He didn't age up Mamoru, he didn't become series director until season 3. Mamoru came pre-aged, and got sort of shoved out of the spotlight as much as possible whenever Ikuhara had any say. Utena was dating Akio, but it's explicitly bad. He's the bad guy, the show is beating us over the head with the fact that it's a bad thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure Ikuhara said that Akio represented a lot of the things he hated about Mamoru and the older prince archetype.
the age gap is meant to be weird and it's meant to make you hella uncomfortable. it's literally a deconstruction of the prince charming archetype. it's always creepy, we just pretend it isn't so often.
He didn't age up Mamoru, he didn't become series director until season 3. Mamoru came pre-aged, and got sort of shoved out of the spotlight as much as possible whenever Ikuhara had any say. Utena was dating Akio, but it's explicitly bad. He's the bad guy, the show is beating us over the head with the fact that it's a bad thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure Ikuhara said that Akio represented a lot of the things he hated about Mamoru and the older prince archetype.
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the age gap is meant to be weird and it's meant to make you hella uncomfortable. it's literally a deconstruction of the prince charming archetype. it's always creepy, we just pretend it isn't so often.