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Logo of Revolutionary Girl Utena

Revolutionary Girl Utena is a 1997 Japanese anime television series created by Be-Papas, a production group formed by director Kunihiko Ikuhara. The series follows Utena Tenjou, a teenaged girl drawn into a sword dueling tournament to win the hand of a mysterious girl who possesses the "power to revolutionize the world". Ikuhara was a director on the television anime adaptation of Sailor Moon, and conceived Utena in response to a lack of creative control in directing an adapted work. Utena has been described as a deconstruction and subversion of fairy tales and the magical-girl genre, making use of avant-garde and surrealist elements to comment on themes of gender, sexuality, and coming of age. The series received domestic and international critical acclaim, particularly for its treatment of LGBT themes and subject material, and has influenced subsequent animated works. In 1999, Adolescence of Utena was released as a follow-up film to the series. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Vampire killing kit

... that a vampire killing kit (example pictured) was donated to the Mercer Museum in the 1980s?
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... that a developer on Serious Sam: The Second Encounter doubled its frame rate by removing one line of code?
... that the Penitential of Finnian is the oldest known penitential?
... that a former Dutch villa houses both the city council of Semarang, Indonesia, and the city's mayor?
... that Salty Parker, who spent 60 years in organized baseball, described his lifelong love of the game as "a beautiful disease"?
... that the directors of the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad stole back the railroad from a bankrupt lessee?
... that puzzle maker Patrick Berry has been called the "Thomas Pynchon of crosswords"?

In the news

Uttarakhand tunnel

All 41 workers trapped in a road tunnel collapse (tunnel pictured) in Uttarakhand, India, are rescued after 17 days underground.
The novel Prophet Song by Paul Lynch wins the Booker Prize.
The Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, wins the most seats in the Dutch general election.
In Canadian football, the Montreal Alouettes defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to win the Grey Cup.

On this day

November 29: Liberation Day in Albania (1944)

Screenshot of a game of Pong

1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, running low on water, began the killing of more than 130 African slaves by throwing them into the sea to claim insurance.
1810 – Napoleonic Wars: British troops rendezvoused at Grand Baie to launch an invasion of Isle de France, now known as Mauritius.
1963 – Five minutes after taking off from Montréal–Dorval, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 crashed in bad weather, killing all 118 people on board.
1972 – Atari announced the release of Pong (screenshot pictured), one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home-console markets.
2012 – In resolution 67/19, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accord the status of a non-member observer state to Palestine.

Christian Doppler (b. 1803)
George Brown (b. 1818)
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (b. 1908)
Yōichi Masuzoe (b. 1948)

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Today's featured picture

State Fair is a 1933 American comedy-drama film directed by Henry King and starring Janet Gaynor, Will Rogers and Lew Ayres. It was based on the 1932 bestselling novel State Fair by Phil Stong. The picture tells the story of a farm family's multi-day visit to the Iowa State Fair, where the parents seek to win prizes in agricultural and cooking competitions, and their teenage daughter and son each find unexpected romance. The film was made in pre-Code Hollywood and, despite its seemingly tame plot, had some scenes that were censored in a re-release a few years later, after the Production Code took effect. Cut scenes include a view of a disheveled bed and a negligee on the floor, and a sexual relationship between the daughter and a reporter, but the son's seduction by a trapeze artist was kept. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and was the first of three film versions of the novel released to theaters, the others being movie musicals released in 1945 and in 1962. This poster was produced for the 1933 theatrical release of State Fair.

Poster credit: unknown designer; restored by Adam Cuerden

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