Acting Dean of Students
Alias: "Lucifer","The Ends of the Earth"
Tarot Card: The Devil/The Tower
Duel Rose: Pale lilac
Quote: "Allow me to show you the Ends of the Earth."
His name connotes: The phoenix reborn at dawn

-- "It is a pleasure to me, my dear Harry, to have the priviledge of being your host in a small way on this occasion. You have often been sorely weary of your life. You were striving, were you not, for escape? You have a longing to forsake this world and its reality and penetrate to a reality more native to you, to a world beyond time. Now I invite you to do so... I can give you nothing that has not already its being within yourself. I can throw open to you no picture gallery but your own soul... I help you to make your own world visible. That is all."-- "Steppenwolf", Hermann Hesse.

He who was once the Prince now dwells solidly in the heart of darkness, giving a voice to the deepest depths of the self, to the forbidden fruits of sensuality and subterfuge. Yet, all the games one can play, even if one is master of the world, are empty without love and compassion... does he know this, the aching and beautiful once-upon-a-time Prince? Does his hatred for the world mask a deeper hatred of his failed self?

His Story

Akio is what is left of the ruins of the Prince, Dios; they are the same being, but Akio is Lucifer (and even calls himself such) to the angel that Dios was, now a fallen, corrupted man-of-the-world. A tempter with almost hypnotic powers of personality, he manipulates all about him to suit his own whims and desires. His innocence shattered, he slavishly devotes himself to 'revolutionizing the world', possibly out of a desire for malicious revenge against the people whom he once tried to save, and who betrayed him and ruined his sister, Anshi. He, in tandem with her, is the 'Ends of the Earth', the ultimate challenger which all the Duellists must face before Revolution, and the author of the mysterious letters which give instructions to the Student Council.

During the night hours, Akio's true nature emerges as he lets down his hair and goes for rambling midnight drives with Touga or one of his other favored in the now-legendary 'Akio Car'. On Saturday nights, he 'meets' with Anshi. At such times, his hedonism and raw sexuality are unleashed; it is in the Akio Car that he reveals each Duellist's "End of the Earth", offering them the farthest extreme to which they can possibly go, their ultimate temptation... He seems to love this role, fulfilling it with great glee and imagination.

Beautiful and alluring, classically fashionable and viciously intelligent, Akio rules over all things in the school as its acting dean of students. Apparently, the Ootori clan who owns the school had no male heir. So, to continue their family line, Himemiya Akio became Ootori Akio upon his engagement to teenage Ootori Kanae, that clan's eldest daughter, in a fairly commonplace transaction. (Some have speculated that the male taking of the woman's name is a way to raise the man's social status; Dios was a Prince by his actions, not necessarily by the factors of his birth.)

But the marriage is literally one of convenience, and Akio has bigger aims, preferring his quiet 'cultivation' of the flower that is Utena to wasting his time with the pawn that Kanae is. He relentlessly wages a subtle psychological war against Utena's naive ambitions in which nothing he touches escapes use as a pawn on the battlefield; Touga in particular is used as Akio's emissary, errand boy and distractor. Anything is game if it can shake Utena from her aspiration of Princehood into what Akio feels is her actual role: that of his 'true Princess'.

He covets the power of the Ootori family to gain greater hold over the school, and to further this end is in fact working Kanae's -mother- on the side, along with Utena, Touga, and Saionji. Others are implied, though he seems to leave most of the Student Council alone. Although he was partially joking when he said it, he has stated aloud that one of his dreams is to 'have a harem'. Nanami and Wakaba have crushes on him; the teachers can't say a word against his decisions. And, indeed, few seem able to resist Akio's disarming smile and gentle self-mockery; he plays the penultimate gentleman during the day.

This kindly act allows him to slowly seduce Utena over an extended period of time; he acts as her mentor, confessor/priest and advisor, shielding her from previously inescapable scoldings by the teachers over her choice of clothing and demeanor, providing her with a 'safe' authority figure, to which she can turn her trust and speak her mind... She has no idea that he is encouraging her publically while scheming to tear her apart in private. Hungry for the parental relationship he provides by proxy, and suffering a very real case of schoolgirl crush, Utena responds intensely to Akio, and makes the nearly fatal mistake of falling in love with him, even allowing him to take her to a hotel room outside the campus one night...

Akio covets Utena, and much of the series revolves around the unspoken tug of war between himself and Anshi over Utena; veiled threats, obscure warnings, and pointed glances are exchanged constantly by the siblings as each struggles to wrest control of Utena away from the other. Akio's relationship with his twin is tangled and mired in the nightmare of the past, the single moment of violence that destroyed both of their lives and split them into suffering Rose Bride and merciless Sekai no Hate, master and servant. It is never entirely clear which of them is truly the master of the other; Akio himself isn't even sure whether he loves his sister, or despises her: "I once thought she was a goddess, sacrificing all for her loved one, but now I'm not so sure..." Yet, the truth is that the two are of similar mind, and their actions are as many times in accord as in opposition... for a while.

However, as the story progresses, the currents of confusion and tension mount to a series of harsh checks and balances, brother against sister, each making attempts to block or break the other's progress. It could be said, in the end, that neither truly wins; Akio gains Utena's body for a time, but Anshi keeps her soul...

But at the end, Akio reveals his own heart, showing himself pained, yearning nakedly to recapture what he lost- his innocence, the power of Dios, the Prince whom he once was...to return to a state of grace, become the Prince, and take Utena as his Princess, to dwell within the Castle of Illusion together in glory. Even though he reveals the Castle to Utena as a fabrication, at the same time he himself seems caught in the desire to -believe- in it: "A child like you can't understand the value of this room." He believes in the value and worth of his own cherished illusions while tormenting Utena for doing the same. On one level he seems to know deeply, but also refuses to consciously admit, that he, himself, and his choices are truly what stand in the way of regaining his glory. He tries to justify his actions, but the words ring hollow, and ultimately fall on deaf ears...

In essence, he has blinded himself to life, choosing to retreat into the safety of the ritualistic Rose Code of his own construction. He proves a surprisingly conventional thinker; brilliant in his coffin, but unable to surpass its boundaries. He seeks the revolution of the world without realizing that it occurred literally under his nose, and is left gaping in Anshi's wake when, at the end, she finally turns her back on his lack of vision.

Could such a man as Ootori Akio, though, TRULY submit to such an end?