Princess Tutu Volume 2: Traum (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Ballet For Beginners - Staff Commentary - Clean Open/Close - Etude - Outtakes - In The Studio - Reversible Cover
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Princess Tutu Volume 2: Traum (DVD)

Fear, Curiosity, Fanatical Devotion.

Returning one by one, the prince’s feelings lift not his hopes but a deadly new enemy, the crow princess Krache. Tutu struggles to reconcile her hopeful intentions with these horrific outcomes. Amidst the tempest of torture and trepidation, one question arises; is a happy ending consigned to the realms of fantasy?

More dancing problems away! It’s like a Broadway show, but the scenery’s got less garbage and vagrants plus you don’t have to leave your couch. Watching physical activity is almost as good as actual movement. 2^nd disc of Princess Tutu, let’s go.

Episode 06: Dreaming Aurora

Duck continues to watch the growth in personality for Mytho, but she cannot get very close thanks to the ever watchful eye of Fakir. In town, the Eleki Troupe has arrived and they are in preparations to have a showing of Sleeping Beauty. The dancing classes are going to get a breather and they are going to get to watch the show – while on the field trip, Duck manages to bump into the Eleki Troupe’s main dancer – Paulamoni. The lovely dancer is a very gracious host to the class, and she decides that she would rather watch a student dance rather than continue her “run-through” of the performance. She asks Duck to perform, but she steadfastly refuses to perform and runs away. While she watches from the back row – Duck thinks that she sees another piece of Mytho’s soul on the stage… watching Paulamoni.

Paulamoni is struggling with her part in the coming performance – she has always idolized the role of Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, and now that she confronted with it she’s having second thoughts. Her husband Paulo believes that her reluctance is because of her lack of dreams in life, and believes that watching Duck perform would be beneficial to her spirit. So during the next day’s run through, she once again asks Duck to dance, but Neko-sensei suggests making it a pairing so he includes Fakir. The dance provides Fakir a chance to bear his fangs at Duck during the course of the performance and tells her to stay away from Mytho. As a final shot, he intentionally drops her at the end of a lift but she manages to remain on her feet. The finish allows her to see the shard of Mytho’s soul that she previously saw and so with a lame excuse, she rushes off after it. Transforming into Princess Tutu, she chases after the shard despite its’ frantic attempts to escape. When she finally catches up, it tries to attack her with a sword, but she’s able to subdue it and return the shard to Mytho. With the piece of his soul returned, he screams out in fear and runs away – Fakir tries desperately to calm him but he’s beside himself in terror; apparently the emotion returned was “fear”. As Fakir tries to find out what scared him, he replies that he’s scared of Princess Tutu.

Episode 07: The Crow Princess

Since the return of fear to Mytho, he’s been unable to return to class and has been absent for a week. His loss is especially hard on Duck who continues to blame herself for his reaction; and it’s starting to affect not only her personality, but her performance in school. As soon as Neko-sensei threatens to drop her back down to the probationary program, her friends jump in a try to figure out a plan to help her out. They suggest that she go to a bridge called the Why-Why Bridge (crap, even an

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intoxicated 5 year old would come up with something more clever or subtle) that is capable of answering your questions. Duck heads out to the bridge, and is surprised to find that Rue is already there. She asks if she was trying to find answers to help Mytho, Rue admits that she was, but decided against it. So Duck changes gears and asks if she knows that Mytho has no heart; Rue also admits yes, but states that it doesn’t matter, she loves him anyways.

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With that knowledge, Duck starts to doubt what she’s doing and contemplates throwing away the amulet and no longer being Princess Tutu. So her dealmaker, Drosselmeyer, makes an appearance to talk her out of it. He tries to explain how she must do it, but she will not listen and throws it away, turning back into a duckling. She goes and swims off on her own and Edel also tries to talk her back, but she won’t have it. Up stream, Fakir has hidden Mytho in a small cabin near the water. He heads towards the water when alone and begins talking to a spirit in the water who wants to know more about his condition. The spirit beckons him into the water and begins to bring him deeper into it. Duck sees this happens and tries to keep up in bird-form, but her size makes it near impossible. She wishes a few times that she were larger so she could help Mytho, so Drosselmeyer is able to send the amulet back to her, and transform Duck into Princess Tutu.

Underwater, the Tutu heads towards Mytho and tries to talk to him about returning to the surface. She understands that he’s scared of her, but he explains that isn’t the only emotion… he’s also afraid of never seeing her again. Princess Tutu brings him back to the surface, and they discover that the spirit was actually another shard of his heart. But as she’s about to return it, Rue appears and transforms into Princess Kraehe and takes the shard. Tutu demands it back, but Kraehe refuses and disappears with Mytho in a sudden flurry.

Episode 08: The Warrior’s Fountain

Rue tries to piece together what happened last night; she remembers Tutu saving Mytho but she cannot explain how she ended up with a piece of his heart (this piece is his desire to learn). Even more, she seems unaware that she transformed into Kraehe. Duck tries to visit Mytho, but is unsuccessful, so her friends are going to help her out, as Mytho is out for a walk, they push her down a hill into his path. As she gets up, she gets to speak to him finally. Just as the conversation is starting, Fakir interrupts and once again warns her to stay away from him. Duck figures that she needs to circumvent Fakir and get Mytho alone; so she transforms into a bird and sneaks into the boy’s locker room to leave a note for him. After dropping it off, she is discovered by Fakir, who takes her outside and leaves bread for her (she’s still in duck form) and seems much nicer in this case.

Mytho finds the note which asks to meet Duck after school, Fakir tries to keep him from going, but Mytho seems driven to go. With his inability to control Mytho anymore, Fakir decides that he’s going to have to use stronger methods and heads for the nearby catacombs and finds the Prince’s sword (that originally shattered his heart). Meanwhile, Mytho is making his way towards the meeting, but Rue is intent on following him. As he approaches Duck and begins to ask her about Princess Tutu, Rue blacks out and transforms into Kraehe again. Duck is left with no choice but to confront her as Tutu and demand for the return of his heart fragment. As the two jostle for position, Fakir arrives with the sword and causes Kraehe to disappear without the fragment. Fakir then tells Mytho to fall on his sword and re-break his heart again; but Tutu pleads for him to not do that. Tutu manages to disarm Fakir, but Mytho now has the sword and looks to piece himself with it. Now begging, Tutu convinces him to stop and Fakir must withdraw. Recovering the shard, Mytho regains another piece and asks Tutu what she thinks about him. Duck is too afraid to answer and runs away.

Episode 09: The Black Shoes

After the incident last night, everyone involved seems to be in a state of shock to some extent. Rue is sitting in front of the fountain trying to figure out what happened, and she goes ballistic when Mytho shows up and asks her if he actually loves her. Mytho seems to be questioning everything in his life now. Fakir heads to a small bookstore and re-reads the story about the prince, he wants to reground the story in his mind but is interrupted by Edel. Edel states that the story is still going on and that he shouldn’t be upset that it is. Duck is worried about the feelings that she has for Mytho but is terrified of disappearing if she actually states that she loves him. At class that day, Rue and Duck start spending time together and the two seem to appreciate each other’s time. While Duck is trying to learn some new dance moves, a young girl is watching Rue from outside the window.

After Duck is finished her detention (as usual) she decides to follow the young girl who was watching Rue. Her name is Malen, and she is an artist who suddenly has become enamored with Rue and can only draw her right now. Duck transforms into Tutu and draws out another shard from Malen. Rue is back in her room thinking about how the changes in Mytho have been drawing him away from her, this revelation enrages her and facilitates her transformation into Kraehe. She jumps into the fray against Tutu and tries to contain the shard which she claims is devotion. At this moment, Mytho comes in and sees Kraehe; after his response in seeing her face Kraehe is emotionally defeated and Tutu recovers the shard to Mytho. With another piece of his heart, he approaches Kraehe to see if he can help but Fakir jumps into the room and calls Kraehe a crow. Suddenly Kraehe gets an evil smile across her face and she remembers that she’s the crow!

Watching Princess Tutu certainly makes for an uneven experience. I love the scenes with Neko-sensei, but am infuriated with the over simplicity at times not just in the characters, but in the plot.

- Tazman

(January 19, 2006)

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a car that's been tricked out to look like an ice cream truck."

- Herbert (Family Guy)