But there is something Touga has that Saionji does not, or so Saionji believes. Why else does he always come in second place, as vice-president instead of president, as second most popular on campus instead of first? Even as captain of the kendo team, Touga is just as good as he is, and he knows it.

Jealousy. Being so alike in every quality, a showdown between Touga and Saionji is inevitable, and it all stems back to "something eternal."

When Touga and Saionji find the little girl lying in the coffin, Touga tells he will show her something eternal. Touga never tells Saionji what happens, but it is Saionji's belief that Touga "did something" and "saved" the girl, something that he could not do. From this point on it becomes an obsession with Saionji to find something, anything, at which he can beat Touga. But the harder he tries, the more he falls short. Saionji knows he is brilliant, handsome, and talented in his own right, yet he fears he will forever be known as Touga's shadow, his right-hand-man. Touga will be Touga and he will be "Touga's best friend," whereas Touga will never be known as "Saionji's best friend."

For a man as competitive, arrogant, and driven as Saionji, that is unacceptable.

By the time we meet Saionji at the beginning of Utena, the rivalry has obviously been eating away at him. He is abusive, obsessive, and the only thing he cares about is winning Anthy. Why? He believes that "something eternal" lies inside the spinning castle of Dios, and if he can win Anthy, he will be the one to show Anthy that something eternal. Saionji knows that out of all the duellists, it is Touga who is most qualified to become the one to bring revolution. Saionji makes the duelling and having Anthy his whole life simply in order to show Touga once and for all that he is just as good as Touga is. This explains why he cannot bear to lose and why he presses on ruthlessly regardless of the consequences, to regain Anthy and his place among the duellists.

It would be the making of a tragic broken friendship if not for Touga's part in the story. Touga knows - and has known for a long time - of Saionji's jealousy. Not only is it totally transparent to him as to what Saionji's motive is, but he obviously enjoys leading Saionji along the path to his own disgrace. Touga, like Saionji, knows what he wants, and that does not include the man he still proclaims to be his best friend through the beginning of the series. Touga also wants the Rose Bride and the power of revolution, and he is willing to betray anything and everything to gain that. It is rather obvious that Touga feels not so much friendship towards Saionji as pity and contempt: pity that Saionji is working so hard to surpass him, and contempt that someone would even dare try to best Touga at his own game.

If it were not already a confusing enough drama, enter Akio, who has been manipulating both of them from the beginning. Touga and Saionji's rivalry make them perfect candidates to be duellists, and so they both are. Under Akio's manipulations, jealousy and rivalry are magnified to many times what they might have been if it had been simply a normal high school falling-out. As Akio's "confidant," Touga has no qualms about using Saionji in any way possible to accomplish what he wants. Saionji knows something is going on behind-the-scenes and that it involves Touga, but he can't exactly figure out what, and that enrages him. In the end, it gets him expelled from Ohtori, and the infamous episode with the exchange diary shows how far their friendship has degraded.

After his last duel with Utena, however, something seems to have changed between Saionji and Touga. No longer embittered, Saionji seems simply to have lost all interest in the duels and the End of the World, watching silently as one by one the duellists drop out of the game. Why?

The anime never truly answers this question (it is Utena we're talking about, after all), but it might very well have to do with Tenjou Utena. At the beginning, it was Utena that drove Saionji and Touga apart, and at the end, it is she who brings them back together. When Saionji gives up being a duellist once and for all, he in a sense renounces his rivalry with Touga. It is the first time Touga is doing something that Saionji is not, the first time where he is content to sit on the sidelines and watch Touga perform instead of actively trying to steal the spotlight. And it works. Touga tries, through a variety of methods, to bring Saionji back into the game, but ultimately he finds that it is futile.

Saionji is the first to truly realize how manipulative and cunning Akio truly is. For all his own cunning, Touga is blind to many of Akio's schemes. By refusing to be a part of Akio's manipulations, Saionji basically states that he will live however he wants, choose his own friends, and bring his own revolution, not to the world but to his own life. He recognizes that it is Akio that has driven him and Touga apart, and only by renouncing Akio can he bring back what they once had. It is the choice of mystical revolutionary power versus Touga's friendship, and Saionji chooses Touga.

In the last few episodes, it is obvious something is different between them. Saionji and Touga are seen almost everywhere together: riding a motorcycle, engaging in deep conversation, taking bike rides on the same bike like they used to when they were young. When Touga duels Utena for the last time, Saionji acts as Touga's Rose Bride. This is a pivotal scene in showing Saionji's acceptance that he will always be a second to Touga, but a trusted second devoted to his friend.

Utena fades away, but her impact can be seen as Saionji and Touga practice kendo together in a friendly match. Once upon a time, a duel for both of them meant a chance to prove themselves against the other. Now, a duel is simply the seal of friendship, perhaps fragile, but still there after everything is done.