Princess Tutu Is so Fucking Good It's Inconceivable

I’ve been getting told to watch Princess Tutu for fucking ever. It’s one of those shows that not many have seen but everyone who has loves it to death. It’s also most commonly been compared to Revolutionary Girl Utena, a show that I think everyone should see as it is one of the biggest accomplishments in anime I can name. I’ll admit, I’ve been putting off Tutu because I judge books very much by their cover. It’s easy to say that the reason this show isn’t popular is that, well, it’s title is Princess fucking Tutu. It’s a shoujo drama centered around ballet and classical music. Not exactly a crowd draw. I believe it was around February that the number of comments about this show got to me and I watched the first episode. Unfortunately, at the time, the show was just way too shoujo for me. I now know that this is partly because the first episode hadn’t brought out the darker nor more emotional side of Tutu, but at the time I was just afraid for my masculinity and put the show on indefinite hold. These days, though, I’m doesn’t afraid of anything, and when it came time for me to watch a bunch of shows I want to talk about at nekokon, Princess Tutu was on the list. I put it at the top priority and started my watch.

Now I just want to say I’m only 8 episodes in and as I mentioned after Kure-nai 6, I don’t normally like to talk about shows before they finish, but I fucking HAVE TO. This is definitely the first show since Utena that has had such a fucking PERFECT shoujo angle and such awesome, awesome, awesome directing. Even the first few episodes which were… well, episodic and just sort of getting the plot moving were astounding. The use of ballet instead of fights is one of the most unique and well-done concepts I’ve ever seen in anime, and the use of classical music is consistently perfect. However it’s when the show starts getting into the story that things really swell up to complete brilliance and at the end of every episode I find myself thinking ‘I can’t believe that episode was so good!’ I really do wonder how a show that will be 38 episodes has managed to pack this much plot into the first 8 though. Utena was 39 episodes but plot exposition was almost nonexistent most of the time and more went into building the characters, setting, background, tone, and all that beautiful symbolism. Princess Tutu pretty much cuts right to the chase and sucks you in like a moterfucking black hole.

What makes Tutu really stand out above anything else (besides the fact that it’s perfect) is how it tells a fairy tale story the old school way – that is to say tragic, brutal, and unforgiving. Every episode ends with a feeling of unsureness and Ahiru is truly a tragic heroin. This is one of the few shows I’ve ever watched where if the ending was sad, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. And it’s shoujo! You just don’t see that in shoujo! I love it!!!

8 episodes is, of course, not enough to judge a series this long at all. However, if it’s really like this all the way through, this will be an instant favorite – like Utena it’s one of those shows where I really couldn’t change a damn thing about it (well maybe the black rose saga lol) – it’s just perfect.