Anime rec: Princess Tutu

[feuervogel]

For those of you who don't follow my other blog, I've just posted a recommendation for Princess Tutu.

I avoided spoilers beyond about the first 5 episodes, so I couldn't get into much detail about just *how* the tropes are deconstructed. (And leora, you still need to watch this. The dub is painful, but I know you can't do subtitles.)

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I admit, you mentioned several elements that make it sounds like I do need to watch it. And I did love Revolutionary Girl Utena. However, the trick to getting me to watch it is convincing darch that he needs to watch it and to watch it with me.

[feuervogel]

I have to say, magical girl doesn't strike me as his thing. It's set in a fictional Germany (because that's where fairy tales come from, right?) and the random German on things like signs isn't horribly wrong all the time (just sometimes).

It's really cute and the villain ballerina wears a very low-cut outfit?

[leora.livejournal.com]

I don't know. It's hard to say. We both liked Utena. It depends on too many other factors.

A lot of fairy tales are German, but there are nifty ones from other sources too. :)

My rough memory of fairy tales which may not be accurate at all is that the weirder more surreal fairy tales tend to be German.

[feuervogel]

Send him a link to my review. It looks like a typical magical girl show from the cover art and the character designs, and the "seriously? ballet?" aspect may turn a lot of people off (and I just realized I totally forgot to mention the score being almost entirely ballet music, and various episodes taking after particular ballets, and Swan Lake and the Nutcracker being major themes), but it's so much more than that.

This is definitely a surreal fairy tale. And one other thing I loved about it is that the story *changes* as it goes on. (It may partly be a slow reveal thing, but given how meta the whole thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if it's both.) Each episode is introduced with a narrator over sepia-toned line drawings, telling a brief summary of a fairy tale, which usually ends up being the plot of the week.

The protagonists are genre-savvy! They've read the story, and they know what's going to happen! But they don't want to submit to their fates, so they work to change it. I love it so much, and hardly anyone's seen it.

[anacoluthon.livejournal.com]

I was having a conversation with friends last night about how enjoyable this show was. Did you not see it when we watched it in coup, or was this a re-watch for you?

[feuervogel]

We saw the first season, then the second season was either the summer I went to Oregon or during the time I had to get up at 4 am to be on rotation (and went to bed at 8 or 9 pm). Possibly both.