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Brainwave while rewatching Utena: the Black Rose arc is all about being frozen in time and/or regressing. The elevator decends deeper into one's true feelings, but progress is never made. Rather it is reversed--butterfly to chrysalis to caterpillar all the way to leaf. That, of course, gives us a reference point for the elevator up to the arena, in the next arc. That elevator is so chockablock with perspective-illusions that it's hard to avoid reading its ascent as yet another spatial illusion--which it and the arena and the castle do turn out to be.
The car, in the next arc gives us another type of motion, this time one that should be progressive. Yet the road seems to have no beginning or end, just being there between stationary appearances of The Car. And during the duels the car moves in a circle around and around the arena. Another highlight to deceptive appearances, which is Akio (and Dios and Anthy) all over. Reaching the final duel depends on progressing, yet Ohtori academy, and anyone who gets too involved with it, is frozen in time. The duelists who face Utena are frozen, often encouraged into that state by Akio. The car's association with him makes perfect sense.
This besides, of course, the glaringly obvious car=sex part. The symbols surrounding Akio are heavily weighted toward sex-replacement or sex-projection, and strongly associated with glamour--which is, of course, yet another sort of illusion. The car and the camera shoots add to Akio's aura of living the high life, living in (and I use the phrase advisedly) the fast line.
I think there's also a certain amount of clue-bat involved. During his little seduction sequences, Akio offers to show his pigeons the End of the World. And then hops out of the driver's seat and let's the car run with no steering. The normal result of that would be a crash, which we get audio cues for, and which is, in fact, what happens to the losers of these duels. As for the camera...
Well, you know the old tale about how it's dangerous to have a picture taken because it will steal your soul, right?
The car, in the next arc gives us another type of motion, this time one that should be progressive. Yet the road seems to have no beginning or end, just being there between stationary appearances of The Car. And during the duels the car moves in a circle around and around the arena. Another highlight to deceptive appearances, which is Akio (and Dios and Anthy) all over. Reaching the final duel depends on progressing, yet Ohtori academy, and anyone who gets too involved with it, is frozen in time. The duelists who face Utena are frozen, often encouraged into that state by Akio. The car's association with him makes perfect sense.
This besides, of course, the glaringly obvious car=sex part. The symbols surrounding Akio are heavily weighted toward sex-replacement or sex-projection, and strongly associated with glamour--which is, of course, yet another sort of illusion. The car and the camera shoots add to Akio's aura of living the high life, living in (and I use the phrase advisedly) the fast line.
I think there's also a certain amount of clue-bat involved. During his little seduction sequences, Akio offers to show his pigeons the End of the World. And then hops out of the driver's seat and let's the car run with no steering. The normal result of that would be a crash, which we get audio cues for, and which is, in fact, what happens to the losers of these duels. As for the camera...
Well, you know the old tale about how it's dangerous to have a picture taken because it will steal your soul, right?
