Written by Tyrone BruinsmaIn the various genres of anime (Harem, Shonen, Isekai etc) comes the "Magical Girl Anime". Popularized by the likes of Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew (Mew Mew Power in the US), and given deconstructionist takes by the likes of Madoka Magica - the genre remains one of the most popular genres globally and is especially adored by female audiences. The genre's influences can be felt in similar western works like Winx Club, though American live action shows such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and even The Flying Nun also reflect this desire in audience's joy in magical female heroines. Released alongside Tokyo Mew Mew from 2002 to 2003 (Co-currently with a manga adaptation), Princess Tutu starts out as initially a fairy tale version of the Magical Girl formula before transcending into something more. What at first breaks down the cliches of Magical Girl animes instead turns its attention to the concepts of authorship, character motivation, and ultimately the purpose of conflict in stories. The premise of the anime is this: the story takes place in a magical town where a girl named Duck is pining for the affections of an emotionally muted boy named Mythos (pronounced Muto for some reason) at a dance school. But (because there always a "but" in anime) Duck is actually a literal duck who was turned into a human by a dead author named Drosselmeyer to restore pieces of Mythos heart that was shattered into shards. To do this, she'll have to "fight" persons and humanoid animals with emotional problems who have those heart shards within themselves, by turning herself into Princess Tutu. Also, if she makes duck noises as a human, she turns into a duck; but can make herself human again with water. And if that "simple" premise hurts your head-don't worry it's fairly self-explanatory in experiencing the series. If the name Drosselmeyer wasn't a hint for you, Drosselmeyer is the name of a character from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's adaptation of The Nutcracker and appeared in versions like the 2001 Barbie in the Nutcracker adaption. And through the use of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, it's very clear that this work is a love letter and ode to not only those works, but classic fairytales in general. The bonkers premise and its world operate on a dream like quality similar to Alice in Wonderland where the questions of fiction and reality are largely unimportant...until they are. See, Princess Tutu's trick is that the first half of the first season largely plays out in a Sailor Moon plot structure wherein Duck encounters a character with emotional problems, turns into Princess Tutu and dances with them to heal them of their pain and thus regain a piece of Mythos' heart. But over the course of the story, more and more depth is added in. For instance, while there are comedic characters like Duck's best friends Pike and Lilie, and her dance teacher Mr. Cat; even they get some depth going forward. The two most interesting characters are Rue (Mytho's betrothed girlfriend) and Fakir (Mytho's best friend who acts like a bodyguard). At first Rue seems like a perfect girl and Fakir like a jerk, but the story slowly unravels into more and more layers while the author Drosselmeyer constantly craves conflict-directly speaking to us as the audience. And unfortunately, I can't explain the complexities or intricacies of that depth without spoiling the entire series: so if you want to not be spoiled - please go watch it now. If you've seen it or are ok with spoilers, we'll proceed. SPOILED SECTIONSo, for the first half of Princess Tutu's first season-there's no overarching villain. Drosselmeyer acts more as a narrative foil than anything - pushing the story to where it needs to be. We learn elements like how Duck really was just a duck who fell in love with Mythos as prince, or that if Duck ever proclaims her love for Mythos-she'll vanish into light, which don't come out of the ordinary. But then, Rue turns out to be our seeming villain-as she transforms herself into the villainous Princess Kraehe who doesn't wish for Mytho's heart to be restored.
This adds a sense of my immediate conflict seeing as how Princess Tutu's "fights" are little more than dances of understanding. We also learn that Fakir has been acting akin to a knight to protect Mythos, even to the point where he would willingly shatter Mytho's heart. See, the interesting conflict revolves around emotional fulfilment. If Duck proclaims her love to Mythos (the thing that she craves more than anything and is her driving motivation) she will die. If Mythos regains his heart (and thus his emotions)...well something bad will happen. The first season concludes in a unique showdown where Kraehe/Rue kidnaps Mythos and forces Princess Tutu/Duck to either make herself vanish or she'll shatter the part of Mytho's heart that represents love. This conflict ends in a 'dance fight' of sorts between Princess Tutu and Princess Kraehe, with Princess Tutu winning and freeing Mythos. And while that seems like a happy ending, season 2 gets more complex and more in depth. Because the two big reveals at first are that Kraehe poisoned Mytho's heart shard which taints his soul with that of Kaehe's father...The Raven. See, before he died - Drosselmeyer was writing a story about Prince's battle with a giant Raven that wanted to eat his heart. To prevent this, the Prince carved out his own heart. See where this is going? Because it turns out Drosselmeyer's stories were coming to life and so was this tale...before he was killed. And we haven't even gotten to the truly emotionally piercing stuff. While season follows a similar pace to the first, the new element is Kraehe attempting to feed people's heart to her Raven father and that's who Princess Tutu ends up saving. But more pieces come into play, like how not only did Fakir dedicate himself to protect Prince Mytho since he was a small boy...but he's a descendant of Drosselmeyer with the ability to rewrite stories/reality. We learn that Drosselmeyer may or may not be in as much control of the story as we thought. We learn that there's a secret cult society that seeks to control this town by ensuring Drosselmeyer's power ceases as he's trapepd them in this fictious world. We even learn that Kraehe's abusive Raven father isn't even her real father...but that he kidnapped her as a baby during one of his attacks on the town and she loved the Prince from a young age. Now, if you can process all that-you might be asking "Where's Duck/Princess Tutu?" Well that's this anime's first big meta story trick. Drosselmeyer makes it very clear that Princess Tutu is an entirely new character to help end his unfinished tale. As a writer myself, this is actually a really neat trick as it shows that: 1. Your main character may not seem like the most important cog in the machine, but they are unto themselves. 2. Conflict drives the story. Too many films in the post JJ Abrams era have forgotten this. This will only be a small tangent, but JJ Abrams as a writer made a name for himself by helping bring up writer colleagues like Damon Lindeloff, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman and "The Mystery Box". The Mystery Box isn't really relevant here, but what is how many of these writers have applied a systemic formula to their scripts that makes them problematic. For instance, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman's screenplays on films like Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens and the 2017 reboot of The Mummy all suffer from bland lead protagonists with very little conflict, involvement or engagement-but just happen to have/be walking MacGuffins of importance to the plot no one cares about. They barely have arcs and rarely affect the story. Princess Tutu (despite coming out before those) defies that by making the seemingly unimportant main character not only interesting, not only engaging through their motivation and conflict, but by her entry into the story making the characters change for the better. She restores Mytho's heart shards and gives him a personality, she break's Fakir's steely aggressive resolve into a kinder soul, and she even appeals to Rue's heart that becomes essential to the story by the end. The ending climax sees Rue/Kraehe reject her father's goals of eating the Prince's heart and professing her love for him, Fakir accepting his lineage's gift to rewrite this story (even after it's established the raven kill his parents for trying this as a child), and Duck as Princess Tutu reject's Drosselmeyer's attempts to interfere with the story. In the end: Duck, Mytho, Rue and Fakir all work together to destroy The Raven once and for all, finish this story and free the town from this fictious pocket dimension. Despite Duck and Mytho seeming to be destined to fall in love as post 80s fairytale's would, it's actual Rue and Mytho who go on to live on as the happily ever after Princess and Prince. While Duck turns into a duck permanently, living with Fakir who has come to love her. The town reverts into a place in the real world, and Drosselmeyer goes on to maybe write another story as a ghost once more. The main theme that comes through with Princess Tutu is not conflict, or even characters breaking free of their bonds - it's love. Not in a pining, romantic love - but a universal love of humanity. While there have been other stories and series that have attempted this to mixed results (ie. Steven Universe having a protagonist who would try to reason with genocidal monsters) Princess Tutu does it the best. Princess Tutu as a story and character is about how underneath people's unfulfilled goals and struggles is a heart that can be reached. It's an unselfish love as Princess Tutu seeks to repair Mytho's heart without really asking for anything in return, understand Fakir, and just be friend with Rue-even when she knows Rue is the villain. She doesn't fight anyone because she's trying to understand and heal those who are in in pain, that's why this isn't really an action series even if there are scene of that. There's lots of things I didn't cover, like how Mr Cat is a hilarious character with his constant threats to make failing students marry him (with the show giving him depth and even a nice ending), or how there's supporting characters like Miss Adel or Uzura that are delightful. Or that the comedy is seriously gold, with the English voice cast doing an outstanding job. While not as popularized and well known as Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Bleach, My Hero Academia or Demon Slayer - Princess Tutu maintains a hardcore fanbase to the point in recent years a dedicate team has been producing a fully animated and voiced unofficial 3rd season that you can watch online called Princess Tutu Zwei. It's a good series, one I recommend to fans of Sailor Moon/magical girl animes, fairytales or those who love to engage in dream logic stories that engage in the nature of reality. It's also a really cute, really sweet and really funny series. Its subverted my expectations and view of the characters multiple times-with my favorite being Rue/Kraehe as I feel she's the most complex and truly tragic character of this story. You don't say that about a nothing story where it's boring. It's well paced, avoids some of the worst cliches in anime and is a masterclass in emotionally engaging with stories and characters.
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