The Revolutionary Girl Utena The Apocalypse Saga is a DVD box set that includes four DVDs, which cover the final thirteen episodes of the series. The menu for each disc contains the following items: Set-Up (you can choose to have English audio or Japanese audio with English subtitles), Movie (which is essentially a “Play All” option), Chapters, Extras, and Trailers.
All four of the discs contain an Art Galley as an extra. These consist of stills from the episodes, as well as some production art. However, the images flash by so quickly, that it can be difficult to pause on a particular image that you’d like to take a closer look at.
Three of the four discs contain an interview with one of the voice actors from the English dub version. The first disc has an interview with Jimmy Zoppi, the voice of Miki. The third disc has an interview with Josh Mosby, the voice of Akio. And the fourth disc has an interview with Sharon Becker, the voice of Anthy. Each voice actor talks a little bit about the character they played, as well as how they got into the anime voice over business.
Each disc contains a link in the extras menu labeled, “Revolutionary Girl Utena Storyline.” The first disc has episode recaps for the last disc included in the Revolutionary Girl Utena Black Rose Saga DVD set. The remaining three discs contain a recap of the episodes included on the previous disc in this set. Each disc also contains an extra labeled as “Trailer.” This is a trailer that was produced for when the particular disc was marketed individually (since these box sets are collections of discs that were originally released individually).
The fourth disc contains three features that aren’t included on any of the other discs. The first is labeled as “Chu Chu Montage”; this is a roughly two-minute long montage of shots and scenes that feature the character Chu Chu. There’s also an “Ohtori Academy Scrapbook,” which includes pictures of the characters, and when a picture is selected, you see the character’s name and a one-line fact about the character. The only drawback to this feature is the fact that you don’t get to choose which pictures to look at. This feature is programmed to select the pictures in a particular order for the viewer. There is also a link labeled “Fan Art Contest,” and this is a slideshow of fan art and cosplay contest winners.
Each DVD also includes a “Previews” link. The previews that can be seen in this box set include: Alien Nine, Tokyo Babylon, Hades Project Zeorymer: Extinction, Spirit Warrior: Revival of Evil, Cat Soup, Animation Runner Kuromi, Legend of the Dragon King: Red Dragon, Time Stranger, DNA2: Epiphany, Gall Force: Earth Chapter, CPM Manga Preview, Tomoko Tamiguchi Preview, and Big Apple Anime Fest.
As far as the episodes go, the set starts with the episode, “Nanami’s Egg,” which is by far one of the most bizarre episodes in the series. I’m sure there’s some kind of symbolism involved with this episode, but I think it ultimately went over my head. While the episodes on the first two discs are important, I didn’t like them as much as the episodes on the other two discs in the set. By the end of disc three, you become riveted in what is happening, and you really don’t want to stop watching. The series ends with an exciting and surprising conclusion.
If you’re a fan of Revolutionary Girl Utena, then you should try to acquire a copy of this DVD set. Unfortunately, this box set is out of print, so your best bet would be to try and find a used copy that’s in decent shape.
