Ootori Kanae: Alienation

"My condition at that time was a kind of madness. Amid the ordered peace of our hourse I lived shyly, in agony, like a ghost; I took no part in the life of the others, rarely forgot myself for an hour at a time." -- "Demian", Hermann Hesse.

Tarot Card: The Empress
Quote: "Remember me once in a while, okay?"
Name Meaning: offshoot of the phoenix

She should have been the center of the world. Daughter to the family controlling Ootori Gakuen, fiancee to the acting chairman, the world could have moved at her whim. But in the end Kanae was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard; nothing more than a prop in a lethal play she never truly perceived for what it was...

Her Story

Uberfeminine and ultimately submissive, Kanae would seem to be the Japanese ideal of the perfect wife-to-be: pretty, meek and mild, speaking softly and subtly. Many times Kanae veils her statements by presenting them indirectly, as 'rumors' or things she 'heard', rather than directly stating her own opinion. In many ways, Kanae would seem to be the truest Princess in the series, embodying all the most negative aspects of that archetype.

It's important to note that her engagement to Akio was arranged by her father, and Akio himself states that he feels it's too soon; to marry fresh out of high school? This is a particularly scathing irony when you consider that Utena is four years Kanae's younger, and just barely entering high school...

It's not entirely clear whether Kanae truly wants the marriage or whether she's simply going along with what her family desires for her, walking in lockstep with her predetermined fate. She confesses to Mikage that she would do anything for Akio... but all too often finds herself completely shut out of his life, which leads to endless silent suffering and frustration.

What is clear is that Kanae not only dislikes but actively fears Anshi; this fear seems deeprooted and primal, almost instinctual. The fear of the True Princess to the Witch, perhaps? There is a poisoned apple later in the story, after all...

Kanae is the first Ootori student to become a Black Rose, and in many ways is experimented on from several sides at once. Mikage and Mamiya use her as an experiment of their process to create a Black Rose duellist; Akio uses her existence (though not her existence as a PERSON, only as a SYMBOL) as a pawn and bludgeon against Utena a few times- after all, she should -never- forget he has Kanae as his engaged...

Kanae gets desperate enough later to bring her mother into the situation, who reminds Akio rather tartly that engagements can be cancelled at any time, and that his position is dependent on how he treats her... however, she's speaking out of both sides of her mouth, and it can certainly be said even Kanae's mother has selfish interests at heart when it comes to dealing with Akio...

The last image we see of Kanae is rather startling and unsettling; she sits limply in Akio's arms with a blank stare, and she is being fed a slice of apple by a small dark hand that is clearly belonging to Himemiya. (Look -very- closely and you can see three brown hands in the shot- two of them are identifiable as Akio's, but the third...)

Even her name implies that she may have never -truly- existed; was Kanae nothing more than a prop in the game, a mannequin brought on stage at need to drive the actions of the other characters forward?