Shinohara Wakaba: Potential

"Some people are capable of learning a great deal, but you are not one of them. You'll never be a student. And why should you be? You don't need to. You have other gifts. You are more gifted than I, you are richer and you are weaker, your road will be more difficult and more beautiful than mine. There were times when you refused to understand me, you often kicked like a foal, it wasn't always easy, I was often forced to hurt you. I had to waken you, since you were asleep." -- "Narcissus and Goldmund", Hermann Hesse.

Tarot Card: The Star
Quote: "My world is completely different from the world of the special people."
Name Meaning: The young leaf of the bamboo field
(ed. note: bamboo flowers only once and then dies)

Foil to the Prince, sister self, hopeful child, undyingly devoted to love, faith and hope. In so many ways and on so many levels, Wakaba mirrors her hero. In so many ways, she also surpasses Utena, and yet she never allows herself to see it. Integrated child, fresh sprout, next in line, Wakaba is the closest of any of the characters to true humanity.

Her Story

From the very beginning, Wakaba is attached primarily to Utena and Saionji. These two extremes and polarities truly define the outlines of Wakaba's internal heart.

Utena's entrance into the secret world of the Duel Game can be directly attributed to Wakaba.

Wakaba, early on, calls Utena her 'prince' and her 'boyfriend', but her eye is on Saionji from the beginning. Wakaba spilled her heart out in a letter to Saionji, which he callously threw away in a public place, and indirectly caused it to be pinned to a bulletin board for all to read. In the midst of a spectacle in which many boys are reading and mocking the innocent, clumsy letter, Utena stomps in to intervene, and soon discovers the letter was written by Wakaba. Wanting to defend the honor of her friend, Utena tracks down the person responsible for posting the letter, runs into Saionji, and is soon drawn headlong into the mystery.

If Wakaba had never written that letter, Utena would never have become a Duellist.

Wakaba shadows Utena almost constantly, and the two are best friends, utterly inseperable. It's clear that Wakaba projects much of her personal strength and power into/onto Utena; she takes it quite personally when Utena falls into gloom and despair, even more than one might expect of a best friend. It's hard to say just why she gets Utena's attention, although it may have something to do with Utena's need to have princesses... What raises Wakaba above the common crowd of Utena's female admirers, anyway, is the commonality of their backgrounds.

When Wakaba was little, (so she says) her mother called her the "Princess of the Onion Kingdom." And both girls believe in a prince of sorts, a romantic fantasy of the man that will come for them at the time their own strength fails- though Wakaba initially writes her fantasies off as a joke, it comes out later that her memory of the "Prince of Onions", a boy who (she believes) protected her from humiliation, is actually one of her dearest and most cherished childhood memories. Of course, that boy really didn't do any such thing, but...

Much as she admires Utena, Wakaba's feelings toward Saionji are driven largely by the fact that she considers him inaccessible to her- she even describes the situation herself as that he is 'completely out of her league'. Despite this statement, Wakaba actually shares several traits with the green-haired Kendo captain- when frustrated, Wakaba can fly into violence (unable to reach Utena any other way during the critical period of episodes 11 and 12, she slaps her); she clings intensely to Utena (and her idea of Utena) just as Saionji does to Himemiya. She desires Saionji and she also bears a slow smouldering jealousy of Himemiya Anshi under the surface. You see, Himemiya has what Wakaba doesn't... and it only gets worse as not only Saionji but also Utena are 'stolen' from Wakaba...

During the trauma of the Black Rose possession, her delayed rage and inner sorrow at the theft comes out full force. Perhaps out of all the Black Rose Duellists, Wakaba truly has the most genuine reason to hate the Rose Bride- she sees Himemiya as the thief of her friends, her true love and her dreams. We see that Wakaba considers herself truly a low creature, not like the 'special' people, the popular ones, the shining ones, which is Utena, the Student Council, and everyone EXCEPT her... Her duel is brief, but the issues are poignant and the duel is one of the most painful and poignant in the series as friend is pitted against friend.

After the Black Rose ends, Wakaba's role as Utena's best friend resumes its usual course. It's a little odd that, as Akio appears, Wakaba doesn't consider him competition for Utena's attention- perhaps she's feeling a bit more secure in her status? Much like Utena herself, Wakaba seems smitten with Akio, viewing the chairman as someone to be admired and coveted. With the clarity of vision only a true best friend can have, Wakaba does spot Utena's infatuation quite early on, and with ambiguous actions appears to be ENCOURAGING Utena's fixation in a backhanded way. Wakaba takes a ride with Akio, deliberately shutting out Utena, and makes many small comments that seem to be nudging Utena in Akio's direction. This is almost a complete reversal from her behavior, always discouraging, about Himemiya. I think she does have good intentions at heart- she wants Utena to fall in love- but there could be a subtle edge of 'undoing' in it, a subconscious remnant of the fury of the Black Rose where she might want to see the 'special one' take a fall. On this point, it's up to the viewer to decide...

Fittingly, just as she was one of the first images of the series, Wakaba is also one of the last things we see; looking up toward the Tower as Akio speaks of 'moving on to the next'. Her 'onion prince' and the girl who mocked her at the beginning of the series are now hanging around with her, clinging to her. Could Wakaba be the next Victor, the next Prince? Shoujo Kakumei Wakaba?

Then, would Wakaba finally be the special one she so longs to be?