Princess Tutu – 3/4 – Throwback Thursday

Welcome to week 2 of Princess Tutu! This week continues Ahiru’s quest to save the prince in distress. Meanwhile we learn more about our possible villains, the world, and Ahiru’s ultimate fate! Ooooo spooky. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Once again I want to take a moment to talk about Princess Tutu’s production. Because so far, two weeks in a row, it has managed to surprised me. Everything from the animation to the direction fits the show to a T. From the expressive faces of the characters to its very formatting as if its a ballet taking place on stage. It’s clear that Junichi Satou put a lot of thought into not only the themes/story, but how to present that story as well. The only complaint I really have is that the big finale’s of each episode feel… lacking. Compared to the rest of the episode, they are very slow and plodding. A lot of care is put into some of the dance positions and the shot composition. But the action animation is always a bit of a letdown for how important the scenes are. Minor, but still.

Getting into the episodes proper, we have episode 3, A Princess’s Oath. Right off the bat there was a lot of interesting worlding building this week. As we learn that both the story of the Prince and the Raven along with Drosselmeyer himself are canonically real. They exist in Princess Tutu’s world, such that the characters know about them. The best comparison I have for this is something like Shrek, or something similar. This makes me believe Princess Tutu will be, or already is, a sort of meta commentary on the stories themselves. No doubt setting up the same basic structure as all these old classics, only to subvert or critique them as we go on. We already see some of that this episode, which I will get into more later. Suffice to say, when Edel said this was a “town where stories and reality intermingle”, she meant it.

The big example of that Princess Tutu gives us this week is actually rather obvious, Hansel and Gretel. However just like I was talking about before, Princess Tutu plays on this rather cleverly. As it not only gives the witch a more sympathetic motivation, a look into the why, but keeps the terrifying nature of the original story. Only revealing this modification to the story at the very end, dropping hints leading up to it. It was, once again, the perfect blend of classical Mahou Shoujo children’s show and something darker, keeping my attention. Even if that darkness was subverted at the end, I didn’t feel baited or betrayed, because Princess Tutu carried through on its subversion. Really going in on the idea of grief and loneliness, actually embodying the emotion that Mytho had lost for this episode.

To make a long story short, what I liked about Princess Tutu here was how it played it straight. Intermingling the earlier bright and cheery tones of Ahiru and her rom-com with the darker tones of classic tales. My only complaint with the episode was as I said before. I find the finale’s to rather underwhelming. Not from a narrative perspective, though they are rather hamfisted. Rather, it feels like Princess Tutu frontloads a lot of its best production. Focusing primarily on Ahiru’s physical and facial expressions. And while I can’t fault the results of that, those look great, it does kind of dull the finale’s impact. Some of it is recovered by focusing entirely on presenting it like a ballet. Giving us one angle, like a stage, with classical music overlayed on top of that. But eventually that well is going to run dry. Lets hope its not soon.

Lastly for this episode, I want to talk about Princess Tutu’s endgame. A bit early at 3 episodes, I know, but it’s actually being setup rather well here. As we learn that, along with the Prince, Raven and Drosselmeyer, Princess Tutu herself exists as a story in this world. And it’s one with a rather tragic ending, fated to never be with the Prince she saves. Now Princess Tutu can go one of two ways with this, and if done well, I could enjoy either. The first is the rather traditional tragedy, where it plays it straight and Ahiru disappears at the finale. I love tragedies, so this would be fine by me. The other though would be if it was done in the same manner as say… Shrek. Where we riff on the traditional tragedy, but are aware of what we are doing. Either could work, if done well.

Next we come to episode 4, Giselle. This was another dense episode, so before we get into that, let’s talk small stuff. For instance, I really like the interplay between Ahiru and her friends. It’s small, but they make a good Abbott and Costello double-act playing off Ahiru. On the other end of the scale though we have the “marry me” cat gag, which I just find… stupid. Unless Princess Tutu does something with this narratively, using the darker tones surrounding it, to me it will just be a poor gag. Which is sad, because Princess Tutu is generally pretty good with character gags. One of my favorite this week being Ahiru mimicking Rue’s heavy breathing after their run. Its both good character and physical humor, and I think it fits both of them to a tee. If we could get more of that, and less cat, i’d be happy.

To move on to something more relevant, lets talk for a second about Fakir and Rue. Now I am very torn on these two, as I cannot tell if they are villains or not. On one hand, they both know to much and are rather abusive towards Mytho. Seeming to vye for control over him, never really caring about his own thoughts on the matter. Of course, this looks slightly less bad for them if they both know he lacks any emotions. But then you have to wonder just how much they know. Fakir clearly knows about who he really is, and I wouldn’t put it past Rue either. Since it explains her lack of reaction to Anteaterina last week. Regardless, it almost feels to obvious. Like Princess Tutu is setting us up for a twist here, purposefully presenting them as villains. I can only hope its pulled off well.

Now we come to the primary conflict of the episode, Giselle. Personally, I am unfamiliar with this ballet, it’s not one of the ones I have seen. But reading up on it abit, and how Princess Tutu used it, I liked its place here. Not only does it play on existing stories, like the rest of the show, but it’s a very relevant story to both Rue and Ahiru. As it parallels Ahiru’s own forbidden love, destined to not come to pass, and helps her as a character move past it. Meanwhile Rue herself is confronted with a seemingly more pure love and how its stronger than her own. Shown in how she fails to save Mytho, but Ahiru succeeds, despite the tragic nature of it. I think it was a rather brilliant 3 way parallel here.

That it resulted in Mytho regaining his feeling of sorrow only made it better. As he is now able to weep and be sad over both this tragedy and his treatment by others. I am actually very curious where Princess Tutu is going to go with this. As so far, as Drosselmeyer points out, all of the emotions he has gotten back have been negative. So will we see him perhaps ask Ahiru to stop, so he doesn’t keep getting this pain? Or maybe it will result in him accidentally guilt tripping Fakir/Rue, showing their more caring side? Regardless there are a lot of interesting questions here I think. And a lot of directions for Princess Tutu to go, considering the amount of emotions still left on the table. If it can continue this sort of character growth across its “Monster of the week” episodes, i’ll be very happy.

So all in all, how was Princess Tutu this week? Once again, it surprised me, though pleasantly so. We continue to get the ballet and play references, laden throughout the story. Only now they are both references and setting knowledge for Princess Tutu as a whole. Meanwhile the story itself has set a clear end-goal, consequences included, and is steadily moving towards it. Slowly developing all of its major characters as it does. Really the only concern I have at this point is from its production. As while the faces are rather expressive, I fear for some of the big moments to come if this is all they will have. Still, I am more than willing to take a wait and see approach. Because at this point, Princess Tutu has earned it, along with my full and undivided attention.