Welcome all to week 3 of Princess Tutu! A bit early this week, but that ain’t so bad. There’s a bit of a global emergency going on right this moment, but thats no reason to forget the little things. And this week Princess Tutu did a great job of distracting me from this crazy world with 2 more really good episodes. So without further ado, let’s dive in!
Starting off, I want to commend Princess Tutu for just how quickly it is moving. That might seem strange to some, considering how often I harp about pacing here, but let me explain. I was fully prepared for Princess Tutu to become an episodic monster of the week. Where every ep we recover a new heart shard and return to the status quo. Only really moving forward big plot points every 10 or so episodes. So when I mean Princess Tutu is moving unexpectedly fast, I mean that its moving at all. Because so far, every episode has not only had the episodic heart shard, but also noticeably advanced the plot. Whether it be Rue meeting Tutu, Fakir and Rue competing for Mytho, or just explaining Ahiru’s predicament a bit more. Every episode we have gotten more than I expected. And I really like that.
This holds true for this week as well, starting with episode 5, On the Eve of the Fire Festival. Right off the bat, Princess Tutu begins to show us the consequences of Ahiru’s actions. I worried in earlier episodes that Mytho wouldn’t change, hoping we could see a progression of his character. This week seemingly began that, as for the first time, he is being proactive. It’s only small things of course, asking Ahiru to dance of his own volition and the like. But it’s still far more assertive than he was at the start of the show. We also see this later on in the episode, where he questions Fakir’s actions. Asking to be let out instead of demurely accepting the punishment. He still does in the end, since he isn’t all the way there. But it’s a clear progression and one I look forward to more of.
Meanwhile, we have that previously mentioned plot progression I talked about in Fakir and Ahiru. Like I said above, I wasn’t expecting Princess Tutu to have this confrontation this early. It really surprised me and I look forward to seeing how it is used moving forward. Beyond that though, I enjoyed how it happened as well. Ahiru isn’t the kind of character to slyly keep her mouth shut, she says whats on her mind. So it makes perfect sense she would out herself to Fakir. Meanwhile Fakir is so supremely confident and arrogant about the whole thing, so sure of the secret, that he doesn’t care about telling Ahiru. Sure in the knowledge that she must already know if she is here and standing in his way. Maybe that’s a bit of a reach on Fakir’s character this early. But even if its a misstep, it’s good for the story.
Moving on, we come to this episodes heart shard and “monster of the week” scenario. Once again, I really liked how Princess Tutu tied this in to actual character details. With a constant through line across the entire episode involving Rue. This one of course being “love” or “affection” as my subs translated it, and how stifling it can be. This idea of love and how you can’t force it on people works great in the context of Rue and Fakir. Both of whom are forcing their love on Mytho regardless of his wishes, though in different ways. Fakir’s being very abusive, but seemingly ultimately protective, while Rue’s seems very controlling. Running away when Mytho shows emotion, as if he isn’t the same Mytho he was before. Meanwhile you have Ahiru, with her pure love, slowly being forgotten and turned away similar to the lamp of the shard.
None of it is perfect of course, Princess Tutu can be very hamfisted at times. But the presentation of a ballet, of a tragedy, sort of tints all of these elements for me. Making them appear darker than they would be in a vacuum, which appeals to me a lot. That said, there were also a number of small things I want to touch on throughout the episode. Like how the opening changes every episode, like a miniature recap. Yet it’s stylized differently every time, with a new voice over included. It’s a small gesture, but one I think adds to the “storybook” setting. At the same time though, Princess Tutu continues this overused marriage gag with the cat and I just… I don’t care for it. I hope it’ll be used later on more seriously, but as a gag, I find it trite. Still, overall, it’s a good episode.
Moving on we come to episode 6, The Dreaming Aurora. Beyond anything else that happened in this episode, there was one big detail that Princess Tutu laid out for us. This issue is localized. We heard it before from Edel, how this town is the merging of stories and reality. But I didn’t really expect that to be literal, I thought the town itself was a story maybe. That there was nothing outside of it. Yet this episode has a theater troupe enter the town from the outside, and their memories are changed accordingly. Even changing their troupe leader into an eel. I don’t quite get what that is referencing, so if you know please tell me down below. But it made for a nice bit of world building in that this really was just a normal town until Drosselmeyer happened.
As for the contents of the episode itself, we actually learn a good deal about Fakir here. I am still undecided on if he is an antagonist or not of course. But these two episodes really showed that there might be some legitimate concern in his actions. Like an overprotective helicopter parent, Fakir shuts Mytho away for his “own good”. We see this in how much attention he pays to Mytho. Noticing his trembling, his changes, his progression. Doing his best to prevent these changes and holding him tight, protecting him, at the end of the episode. It doesn’t excuse his actions of course, what he is doing is still often terrible. But I think it recontextualizes there relationship, as we learn he has been taking care of Mytho for ages. Even giving him a name where before he had none. I am looking forward to where this goes later.
This leads us to the actual “monster of the week” part of the episode, with the heart shard. Once again, Princess Tutu subverted expectations here. As each week prior the heart shard had taken over or influenced someone negatively. Yet this week we actually see the shard being denied its hold. For as it attempts to take over and influence the dancer Paulamoni, her husband comes in and drives those away. Supporting her and pulling her away from the negative self-depreciation that the shard was driving her towards. Not only is this a nice subversion of the “weekly monster” format, but it parallels nicely with Fakir’s treatment of Mytho. It also carries over the previous episodes theme of love and affection, and how it supports someone. Long story short, there are a lot of details and little things I love here with how Princess Tutu is connecting its episodes.
Finally we get to the big “gotcha” of the episode, and what both this week were building towards. Mytho, after regaining his fear, is afraid of Tutu. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting this, and I love it. We are a legitimate tragedy now readers! With Ahiru doubting her goals and actions, Fakir seemingly being proven correct and Mytho in a worse state than over. This is the sort of dip before the rise of course, we all know this will most likely end happily for Mytho. But anytime a characters actions have consequences I am happy, especially when those consequences seriously impact another character. I can only hope that moving forward, Princess Tutu sticks with this. Because at this point, even if it ends happily, I think it will feel deserved.
So all in all, how were these two episodes of Princess Tutu? Well I say they were once again pretty good. Far above what I expect when someone says “magical girl show”. So much so that I may actually have to start re-evaluating my opinion of the genre. Because up until now, I have primarily had to watch things like Hugtto! Precure. And yes, I say “made to”, because I had no choice in the matter when participating in the 2019 r/anime awards as one of their jurors. Long story short, Princess Tutu has everything Hugtto lacked. Compelling characters, an interesting premise and a spice to its otherwise happy theming. My only concern at this point isn’t whether or not it will be good. Just how long Princess Tutu can keep it up, considering what I have heard about the 2nd half. Regardless, it’s been good so far.
Yeah, I definitely remember the episode where Mytho regained fear and to twelve year old me, that episode was chilling as hell. Seeing Mytho go from a quiet non-entity to suddenly SCREAMING LIKE A BANSHEE was almost scary. But I loved it all the same!