Kiryuu Touga: Ego Manifest
Student Council President

"Cynical and morose, he lived in a beautiful country mansion by the sea, and he tormented the women and friends who visited him there with wild whims and malicious acts... Satiated, he felt sick and tired of being sought, demanded, and given love which did not interest him. He sensed the worthlessness of his dissipated and decadent life and of the way he had always taken and never given anything. " -- "Augustus", Hermann Hesse

Tarot Card: The Emperor
Duel Rose: Red
Quote: "Only a fool believes he has friends."
Name Meaning: One who is able to see the end of a situation; a shoot of a plant

The playboy seeks affirmation for himself in the women that he seduces and teases. But only one woman ever proved to be his equal.. the one woman he could never truly have. And even knowing all the secrets of the Ends of the Earth, the awareness of Revolution's purpose... even holding all the cards, he could not change that one truth- he could not have her. Could love undo this man?

His Story

Until Akio appears openly, Touga is *the* man in charge, the President of the Student Council who wryly and evenly rules over his fellow students. A playboy and man-about-town, there's little that escapes the coolly aristocratic gaze of the Seitokaichou.

He is amused by much that goes on around him; he also is unfocused, preferring pleasures and instincts of the moment to any long-term future goal. His sister, Utena, the student body, the other Duellists- all are appraised and used for their worth, and nothing more. He is usually seen in someone's company, rarely alone unless he chooses to be. Somehow, he always manages to be in exactly at the right place at the right time.

This may be because he's, figuratively at first and then *literally* later, 'in bed' with the Ends of the Earth- he definitely knows more about what's going on than any of the other Student Council members, though he feigns ignorance. For a time, fascinated by Utena, he toys with her, pretending to be her Prince, but this is a facetious claim.

It's true that he *was* there in Utena's past. He opened her coffin and somehow led the Prince to her or at least opened the way for her to find her way to Dios- but Touga also left Utena to her own fate, let her slip through his fingers...

There have only really been two women that mattered in Touga's life: His sister Nanami, and the bolt-from-the-blue Utena. Sadly, Touga treats his sister with a kind of tolerant disdain. His parents asked him to look after her and so he has, but it's not necessarily true that he -likes- Nanami as a person.

Meanwhile, he and Utena have a very wry and dangerous relationship; a wary detente. Even their most casual exchanges are heterodyned with intense meaning; usually, as Touga pushes, Utena pushes back. There's no denying that Touga does have immense power over Utena; he can stun her into silence with a casual word, and he spends many of his early appearances pressing her physically, holding or pinning her in some manner, demanding that she -acknowledge- him. But Utena has equal power over Touga; able to deflate his pompous manners effortlessly with a well-turned phrase, and always able to slip away...

The truth is, Touga actually -does- love and admire Utena. He wants Utena to become his. Who else is worthy of him, really, among the babbling crowds of girls that throng about him daily?

He suffers a severe shock to his being when (after defeating Utena for control of the Bride and nearly causing her to abandon all hope, intending to make her vulnerable to -his- advances) Utena soundly *thrashes* him, without any of the miracle powers, in the subsequent Duel; the turnabout and rejection hits Touga so hard he disappears into emptiness for roughly a third of the series. For without his ego and pride, who is Kiryuu Touga?

But when Akio emerges, Touga is somehow revitalized, and takes his place not only as Akio's most trusted lieutenant, but as a visionary of the Revolution; he now knows with certainty that Utena is the key to the future. He begins to try, in small and subtle ways, to warn Utena away from Akio; he sees the Victor's growing infatuation with Akio as a threat to the state of the world balance.

He pleads with Utena repeatedly to change her path.. even openly declaring his love for her, his desire to become her Prince, in increasingly desperate attempts to sway her. He's loved her ever since that first meeting, in the church, in the rain... and it can't be said Utena doesn't respond to this final confession with some feeling of her own... but it's clear she fears getting too close to Touga- and with good reason. In many ways his early manipulative and overly dominating behavior only helps to push Utena deeper into Akio's hands- an irony Touga becomes all too aware of as things press toward the inevitable end.

It doesn't help that Akio is actively rubbing his success with Utena in Touga's face, either. They declare it a sort of game, the two gentlemen; who can impress her first? And the man who has never had a problem with getting any girl he wants suddenly finds himself getting tossed out in the cold as Akio waltzes away with Utena right before his eyes.

In the end, despairing, he risks it all on one last Duel with the highest stakes of all; either he or Utena will take it all; one of them will Revolutionize the world. And, when he is again defeated, all he can do is deliver his final warning- do not trust the Rose Bride OR the Ends of the Earth!- and then once more allow Utena to face the fate she made for herself. Their fingers drift apart, and they say farewell to each other, the could-have-been forever pulled apart...

Could there ever be even a chance of their doomed romance to sprout anew?