Princess Tutu

Princess Tutu
Princess Tutu logo
プリンセスチュチュ (Purinsesu Chuchu)
Genre	Fantasy, Magical girl, Comedy, Drama, Metafiction, Romance
TV anime
Directed by	Junichi Sato Shogo Koumoto
Studio	Hal Film Maker
Licensed by	AEsir Holdings
Network	NHK, Kids Station, Anime Network Funimation Channel
Original run	August 16, 2002 – May 23, 2003
Episodes	26
Manga
Written by	Mizuo Shinonome
Published by	Akita Shoten
English publisher	ADV Manga
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Champion Red
Original run	2003 – 2003
Volumes	2

Princess Tutu (プリンセスチュチュ, Purinsesu Chuchu) is a magical girl anime series created by Ikuko Itoh in 2002 for animation studio Hal Film Maker. It was adapted as a 2-volume manga illustrated by Mizuo Shinonome. Both the manga and anime series were licensed by ADV Films. Princess Tutu follows Duck (Ahiru in the original Japanese anime and manga, which translates as 'duck'), a duck who was transformed into a young girl, and takes ballet at a private school. She becomes enamoured of her mysterious schoolmate Mytho, and transforms into Princess Tutu to restore his shattered heart. Mytho's girlfriend Rue transforms into Princess Kraehe to disrupt Tutu's efforts, and Mytho's protective friend Fakir discourages Mytho's burgeoning emotions. When it becomes apparent that Duck, Rue, Mytho, and Fakir are meant to play out the roles of characters in a story created by a long-dead author named Drosselmeyer, they begin to resist the constraints of their assigned fates, and fight to keep the story from becoming a tragedy.

The series explores the concepts of fate and free will. Reviewers point out that although Princess Tutu is nominally a magical girl series, it is more of a "fairy tale set to ballet with a few magical girl elements mixed in," and its use of ballet dances in lieu of violence to solve conflicts carries "surprisingly effective emotional appeal."

The background setting of the story is based on the historical town Nördlingen in Bavaria, Germany.

Plot

Long before the series' action, a writer named Drosselmeyer, whose stories became reality, had his hands cut off and was killed by those fearing his power. Because Drosselmeyer's final story was left unfinished, the prince and raven in the story were trapped in an eternal battle. After many years had passed, the raven broke free from the story into the real world, and the prince pursued to seal him away again. To do so, the prince shattered his own heart with his sword. Drosselmeyer had written about himself before he died, and managed to continue to control events despite his death. When he sees a duck watching the sad, heartless Prince Mytho dancing on the water, Drosselmeyer decides to let the story take a new course, and, giving her a magical necklace, transforms the duck into a human girl named Ahiru, so that she might find a way to help the prince. As long as she possesses the necklace with its red egg-shaped jewel, she can transform into a girl. However, if she quacks, she becomes a duck again. She can return to her girl form if she comes into contact with water.

Ahiru, now a gawky pre-teenager, becomes Mytho's classmate, takes ballet classes with him, and grows deeply infatuated with him, eventually learning of his shattered heart. To help recover the heart pieces, her necklace enables her to transform into the beautiful Princess Tutu—a mature, expert ballerina with special powers. Her necklace jewel glows red whenever a heart shard is nearby, and these shards have found homes in people who feel a strong emotion, which then becomes exaggerated with the presence of the heart shard. To cure these people, Princess Tutu invites them to dance with her, communicating without words to help them better understand and overcome their feelings. Since their heightened emotions are a result of the heart shard residing within them, they are freed of this artificial intensity when Princess Tutu removes the heart shards and returns them to Mytho.

When Mytho's girlfriend Rue realizes that Tutu is restoring Mytho's heart, Rue grows worried that he will fall in love with someone else, which unleashes her power to transform into Princess Kraehe, the dark counterpart to Princess Tutu. With her powers, Princess Kraehe tries to stop Tutu and capture a heart shard herself, so she can give it to her father, The Raven, so he could be freed. Mytho's childhood friend Fakir also attempts to stop Tutu out of fear that if Mytho's heart were mended, the story would continue to progress, and he would have to shatter it again to stop The Raven. It becomes clear Mytho wants his heart to be restored, and Ahiru persists despite Kraehe's and Fakir's interference.

As the story unfolds, Fakir learns that he is a descendant of Drosselmeyer, which explains Fakir's ability to control reality through writing stories. He initially resists using those powers—when Fakir was a child, a swarm of ravens attacked the town. Wanting to help, Fakir wrote a story where the ravens came for him and he fought them off, but unfortunately only part of the story came true: the ravens attacked his home but Fakir was unable to stop them, and his parents died protecting him. Ahiru eventually convinces Fakir that he must begin writing again, in order to save Mytho. Fakir, in turn, changes in his feelings towards Ahiru from suspicion and contempt, to reluctant toleration, and finally to alliance and affection as he writes a story for her, to aid her when she falls into despair.

Drosselmeyer attempts to lure Ahiru into a selfish choice, but she refuses, accepting that she is a duck in reality and her status as a human girl and as Tutu is just temporary. Uzura finds the mechanism driving the story and turns it backwards, revealing secrets of the past. Kraehe learns that The Raven is not her real father and that she was kidnapped by ravens as a child.

Impatient with Princess Kraehe's failure to secure him a heart shard, The Raven attacks the town, covering it in darkness. Kraehe is restored as Rue and attempts to help Duck, only to be captured by The Raven. Duck asks Fakir to write one last story for her; and then, as Tutu, restores the final shard of Mytho's heart. Because the last shard is Ahiru's enchanted jewel, Tutu vanishes forever, although Mytho's heart is finally complete. However, The Raven turns the townspeople into ravens that attack Ahiru, Mytho is overwhelmed by The Raven's minions vying to steal his heart, and Rue is unable to escape The Raven because of her despair. Seeing no other solution, Prince Mytho prepares to shatter his heart once again with his own sword. Ahiru—despite being permanently in duck form—refuses to accept this outcome, and so, to the astonishment of all, she begins to dance a ballet.

The ravens batter Ahiru mercilessly. Fakir starts to write the story Ahiru requested, but finds that Drosselmeyer's story dominates everything he does and is forcing Drosselmeyer's intended tragedy. Fakir must also fend off the townspeople, who fear he will follow the same abusive path as Drosselmeyer, and are coming to chop off Fakir's hands. Fakir gradually wrests control of the story, and transforms it into an inspirational tale with a happy ending of how a little duck, no matter how badly she was injured by the raven, continued to dance because of her unwavering hope. Each time Ahiru gets knocked down, she gets up to dance once more.

Fakir's and Ahiru's perseverance gives Mytho and Rue the strength to destroy The Raven. This lifts the darkness, restores the townspeople to normal, and forever frees Rue from serving The Raven as Princess Kraehe. Mytho, Rue, Fakir, and Ahiru tear down the machine in the clock tower of Gold Crown Town that enabled Drosselmeyer to continue to control events by mechanically writing stories, thus turning the town into a normal town uncontrolled by stories. Drosselmeyer admits defeat, and moves on to create new tales elsewhere. Mytho and Rue marry and return to Mytho's original kingdom.

At the end, Fakir is shown carrying Ahiru on his arm wherever he goes, and in the closing scene of the series, he is seen sitting on a dock, writing, while Ahiru, floating in the lake, dozes nearby. The narrator says, “And there was another man who began writing stories. That story full of hope, has only just begun.”

Characters

• Duck (あひる, Ahiru) is a friendly, kind-hearted duck who was turned into a pre-teen girl by Drosselmeyer by a magical pendant. Like a duck, she is easily excitable, clumsy, and talkative. If Ahiru removes the pendant or quacks while talking, she transforms back into a duck, and must touch water while wearing the pendant to return to her human form. The pendant also allows Duck to transform into Princess Tutu (プリンセスチュチュ, Purinsesu Chuchu). As Princess Tutu, Ahiru is wise and graceful. According to Drosselmeyer's writing, Ahiru/Tutu would turn into a speck of light and vanish if she confessed her love to Mytho. In the anime she appears to have feelings for Fakir while in the manga, her feelings for Mytho are left open ended with Rue competing for his heart. In the manga, Duck's name is Ahiru Arima, and this name is retained in the English adaptation of the manga. Voiced by: Nanae Katou (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

• Mytho (みゅうと, Myūto), once a noble and kind prince, sacrificed himself to protect the weak and needy. His heart was shattered to seal the monster raven away. Now a talented and popular senior at Gold Crown Academy (Kinkan Academy, in Japanese), he possesses no emotions and is largely dependent on Fakir for his well-being and survival. As Tutu restores his emotions, he is both drawn to and afraid of her. He is later corrupted by the raven's blood that Kraehe put on one of his heart shards, and so attempts to steal girls' hearts as a sacrifice to the raven, and becomes verbally abusive to Rue. With Rue's help he overcomes the raven's blood when the last heart shard is returned. At the end of the anime, Mytho's real name is revealed to be Siegfried, the name of the prince in the ballet Swan Lake from which Princess Tutu borrows plot elements.^{[citation needed]} Voiced by: Naoki Yanagi (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)

• Fakir (ふぁきあ, Fakia) is Mytho's roommate and a talented ballet dancer. Initially, he is possessive, rude, and forceful to Mytho, discouraging his emotions as they are restored. It is later revealed that he only wanted to protect Mytho from repeating the tragic events of the past. Duck helps him realize that Mytho wants his heart back. Fakir is thought to be a reincarnation of the knight in the story who died to protect the prince, even bearing a scar on his chest like the wound that killed the knight in the fairy tale. Fakir is a descendant of Drosselmeyer and can sometimes alter reality with his writing. He tried using his power to stop a raven attack when he was young, but he failed and his parents were killed, and he shut away the knowledge of his power until Duck convinced him to try again. He soon realizes that his writing only affects Duck. Over time, Fakir started having feelings for Duck and at the end of the series he promised to stay by her side forever. Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Chris Patton (English)

• Rue (るう, Rū) is an advanced ballet student, and greatly admired by Duck and the other students. She is aloof, and only Duck dares approach her for friendship. She has loved Mytho since childhood, after he defended her from ravens. She takes advantage of his lack of emotions to pretend they are a couple. Like Duck, she also has a magical princess alter ego, Princess Kraehe (プリンセスクレール, Purinsesu Kurēru), the daughter of the Raven. Out of jealousy, she interferes with Tutu's attempts to restore Mytho's heart in fear that he will fall in love with someone else. Her father, the monster raven, uses her as a means to revive him. In the end, she learns she is not a raven, but rather a human girl kidnapped when a baby, during The Raven's attack on the town. When it appears Mytho will give himself to The Raven, Rue sacrifices herself instead, admitting she had always loved Mytho. Touched by her selfless act, Mytho regains his heart and rescues her, asking her to be his princess. In the manga, Rue's name is Rue Kuroha, and she is a much colder and crueler character. Krähe or Kraehe is the german word for crow. Voiced by: Nana Mizuki (Japanese), Jessica Boone (English)

• The Raven (大鴉, Ōgarasu) is the monster enemy of Drosselmeyer's story The Prince and The Raven. Mytho shattered his heart to seal up The Raven, who then requires the sacrifice of young, beautiful hearts in order to eat them and regain his form. He stole Rue from her parents as a child, raising her as his daughter, Princess Kraehe. He orders Kraehe to corrupt Mytho with raven's blood. He is cruel and abusive to Rue. Eventually, when Rue's love for the Prince enables him to break free from the tainted heart shard, Mytho rescues Rue and together they defeat the Raven. The Raven does not appear in the manga, but is briefly mentioned by Edel. Voiced by: Takayuki Sugou (Japanese), Mike Kleinhenz (English)

• Drosselmeyer (ドロッセルマイヤー, Dorosserumaiyā) is an elderly man with a long, white beard, and though he is long dead, Drosselmeyer is the main antagonist of the anime. Author of The Prince and The Raven, he is bored with happy stories, so he enjoys watching Duck, Fakir, Mytho, and Rue struggle with the tragic fates he wrote for them. He influences their lives even after death via a machine in the Clock Tower. Drosselmeyer died after the angry townspeople cut off his hands to stop his power to affect reality with his writing, but he managed to bring the writing machine into existence by writing with his own blood. His name comes from the godfather of the children in the opening of The Nutcracker, the best-known ballet by Tchaikovsky; one Christmas, Drosselmeyer gives a wooden doll to his niece Marie, who rejects its ugliness but later realizes that it is magical. He is not present in the manga.Voiced by: Noboru Mitani (Japanese), Marty Fleck (English)

• Edel (エデル, Ederu) is a life-sized wooden puppet who bears an organ grinder and a tray of creatively-named jewels. She gives cryptic advice, and tells stories to Duck. Drosselmeyer created Edel to act as a narrator in his place. Edel develops her own emotions after interacting with Duck, something that Drosselmeyer had not intended to happen. She sacrifices herself in flames to save Fakir, and to provide a guiding light for Mytho and Princess Tutu to safety, then asking them to dance a pas de deux before she is completely consumed by the fire. In the manga, Edel is drastically changed, portrayed as the human owner of a shop where Duck sees a tutu that she admires. As a gift, Edel gives her a necklace with an egg-shaped jewel, and makes her promise to come back again. In the manga, Edel seems to take the place of Drosselmeyer, encouraging not only Princess Tutu but Princess Kraehe as well. In the second volume, she is revealed to be plotting to revive The Raven within herself. Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese), Christine Auten (English)

• Uzura (うずら, Uzura) is a toddler-like doll created by Karon (Mytho and Fakir's adoptive father) from Edel's ashes. She plays a drum and semi-inadvertently helps Duck. However, her tendency to help turn Duck back into a girl with a splash of water often create awkward moments for both Duck and Fakir (as ducks don't wear clothing). Uzura often adds the extension 'zura' to the end of her sentences. She is very curious, and is fixated throughout the series on figuring out what love is. Uzura is absent in the manga.Voiced by: Erino Hazuki (Japanese), Christine Auten (English)

• Autor (あおとあ, Aotoa) is a somewhat snobbish music student at the Academy who is obsessed with Drosselmeyer and his powers. After realizing Fakir is a descendant of Drosselmeyer, he becomes very interested in Fakir and encourages him to use the writing abilities Drosselmeyer once used to control the world. At one point, Rue seduces Autor in order to feed his heart to her father. However, Autor professes his love for her, which casts doubt on her father's words that no one but he and the prince could love her. Conflicted, Rue lets Autor go. Autor does not appear in the manga. Voiced by: Yuu Urata (Japanese), Adam Conlon (English)

• Pike (ぴけ, Pike) is an outspoken, tomboyish character, and one of Duck's two best friends from her class. In the second season of the anime, she is the first attempted victim of Mytho's--after the raven's blood in his heart possesses him—and she almost loses her heart. However, Tutu is able to dance with her and save her from that fate. In the manga, she is replaced by a girl named Mai. Voiced by: Sachi Matsumoto (Japanese), Cynthia Martinez (English)

• Lilie (りりえ, Ririe), Duck's other best friend from dance class, who is constantly trying to push Duck into a doomed relationship with Mytho, and later with Fakir. She romanticizes star-crossed lovers, happily waiting for the relationships to fail. In the manga, she is replaced by a girl named Yuma. Voiced by: Yuri Shiratori (Japanese), Sasha Paysinger (English)

• Mr. Cat (猫先生, Neko-sensei) is the dance teacher at the academy. He is one of the few anthropomorphized characters from the anime to appear in the manga, and plays a similar role in both. He frequently threatens misbehaving female students they must marry him if they do not shape up. In the anime, Mr. Cat particularly makes this threat to Duck, due to her lack of concentration during practice, and her constant tardiness. At the end of the anime, Mr. Cat is shown as a normal cat again, paired up with a female cat, and walking with their kittens. Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), TJP (English)

• Narrator, an unnamed female voice that presents a short tale in the prologue before each episode, often related to the theme of the episode's title. Her voice also narrates in a few other situations, such as the closing of the Chapter of the Fledgling and in the split-episode previews in the Chapter of the Fledgling (only in the TV version, but also in the extras on the DVDs). Voiced by: Kyoko Kishida (Japanese) Jennie Welch (English 1st) Marcy Bannor (English 2nd)

Media

Anime

See also: List of Princess Tutu episodes

Princess Tutu was originally broadcast in two seasons. The first season, "Kapitel des Eies" ("Chapter of the Egg"), consisted of 13 half-hour episodes. The second season was broadcast as 25 quarter-hour episodes and one half hour episode, to conform to the format of the time slot, so that each episode was split into two parts. These were brought back together in the DVD release as 13 complete episodes. The second season is called "Kapitel des Junges" ("Chapter of the Fledgling") in R2 DVDs, and "Kapital (sic) des Kükens" ("Chapter of the Chick") in R1 DVDs. The anime was licensed by ADV Films until the company shut down in 2009. As of 2011, AEsir Holdings has re-licensed the anime and will re-release the series on October 11, 2011.

The opening theme, "Morning Grace," is sung by Ritsuko Okazaki. The ending theme, "Although my Love is Small," is also sung by Ritsuko Okazaki.

Manga

A manga adaptation of the series was written by Mizuo Shinonome. It was published in Japan by Akita Shoten in the shōnen manga magazine Champion Red and collected in two tankōbon volumes in 2003. It was released in North America by ADV Manga in late 2004 and early 2005.

Further reading

• Cooper, Liann (20 Nov 2004). "Sugar Rush - RTO". Anime News Network. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/right-turn-only/2004-11-20. 

External links

• Kid's Station Channel Princess Tutu Website (Japanese)
• Princess Tutu (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Princess Tutu (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• THEM review