Princess Tutu Volume 1 (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 5 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Reversible Cover - Ballet For Beginners - Etude - Outtakes - Clean Open/Close Animation - Voice Actor Commentary - Staff Commentary - In The Studio
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Princess Tutu Vol. 1 (DVD)

Once Upon A Time…

A girl named Duck – or rather, a duck who wanted to become a girl – fell in love with a prince. As she paddled around her pond one day, a bizarre old man emerged from the early morning mist and gave her a magical pendant with the power to transform the waddling Duck into the waltzing Princess Tutu.

Cackling, the man faded into the fog making clear the demands of Duck’s destiny. Her lonely prince had lost the pieces of his heart, and only Tutu could unravel their mystery. But however she should choose to step, for better or for worse, would shape her tangled story. For those who accept their fate find happiness, those who defy it, glory.

I originally saw Princess Tutu over a year and a half ago when one of my otaku friends showed me a copy that he’d downloaded. (Downloading copyrighted material off the Internet is just wrong!) Much like most times that he shows me something that isn’t either comedy or action, I made fun of him and his love of Cardcaptor Sakura. Although, I will admit that while this show wasn’t my cup of tea I was certainly blown away with the character Neko-sensei (translated as Mr. Cat) and was really impressed how the animators were able to recreate a hominid-cat character and make him move with a balance of human and cat characteristics (excessive strutting and spontaneous preening or scratching).

The anime tells much like a quasi-modern fairy tale, the story being told at the beginning by the narrator mimics the story for Duck. She is a duck that was granted a human form by an old man so that she can dance with the forlorn Prince that she has seen many times. The prince in question, is from the fairy tale that is told in the beginning – he used his heart to contain the raven that he was battling, and now he lives on without one.

Episode 01: The Duck And The Prince

Our young heroine (not heroin… it’s not that kind of story) Duck is a loving and caring lady, however, she is a scatter-brain and is easily dragged all over by the whims of her mind – like how she sprints for class after hearing the bell, instead of checking the clock and noticing that it’s only 6 AM. Her extreme bout of promptness allows her to see Mytho practice (it’s the boy that Duck has the hots for) and when she becomes flustered and trips over her own feet, he saves her. Although he protected her, he injures his foot in the process and is chastised by Fakir (the one blowhard jagoff that thinks too highly of themselves that we all seem to know). Duck becomes too distracted during her own practice and ends up drawing the ire of Neko-sensei (who threatens that any girl that screws up will have to marry him, most terrifying threat indeed).

Advertisement

Anyways, after being rebuffed in her attempts to see Mytho by Fakir, she decides to try again the next day after Fakir goes to school and Mytho will be alone recuperating. While she heads towards the dormitory, the canary birds that she is familiar with are leaving the nest for the first time, but as one of them prepares to fly for the first time it is attacked by a raven and knocked off its’ perch. Mytho was watching from his window and he jumps out the window to save

Advertisement

the young bird. Duck sees Mytho fall, and she can see the old man in her Mind’s Eye and she is now able to transform into Princess Tutu and creates a bed of flowers for Mytho to fall into. Having saved him, she comes come to talk and before she can tell him her name, but all she can say are quacks. Running away, Duck reverts to an actual duck.

Episode 02: Heart Shard

Duck once again speaks with the old man who tells her that he is the author of the fairy tale, and he wants her to collect the pieces of the Prince’s heart. To help, he will return her to human form (via a pendant that she will have to wear at all times), but warns her that if she says or does anything like a duck she will revert to a bird. In this episode, we finally get an idea that Mythos is actually heartless as he thinks nothing of breaking up with his current girlfriend Rue for another girl who asks, Anteaterina (yes, a giant anteater in a tutu).

Back in the class, the students are all assembled and told that there will be testing amongst the students to determine which class that they should be placed in – the elite class with only 5 students, the main class, or the probationary class where they could be washed out of the program at any time. As an opening challenge, Anteaterina dances a pair dance with Mytho to try and take one of the Elite chairs; and Rue counters by dancing one with Duck (and her 2 left feet). After Rue and Duck steal the show, Anteaterina gets upset with Mytho and leaves him While walking by Anteaterina, the pendant reacts and Duck discovers that she has one of the shards of the Prince’s heart, and transforms into Princess Tutu to help calm Anteaterina’s mind and recover the shard.

Episode 03: The Princess’s View

On a beautiful day, Rue and Mytho decide to go for a picnic in the park. This doesn’t go over well with Fakir, who wants to be in charge of Mytho at all times and goes off on a search to find him. Duck doesn’t want Mytho to be found, so she goes searching and finds him first in the park. While walking with Mytho to find some water, the pair come across a lone restaurant in the middle of the park and are quickly whisked to a table and plied with a ton of food. Duck senses that the operator of the restaurant has a heart shard and is going to have to resolve this person’s problems in order to retrieve another piece of the heart.

Episode 04: Giselle

The recovery of the pieces of Mytho’s heart have had some effects on his personality and both Rue and Fakir are unhappy with his progress at this point. When Duck sees Mytho wandering around, she runs out of her dorm room to go speak with him, but before she can catch up, he disappears. Joining up with Rue, Duck goes searching for him. Heading into the town, the girls find Mytho walking with a funeral procession of ghosts and try to catch up with him only to come across a dead end.

At this point, the two girls are told about the tragic suicide of a young woman with unrequited love and how her spirit took the life of another man with her across the River Styx. When they realize that this could happen with Mytho, the girls continue after him and eventually come across the spirit that wants to take him along. Like every other conflict, dancing resolves the problem and Princess Tutu is able to save Mytho after helping the wayward spirit.

Episode 05: On The Night Of The Fire Festival

We start off this episode with Rue reading the Fairy Tale that the story is centered around, and Fakir accuses her of helping Mytho recover his heart (which proves that they both know exactly who he is). Anyways, this episode centers around the Fire Festival, which is an annual festival where the villagers dress up in period costumes and dance around a giant fire in the town square (how pagan!) and the best couple is awarded a golden apple. Anyways, the new emotions that Mytho has been experiencing has led him to become more independent which doesn’t sit well with Fakir and he resorts to locking him up in the school library. Duck then rushes in to help and eventually comes across another piece of the Prince’s heart which has attached itself to a discarded lamp. Duck has to help this inanimate object come to terms with being abandoned.

Princess Tutu is turning into the cult movie Breakin’ – every frickin’ problem is solved through dancing… I’m just waiting for someone to bust out the cardboard and jambox. The show is ridiculously cute, and the character Neko-sensei is funny enough to warrant his own anime.

- Tazman

(March 12, 2005)

"Uuuuhhhhhh! I ate too much plastic candy."

- Ralph (The Simpsons)