LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-14 AT 05:23 PM (EDT)
 
>

        "Is that all you're going to say?" Corwin persisted.  
>"What I 
>mean is... aren't you going to give me the usual speech about how I'm 
>a really great guy, and you like me a lot, and you hope we can still 
>be friends?"

>
>That line of his? It reminds me of how
>Internet
>"Nice Guys" tend to view rejection. His subsequent behavior towards
>her -- going out to spend time with just her, including extended trips
>with just of the two of them, behavior that's dating in all but name
>-- reads an awful lot like he's
>put
>her in the girlfriend zone, and he's taking advantage of her being in
>an emotionally vulnerable and isolated state (consciously or
>otherwise) to level up from "friend" to "love interest."

To quote Freud, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". You seem to be reading this scene as if it's propaganda, and it's not. Neither Utena nor Corwin picked up an Advanced Gender Relations elective during their time in school, and because of that, they didn't realize that their relationship was inappropriate and so they went ahead and did what worked for them.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."