* Icons * Takatsuki Shiori *
Takatsuki Shiori is one of the main villians in the movie and seems to be one of the characters that many people seem to love to hate. She has one main intent - revenge on the person who killed her prince.
Shiori is another student at Ohtori Academy, but unlike the other girls, her uniform sports several bits of frills and lace. She, along with Utena and Anthy, is the only person who is able to see Touga. Indeed, she does much of her plotting while in Touga's company.
Shiori has a story that goes like this: When she was young, she had a prince. However, the prince drowned. A girl fell into the river and when he rescued her, she died. Shiori was very sad because she wanted to be alone with the prince. If the story sounds familiar, it's because it is. Touga was her prince who rescued Juri at the expense of his life, and this created Shiori's grudge against the older woman.
Shiori also doesn't like the fact that Juri's locket as a picture of her in it, and that when Juri is alone she often looks at the picture. She says it makes her feel sick. This fuels her desire for revenge against Juri. At first she asks Touga to defeat her in a duel, but Touga says that he will not hurt Juri. When asked why, he says it's because "duelists have high ideals."
Shiori sets up her plans in a more direct way. She goes directly to Juri and uses the knowledge she learned from Touga (about the rose signet and the duels) to get Juri to duel with Utena. She tells Juri that Utena wants to be a prince because she loves Touga, giving Juri an edge. Juri agrees to the duel, and it's Shiori who hands her the sword as the duel begins.
During the duel, Shiori watches from the sidelines - but after a moment, she walks off. Later, after Utena defeats Juri, she reappears with the "scandalous video" of the Shadow Girls. Everyone's shocked at finding Akio's body in the rose garden, and Shiori tells them that it was all the fault of the Rose Bride - why else grow a garden but to hide the body? She tells them the evidence is on the video - although apparently the video is the one with Chu-Chu and Keropon.
Although her revenge on Juri seems to have worked (Juri lost the title of Prince to Utena), Shiori isn't out of the picture yet. As Anthy and the Utena car speed on the way to freedom, Shiori appears, also in car form. She slams into the Utena car, telling them that she won't let them go to the outside world, that only she could do something so wonderful. However, she is so intent on Anthy that she doesn't realize she's driving between the lines and crashes into a divider. The Shiori car goes up in flames, and the Locust/Beezelbub cars that zoom down the road later run over the license plate that reads "Shiori", flattening it.
