Mikage x Mamiya

Mikage x Mamiya is the slash ship between Mikage Souji and Mamiya Chida from the Revolutionary Girl Utena fandom.

Canon
Mikage and Mamiya meet through Mamiya's sister, Tokiko, who meets with Mikage to discuss the goal he has been hired to help them achieve. The goal of Ohtori Academy is to achieve eternity. At this point, Mikage recognises the fruitlessness of this task. He believes in the idea that we should be happy with the time we’re given. However, Tokiko ends up introducing him to Mamiya and expresses that it's for his sake that she seeks it. Mamiya is young, but he is dying.

Upon meeting him, Mikage is instantly awestruck. When Tokiko explains the situation to him, he reminds her that even if they supposedly achieved eternity, Mamiya would still be sick. She wonders aloud if he is capable of love. Mikage brushes it off, but privately he recognizes that this is the first time he’s fallen for someone. Despite all his arguments to deny the possibility of eternity as an obtainable concept, through meeting Mamiya and Tokiko, Mikage starts to understand the appeal. The ability to help those he loves, to never fear the inevitability of losing them. Mikage can approach the subject with the idealism of humanity instead of the realism of the computer he was made out to be.

At this point, Mikage’s beliefs no longer align with Mamiya’s. Even though Mamiya believes exactly what Mikage had once, he is offended that Mamiya would have such little faith in him. Mikage’s freedom has been severed as he has wrapped himself up in the pursuit of saving Mamiya. He has finally connected, but to something that will be short-lived and he can’t bear to lose it. His connection and his pursuit of what can not be have severed his freedom, to tie him to Ohtori Academy.

Mikage rejects Mamiya’s plea and works even harder, only to come up short. It is then that he meets Akio Ohtori, the acting chairman of Ohtori Academy and the one that leads everyone to their search for eternity. He has made contracts with the 100 students of Nemuro Memorial Hall so that they will fight in the pursuit of that eternity. Mikage, however, rejects his offer. Even if he achieved eternity, he’s aware that Mamiya will still be sick and it would be forcing him to remain that way forever. While Mikage searched to give Mamiya eternity, his last hold on reality was that he wanted to achieve it with the knowledge that Mamiya would no longer suffer. That he wouldn’t be sick a single day of that eternity. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be what Mamiya or Tokiko truly want. Akio leaves the offer with him and tells him the path is prepared for him.

Following the meeting with Akio, Mikage sees one of the caskets being moved through the halls. Until this point, he has never paid attention to how caskets flow through the halls because they don’t mean anything to him. The casket leads Mikage to learn the truth of what is taking place behind the scenes. Tokiko is in a relationship with Akio. Her work is for him, and she used Mikage’s feelings to open the way to eternity. Mikage treats this as a sign that she never cared for Mamiya the way he did.

While we aren’t told who is within this casket, it is reasonable to assume that this is the point when Mamiya finally died. His death leads Mikage to discover the truth, as the curtain that previously hid it had been torn down. The Mamiya that appears in Mikage’s memory from this point on is different from the one that preceded it. The story becomes more disjointed from here as Mikage clings to the belief that Mamiya is still with him.

Mikage has a memory following when he had supposedly opened the way to eternity. The students rejected him as no longer being of use and fought each other to the death in the pursuit of being the one to hold eternity. Mikage remembers himself as Olympia in Manet’s work; a commodity. The Mamiya he remembers is disgusted by how others use Mikage, but his face becomes obscured by roses as he wishes for eternity. Even in Mikage’s mind, he can’t truly see the Mamiya that wanted for that.

The 100 students die fighting over who will achieve eternity. Mikage burns down Nemuro Memorial Hall, knowing that its goal was not what Mamiya longed for. However, in his memory, Mamiya still lives and he believes it was Mamiya that set the fire. He blames Mamiya for burning the hall down as it was his beliefs that drove him to do it. Despite Mikage’s search for eternity, his memories are no longer correct. Over time they have been manipulated by others and what he wants to believe happened. He constantly works to make the memories he shared with Mamiya last forever. He makes himself believe that Mamiya is still with him, and if he keeps trying, then he can one day grant him eternity. Mikage is trapped in the past to the point that he never ages and always believes Mamiya is at his side. Tokiko moved on after the hall burned down, and she has grown older and married. When she visits to pay respects, she is upset seeing how Mikage is still trapped in the past, but Mikage can only resent her for abandoning Mamiya.

Manga
In the manga, the Black Rose story line is a single chapter. Tokiko does not exist and Mamiya is not a young child, rather a teenager who was once a student of Mikage's. The two are already in a relationship, with Mikage seeking the power of the Rose Bride to find a cure for his dying lover.

When Utena and Anthy confront Mikage, it is revealed that Mamiya died in the fire at Nemuro hall and that Mikage made a contract with Akio to freeze him and Mamiya in a time period before that happened. Upon defeating Mikage in a duel, Utena sets his and Mamiya's souls free so that they can move on to the afterlife together.

Fanon
is a rare ship in the Revolutionary Girl Utena fandom. Mikage's dream has always been to become Mamiya into the Rose Bride. With this, the two of them are a direct parallelism to Utena and Anthy. Both couples not only look similar physically (both Mikage and Utena have pink hair, while Mamiya and Anthy have purple-ish hair, for example), but they are similar in other ways, while also contrasting each other. While Mikage clings to a reality that is not there anymore, Utena also does to a perceived reality of Anthy. However, in the end, while Mikage dies with his memories, Utena is able to go beyond her perception of Anthy to see her as how she really is.

Fandom
FAN FICTION