The World Awakens and Changes With Your Love

Or, Queering the Badiouian Scene of Two in Kunihiko Ikuhara’s Yurikuma Arashi

Abstract

This paper analyzes Kunihiko Ikuhara’s 12-episode Japanese anime series Yurikuma Arashi (2015) through the lens of French philosopher Alain Badiou’s concept of the Scene of Two. Ikuhara, renowned for his direction in shows like Revolutionary Girl Utena, constructs a visually lush and symbolically layered narrative that draws from the yuri— a genre of manga and anime focused on romantic relationships between women, with a history of unusually fluid demographics within the Japanese mediascape—alongside elements of horror cinema, including Dario Argento’s classic giallo Suspiria.