Step 1: rescue. Step 2: romance
"Let's dance, Himemiya!"
Student Council President Touga Kiryuu invites Utena to a school ball in an attempt to romance her. Meanwhile, Touga's jealous and obsessive younger sister Nanami sets a trap for Anthy.
"On the Night of the Ball" provides examples of:
- Actionized Adaptation: Inverted; the ball is more action-packed in the manga than in the anime. In the manga, Saionji sends Anthy the dress and duels Utena at the ball, with Touga getting caught in the chaos. The anime instead uses the ball scenario as an introduction for Nanami.
- Backhanded Apology: When Utena complains about how uncomfortable she is wearing the frilly gown, Anthy apologizes in a way that exacerbates her anxiety. It's not clear if it's intentional, but with Anthy, it easily could be:Anthy: I'm sorry, Miss Utena. You're embarrassing yourself in it for my sake...
Utena: "Embarrassing myself?" Am I really? - Beat: Utena insists that Anthy attends the ball, and Anthy pauses for a moment, staring pensively at her hand of playing cards, before turning to her with a mild smile, replying, "If you say so, Miss Utena."
- Breather Episode: This is the first episode that does not feature a duel, and its plot centers on high school/middle school interpersonal drama and mean girl shenanigans. Director Ikuhara does not shy away from how cliched it is, but asserts that it is important for establishing a baseline shoujo manga milieu to use as a jumping-off point for the subversions later on.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Utena removes her off-the-shoulder ball gown in a single motion and instantly is dressed in her full dueling regalia (which she could not have possibly been wearing under the gown.)
- Chic and Awe: Touga only has eyes for Utena as soon as she arrives at the ball wearing the dress he sent her, and comments that she looks even better in it than he imagined.
- Curtain Clothing: The dress Anthy wears while dancing with Utena is made out of a tablecloth moments before the dance begins.
- Disproportionate Retribution: This episode introduces Nanami while also demonstrating just how much of a Clingy Jealous Girl she is in regards to her brother; she sets up a humiliating situation for Anthy by gifting her a dress that dissolves when coming into contact with water, all because Touga happened to give her the time of day.
- Doomed New Clothes: The dress sent to Anthy to wear to the ball dissolves in water, and Nanami arranges for her to get splashed middle of the dance.
- Emerging from the Shadows: Touga is in silhouette as Utena gives her "normal girl" speech, and steps into the light to approach her, announcing himself as a "normal boy." When he exits the scene, he walks back into the shadows.
- Engineered Heroics: Nanami's Girl Posse corner Anthy, assaulting and berating her, but back off when Nanami appears and chastises them. Later in the episode Nanami and her posse are all shown scheming together.
- Faceless Masses: This episode has a notably large quantity of low-detail party-going extras rendered in faded colors who, as Anthy's fear of crowds sets in, start to look very sinister.
- Forcibly Formed Physique: Chu-Chu gets a drinking glass stuck on his face, and the suction produced by removing it makes his whole face comically protrude from his head. Utena easily pushes him back into his proper shape, though.
- Gossipy Hens: The shadow play centers on two housewivesnote who are discussing an upcoming social event in quite negative terms — girls these days are so shameless! This dialogue fits in nicely with all the rumors flying in this episode, like Utena's haunted dorm and unspecified bad rumors about Anthy,note just to name a few.
- High-School Dance: While the ball is technically a private party hosted by the Kiryuu siblings rather than a school function, its formality puts it on this level. Nanami invites Anthy to the ball under the pretext that she's a candidate for Dance Queen, but it's just a pretext to embarrass her in front of the whole school because she (mistakenly) thinks she's getting too close to her brother Touga.
- Innocently Insensitive: Utena insists that Anthy go to the dance so she can interact with other people and make more (human) friends. This is right after Anthy very clearly explained that she's uncomfortable in large crowds and can't dance. She makes an expression of resignation before happily telling Utena she'll go if that's what Utena wants, with Utena not picking up on Anthy's discomfort at all.
- Insistent Appellation: Utena tries to dissuade Anthy from calling her "Miss Utena" ("Utena-sama,") but her point is dramatically undercut by her Groupie Brigade, who all call her "Miss Utena."
- Reveal Shot: Anthy is playing Old Maid (and being surprisingly animated and emotive about it) but the scene is framed to hide who she is playing with. Anthy and Utena converse during the game, but she's not playing with Utena. The frame pans down to reveal Chu-Chu holding a hand of cards that are almost as tall as he is.
- Tablecloth Yank: After seeing Anthy in distress, Utena whips a nearby tablecloth free, sending everything that was on the table flying in the process, and wraps it around her in a way that is surprisingly (improbably?) chic.
