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
