Snowflake Challenge #9: Rec Something New

Snowflake Challenge #9 is to recommend and talk about your newest/latest obsession. I've got a couple floating around my head right now, although I've gotten bad sleep three nights in a row so I'm not really in a rambling mood:

• Fuga: Melodies of Steel--I finished watching the playthrough between the time I mentioned it in an earlier Snowflake Challenge, and although there's one last video I have to watch in the playlist it's not gameplay so much as it is specific cutscenes you can get between the main characters. I mostly got into it because a friend got me obsessed with the villain characters, which, to be fair, are all very interesting in their potential and hinted-at depths, even if they don't really have that much screen time (and also commit atrocities). It is based in WW2, and stars a bunch of children riding around in a tank with a weapon that requires one of the children to sacrifice themself to fire, so it's not exactly a light and fun game. Content warnings include unethical experimentation on sentient beings, child death, child soldiers, militarism and nationalism, I think you get the picture.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: I started watching the show, I've finished 12 episodes out of 39, and my brain is already vibrating. There's probably nothing I could say right now that other fans who have been fans longer couldn't say better, but I will say this: it's a very complex narrative stuffed to the gills with symbolism, allegory, and social commentary, with extremely well-created characters and a fascinating setup. It's a very heavy shoujo anime from 1997 that deals with themes of homophobia/sexism/gender norms alongside trauma, abuse, and manipulative relationships. Content warnings include (here we go) homophobia, sexism, transphobia, physical abuse (starting within the first half of the first episode), sexual abuse, sexual predation, incest, abuse cycles, large age differences in relationships that lead to unhealthy power imbalances, public/forced nudity in at least two episodes, I'm definitely missing some but you get the picture. I should also note that the show doesn't shy away from showing these things on screen, in your face.

Anyways, those are my recs for right now. Both really heavy on the content warnings, but that's the kind of stuff I tend to like, so.