Bypassed by the red string
"There are no such things as miracles!"
Fencing Team Captain Juri Arisugawa has become bitter and jaded after her closest friend betrayed her and left the school. Put off by Utena's relentless optimism and desire to become a prince, she challenges Utena to a duel to prove to her that miracles don't exist.
"Unfulfilled Juri" provides examples of:
- Animal Goes to School: Chu-Chu apparently brought Utena's lunch to school for her after she left it at home, but he got caught by the guidance councilor while making the delivery. While the teacher chastises Utena for bringing a pet to school, Chu-chu gets loose and runs around a school corridor trying to escape, squealing all the while.
- Comically Missing the Point: Juri explains to Utena that she and the other student councilors fight over Anthy in order to obtain "the power of miracles." Utena, who choses this moment to start doing calisthenics, is glib about the possibility that she controls such a power, and remarks that it will surely come in handy during final exams. She is more interested in Anthy's well-being than any power the Rose Bride supposedly holds.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Juri lashes out at Anthy when she offers her an orange rose — an oddly specific color for a rose, which, just moments before, was established as significant in Juri's flashbacks. But is it really a coincidence? Or is Anthy just that crafty of a button-pusher?
- The duel ends with a coincidence so absurd that the best word to describe it truly is "miracle". Even Juri, once she cools down a little, concedes that she may have to change her position.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Inverted when Shiori covers Juri's eyes in the flashbacks; the motive is not to keep anyone safe, but rather to keep them in the dark. It's not clear if this action is literal or a symbolic representation of both Juri's blindness where Shiori is concerned and Shiori's duplicitousness.
- Forbidden Fruit: The shadow play is a classic sour grapes scenario, with B-ko, who has a cold and can't go to the zoo, talking about how trips are a hassle and the zoo is boring. A-ko concludes with the observation, "You really wanted to go, didn't you?" This parallels Juri's attempts to cope with the disappointment of not having her feelings accepted by pretending that they didn't matter to her in the first place.
- Getting the Baby to Sleep: The reason why Utena runs into Juri outdoors in the middle of the night is that Chu-Chu woke up crying and she's trying to calm him back down.Utena: Chuchu, please, go to sleep already. I'm really sleepy myself.
- I'm Standing Right Here: In the student council meeting, Miki and Touga discuss Juri's combat skills, motivations to duel, and the unrequited love in her past almost as if she isn't there. She could participate in the conversation, but mostly chooses not to.
- Knife-Throwing Act: During the Student Council meeting Touga and Miki do this - with Touga as the knife-thrower and Miki surrounded by a Knife Outline.
- Meaningful Echo: Shiori's words to Juri are repeated again and again: "Believe in miracles, and they will know your feelings." Shiori was evidently fond of saying this, adding to the Dramatic Irony that Shiori never caught on to Juri's feelings for her. As a result, "miracle" is a weighted word for Juri. It's her personal descriptor for "the power to revolutionize the world," and something she intends to disprove, in hopes that by doing so, her feelings for Shiori will no longer have power over her.
- Melee Disarming: Juri manages to disarm Utena by flipping her sword high into the air, but just as this seems to have ended the fight, Utena's sword falls back down, piercing right through Juri's rose.
- Privacy by Distraction: Juri tells the vice principal who wants to take her to lunch that he has a different lunch date he needs to attend. He doesn't catch on to Juri's hints that she doesn't want to deal with him until she gets a little scary. And he is duly intimidated by the risk of crossing her.
- Smug Snake: Juri ends up being too smug for her own good when she mocks Utena throughout the duel. Though it's obvious she's the better fighter, she wastes time gloating about her perceived victory, which results in her rose miraculously being cut when the Sword of Dios falls straight back down after it's thrown in the air.
- Sudden Soundtrack Stop: At several points:
- To indicate Juri's social power at Ohtori and what a bad idea it is to cross her, the music cuts when she indirectly tells the Vice Principal to buzz off. In the next shot, the Vice Principal has, in fact, buzzed off.
- The sad theme, "Aphrodite of Death," plays as Juri narrates the reply letter she wrote to Shiori, but when she reaches the topic of her own feelings on her friends' betrayal, the music stops as she abruptly sweeps the letter and the school photo of her former friends off of her desk.
- Calm music plays as Juri leans close to Utena — it looks like Juri is about to kiss her, but the music stops again when Juri instead grabs her hand and tries to wrench her rose signet from her finger in a sudden burst of anger.
- Wham Shot: The photo in Juri's locket is that of Shiori, revealing it was her that Juri was in love with all along.
- The Worf Barrage: During the duel, Utena channels Dios as usual and lunges to strike Juri's rose, but Juri sees her coming. In slow-motion, Juri parries Utena's heretofore unstopable Finishing Move inches before it reaches its target, leaving a trail of Sword Sparks as she knocks the Sword of Dios away. Utena is left defenseless.
- You Make Me Sick: Said by Juri when she angrily declares that Utena's motivations for participating in the duels are unworthy.
