Princess Tutu

In a fairy tale come to life, the clumsy, sweet, and gentle Ahiru seems like an unlikely protagonist. In reality, Ahiru is just as magical as the talking cats and crocodiles that inhabit her town—for Ahiru really is a duck! Transformed by the mysterious Drosselmeyer into a human girl, Ahiru soon learns the reason for her existence. Using her magical egg-shaped pendant, Ahiru can transform into Princess Tutu—a beautiful and talented ballet dancer whose dances relieve people of the turmoil in their hearts. With her newfound ability, Ahiru accepts the challenge of collecting the lost shards of her prince's heart, for long ago he had shattered it in order to seal an evil raven away for all eternity.

Princess Tutu is a tale of heroes and their struggle against fate. Their beliefs, their feelings, and ultimately their actions will determine whether this fairy tale can reach its "happily ever after."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arima, Ahiru Main

Katou, Nanae Japanese

Fakir Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Kuroha, Rue Main

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Myuuto Main

Yanagi, Naoki Japanese

Drosselmeyer Supporting

Noboru, Mitani Japanese

Uzura Supporting

Hazuki, Erino Japanese

Neko-sensei Supporting

Matsumoto, Yasunori Japanese

Edel Supporting

Hiramatsu, Akiko Japanese

Femio Supporting

Suzuki, Papaya Japanese

Lilie Supporting

Shiratori, Yuri Japanese

Chung, Jin Ho Producer, ADR Director

Haruta, Katsunori Producer

Moriyama, Atsushi Producer

Kawasaki, Tomoko Producer

Reviews

Oct 9, 2024

Quaggy

Recommended

What a whirlwind of complex emotions Princess Tutu was. A show that starts off fairly mundane and ever so consistently spreads its wings to make for a magically enrapturing story. Princess Tutu is genuinely a one of a kind, brilliantly crafted, story about stories. Everything is made with a gentle, elegant touch. Nearly every episode of this series wowed me and kept building up the story as it went on. Piece by piece and I found myself amazed by the plot developments of nearly every episode. Its not the kinda show I was expecting but I am so glad it is the kinda show it ... is.

Princess Tutu genuinely surprised me with how complex and deep the characters became as the story went on. These characters are genuinely excellent and act in a very relatable and human way while still exploring the deep and complex themes of the story. The healing nature of love, the sorrow that comes from love, and defiance of fate. One theme of Princess Tutu that especially resonates with me is the themes of struggling with self identity and general awareness of the self. Every character throughout the show is constantly questioning themselves and their place in the world but in divergent ways. Its such a good driving thread to connect these characters together and makes it even more engaging to understand and compare how these characters deal with their understanding of the self. Outside of the themes associated with the characters, the characters themselves have extremely engaging relationships and contrast off of each other perfectly while still allowing for low stakes comedic moments that still progress the unfolding narrative. Princess Tutu is a great study on how to write layered and complex characters that develop over time but never come off as overly pretentious.

In spite of the often tragic nature of these characters relationships as well as the situations they are put into, Princess Tutu (both as a show and as a character) brings a unique serine and calm vibe to the story. That's why I think the main focus on ballet in this anime is a brilliant decision. The elegant dancing and wonderful stage setting and direction of the show's ballet scenes really accentuate this gentle yet intense feeling. Princess Tutu really gave me a greater appreciation of ballet and I think it was the perfect fit for a show of this nature. The world of Princess Tutu is a strange one, yet that just adds to the intriguing world these characters were written into.

Tutu also does a great job of getting the viewer intrigued with and setting up its mysteries. It is abundantly clear to the viewers and eventually the characters that they are playing roles in a story, but finding out their place in that story, who wrote it and how they may meddle with it opens up so many questions that all get answered slowly but surely every episode. Lots of twists and turns in the mysteries as well as the general meta nature of this anime made this story unbelievably hard to put down and left me wanting to know more every episode. And when the story finally climaxes, the swirl of emotions it pulled up through me was unmatched. I cried a lot the last three episodes xD

On another note, the artwork is very nice! The art style is very stylized and cute and the character designs have that same elegant yet slightly strange touch the show as a whole overflows with. The characters all have lotsa expressive and exaggerated shapes which allows for them to be very recognizable and fits especially well for Ahiru, both as a human and as a duck, who's design is perfect for both her comedic moments as well as more serious plot heavy moments. She is very endearing with her big round eyes and eyelashes! I especially like thing such us Tutu's outfit and such invoking swan imagery and generally being very frilly, it gives off the feeling of being a play well. That can also be attributed to the animation which was also very impressive. Animating a character dancing is hard as shit and the fact that they did so often times with very unique angles is super impressive. All this along with some very striking direction makes me really love the art of this series. The art also facilitates the voice acting which was phenomenal. The VAs did such a great job capturing the shows raw emotions in the more intense scenes. I especially like Ahiru's voice being more hoarse and high pitched and a little awkward and clumsy. Fitting for a duck turned human. ;P

As much as I genuinely would call Princess Tutu a masterpiece, there are a few problems that in the grand scheme don't take away much from the overall artistic experience yet still prevent me from giving it a 10. For example, Ahiru's friends who's scenes mostly act as comic relief and a break from the unveiling plot or sometimetimes to push Ahiru into uncomfortable stations. For filling this role they do fine enough but I found them to be somewhat annoying. They are very one dimensional characters who seem weirdly antagonistic towards Ahiru which gets old. Another comedic character with a similar issue is Neko Sensei. His whole gag is that he reaaaaally fuckin wants to get married and uses threat of marrying his students as punishment if one of them misbehaves. I really disliked how predictable every scene with him was, every time he was on screen its the same joke. They do mix up the execution of the jokes but they all boil down to the same gag which I never really found funny in the first place. I do appreciate the few scenes where Neko Sensei gets to be a genuine mentor who helps Ahiru through her issues though. You get a sense that he genuinely wishes the best for her and the other students who are struggling. That adds a lot of depth to his character which makes him a bit more than a repeating gag. An additional issue is that the first part of the second half of the anime seemed to lose a bit of focus. Though it picked up quickly after and ended with a bang!

In conclusion, Princess Tutu is extremely unique and if you love stories about stories or deep though provoking characters you've aught to watch this. Its an immensely entertaining dissection of storytelling as a whole with lots to look into and leaves you with much to appreciate. I highly recommend it to anyone regardless! It will be a satisfying story to watch unfold and is absolutely worth your time. <3

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 11, 2015

yesterdaz

Mixed Feelings

Let me start of by clarifying: Princess Tutu wasn't bad. The art was amazing, the plot was complex and enchanting and completely explained. The ballet was phenomenal. However, it took me three years to get over the ending. Now, don't get me wrong; it wasn't bad. I just thought it shouldn't have been so... final. It shocked me and upset me thoroughly. That and how despite having such a compelling plot, a lot of it doesn't make sense until you get to the end.

Overall, the two things that bothered me was the ending and how the comedy seemed like a bad joke rather than ... actual humor.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 9, 2017

ywana

Not Recommended

Funny

I don't normally write reviews. In fact, I don't think I've ever written any.
But this anime though, this anime takes the cake. This anime is like the biggest scam ever.
Now, if you don't like spoiler, then stop reading.

First of all, I've watched this show back when I was still a little kid. I used to really like it, way before I got into Majo DoReMi... Okay, maybe not the ending. I think I hated it so much that I've mentally blocked it off my head. For nostalgia's sake, I revisited this show. Oh boy, how much I want my 2 hours of my life back.

Let's ... get into the story for real. The story wasn't anything fantastic by today's standards, but it was definitely something uncommon during 2002-2003. It's a spin-off of the Swan Princess story, and that is really right up my alley. The characters within Princess Tu Tu weren't out of ordinary, but was decent enough to keep me interested. That's being said, as much as it hurts me, I have to give this a 2/10 overall because of the ending.

So you're telling me, that very person who drank the evil crow's blood all her life (and then soaking a piece of the prince's heart into such magical blood), the very person who never once stop hurting the others (except that one dude who somehow fell in love with her and she was like ayy lmao I won't cut off your heart just so I could feed my crow dad), somehow got married with the prince. AND! That duck who fell in love with the prince, the same prince who liked her back, somehow got confessed to by the evil crow princess... and he immediately goes, HUH? She saved me, that must mean that I love her too!

SMFH. I'm glad there is no season 2.

RIP Ahiru and the knight.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Princess Tutu Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) tainteddonut - Apr 2, 2008	58 replies	by Sonicwhite »» Nov 7, 2:19 PM
	Poll: Princess Tutu Episode 3 Discussion tainteddonut - Apr 3, 2008	26 replies	by Seijatachiiii »» Sep 12, 3:54 PM
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	Poll: Princess Tutu Episode 25 Discussion tainteddonut - May 1, 2008	19 replies	by Fairytelly »» Jun 25, 1:29 PM
	Poll: Princess Tutu Episode 24 Discussion tainteddonut - May 1, 2008	13 replies	by Fairytelly »» Jun 23, 6:47 PM

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