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[MsDevin92]

You've probably all heard me squeal and scream about Princess Tutu OVER 9000 times, but I think I should get down to brass tacks (or however that expression goes) and explain just why I love it.

Princess Tutu, if you want to put it into a genre, is what's called a magical girl anime. Ya'know, girl transforms to fight evil. I may sound lame for saying it, but I adore magical girl shows. Not only do they give me that nice little empowering kick of watching another girl save the day, but I'm enough of a sap that anything about the triumph of a sweet-hearted character over twisted psychos and sadists never gets tired. The combination brings back my good old memories of watching Sailor Moon.

However, Princess Tutu isn't your run-of-the-mill magical girl anime. Instead of fighting, Tutu dances- because, for pretty much all of the series, her 'foes' are just people who have had their emotions manipulated and aren't really in control of their actions, due to the interference of malevolent forces like evil and fate. And even when it comes right down to pitting Tutu against the forces in question, she defeats them by winning over their object of desire with the very emotions she set about purifying through the rest of the show.

And even though it sounds like the anime would be pretty light and frilly (I mean, the main character's name is Princess Tutu, for Francis's sake xD ), the show has a much darker premise than one would expect. There's plenty of emotional strife, darkness, angst, and even a subtle undertone of the very violence and death that Tutu dances to prevent.

To avoid any confusion past this point, let me explain the plot of Princess Tutu to you.
The first episode enters with the following prologue:

One upon a time, there was a man who died.
The man's job was creating stories to tell other people. His last story involved a brave and beautiful young prince who was supposed to defeat a monster raven. However, now there was never to be a conclusion to their fierce fight.
"I hate this!" So screamed the Monster Raven.
"I hate this!" So declared the brave Prince.
The Raven flew out of the story, and the Prince chased it. Then, using a forbidden magic, the Prince cut out his own heart to seal the monster raven away.
The pieces of the Prince's heart were scattered throughout the town...
And then...
"Dark..."
From somewhere whispered the voice of the man who should've been dead...

So you start off with a nice chunk of dark foreshadowing right at the start. Death, sacrifice, and breaking the bonds of death.
The story then moves to a lake scene, where we see a duck watching a young boy dance. She comments on the apparent sadness of the boy and vows to do anything to make him smile...
...and then we are taken to the P.O.V. of a young girl named Ahiru. Ahiru is a boarder in a place called Kinkan Town, where she attends the local dance academy, and has a weird connection to the story of the Prince and the Raven, although she thinks it's all nothing but a dream. However, the boy the duck was watching does remind her of her crush at the academy, a boy named Mytho...
Later, after interacting with a few of the other characters- Mytho, his girlfriend Rue, his best friend Fakir, and the students and teachers of her class- Ahiru laments on her lack of ability to get through to Mytho. As she speaks, we get glimpses of a mysterious (and creepy) old man who says Ahiru has started 'the story'.
The next day, when Mytho accidentally falls out of a window, Ahiru saves him by getting advice from the old man and using her necklace to turn into Princess Tutu, although she loses her energy afterwards and changes into the duck from her dreams. The old man reveals that Mytho is the Prince mentioned in the old legend, and only Ahiru can save him by using her powers to return his heart.

Sort of like a fairytale, although this time it's the princess who saves the prince, a bit of role-reversal that I honestly can't imagine the fandom without. And from then on, it's frankly a wild ride.

Ahiru has to face a different issue every day, during which she encounters the other pieces of Mytho's heart. But it's not as easy as a treasure huntl the pieces of heart are hiding in the emotions of other people, looking for a home, and have driven them completely out of control. Tutu has no choice but to dance and dispel the distress of the victims, and have them separate themselves from the heart shards. From a curious lake, to a lonely chef, to an affectionate lamp (Fun fact: this links to the premise of the Japanese Shinto religion, where inatimate objects were given souls), Tutu is wrapped up in the result of the real world merging with a fairytale.

And it's not just that, either. More characters- chiefly an anti-hero and somewhat of a villain- are thrown into the mix, and it becomes more and more apparent that Drosselmeyer's intentions and powers are not what they seem. The dark past Mytho and the Raven are borne from is also explained, and it eventually boils down to a tough decision for our ducky heroine.

Ahiru runs into trouble when her secret identity is discovered by Mytho's best friend, a boy named Fakir. He originally sees Tutu as a threat to Mytho's safety and tries to interrupt her quest (and nearly kills her at one point), but becomes her ally after the two need to work together to save him. However, he's not sure how much he can actually do, because, in becoming Mytho's friend, he has brought the prophecy of the Prince's knight upon himself- a fighter who will die in Mytho's moment of greatest crises thanks to the Raven. And Rue, Mytho's alleged 'girlfriend', also feels threatened in her relationship (because she fears that Mytho, who she has pretty much just been dragging around while he's without his emotions, will be attracted to Tutu once he regains his heart and leave her). Because of this, she allies herself with the Raven and becomes his 'daughter', Princess Kraehe. Kraehe clashes with Tutu as she tries to reclaim the heart shards so she can take them for herself. However, she doubts this role and wishes she didn't have to take it on later in the show.

Near the end of the first season, Kraehe rips out Mytho's heart and soaks it in the blood of the Raven, which turns Mytho evil when Tutu returns it to him. He goes insane and tries to revive the Raven by sacrificing the hearts of young maidens as he turns slowly into one of the birds himself. Tutu is able to save the maidens, but can't help Mytho herself. And why? Because it turns out that the old man who gave her her powers is really the ghost of Drosselmeyer, the one who wrote the story in the first place. He slipped into a dimension outside of the world to control it (just as the world of the story is controlled by the world of Kinkan Town, the 'loophole of time', as Drosselmeyer calls it, can control Ahiru's entire reality). Drosselmeyer is a sadist who intends for the story to end in tragedy, and so he's robbed Tutu and Fakir of the ability to help their friends, or for anyone in Kinkan Town to change their own lives.
To stop him, Fakir and Tutu defy the story- Tutu ignores her desire to make Mytho her lover and instead focuses on doing what's best for him, and Fakir takes on a new prophecy that can let him fight Drosselmeyer. They also manage to break through to Rue, who is becoming weaker from the Raven's cruelty and regretting her actions as Kraehe.
In the end, it is revealed that the only way to save the world is to destroy the Raven and to stop Drosselmeyer's story. However, this means Tutu has to sacrifice her humanity, a key element in the tale, and let Mytho move on with another life separate from hers. She restores Mytho's heart, which Rue purifies by finally sacrificing herself and agreeing to actually love Mytho. Even as a duck, Tutu's hope stops the story, and Fakir writes a new fate- a happy one- for the town, as Mytho fights the Raven.

Each episode revolves around a different emotion or conflict, and is likewise set to match the base idea of a famous ballet or fairy tale. For instance, in episode 19, Ahiru has to stop Mytho from sacrificing a girl named Hermia so she can be with her lover, Lysander. As the names of these two characters hint, the story is based on Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream. The episodes open with a 'once upon a time' prologue much like the opening one's.

The show is also an artistic masterpiece. It combines detailed and colorful animation with wonderfully done dancing scenes, accompanied by a score of music from the ballets and fairy tales in question.

The characters are all taken from archetypes you'd find in a book, but modified in a way that makes them highly original and hard not to love.

Ahiru:
The main character of the story. Known as Duck in the English adaptations (because Ahiru means 'duck' in Japanese), she turns into Princess Tutu to dance against evil. Ahiru is meant to demonstrate innocence, naivety, and good will. Her wardrobe mainly consists of yellow and white, which are colors associated with cheer and purity, respectively. She carries the theme of hope throughout the story, which is a strange contrast to the fact that she puts herself down constantly and doesn't believe she can ever amount to anything without her powers. Basically, Ahiru hopes for everyone else, but only herself if it means she can help them. And for such a happy character, she's also got a pretty sad story- she basically dies in the end to let the boy she loved be with another, and is wiped from the memories of all her friends. For such a complex character, she behaves very simply, and is absolutely HILARIOUS in everything she does.

Mytho:
The 'princess' of the story, if you want to put this anime into a Mario scenario. Mytho was very virtuous and brave as the Prince, but lost all of his emotions while fighting the Raven. However, strangely enough, his sweet nature is more believable when he's heartless (upon regaining his own heart, he pretty much breaks Tutu's. Not exactly what I'd call loving). Mytho carries the theme of the struggle between good and evil, as he has to fight to keep himself from turning into a raven. He is represented by the colors white and black, which furthermore reference his plight of light and darkness.

Fakir:
The knight of the story. Fakir gives off a vibe of being overprotective to the point of manipulation, and stoic to the point of being cruel, early in the series. However, it turns out that he is simply afraid of losing his friend and his life, because he knows that the story of the knight writes him as dying before he can help Mytho. He fulfills this fate in a way at the end of the first season- he has a near-death experience at Kraehe's hands, and is only saved by a fluke in the tale, although he lacks the power to truly fight evil afterwards. Fakir then takes on the responsibility of being a writer like Drosselmeyer, and must guide the world to a happy ending. He carries the theme of appearances being deceiving; he also usually wears black over blue, which I find to be a sort of allusion to how he covers his deeper, more introspective self with a foreboding exterior.

Rue:
The 'villain' of the story. Rue was kidnapped by a baby as the Raven and implanted with a bit of his blood to turn her evil, so, when the time came, she'd be ready to turn Mytho into a raven and have him sacrifice himself to her 'father'. However, after she turns into Kraehe, she realizes being a bad guy comes with no friends and that no one really loves her this way. Rue, I think, carries the theme of being controlled by others and regret. She usually wears red, a color of passion.

Drosselmeyer:
The 'god' of the story, lol. He used to live in Kinkan Town, where he controlled the lives of people in his stories and sent them all into horrible tragedy. Eventually, he had his hands cut off and was murdered, although his ghost carries on his dirty work for him. He is represented by clocks and lives in a world full of gears and puppets. His eyes are also reminiscent of an owl's. Drosselmeyer is a sadist, and may be an over-dramatization/joke on how some authors enjoy putting their characters in dark situations. His name is also a joke in itself, as Drosselmeyer was the name of an eccentric but kind toymaker in the Nutcracker, who gave Clara the gift to let her pass into the world of magic.

Edel:
The 'mysterious advisor' of the story. Edel is actually a sort of avatar of the world Tutu and the others live in. Drosselmeyer cut the tree she used to be down and turned her wood into a puppet so he could control other realities. Because of this, Edel has no heart, and at first is only meant to guide the characters to the end Drosselmeyer desires for them. She ends up gaining emotions from her encounters with the characters, though, and stops them from following fate. Because of this, Drosselmeyer destroys her. Edel is the one who reveals most of the major truths in the series to Ahiru, even after her passing, and is represented by trees, the color green, and jewels that she uses to explain different emotions.

Uzura:
The 'little helper' of the story. Uzura is a puppet that Fakir's adoptive Father makes with the ashes from Edel's body. In contrast to her other self, she is vastly curious instead of all-knowing, and spends most of the show trying to discover the truth behind the emotions that drive things along. She is represented by a quail, her Japanese namesake.

Neko-sensei:
Ahiru's ballet teacher, inspired by a story about a cat-man who married disobedient girls. He is usually a source of comedy, but his obsession with love leads to him giving a lot of advice to the characters when Edel disappears from the story.

Pique and Lilie:
Ahiru's best friends. They seem to represent the opposite forces acting on Ahiru's life. Lilie, who is rather like Drosselmeyer, constantly tries to push Ahiru into a repetitive life of failure for her own enjoyment, while Pique pushes her to do more and won't stand for failure.

Autor:
A boy who helps Fakir discover his powers. He's the most normal of the characters, to the point that he stands out- he's down-to-earth, with no fairy-tale like qualities. Sadly, this is his worst quality as well, as he wanted to have the power to change the world and prove himself as being special to Rue, who he loved. However, the power instead goes to Fakir, and Autor is rebuffed so Rue can be with Mytho. In a weird way, he's the most sympathetic of the characters- he doesn't fit in and can't do much, probably meant to demonstrate the audience of the story.

...Whoo. *collapses* Text wall much? inb4tl;dr

Sadly, that's just 1/2 (or more like 3/4) of my review. Because, as epic as Princess Tutu is...it still has some flaws.

The first and foremost flaw is the ending. I mean, the good guy dies so her lover can be with the one who was a villain for most of the story, and loses everything she ever fought for? ...WHAT?
It was depressing and cruel. While some people would probably say that's supposed to demonstrate the ways of the real world, the POINT of the second season was changing the real world to be happy, and that didn't happen. All the beauty and color of the fairy tale world was lost. I guess they were trying to convey Ahiru's feelings of being let down, but... *sigh* It was just like Drosselmeyer's story: unnecessarily tragic.

I also have to complain about how the characters turned out in some aspects. Ahiru was too willing to give up on herself for the sake of others and wouldn't stand up for what she wanted. It was a good show of humility, but became too lacking in self-esteem. Mytho had a good nature at first, but the way he broke Tutu's heart to be with Rue was a huge letdown. I hated that latter relationship totally. And Rue...I dunno, I guess I can give her some sympathy because of the whole demonic influence and all, but she was really just twisted in some aspects and was more harm than good. I liked when she redeemed herself, but she should've done what she did in the manga and backed off to let Tutu be with the Prince. Fakir didn't have any major flaws, though.

There was also an issue with wasted potential. One example in chief is that Ahiru's more positive friend, Lilie, had a huge crush on Fakir even when Ahiru thought he was pure evil. Episode 15 involved Mytho framing Fakir as a criminal to get sympathy from the girls. They could've evolved on Pique's broken faith and dove into that relationship, but instead Pique was just made a sort of preview victim and stayed a side character, which is really disappointing. And there was some implication that Kraehe was a separate character from Rue who was controlling her (in part 3 of episode 9 was one of the biggest parts), although she just sort of disappeared when Rue took control again.

...I think that's about it. :3

My score for the show:
9.5/10.