V
The Hierophant

THE HIEROPHANT Ceremony. Liturgy. Education. Discipline. Abeyance. Commiseration. Mercy. Absolution. Exoneration. Illumination. Fearfulness. Servitude. Uniformity. Institutionalized setting.

MIKAGE SOUJI Mikage seems to be a genius student at Ohtori Academy, powerful and respected by students and faculty alike as the head of the Mikage Seminar. In reality, he exists out of time and space. He was originally the Professor Nemuro who created the projector that generates the Dueling Arena, but now is trapped in an endless loop of time in Ohtori Academy. He uses ceremonious and ritualistic methods to exploit emotions and passions of the Black Rose duelists, manipulating them into attempting to defeat Tenjou Utena in order to grasp the secrets of eternity and recreate his lost past, while holding his own emotions in strict check. It is only with great provocation that he sheds one tear, and he marvels at it. In the end, though, Mikage is unable to survive seeing beyond his illusions -- namely that he created his memories in part to try to retrieve a lost love and part to assuage the guilt of burning down a building and killing a hundred students -- and the manipulator is manipulated out of time and existence by Ohtori Akio.