As much as this generation is very much pro everything and all no book cover judging, we all do it. A lot. Its what we do as human beings. And me, being a human begining, am very much no immune to this. Thus, when someone said you should watch Princess Tutu with no context behind it I dismissed it as being nothing more than pretty pretty Pre-Cure reboot, original gen. And boy, just like in real life with judging the cover, I was proven veeeerry wrong when curiosity finally hit me one faithful Hulu searching day.
Princess Tutu, contrary to popular nonwatcher beliefs, is not a ballerina magical girl show..... well actually, that's exactly what it is. But it's not as bad as the title would have you believe.
Princess Tutu is a fairytale spin of character struggles in a failing story. Literally, the characters are in the middle of a tragedy where the strings are being pulled from behind reality.
Once upon a time there was a man who could weave stories into reality. His final story was left unfinished. The story of a brave, loving and courageous prince who was fighting a deadly, villainous raven. But before the writer could finish his tale, he died. The characters of his tale were distraught. "I'm tired of this" they thought. Before long, the evil Raven had jumped into reality, followed by the prince to stop it. The jump caused a change in the town they landed in however. Fairytales and reality became intermingled, and the impossible was possible. The prince was forced to use a forbidden spell to seal the Raven. By spearing his heart and shattering it into pieces across the town they had arrived in, the Raven was sealed away, and the Prince reduced to an emotionless husk. Little to anyone's knowledge however, the writer was pulling the strings of his story all along, even while dead.
Thus the stage is set for our main heroine to come in. A little duck, entranced by the sad, dancing prince, wishes to be able to help him. In comes Drosselmeyer, the writer, who offers her the ability to become a real girl and also the ability to help restore the princes heart and emotions by turning into Princess Tutu. The little duck, accepts, posing as a normal girl in the art academy he attends. But she is left with a warning. If ever she proclaims her love to the prince, Mytho now, she would turn into light and vanish. Much to her dismay she also has many people trying to prevent her from returning the poor prince's heart.
The story quickly transitions from scene to scene with each new found heart shard of the prince's missing heart. Despite it's episodic tendencies with one character for one story episodes, somehow they intermingle the continuation of the main plot as well. Though particularly tedious in the second half of the show, the first half is done well.
The characters themselves are a trip. I love the main quartet a lot. Beginning with Duck, or Ahiru for the Japanese, she's a quirky girl with only one wish. She's a one track duck in the beginning of the show, but her wish is continually challenged by the other cast members. I don't want to spoil so I can't say much more, but quickly Duck is changing from the simple black and white of her original plan. Fakir undergoes some amazing development as well, transiting from a cold hearted asshole to my favorite character in the entire show. In fact, all of the character undergo a sort of metamorphosis following the end of the first half finale.
While I won't particularly get into too many of the other characters, just out of sheer laziness, I will talk about the syntax of the show. The first half was my favorite part. It retained it's innocence and mystery while still having a clear and dangerous overall outcome. A classic Grimm like fairytale described the first half of the show. As already mentioned, it had an episodic nature while still managing to further the plot without a problem. The second half however contained a lot of twists. It changed the focal point of all of the characters set in the story and while I can say this was good, it was also bad for the plot. It laddened down the plot, causing it to drag on without any clear plot progression in the episodes. While the Grimm fairytale charm was also lost, it was replaced with something just as good. The only downside were the filler episodes. In my opinion, a 26 episode series really shouldn't have any filler episodes. If it has enough story to tell, it should fit into that space. Rather easily too, since 26 episodes isn't too long.
The show was filled with great soundtracks as well. A lot of them were ballets and the original music was reminiscent of the same type. All of the songs were orchestral and each song fit the mood of the scene incredibly well. The show itself was like watching a very long ballet, which I'm sure was the intent. I completely misjudged the show and it's now one of my favorites. In fact, I'm probably going to go re watch it soon.
While I won't particularly get into too many of the other characters, just out of sheer laziness, I will talk about the syntax of the show. The first half was my favorite part. It retained it's innocence and mystery while still having a clear and dangerous overall outcome. A classic Grimm like fairytale described the first half of the show. As already mentioned, it had an episodic nature while still managing to further the plot without a problem. The second half however contained a lot of twists. It changed the focal point of all of the characters set in the story and while I can say this was good, it was also bad for the plot. It laddened down the plot, causing it to drag on without any clear plot progression in the episodes. While the Grimm fairytale charm was also lost, it was replaced with something just as good. The only downside were the filler episodes. In my opinion, a 26 episode series really shouldn't have any filler episodes. If it has enough story to tell, it should fit into that space. Rather easily too, since 26 episodes isn't too long.
The show was filled with great soundtracks as well. A lot of them were ballets and the original music was reminiscent of the same type. All of the songs were orchestral and each song fit the mood of the scene incredibly well. The show itself was like watching a very long ballet, which I'm sure was the intent. I completely misjudged the show and it's now one of my favorites. In fact, I'm probably going to go re watch it soon.
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