So now that I've made six different layouts for LLOM, I think it's about time I settle on one. I understand these hoverovers are something you guys enjoy, so I'll keep doing them. In the next few slices, I'll explain why Anthy is the prominent figure here. This is an Akio layout. Anthy is simply a means to an end. I could remove both his face and his hand and you'd still know he was there. Also, I've been trying for ages to sneak a picture from my NASA folder into a layout. Starry night, holy night...o wait holy has no place here!
See? You don't even have to see the rest of his face to know the expression he has. I love it. Yes, I added little pearly things to Anthy's hair. Shut up, they're cool. A woman's shoulders are the front lines of her mys-fuck, wrong devil. This, my friend, is an arched back. Look at her. And he's not even touching her yet. Menu's over there, dear.
I wish a gorgeous sadistic man like Akio would stop by and come-or wait...is it come and stop by? Damn, I'm confused. Hi Anthy! You seem less blank than usual. Akio's not Indian. He's just a black man that's also a vampire and thus pale for his race. You know, evolution shows women to be just as promiscuous as men. Had I known what an unholy pain in the ass this layout would be to code, I'd have...well..done it anyway.
Look, a chopped hovering gif. You guys just don't know how much I suffer for this stuff. Actually, I wish I was back in the city.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger...might be a bad choice of music considering what I'm doing. MY ROOM IS A MESS. Well no, but my mind is. I DON'T WANNA GO TO CLASS. Fuck school. I'll like it better when my campus has a phallic tower and hot dean. ....but I'd settle for at least a hot student council official. I don't even have those. I really should be getting dressed for school... ....ok, a song titled 'Weapons of Mass Distortion' is no better... No more hovers! (They don't work in Firefox anyway.)
    Most anime series start with a manga and end with a movie. In some cases, the characters are changed between the three, and in the case of Shoujo Kakumei Utena, the changes are frequently radical. Akio is among the characters most changed between the three, and while this site really is for Akio as he appears in the show, here is an offering to his other incarnations.

  • Chiho Saito's Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Manga)
  • SKU: Adolescence Apocalypse (Movie)
    		•
        The manga and series are the same idea through different minds. Instead of the series being inspired by a successful manga, both were produced simultaneously, with a lot of creative communication between Chiho Saito, the mind behind the manga, and Kunihiko Ikuhara, the mind behind the series.

         Several of the characters are completely different, the foremost of which would probably be Touga and Juri. Shiori and Nanami are not in the manga, though Nanami is shown briefly in a photograph. While Akio is a prominent character for most of the series, he's only in a little more than half of the manga. The latter half, as he is still the main villain. The manga and series versions
    I love a man with wings.
    In the manga, the parallels drawn between Akio and Satan are reinforced when he, as well as the prince, sport wings in the final scenes.
    of Akio are similar enough, but there are differences worth pointing out.

        First off, their backgrounds are different. Manga Akio's history is explained in greater detail, and fleshes out a being different from what is perceived by watching the show. Manga Akio was a God who split at some point into two parts, Akio and Dios. Though they once shared a body, the manga continuity depends on that they are now separate entities (as seen to the right). Anthy loves Dios, as she did in the show, but in the manga, she's portrayed as much less malicious, and she's more of a victim character, so Akio operates with Anthy as an unwilling partner. After Dios and Akio became separate beings, Akio's goal was to destroy Dios, which would grant him the power of the both of them combined, without having to share his body with his better half. Anthy shut Dios away in the castle to protect him from Akio, so in the manga, Akio's goal is to get to the castle and knock off Dios. Which he does. Little does he know Dios then moves into Utena, who, by kissing Akio, unites him and Dios, causing the both of them to vanish. Anthy is, in the end, convinced Utena's still out there. This is shoujo manga. Kisses are magical.

        Akio's seduction of Utena remains somewhat intact. The ultimate goal of seducing her into doing his bidding remains, as does his plan to manipulate her by bringing her into womanhood. Series Akio rescues Utena when she sprains her ankle and when she falls off Touga's horse. Manga Akio burns down a building so he can save her. (One wonders which came first in the creative process, Mikage's pyromania or manga Akio's.) The sprained ankle and the burned building are both Akio's fault, though in the series, he 'happens' to be in the right place at the right time, instead of elaborately staging a dangerous situation. Overall, the seduction is more openly romantic; in the series there's a heavy tone of sexuality and possession in his courtship of Utena that's lacking in the manga. However, in the manga Akio interacts with Utena via letters, long before her entrance into Ohtori Academy. In fact, the early part of the manga is set at Utena's aunt's home, outside Ohtori. I get the feeling this isn't in the series because Ikuhara wanted to promote an alien, detached atmosphere that would have been disturbed by prolonged exposure to the world outside Ohtori. Also it would be impractical to wait so long before introducing the main cast. Ultimately, in the series he relies on the distance he places between Utena and her dreamy prince of the past. In the manga, he instead approaches her over the long term.

        Manga doesn't lend itself to the development of a character like Akio, who doesn't say what he's thinking, and doesn't feel what he's feeling. The manga loses his malicious sense of humor and most of the raw sexuality that's so much a part of his character in the series. The length of the series gives it considerably more time to develop the cast, so Akio's not the only character less fleshed out in the manga. Saito's Akio feels stripped down, so instead of a master manipulator (though he still is one) Akio feels more like the stereotypical evil overlord. He just seems to be the boss. Part of this is probably because Touga has already severed himself from Akio in the manga. In the series, much of what you learn about Akio's personality, especially his sense of humor and sexuality, you learn through his interaction with Touga. Also, these scenes show you the vise grip Akio has on the events that unfold around him. There's no compensatory device in the manga to flesh out Akio's character or his manipulations of the cast. Without that, the whole story is less intentionally orchestrated, as if Akio lets them do what they might and pokes his nose in when it suits him.