ep 16: the cowbell of happiness
cowstian dior
An iconic episode. An episode that cements the artistry of Utena. The sheer absurdity, and weirdness, and brilliance, and humor of it. This is a stand alone, but if you were to only watch this episode, you would think this was a show for freaks. Which it is.
Nanami is a Taurus. It’s not so much her guts, but her stubbornness. And her moos are orgasmic. There is the sexual fantasy of being pumped for sacrifice. Of chewing grass in a fat field. Never having to sow, only getting to reap. And chew. The sexual politics of meat are here—Touga sends Nanami off to the slaughterhouse (the precious calf is going to be sold—so biblical) and eats her stake.
How are we transformed by our objects? And what gives them value, in our eyes. That seems to be the question here, too. We have an overt critique of commodity fetishism—the joke here is about the ridiculousness of a designer cowbell. That a cowbell could mean more than being a bell for a cow. That it could inspire envy, attention, attraction.
But we also have more than a commodity in the cowbell—we have a transformational object. It is after all, the cowbell of happiness. Nanami is tempered, contented, freed in some way from her strivings. It is Utena-as-matador that breaks Nanami out of her bovine bliss (When Utena tells Nanami that it is weird for her to wear a cowbell, Nanami responds to the boy-girl that it is weird for her to dress like a boy. Touche.) We’re just going to have to wait for her to figure it out herself.