Tutu

Normally, I’m not much of a shoujo addict… Okay, now that I think of it, I sort of am… I read Shoujo Beat and absolutely adore Mars, and lately I’ve been really into Kaleido Star, but in my defense, I was never crazy about Sailor Moon or Fushigi Yuugi. I think I like different, spunky characters. Especially Yumi Tamura’s creations. In any case, I never thought I’d be watching a show with transformations. But here I am, watching Princess Tutu! This is how it happened – I saw the following AMV and said to myself, That shit is AWESOME. Warning: Spoilers.

I bought the DVD at AnimeNEXT for $10 and another con-goer walked up next to me as I was paying and said everyone should see this AMV before watching it. Well, of course, that’s why I was buying the DVD!

Princess Tutu is about a duck named Duck (or Ahiru in Japanese, I watched it dubbed because I was fiddling with Photoshop at the same time). Duck can turn into a girl with the help of an amulet and also, with the help of the mysterious storyteller Drosselmeyer, into Princess Tutu. As a girl, Duck goes to ballet school with Mytho, a young man who has no emotions. It turns out that Mytho is actually a prince from a fairy tale (that isn’t quite a spoiler, I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on), and Duck is Princess Tutu from the tale. In the fairy tale, the prince fought against an evil raven, but the tale’s writer (Drosselmeyer) never finished telling it because he died. Also, in the story, Princess Tutu was in love with the prince, but the moment she confessed her love, she turned into a speck of light – she’s a tragic princess. Other characters include Fakir, who is forever controlling Mytho since he has no willpower, and Rue, Mytho’s girlfriend who tells him that he loves her because, again, he has no willpower. Mytho’s heart has been broken into pieces and the pieces have been scattered, which is why he has no emotions. Princess Tutu has the power to return the pieces to him.

It seems to me that this series will have many episodes in which Princess Tutu goes off to find one of Mytho’s heart shards.

My favorite character is Duck, of course, since she’s spunky and selfless and CUTE! As a duck she quacks – sooo cute… Also, I like the identity crises she often has – after all, what is she? A duck, a girl, a princess…is Princes Tutu still her? And sadly, Duck always seems to come to the conclusion that she is a duck… She’s also in love with Mytho but thinks Rue and he are a perfect match. I disagree, but whatever. Right now Mytho is a zombie, so it’s hard to tell who he’d work well with.

I also like Mr. Cat, the ballet instructor who is an actual cat, who always threatens to marry the girls who don’t do well in his class.

The show does have some shortcomings. In the first few episodes, it quickly becomes apparent who the prince is…and who the raven is, although I think that Duck will discover that much later. Also, it seems that Duck resolves every “battle” by sympathetically talking to the “villains”. Talking. Or dancing a little. A very slow way to have a battle. But these aren’t battles. They’re therapy sessions.

Will I be watching the rest of the series? Well, the AMV spoils the ending, but I’d be interested in watching more anyway, although I may turn to YouTube for the next few episodes since I’m being super cheap this year. (If I can borrow it, even better.)

One cool thing about the DVD case – it has a reversible cover! Maybe I’ve just been out of it, but this is the first DVD I’ve ever owned that has a reversible cover – the light-colored side with Tutu and Drosselmeyer in the back, and the creepy dark side with Drosselmeyer’s crazy old man eyes looking on Tutu.

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