Princess Tutu – 25/26 – Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the finale of our Princess Tutu watch! It’s been a long and surprising road for me. I thought this was going to be another bargain bin Mahou Shoujo. And here we are, an ending where the guy doesn’t get the girl, the heroine loses and the villain walks off without a care in the world. And I loved it. So let’s dive in! And remember, a poll for the next show to watch is at the bottom!

First up, lets talk animation and production, because this isn’t normally an area Princess Tutu excels in. It’s not bad by any means, Ahiru can be quite expressive when she wants to. But most of the time we are treated to stills and a more “postcard memories” treatment. While that’s a perfectly valid, and often times better, method I still want to give praise where it’s due. Because this week Princess Tutu had quite a bit of good animation. Most of it involved Mytho, from his flight on the petals to his combat with the Rave. But a fair a bit, and what I generally preferred, involved Ahiru. Her dances, how she flew about in the wind or got knocked around among crows. It was all unexpectedly polished and made for a great finale. I wish we had gotten more sooner, but in this case, the wait was worth it.

Moving on to the episodes proper, we start with episode 25, The Dying Swan. What a title, considering our titular character. This episode opens with Drosselmeyer thinking he has won. Yet even in victory his characters are managing to surprise him, as this isn’t the ending he had envisioned. Rue has taken the role of the Princess for herself, professing her love and freeing Mytho from the curse. Meanwhile the Knight lives and is instead writing stories. However for all that the characters have grown and the tale changed, he believes his victory is assured. And with good reason to, since Tutu has to give up her pendant to restore Mytho’s heart. Obviously however, Drosselmeyer isn’t going to be content with just this, he wants a tragedy like an edgy teenager reading their first YA novel. So of course he’s going to go out of his way to ensure it.

Not content with the tragedy he has already created, Drosselmeyer decides to check in on Fakir. And while a lot of this is just Drosselmeyer being a prick and stoking the fire, he does impart some advice. He explains that Fakir can’t write because he is trying to do it “responsibly”, that he has to “follow his own feelings”. It explains why Fakir can’t write, he isn’t writing stories true to the characters or true to their feelings. He is writing what he wants to happen instead of what should happen. Manufacturing a story that won’t resonate with anyone because its obviously not true. No author likes to hurt their characters, but there is no conflict in only “nice” things happening. The best works stay true who those characters are, the good and the bad, and that’s what makes them believable.

Take for instance Ahiru, who was Drosselmeyer’s demonstration for Fakir. Yes it’s on the nose and yes its very cruel of Drosselmeyer, but that’s just who he is. And that doesn’t make Ahiru’s fears and doubts any less real. She has spent this entire show believing she would be Mytho’s Princess, that she could break fate and get the happy ending. Her goal in the very first episode, her childish crush on Mytho, was to restore his heart and get the Prince. Yet here she is, having lost it all, with Mytho having chosen Rue as his Princess. All because she was never able, or willing, to speak the words. Maybe she doesn’t truly love him like Rue, it was a childish crush after all. But it still hurts to have that denied and it makes sense she would have reservations about ending the story and returning to a duck.

This brings me to the Lake of Despair, a fantastic scene and the culmination of my OTP. Fakir arrives, Ahiru literally drowning in despair, to tell her she isn’t alone. Not in a literal sense, though he is there, but in that nobody wants the story to end. Not Ahiru, not Fakir, not Rue, none of them want it to end tragically this way. Fakir wasn’t able to write painful truths, like his friends getting hurt, ruining his stories. Ahiru didn’t want to let go of her first crush and return to being just a clumsy duck. But together they can see it through, together they can face it and they can be together after the end. Not because of their roles or because Drosselmeyer told them to, but because they care about each other. Independent of Tutu and the Knight and their supposed “roles” in the story.

It’s hard to really dive into the details here, because it feels so obvious and clear. Princess Tutu did a fantastic job of building up and portraying this relationship. Culminating in them coming together at the end, Fakir writing the story while Ahiru acts it out. How it showed them crow closer together, while the two grew farther from Mytho. As he became more and more the storybook Prince, they became more and more their own, self realized, people. I’m still not a fan of things like Uzura or some of the more childish elements of the show. I don’t see a reason to lock Mytho in a shadowy egg, though it does make for a nice transformation scene. But they are so overshadowed by the complexity and maturity of this cast that I just don’t find myself caring.

Next up is episode 26, aptly named Finale. At this point Fakir has accepted his supporting role as a storyteller, Ahiru is a duck, and Mytho has become Siegfried. Now, I am not sure why, but I really wasn’t expecting a set piece big battle in Princess Tutu. I assumed it would be something more emotional, like the finale of the first cour. That isn’t to say this wasn’t emotional, rather that it was simultaneously that and action packed. We have Ahiru dancing with and getting beaten about by the crows. Siegfried flying up and through the Raven, sword held high. Even Fakir gets some action as the last of the Bookmen come to chop off his hands. I criticized the Bookmen a lot before, because they seemed out of place and didn’t add much. But their inclusion added a fair bit of tension to this finale.

That said though, the action was neither the high point nor really the focus of the episode. That honor goes to Ahiru, once again dancing to communicate her feelings where words won’t work. Princess Tutu even gave us a classic kids show “dance along with me” moment to the screen. However they managed to fit it into the narrative as Ahiru asking the townspeople, along with the viewer. I don’t think it was really necessary, but hey, it wasn’t bad. As for the dance itself, it was grand. Just as grand as if Ahiru had been Tutu in that moment. And in a way, she was. Because Ahiru and Tutu are one and the same, just with different outfits. Tutu’s power, the reason people trusted her and worked with her, wasn’t because of her beauty or her dancing. It was her honest and sincere will, which was Ahiru’s all along.

Now yes, the “save the day with hope” narrative is a bit hackneyed. However I think Princess Tutu has earned it at this point. Ahiru and Fakir were at their lowest here. She had no power and could only dance. Meanwhile Fakir could only write as the girl he loved was getting beat around by crows. Their only options were to run or stay the course, once again inspiring those around them, though this time in a literal sense. It was legitimately inspiring. On top of that, we have all of the sort of… meta connotations as it were?

I’m talking about Princess Tutu’s story within a story about authors, their works, and how they are read. Throughout Princess Tutu we have seen a variety of ways stories are treated. For the likes of Drosselmeyer they and those in them are toys, while for Fakir they are dear friends. Meanwhile there are those like the Bookmen, looking to censor those they fear. Yet here at the end, when Ahiru is dancing, she sums it all up in one line: “I won’t decide I can’t do anything without even trying. Because I’m the one who’s going to make my story!”. The crows and the Raven, they fight and batter her and her story around, treating it like dirt. There’s a whole long metaphor about stories in Princess Tutu to talk about, from all sorts of angles and different interpretations. But I think this dance is important to all of them.

Finally, the Raven is defeated, Rue is freed and Ahiru is still just a duck, we reach the end. I loved some parts of this ending and were mixed on others. For instance, the machine at the top of the clock tower felt pointless to me. I’d rather it have just been Drosselmeyer himself, rather than a complex gear system thing. That’s just me taking issue with some flavor though, and it really isn’t all that important to the story. The bit I did love however was Drosselmeyer and Uzura just… walking away after it was all over. He didn’t lose, he didn’t learn the error of his ways or any other lesson. He got his story, a bit different from how he planned, and walks off to find another. There’s a metaphor regarding audiences/authors and consuming media here I am sure. But regardless, I love this little touch.

So all in all, how was Princess Tutu’s finale? Well for big overarching thoughts you will have to wait for the review. But I can say that, for all my nitpicks like the machine or the “ask the audience” bit, I really liked it. I enjoyed both the main story around Ahiru, Fakir and Mytho as well as the more meta story regarding… well stories. I loved how even though everyone got a “happy” ending, it wasn’t the ending they were originally looking for. Ahiru and Fakir’s might as well be tragic, for how separated they are. Together, yet not. One forever a duck the other a Knight with no Prince or Princess to protect. Really the only one to get a happy ending was Rue, and she deserves it. So yes, long and short, I quite enjoyed the finale of Princess Tutu. And the rest of the series to.

And that it is, as they say ladies and gentleman, a wrap. Thanks for sticking with me during this watch, the final review will be out soon. Most likely by this weekend, looking at my progress on it. In the meantime, here is the poll to vote on the next show I will watch. If what you want to see isn’t on the list, comment down below and I will add it to the poll next time. Until then, thank you for reading, and see you soon!