Princess Tutu eps 1-5
Dec. 20th, 2007 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreOnce upon a time, a man named Herr Drosselmeyer(HD) wrote a story about a brave prince who battled an evil, cunning raven. But HD died before he could finish the story, leaving the prince and the raven stuck fighting each other forever. The raven, of course, would have none of that, and broke free of the story and out of the world of the book. The prince, being the prince and the hero, followed the raven and managed to seal the raven up again, but in the process his heart was shattered, leaving him a cold and empty shell.
Sometime later, there is a kind but lonely duck who loves the prince, but being a duck, can do nothing to help him. There's also Princess Tutu, a magical princess who strives to put back together the pieces of her prince's heart, but who will disappear into a speck of light if she ever confesses her love. And finally, there's Ahiru, a sweet and bubbly, but dim and clutzy, girl who attends a ballet school, and who is hopelessly in love with another student, Mytho, a cold and repressed upperclassman.
All three girls are the same. For you see, after the prince's heart was shattered and the duck fell in love with the prince, the spirit of HD saw the duck and decided it was time to tell another story.
On some levels, Princess Tutu is as pretty, and frilly as shojo comes, especially magical girl shojo, but at the same time...it's not. It's a fairytale(Ahiru's life at school and crush on Mytho) within a fairytale(Princess Tutu's quest to restore her ptince's heart) within a fairytale(the duck who fell in love with the prince who sacrificed his heart to stop the raven.) Ahiru is so much the quniessential sweet and bubbly and energetic shojo heroine that she should give me hives, but I adore her. The whole "love square," at this point, should have me twitching. There is, of course, Ahiru who loves Mythos. But Mythos is dating Rue, the beautiful, poised, elite ballerina. And there's also Mythos's friend, Fakir, an ill-tempered and unpleasant(outwardly) boy who doesn't want Mythos to regain his heart, for reasons that have not yet been revealed. There is, I think, a reason that Certain People I know who break out in hives at the idea of magical girl shojo praise this to no end.
To be perfectly upfront: a lot of my opinions are likely influenced by my having a vague idea of what's really going on via reports by (among others, but mostly)magicnoireand calixa, especially in regards to Fakir. You see, not knowing what was coming, I would likely be somewhat annoyed. We are, clearly, supposed to be rooting for the poor duck to save her prince, restore his heart, and somehow break free of the curse and confess her love, thus having the beautiful fairy tale ending. And yet...Mythos is so interesting he makes my eyes glaze over. I have no idea what Rue(who is quite cool and seems to have quite good taste otherwise) or Ahiru see in him, beyond his being the prince. If I didn't know that the story is, indeed, that of Ahiru and Fakir, and not that of Ahiru and the prince, this post would likely be full of grumblings along the lines of "but why can't the duck save the prince, but then dump him for the grumpy and much more interesting guy who's nicer than he seems?" Don't get me wrong, I'm all for "she saves him" stories...it's just that, male or female, I prefer my damsels in distress to be interesting...give me a reason beyond "PRETTY!" for the hero or heroine to be on the rescue quest, please. But, having been generally spoiled, I know that I don't have to worry about that, and that I'll get what I want in the end.
I need icons...or screencaps with which to make icons.
ETA: I find it very amusing that the second disc has a preview for Pretear, because one of my main thoughts watching the first disc was "this is like Pretear or Revolutionary Girl Utena...only done much better."
Actually, this has been compared to Utena so much that I was almost scared to touvh it, but I am promised that it only gets better, as opposed to being like Utena where it starts good, but my the end all I could process was "And now Akio is driving around and seducing everyone with his car and Touga and Saionji are posing on the car and their shirts are flying open and I think people are doing Many Physical Things while the car seducing and posed shirt popping is going on, AND I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING FROM THIS!!!!"
Oh, and the "AH OOGA AH OOGA yuri subtext AH OOGA incest subtext AH OOGA yaoi subtext AH OOGA yuri subtext AH OOGA AH OOGA!!!" part.
Ok, head hurt now...
Sometime later, there is a kind but lonely duck who loves the prince, but being a duck, can do nothing to help him. There's also Princess Tutu, a magical princess who strives to put back together the pieces of her prince's heart, but who will disappear into a speck of light if she ever confesses her love. And finally, there's Ahiru, a sweet and bubbly, but dim and clutzy, girl who attends a ballet school, and who is hopelessly in love with another student, Mytho, a cold and repressed upperclassman.
All three girls are the same. For you see, after the prince's heart was shattered and the duck fell in love with the prince, the spirit of HD saw the duck and decided it was time to tell another story.
On some levels, Princess Tutu is as pretty, and frilly as shojo comes, especially magical girl shojo, but at the same time...it's not. It's a fairytale(Ahiru's life at school and crush on Mytho) within a fairytale(Princess Tutu's quest to restore her ptince's heart) within a fairytale(the duck who fell in love with the prince who sacrificed his heart to stop the raven.) Ahiru is so much the quniessential sweet and bubbly and energetic shojo heroine that she should give me hives, but I adore her. The whole "love square," at this point, should have me twitching. There is, of course, Ahiru who loves Mythos. But Mythos is dating Rue, the beautiful, poised, elite ballerina. And there's also Mythos's friend, Fakir, an ill-tempered and unpleasant(outwardly) boy who doesn't want Mythos to regain his heart, for reasons that have not yet been revealed. There is, I think, a reason that Certain People I know who break out in hives at the idea of magical girl shojo praise this to no end.
To be perfectly upfront: a lot of my opinions are likely influenced by my having a vague idea of what's really going on via reports by (among others, but mostly)
magicnoireand calixa, especially in regards to Fakir. You see, not knowing what was coming, I would likely be somewhat annoyed. We are, clearly, supposed to be rooting for the poor duck to save her prince, restore his heart, and somehow break free of the curse and confess her love, thus having the beautiful fairy tale ending. And yet...Mythos is so interesting he makes my eyes glaze over. I have no idea what Rue(who is quite cool and seems to have quite good taste otherwise) or Ahiru see in him, beyond his being the prince. If I didn't know that the story is, indeed, that of Ahiru and Fakir, and not that of Ahiru and the prince, this post would likely be full of grumblings along the lines of "but why can't the duck save the prince, but then dump him for the grumpy and much more interesting guy who's nicer than he seems?" Don't get me wrong, I'm all for "she saves him" stories...it's just that, male or female, I prefer my damsels in distress to be interesting...give me a reason beyond "PRETTY!" for the hero or heroine to be on the rescue quest, please. But, having been generally spoiled, I know that I don't have to worry about that, and that I'll get what I want in the end.I need icons...or screencaps with which to make icons.
ETA: I find it very amusing that the second disc has a preview for Pretear, because one of my main thoughts watching the first disc was "this is like Pretear or Revolutionary Girl Utena...only done much better."
Actually, this has been compared to Utena so much that I was almost scared to touvh it, but I am promised that it only gets better, as opposed to being like Utena where it starts good, but my the end all I could process was "And now Akio is driving around and seducing everyone with his car and Touga and Saionji are posing on the car and their shirts are flying open and I think people are doing Many Physical Things while the car seducing and posed shirt popping is going on, AND I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING FROM THIS!!!!"
Oh, and the "AH OOGA AH OOGA yuri subtext AH OOGA incest subtext AH OOGA yaoi subtext AH OOGA yuri subtext AH OOGA AH OOGA!!!" part.
Ok, head hurt now...