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I find it hard to label Nanami a "bad person" for any number of reasons. Of course, some of her intentions are purely evil, but I believe that (with the exception of her duels) she never truly means to injure or seriously hurt anyone. I like to regard her as more of the "bumbling evil doer whose zany plots backfire everytime" (Team Rocket, anyone?). What really makes me think she's harmless are her methods of revenge. Snails in a pencil case. Super spicy curry powder. (Well okay, the disintegrating dress prank that she pulled on Anthy was pretty mean). What makes Nanami loveably evil is her imagination. Even Touga, who strongly suspects Nanami as the culprit behind the various pranks during the course of the series, doesn't get very angry with her -- instead, he takes it with a slightly amused air, only telling his sister to "restrain herself". Nanami's pranks are nothing more than humiliating, and most of the time, not even that, since they all tend to backfire on her.
When Nanami thinks of revenge, it's like she's unleashing that hyperactive child within -- this gal's got an imagination that would make make a six year old green with envy. In episode 16 ("Cowbell of Happiness"), Nanami is so caught up in her fantasy of being "admired" by the students of Ohtori Academy, she is completely oblivious to the fact that she is wearing an actual cowbell. During episode 27 ("Nanami's Egg"), Nanami thinks she has laid an egg, and she believes that every woman lays an egg every month -- a rather funny way to envision puberty. Nanami's vast imagination knows no limits as she schemes impossibly silly schemes, turns into a cow, and gets attacked by surfing elephants.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit about Nanami's imagination is that it is also a index factor in her relationship with Tsuwabuki -- it was because of her grandiose imagination that she was able to meet him, and eventually wrap him around her little finger. During episode 6 ("Nanami-sama, Beware!"), she believes herself to be stalked by a mysterious assailant -- and all it took to totally blow it out of proportion was hearing a chance conversation between Anthy and Touga. Eventually, it was revealed that Tsuwabuki was the culprit, and all because he wanted Nanami's attention! Shoujo Kakumei Utena is full of foils between characters, and the relationship between Tsuwabuki and Nanami is one of the biggest foils -- even though episode 6 and episode 24 ("Nanami-sama Secret Diary") are both comedic in nature, there is a strong underlying message. Tswabuki's love for Nanami allows him to do extreme things to get her attention, just as Nanami's love for Touga allows her to ruthlessly monopolize his love.
Really, it does nothing but add to her already charming appeal, and aren't her little visions of how things should turn out hilarious? In fact, as far as I can tell, other than ChuChu's capering and constant eating habits, Nanami is the only other means of comedic relief. Her imagination, coupled with the fact that once Nanami sets her mind on something, she sticks to it, makes her one of the funniest (if not the funniest) and ridiculously loveable characters in Utena.
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Blonde Bombshell is © 2000-2007 Rose Panzo. Shoujo Kakumei Utena and all its characters belongs to Chiho Saito, Be-PaPas, TV Tokyo, and etc. Please do not take or reproduce the contents here without permission.