Anthy Himemiya

A mysterious and shy girl whose sometimes vapid expression and superficial politeness seem to mask something deeper. Many people project their wants or desires onto her, and she’s often the target of their eventual rage or hate. Her “doormat” behavior belies a far more complex personality.

Anthy appears to house the Sword of Dios within her own body. At the beginning of a duel, she slips into a trance and the Sword manifests, protruding from her chest so that her champion may draw it from her. This Sword is said to be a key to reaching the goal of Revolution, and in her position as the Rose Bride Anthy is said to be the key to obtaining it.

Anthy appears to be an Asian Indian, probably Tamil. She is noticeably darker than the other characters and wears a bindi mark or jewel.

Anthy exhibits other unusual abilities as well, including magically embellishing Utena’s uniform before the duel. She seems to be able to completely alter her appearance, or at least induce others to see her for someone other than who she really is. Likewise, there is some indication that she has the ability to transform others as well (as in the episode, “The Cowbell of Happiness”).

According to the Adolescence of Utena manga, Anthy is in fact responsible for the dueling of which she is the prize. When her prince Dios (or Akio) died, she became reborn as the Rose Bride. When she took this role, the Dueling Arena appeared and the “game” was set in motion so another “Prince” could take Akio’s place. In the anime series the duels are a strategic game set in motion to restore Akio’s former powers and open the Gate of Revolution.

In the movie, she seems happier and is much more sexually aggressive towards Utena. Her physical appearance is also changed, as she does not wear glasses and her hair is loose (similar to her appearance in the last few episodes of the anime). The design of her dress is also different, being mainly white. Anthy seemingly saves Utena by encouraging her to move past her vice (Touga) and seemingly rescues Utena in a subversion of the damsel in distress archetype.

In the anime, she appears to be servile and obedient to all, especially her current Victor, whose every wishes she must cater to. Because of this, many Duelists believe that she lacks a personality and thoughts of her own, and she is treated badly by them. However, Anthy only pretends to be so in order to keep them in the Duels, and often enjoys subtly taking revenge on those around her.

Both the anime and manga feature similar—but altogether different—circumstances wherein Anthy becomes the Rose Bride. In the movie, the world views her brother, Dios, as a prince. In reality, he is the tainted Lord of the Flies. He commits suicide when one of his most shameful secrets is revealed to Anthy, causing her to establish the Duels in order to find a replacement prince. Anthy later wholeheartedly accepts Utena as the prince she had been waiting for, but instead of staying, Utena decides that the two of them should travel to the world “outside” Ohtori where they will not be bound by the ideas of prince and princesses.

In the anime, Dios is an actual prince who saves of the girls in the world on a daily basis. The work eventually weakens him to the point of death, but the world still demands his services. Anthy ends up facing an angry mob alone in order to protect him, and is stabbed by a million swords. The swords eventually take a life of their own, eternally thirsting for a prince’s blood. To combat the pain, Anthy splits herself in two, and seals the part of her containing the swords beyond the Rose Gate, becoming the Rose Bride. This incident destroys Dios’ nobility and he is also split in two. One part of him becomes an altruistic but powerless ghost, while the other part becomes Akio. No longer a prince, Akio no longer has Dios’s power, and establishes the Dueling Game to regain it. Anthy accepts her role as the Rose Bride despite the suffering it inflicts on her because she does not want to live in a world which had tortured her and her brother.