was challenged by Utena on the basis that Utena wanted to kick his ass for manipulating innocent students - it is obvious she knew nothing of his true intentions. Mikage is, at this point, highly delusional; he is seeing Utena as Tokiko. He fights desperately so that he can grasp eternity for Mamiya, all the while insisting to Utena that the pair of them are just the same. The symbol that is upon his desks?

A photograph of Mamiya and Tokiko, the two people who changed his life so long ago... just as Dios had changed Utena's.

But as the duel progresses... a voice speaks to Mikage. It is the voice of the unseen Mamiya... and it is when this voice speaks to him that a terrible realisation hits Mikage... the voice is perhaps the real Mamiya... and the photograph reflects this. It is here that Mikage realises something is seriously askew - who is the young boy he has plotted this all with?

The situation grows progressively worse as Mikage is finally able to recall the truth. Mamiya did not burn down the Hall; he himself did, and was condemned by Tokiko, the woman he loved and did it for, for doing so. This naturally shatters the man, and leaves him more than open to Utena's attack... his rose is shattered, and all we hear of Mikage again is a phone call. One last phone call to the true puppet master...

What Akio tells Nemuro over the telephone after Mikage loses the duel is that, through the memories he clung to, the memories of Tokiko and Mamiya, he stopped his own time. "The period where you hid the possibility in your heart, not growing up, was useful." It is apparent to us at this point that Mikage has reverted back to Nemuro fully... because his memories were quickened. Whether it was by Anthy-Mamiya or the real Mamiya is debatable, but it illustrates the key difference between Mikage and Nemuro. Nemuro was the true form; Mikage was the Black Rose Duellist form of the Professor. Like the other Black Rose Duellists when they lost their duels, Nemuro "woke up" from his controlled, manipulated Mikage body and became himself as he remembered what had really happened... and was consequently asked to leave the Academy. And as soon as he did, all save Anthy and Akio forgot he had been there at that time... so what was the purpose of a time the Academy forgot?

The Dream-Crossed Twilight Between Birth and Dying:

Conclusion

'Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death

Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.'

What was the intention and the purpose of the Black Rose arc?

There are several ways of taking the Black Rose saga. Firstly, its most obvious characteristic is that it is acting as a mirror for the end of the series. When Mikage loses his duel and leaves the Academy, we are shown exactly what happens when a duellist fails and leaves the Academy. This indicates at the end to us what will happen after Utena has left - that everyone save Anthy and Akio will forget exactly what she had done while at the Academy, as everyone forgot Mikage - but it also serves to illustrate that Utena has brought about a girl's revolution.

When Mikage leaves the Academy, the duels continue on as if nothing has ever happened. Mikage had failed to change the course of the road towards eternity. Utena, however, releases Anthy from her destiny as the Rose Bride and the duels, as a consequence, can not continue. This difference between the two endings for these two duellists indicates that Utena has indeed brought about the Revolution, whether or not she actually knew it herself.

As for Mikage and Utena, the pair were very similar themselves. Superficially, they looked similar; both had their respective "Brides," and both seemed to be fighting for them. Utena was more oriented towards setting Anthy free from being the Rose Bride, however, while Mikage wanted to make Mamiya the Rose Bride and make him eternal. Here the question can be asked "Did Mikage actually ever KNOW what the "eternity" of the Rose Bride actually was?" but that is perhaps not the point. Both Mikage and Utena are clinging to the memories of their pasts; it is what they remember that shapes who they are in the present.

"I know that you're the same as myself." It is a line Mikage repeats to Utena in numerous forms, and it appears to be true. "Your eyes are like those people who can't help wanting to make memories last forever." Both Utena and Mikage are trapped by their memories, and the pair have their memories manipulated by Akio for his own ends. Even though Utena insists she is different to him - the reason she challenges him to a duel is "I'll beat you to a pulp and prove that I'm different from you!" - she is in fact very similar. As Mikage states "Anyone who stands here is the same as myself. They come lured by eternity." Both Professor Nemuro and Utena wanted to see eternity - Utena to prove that there was a point to living, Nemuro to forge a proper family for himself, Tokiko and Mamiya. The pair are in fact similar, though they are not the same. The Black Rose arc and Mikage's fate acts as a different mirror to Utena's eventual fate, indicating to us what happens first when the duellist fails, and secondly, when the duellist succeeds in their quest.

The Black Rose arc can also be seen as a training ground for Utena; Akio's main purpose in having a duellist was to in fact forge a sword that would be "noble" enough to break the mesh of thorns that covered the Rose Gate, blocking it to any entrance and sealing the Power of Dios. By having Utena duel people for the life of her "Bride," Anthy, and for the salvation of her friends and schoolmates - Kanae Ohtori, Kozue Kaoru, Shiori Takatsuki, Mitsuru Tsuwabuki, Wakaba Shinohara, Keiko Sonoda - she would theoretically be improving her skill and her noble heart. One could say that Mikage was there because Akio wanted to test Utena before having her fight the final duels that would lead her towards the duel called Revolution.

In the end, the Black Rose arc is indeed one of the more peculiar aspects of the show. It is the "forgotten" arc that may appear to have no impact on the final outcome, but it is obvious that it does. It illustrates to us things about the characters that we did not know before - Keiko's reason for being Nanami Kiryuu's "friend," Kyouichi Saionji's "other self" in his dealings with Wakaba, Tsuwabuki's exact desire to become a big brother like Touga Kiryuu, Kozue's reasons for her behaviour towards her brother, the position of Akio in the school through Kanae, why Juri's life is so tied up with the presence of Shiori - and presents to us some of the most salient facts of the series.

That is to say, the Rose Bride is eternal.

The one who brings about the Revolution must make sacrifices to do so.

And Akio Ohtori's whim is law.

Professor Nemuro is, in the end, a highly tragic character. That is to say, it is not indicated to us that the man ever receives anything of a happy ending - after all, his illusions have been shattered, his dream destroyed, and he has lost what he loved. Mamiya is, after all, very dead, and Tokiko is married to a "kind and generous man." The Black Rose arc seems to tell us, the watcher, one thing most of all - and that is that even the best of intentions are never free, and even the best laid plans can fail. It is a tragedy resembling a Shakespearean play... "Violent [sudden] delights have violent ends."

...however. Perhaps there is always hope, even in the most desolate waste land. The end of the series itself has Anthy telling her brother that "That person has not vanished. She is merely gone from your world." Perhaps Professor Nemuro is the same way... and perhaps even a computer-like man, the man who found his heart and had it broken, will still be able to go on living... even though he was separated from those he loved and sought to protect.

And would it have been worth it, after all,

Would it have been worth while,

After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,

After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor -

And this, and so much more? -

It is impossible to say just what I mean!

But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:

Would it have been worth while

If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,

And turning towards a window, should say:

'That is not it at all,

That is not what I meant, at all.'

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T.S.Eliot

This essay is copyright of Celeste Goodchild 2000