Forum - View topicPrincess Tutu (TV)
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Princess Tutu (TV) Genres: Drama, Magic, Psychological, Romance Themes: Ballet, Fairy Tales, Magical Girl Plot Summary: 13-year-old ballet student Ahiru is clumsy, good-hearted and sweet... and has a big secret. The mysterious Drosselmayer morphed a young duck into a girl to give her a mission: help a Prince to get the parts of his heart back. With that in mind, she morphs into Princess Tutu, whose magical dances ease the pain and purifies the bad feelings. ---------------------------------- So I've seen the series -- I was curious as to what it was like -- and I've been thinking about what sort of rating to give it.
But maybe I'm giving too much credit to a children's story; what do you think? (by the way, I'm embarassed to admit that I didn't spot the pattern in the water of the ending sequence until episode #23.  If you saw the series, in which episode did you notice the pattern?)
Making this into an official Princess Tutu discussion thread using Stark700's format. --willag (10Jan15) |
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Saffire
 Posts: 1255 Location: Iowa, USA |
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I've never watched it, but I've heard a lot of praise for the show and from the encyclopedia entry, a lot of people agree with you about its worthiness. There's no reason a children's story can't be a masterpiece.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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Trust me, you are not overestimating a children's story. Look at Avatar: The Last Airbender, that aired on Nickelodeon and is one of the most (deservedly) praised cartoons in years. Just because it's for children doesn't mean that it's automatically garbage, and just because it's great doesn't mean that it's not actually for children. I took a class about young adult fiction, and that was part of what we talked about, the animation age ghetto (though it can apply to more than just animation, look at Harry Potter) and how a lot of people have difficulty either accepting that something for kids can be good, or embracing it because of the mere existence of the AAG.
For me, Princess Tutu is nothing short of a masterpiece and my favorite anime ever, it just happens to be a story that is also good for children but is by no means insulting to their intelligence. Already knowing a lot about classical music (and what the pieces were) made me appreciate the music selection more. It's the type that, if you don't know, it sounds really awesome in the moment, and if you do know, it both sounds really awesome in the moment and adds another layer of depth with the fairy tale or episode theme. It's a timeless anime for the ages and being kid appropriate doesn't change that in the least (although telling people the name can be a bit embarrassing, I usually find that "ignore the name and enjoy the awesome" or "real men wear pink" logic will get people to ignore it. But it's the name that kinda makes me blush, not the fact that it's based on ballet and fairy tales) |
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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classicalzawa--
Last edited by nobahn on Mon Mar 05, 2012 7:13 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I hadn't noticed it until now.
You could say it adds a bit of depth. 
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Face in the water? *watches ending song*
OMFG! I never noticed it! (Well, I didn't see a face, but I saw a body) I-I'm just... AAGH! Princess Tutu is my favorite anime ever, and I've only watched it at least 5 times completely, and I NEVER noticed that. Then again, I haven't watched the ending sequence in so long - I normally skip it on rewatches. Overall, I love how many references are filled in Princess Tutu, and how I find something new almost every rewatch (it wasn't until my third rewatch when I noticed Drosselmeyer almost lost his hand - the glove went flying - near the end of episode 21 or 22). Anyways, the Princess Tutu LJ community is an amazing community to hang out with folks who are just as passionate about PT. It's still a pretty active community, with discussions, artwork, and AMVs still being posted several times a month. What's great about this community (other than just the sheer variety and dedicated fans who keep the fandom alive) are the variety of specialties and contributions brought to the group. Some people with a more classic music background have been able to analyze the music and it's significance, while others who are more knowledgeable about fairy tales have pointed out references that others may have overlooked. Someone else found the towns and buildings that Kinkan town was based off of (it's a German town(s), if I'm remembering correctly). Reading all of these thoughts from different people really helps put it into perspective exactly how much work and love went into this series. Anyways, if you want a pinch of some of the analysis done, here are several posts focused on spotting the references in the series. I love reading these kind of posts. (In case you haven't guessed, I gave PT a "masterpiece" rating) |
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zawa113
Posts: 7357 |
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Hmm, I've never really looked at the ED, probably because I'm the type to skip the ED, and I've seen PT 4 or 5 times, but I skip the ending pretty much every time. I've noticed Duck as a duck on the water, but I don't recall looking elsewhere, I'll have to pay attention next time.
As for specific material, did you get the DVD set for PT? It has some of the best anime extras known to mankind, they'll explain what most of the music is and a lot of the ballet mimes. Gotta say, they were quite helpful. I can't think of any specific Princess Tutu related essays or criticisms, but you can certainly find information and criticisms on the ballets themselves (which include: Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle, Midsummer Night's Dream, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderlla (Prokofiev's), La Sylphide, Coppelia) and pieces (which include: Blue Danube, Danse Macabre, Gymnopedies, Pictures at an Exhibition (huge in the second half), Scheherezade, Carnival of the Animals, Carmen (Aragonaise was Femio's theme, Femio has a bull for no apparent reason, the Carmen opera involves a bullfighter), and looking at the soundtrack, Prince Igor, though I don't recall ever hearing that in the show). A lot of the stories from the ballets are incorporated into the episodes, but sometimes, libraries might have ballets on DVD. I've found that the library near me does and since they count as "educational", they're free to rent. So that's a way that you may be able to see the ballet yourself for free. Many pieces have stories behind them that are also incorporated, Pictures at an Exhibition was based on...well pictures of Mussogrsky's recently deceased friend at an exhibition, one part of the series often repeated is "The Great Gate of Kiev", in particular, Princess Tutu seems to play it whenever a gate is of importance, and when Tutu goes to each gate the theme is playing. Though using The Blue Danube for a tiny river running through the town seemed a bit ridiculous to me. So yeah, that's what I can certainly inject in, the more you know about the history of the actual pieces used in the series, the more you can see how cleverly and perfectly they've been inserted into the series on that level, even on pieces that weren't clearly from the ballet that the episode was mimicking. I'm not as well versed in Grimm fairy tales nor ballets nor operas, but I can say that Tutu used the non-Disnified versions of fairy tales, meaning ones that ended in tragedies. Most ballets were tales of tragedies with Coppelia (which I did see on DVD) being possibly the only comedy in there. Most ballets are of course based on fairy tales, I believe more than one person did a Sleeping Beauty, but only one of them was a ballet. Another thing to note is that most of the music featured is from the Romantic era of classical music, but I feel like that's partly more about the style and the ballets made during that time. One obvious theme should be Mr. Cat's theme being wedding themes, so also pay attention to the character themes. A lot of the set pieces will also evoke ballet tropes, Princes Tutu is dressed in white and seen as a swan, clearly representing Odile from Swan Lake, while Kraehe is in black representing Odette (watch the movie Black Swan for more Swan Lake stuff). Still, if it comes to a specific movement from a specific ballet being used over another, it's entirely possible that at that level, they were chosen entirely for mood or based on how they sound, but it fit in with the show perfectly so I've no complaints, the person in charge of music for the series knew what they were doing. Since there's so much going on with the music and ballet, it's certainly a perfect series for instilling the sense of wonderment of how amazing classical music can be (I was taught by society as a youngling that classical music is lame, clearly that was not correct) *edit, looked at the LJ link from willag, that looks pretty awesome too, I want to look more into it myself! How could I forget to note the importance of Siegfried, he's in more than just one thing in classical pieces. Actually, I think France was supposed to be working on a movie called Siegfried (Ring Cycle Siegfried as evident by the music), but all we got was this awesome trailer, I think they ran out of funds. the music is changes to right at the end is actually Mars: Bringer of War by Gustav Holst (a piece I absolutely adore) *edit edit, Ok, I double checked the ending, clearly I had hit the skip button on my remote before even seeing a body reflected in the water, lol |
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Tris8
 Posts: 2114 Location: Where the rain is. |
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I am also a lover of Princess Tutu and gave it a "masterpiece" rating. No single reason led me to rate it so highly; it was a combination of its unique spoiler[story within a story style], the beautiful beautiful beautiful music, the lovable characters and the way their growth played with our expectations, the perfect balance of light comedy and serious drama, and the way it concluded (spoiler[a little sad, but it had a realistic feel to it. Everything just fell into place.]) but left room for speculation. And many other things.
I don't think you are giving it too much credit, it's a great story anyone can enjoy. But for me, If I rate something as a masterpiece, I know immediately once I've finished it that (for me) it was a masterpiece. If you didn't get that feeling, that 'wow', then it probably wasn't a masterpiece for you. But it could still easily be an 'excellent'. There have been a couple series I bumped up to the 'excellent' rating because of deep discussion they have generated afterward (Revolutionary Girl Utena). As for the water, I did notice, but it took me a couple eps. I really liked that ending theme, so I listened to it almost every time. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
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Princess Tutu is the only series I can name where 1) The first episode is the best episode and 2) The overall series is a creative triumph. Cherry Blossom save set to Tchaikovsky is one of the great first episode climaxes.
Princess Tutu, the series that dares to ask: What can't ballet do? |
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Haterater
 Posts: 1727 |
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I never noticed the water pattern in all of watching the series. The colors mixed in well with the water. Now I find the whole thing sneaky because spoiler[it shows a body of one the boys, but which one? Makes me think its left up to you to decide.]
Just because something is a children's story doesn't mean it can't be a masterpiece work. This goes beyond just anime, as I'm sure there are many works from literary to animation that are held in high regards. |
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Tris8
Posts: 2114 Location: Where the rain is. |
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Hamiltion97
Posts: 13 |
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Some people with a more classic music background have been able to analyze the music and it's significance, while others who are more knowledgeable about fairy tales have pointed out references that others may have overlooked.
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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This is the 5th anime that I've rated a masterpiece. Why? Because (in no particular order):
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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Princess Tutu is one of those series that gets better the more you watch it and the more you think about it. I love how it basically follows the classic fairytale formula in the first half and then deconstructs it in the 2nd half. I love the meta nature of the series.
I should point out that I didn't rate Princess Tutu as a masterpiece at first either. But it has just grown strongly in my affection over time. In fact it is now my absolute favorite series a long with Mushishi. |
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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I have just now been made aware of Surrender Artist's monograph/essay on Princess Tutu. He is truly an excellent writer; he puts my skill to shame.
Last edited by nobahn on Thu Jun 04, 2020 10:01 am; edited 3 times in total |
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