Anime Review: Princess Tutu

Review Princess TutuWritten by WarpshadowRating excellent

If there is one flaw in Princess Tutu it is that there are people that won’t watch it simply because the show is called Princess Tutu. I review anime simply to prevent people from making mistakes like this.

Duck (who is named Ahiru in the Japanese version but that just means duck and isn’t considered a normal name) is a girl who is in love with a older boy Mytho. Duck is also a girl who occasionally turns into a duck or is she a duck that turns into a girl? Mytho wanders about emotionless under the guidance of his classmate Fakir. Duck is incredibly saddened by this and wishes to help Mytho. With some help from the mysterious and supposedly dead Drosselmyer Duck is able to transform into Princess Tutu and recollect the pieces of Mytho’s heart for him. Yet is this all the plan of Drosselmyer who created the story where The prince fought a raven and lost his heart to claim victory? Isn’t that prince very similar to Mytho?

Princess Tutu is a show that can be watched on many levels. It works as a magical girl show for little kids but to dismiss the show as simply that would ignore several layers of complexity in Princess Tutu. For example a given episode will have music from a ballet and will refer to said ballet in other ways as well. If you don’t know much about ballet the extras on the DVD’s will bring you up to speed. That is only in the context of one episode as the characters and story go through several changes through the duration of the show. There are no wasted episodes which is a plus for a magical girl show.

On a aesthetic level Princess Tutu is a marvel of music and animation. The score is a collection of great works and the animation is very good. There are also the considerations of how well the concept of ballet and fairy tales are worked in the story. I could go on but suffice to say Princess Tutu is one of the best shows out there.