Have You Seen "Princess Tutu?"

[PeppeRaskell1]

I caught an episode of this anime on Anime Network on Demand, the "Sleeping Beauty" episode. The inspiration for this series seems to be the fairy tale and ballet "Swan Lake," with a duck who transforms into a girl and then into a ballerina called "Princess Tutu," who must retrieve the "heart shards" of her prince, a boy named Mythos (who looks a little like Leni Milchstrasse from the Sakura Wars OVAs). He has a "friend," Fakir, who's overprotective of him (I sense a little bit of shonen ai in this!)

Has anyone else seen this show? If you have, what do you think of it?

[Ragsolith]

I thought that Princess Tutu was pretty cute. I don't know when they're ever going to release the second DVD (I'm sure ADV might have it on their website, somewhere).

Because of the story it's based off of, it's not really hard to see where the story is going, though.

[G1Ravage]

I noticed Kaoru Wada did the music for this show, and that aside from the classical songs used, some of the music was ripped from Inu Yasha. Or the other way around, if Inu Yasha came first.

[Karl Olson]

Just watched and reviewed volume 2 recently (I'll link it when it goes up on TZ news,) and I was really quite taken by it. It's almost suffocatingly philosophical at points, yet adorable and funny at others. It's like mash up between Pretty Sammy and Serial Experiments: Lain, and surprisingly, it works. It's also some of ADV's better dub work. The emotion of the performances tends to really resonate and synchronize with the scenes. Must be because everyone involved had to put some extra work in on the show.

Only beef I've got is that transformation sequence is a little revealing. Otherwise, it's probably one of my favorite domestic titles of the year, right up there with GitS:SAC2 and Place Promised In Our Early Days. Even if ADV doesn't send me any more for review, I'd be sorely tempted to buy and review the rest of my own accord.

[Tea]

I'm watching it on Anime on Demand, too.

I love Princess Tutu. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. The concept is very unique in anime... I have trouble naming another ballerina series. The characters never fail to amuse me (especially that jerk bossing Mewto around. I want to find out why he's doing that). And she battles people by dancing them to death(I mean.. love)...! How can anyone not enjoy that? :D My only gripe is sometimes they get cheap on the dance animation and they throw around still frames.

[anime_guru]

likewise. A great philosophical guilty pleasure, and when I was getting into it, Anime Network pulled it to my dismay. So that means I have to buy dvds-or leech them from my friends, who probably would never watch a series like this...though I loved it...

[heyguysok]

I started watching it on Anime on Demand as well. When I fist saw the first ep, I didn't care for it so much. Then I saw eps two and three, and started to see it in a different light and enjoyed it. Of course, Comcast hasn't had it on AoD down here for awhile now. I hope it comes back soon - would love to see more!

[Karl Olson]

Yeah, definitely a slow burn initially. However, it does really get rolling with in the first disc (5 episodes) and by the end of the second (another 4 episode) it's just awesome. I think it because metaphysical/philosophical layering takes time to build, especially when it's being wrapped around a magical girl plot, but the more it comes into play, the more compelling it gets.

[IanC]

My vol 2 shipped yesterday :)

Great series. Best Shoujo series ive seen going by the first few eps :)

[PeppeRaskell1]

I think Volume 2 of Tutu is available at the ADV Website and Amazon.com.

Volume 3 is supposed to be coming out January 25 of next year.

[G1Ravage]

I've only got episode 6 on Anime On Demand.