List of Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes

The 39-episode anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena is based on the manga of the same name by Chiho Saito.

Student Council Saga
The Student Council Saga begins with Utena Tenjou challenging Kyouichi Saionji to a duel. He thought the love letter Utena's friend Wakaba wrote to him was stupid, and threw it in the trash. Someone, possible Saionji, posted it on the school wall. Utena, assuming Saionji the perpetrator, angrily confronts him about his behavior. She challenges him to a Kendo duel; he, seeing the Rose Signet on her hand, accepts a real duel. Each Duelist was given a rose crest ring by The End of the World. Utena also has a rose crest, but hers came from a prince she met when she was very young. By accepting the duel and defeating Saionji, Utena becomes engaged to Anthy Himemiya, the Rose Bride.

Anthy and Utena move in to a dormitory together. Saionji comes to the dorms, and physically abuses Anthy for "betraying" him. He demands a rematch against Utena, claiming that he was careless the first time. Utena thinks the duels are stupid, and declares to Anthy that she will deliberately lose. However, Utena is unable to stand the thought of Anthy being abused by Saionji. Motivated by the chance to protect Anthy, Utena wins the duel.

As Utena fights the Student Council members one by one, her relationship with Anthy strengthens. After Saionji, she duels against Miki, Juri and Nanami, defeating all of them. Before fighting Utena, Touga tries to use his charm and persuasion skills to make her start to doubt herself, thus being able to defeat her. After Utena regains her confidence, she wins a rematch against him, regaining her title as the rose champion.

Black Rose Saga
After defeating all of the Student Council members, another obstacle appears before Utena with the opening of the Mikage Seminar. Presided over by Souji Mikage, it is seemingly a place for student counseling. But once people reveal their problems and inner turmoil to Mikage, he uses his powers to put them under his control, turning them into Black Rose duelists, and sending them to fight duels against Utena in the Arena. His objective is to kill Anthy and install a boy, Mamiya Chida, as the Rose Bride instead. His efforts are in vain, as not one of them can defeat Utena.

Mikage's victims included Kanae Ohtori, Kozue Kaoru, Shiori Takatsuki, Mitsuru Tsuwabuki, Wakaba Shinohara, and Keiko Sonoda.

After being forced to fight even her best friend to protect Anthy, an enraged Utena challenges Mikage in order to end his schemes once and for all. After she defeats him, Akio tells him his role in his plot was already fulfilled, and disposes of him. In the process, it is implied that Mamiya was somehow a disguised Anthy, helping Akio to manipulate Mikage.

Akio Ohtori Saga
After being expelled from the Academy for injuring Touga, Saionji is given permission to return to Ohtori, and he immediately challenges Utena to another duel. During the fight, Utena discovers that Anthy can pull an even stronger sword than the Sword of Dios from her body, and Utena uses it to defeat Saionji once and for all. Akio later appears before Touga and takes him to an unknown place he calls the "End of the World". The duo starts to take each one of the remaining Student Council members to that place, and after going there, each one chooses a "bride" to take a sword from their hearts in order to fight Utena; the eventual victor of the duels will be determined by the strength of the bond between the Duelist and the Bride - and if it can overcome the bond between Utena and Anthy. In this arc (as in the other two), the first challenger does not follow the rule of where he or she gets the sword from (Utena fights Saionji with a practice sword, Kanae fights Utena with a random sword, Saionji fights Utena with a random katana). Miki chooses Kozue as his bride; Ruka Tsuchiya, who returned recently to the academy, chooses Shiori; Jury brings Ruka; and Nanami brings Touga - however, even with their newfound strength, they all eventually lose their duels against Utena.

End of World Saga
Akio warns Touga that his next match with Utena will decide the true champion, but before the duel, Touga and Saionji discover more about Utena's origin; little by little, the secrets involving Anthy, Akio and the duels start to unveil. Touga discovers his true feelings for Utena, and in order to protect her, he brings Saionji as his "bride" to fight her one last time, afraid of what could happen to her if she would become the final victor. After losing the duel, he tries to warn her about Akio and Anthy's true intentions.

Despite Touga's warnings, Utena decides to go with Anthy once more to the duel stage in order to meet the prince from her past, only to discover it all was an illusion created by Akio to steal her heart's sword. Utena decides to fight Akio and tries to protect Anthy from him, but Anthy (literally) stabs Utena in the back, which allows Akio to take her sword. He attempts to use it to open the doors that could lead to his so-called "World Revolution", but the sword gets broken and Akio gives up. When Utena see how much Anthy is suffering from her past deeds, she decides to open it up with her bare hands, despite Akio's warnings. After that, the entire duel stage crumbles and Utena is apparently ripped apart by the Swords of Hatred which had previously ensnared Anthy. After these events, it is revealed that Utena has disappeared from Ohtori Academy; a few days later, Akio decides to start the rose duels again, but Anthy informs him that she is leaving the Academy, the links that bound her to the Academy and her brother finally severed thanks to Utena's sacrifice. The series ends with Anthy leaving the Academy in search of Utena.