I watched the rest of Princess Tutu, bitch.
Episode 15: I love that Fakir is at risk for expulsion for slapping Mytho. I mean there was also the fact that it looked like Fakir pushed Mytho out the window, but I like the idea that the slap was just that dramatic.
I’m digging the new end of episode climax section as well. We get Princess Tutu trying to convince people not to throw themselves into a relationship at the expense of their own happiness AND Mythos in a raven outfit. A strong showing from both sides, I would say.
Also, while I’m guessing most of the raven’s victims will wind up with almost no memory of what happened to them the night before, I think it’s fitting for Pike to have completely forgotten why she fell for Mythos. Meanwhile, Lily continues to be A Fucker, so at least there’s someone in this show who’s still in a good mood at the start of the season.
Episode 16: I was going to mention how Cat-sensei’s whole shtick was starting to get on my nerves, but I guess we have Edel’s replacement now and whoops she’s already bad. I need to break out that “who is this sassy lost child” reference and she’s been on screen for less than a minute. That being said, I do love the speed at which Fakir averts his eyes any time Ahiru transforms. That’s the one good thing that’s resulted from Uzura’s existence thus far.
After an episode in which the theme of the episode eluded me so hard that I couldn’t write about it for over a year, it’s nice to have things to say about this one. Raven-Blooded Mythos is super creepy in how manipulative he is. Convincing Freya that she doesn’t really believe that she can live up to her ideals is particularly insidious, because it’s done in a believable way. He does so by saying that she can’t be as optimistic as she says she is, but her love for flowers puts her above everyone else. Evil Mytho has more going for him than, say, preying on people who are too young to know how to deal with abusers. I mean he does that too, but I just wanted to take the chance to diss Akio from RGU.
I also appreciate that Ahiru had to defy Mytho twice this episode, the first of which she tried to tell Freya that she didn’t want to hate people. A good observation that would fit Freya’s ideals, but it’s not until Ahiru reminds Freya of the reason that optimism exists that Freya’s actually able to overcome Mytho. Both of Ahiru’s arguments made sense, but making Freya realize that she could no longer hear the flowers was the thing she actually needed to break free.
Episode 17: Mytho wasn’t the one trying to seduce Femio. 0/10.
Femio is so fantastically over the top, it’s great and I hate him. I also love that he’s such a twit that he breaks out of the spell without Princess Tutu.
Episode 18: So what seemed like it would be a Fakir-focused episode was… technically that. Fakir’s found himself at the point where he’s either irrelevant, or dead. He and the Ghost Knight have survived long past their purpose, yet the Ghost Knight learns that he’s long lost the reason to fight. He’s able to finally escape his pride and move on. Fakir? Basically destined to die if he fights, (and I blame this entirely on Drosselmeyer.) Ahiru saves him, sure, but without a role he’s doomed to vanish in obscurity. Not a great rock and hard place to be trapped between, and again I must reiterate: fuck Drosselmeyer.
Episode 19: I can’t believe there’s an entire episode revolving around someone who calls themselves “Bottom.” Nobody was prepared for our modern age.
The theme of this episode was fairly simple, but also really relevant to the main plot. Telling someone you love them is difficult, but there’s nothing wrong with letting your feelings be known. Except literally none of the main cast can do this. Thanks, Drosselmeyer. Hermia and Lysander were cute, at least. Just… provided you take it as a fairy tale ending.
Episode 20: It’s a this point I realized that the episode intros are the endings to the stories, or at least they would be if Princess Tutu didn’t prevent Mytho from taking a particular person’s heart. Kinda obvious given the symbolism in the intros, but I didn’t start thinking about it like that until Fakir mentioned how the endings were torn from the books he’d read.
And I can’t believe Lily just straight up murders Duck. RIP.
While this is a very Fakir-heavy episode, Raetsel did get some time in, and I like the theme here. Raetsel is constantly trapped between decisions, and even finds herself unable to find a solution, since she knows that the method she wanted to use would hurt Fakir. But it’s nice that in the end, the moral is that her feelings are legitimate, and that it’s not a bad thing that she’d fallen in love with more than one person. Contrast that with Raven Mytho, who will never love Rue but will still hang around her. Probably for the Dad connections.
In other news, poor Fakir. Kid just wanted to be a hero, but he gets severe emotional trauma and a dead mom instead. It’s no wonder he equates throwing himself into danger with protection. But at least he’s found a purpose now. If he can’t stay relevant without dying, then he can at least save Mytho by manipulating the story.
So in other words, while Fakir already knew how to attac, he must learn how to protec.
Episode 21: Please stop murdering my novelist grandpa, you’ve made him too powerful.
Plot time! It seems like people are taking away endings to spite Drosselmeyer, which I do approve of. They’re probably not trustworthy, being a cult that’s considering killing Fakir if he knows too much, but I can’t help but consider what they’re doing helpful to a certain extent. By removing the endings of these stories, I think it’s creating opportunities for Ahiru to let them end happily. Of course it also opens them up for worse endings because of the crow, but that’s how it goes.
Episode 22: So the Book Men think that Princess Tutu isn’t supposed to exist which, according to the original story, is true. But she’s been a pivotal part of Drosselmeyer’s new story since the show began, and now apparently nothing can function without her. Part of me feels like Drosselmeyer is building himself up as a major antagonist on purpose. If your characters are going to break out of your world, you might as well let it happen in style. Then again, he could just be a dick. That’s more likely, I think.
Either way, I am here for some death of the author.
Episode 23: Yup, this was pretty much everything I hated about Drosselmeyer before, just out in the open now. He cares more about drama and excitement than he does his own characters. If anybody’s happy, then that’s just boring to him. What a fucker.
I like this episode for everyone else’s development, though. We get to see Ahiru sort through her own feelings a bit, some regret from Fakir over his behavior in the first season, and JRPG protagonist Mytho. Oh right, and Rue suffers a lot because her dad sucks and I hate him as well. I think I’d like less Rue suffering, actually.
Episode 24: Looks like the show completely ignored me and now it’s all Rue suffering all the time. Choo choo fuckers the Raven King sucks and we get the entire fallout from it.
I’m glad they didn’t overdo Uzura’s initial joke. It’s too bad it’s a nonzero number, but I wasn’t too annoyed with Uzura for her scenes in this episode to not work. This terrible gremlin is good, actually.
Episode 25:
Me: What’s the title of this episode?
“The Dying Swan”
Me: Ah fuck.
Ahiru and Fakir are really cute together. Somebody get Drosselmeyer out of here so somebody can live happily. Or get Autor to write a nice ending. He really wants the power Drosselmeyer has, and I don’t think anybody’s paying attention to what he’s doing.
Episode 26: So in context of this being a show, it pretty much had to end happily because a tragedy would ruin the themes of the show. Still though, they set up a really dramatic climax, with Ahiru and Fakir fighting tooth and nail to actually give their story a happy ending. And it’s nice that, after all the time she spends thinking she’s useless because she’s a duck, Ahiru can still use the one power she always had as Princess Tutu. It’s also nice to see Autor getting a bit of last second… redemption? I mean he wasn’t terrible, but he did stop an axe with a book and then tackle a man. He made use of what time he had to make up for those episodes where he was kind of a weird jerk. And of course, now Drosselmeyer is stuck with the gremlin child of his own creation who, much like himself, will never listen to what anyone else says.
And since Fakir’s developing his own power, I hope that one day, he finises his self-insert fanfic where he, Ahiru, Mytho and Rue are all in a polycule. And then it’s a slice of life fanfic, just to really spite Drosselmeyer.
And that’s Princess Tutu! I really wish I’d finished this sooner, but I got stuck on thinking of things to say for episode 15, and also last year wasn’t great for me as it was. Regardless, the show’s really good. Its theater and dance influences give it a really unique style. I love how over the top it can be, both from the drama it includes and from its use of music. All the characters are fantastic as well. Character development is really good, and I can’t think of any characters that I flat out hated. Even Drosselmeyer, who is a fucker, works well as an antagonist. Also, I like his ending, in which he realizes, “wait, maybe I’m a character in a story,” and then immediately follows with, “like I give a shit.” You’re also given plenty of evidence beforehand that he’s not trustworthy. I didn’t think that he’d become the villain of the anime, (even if he did have the obvious tells in the opening sequence,) but I’d been ending my summaries on “fuck Drosselmeyer” for a while before he was confirmed as the antagonist. It was clear something was up. I think my only problem with a character might be the fact that Rue suffers a whole lot. Her development is excellent, but I wish she got to be happy. Like, on-screen. It’s not bad, I just think Rue deserves better.
So to summarize: Princess Tutu. It’s a real good anime. I should have finished it sooner.
And fuck Drosselmeyer.
She’s not so dense after all.
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