Kim
06-28-2010, 06:53 PM
So, after seeing a review for it that said it was good, I decided to watch Princess Tutu. To say I was a tad skeptical would be putting it lightly. I'm not a fan of magical girl anime, and Princess Tutu for a name doesn't make it sound like it's going to go above and beyond in any way.
When I say Princess Tutu isn't awful, I hope that statement holds a bit of weight. The concept of characters dancing instead of fighting actually works a lot better in practice than you'd think, and the show uses a lot of classical music. Classical music be rad. I think my favorite part was when the season one villain showed up and Gymnopedie started playing.
The character design for the main villain is kinda ridonkulous and overdone, but I'm willing to be a tad forgiving on the basis that ballet is kinda flashy like that IIRC. The design for Princess Tutu herself as actually semi-decent.
The problem with most magical girl anime is that it's all about collect X amount of Y McGuffin, and this show suffers a bit from that as well. Tutu has to collect the pieces of the Prince's heart so he can feel again. Kinda silly, but on the whole I think I like it because A. It's a more personal motivation for going through with it than "I gotta SAVE THE WORLD" and B. You actually see change brought about with every collection of a heart piece.
The show also has a few things that I kinda dig in general. Princess Tutu actually being a duck. If she tells the Prince she loves him she'll disappear. And the villain's plan in the second season is actually kinda clever. I mean, it's not the Best Plan Ever, and doesn't really stand out as anything special compared to some of the better villain plans I've seen in anime, but it's better than I expected from a show like this.
I'm still not sure if I'd call it particularly good, but I'm still watching it, and I guess that's something. I'll reserve final judgement until I've seen the whole show.
When I say Princess Tutu isn't awful, I hope that statement holds a bit of weight. The concept of characters dancing instead of fighting actually works a lot better in practice than you'd think, and the show uses a lot of classical music. Classical music be rad. I think my favorite part was when the season one villain showed up and Gymnopedie started playing.
The character design for the main villain is kinda ridonkulous and overdone, but I'm willing to be a tad forgiving on the basis that ballet is kinda flashy like that IIRC. The design for Princess Tutu herself as actually semi-decent.
The problem with most magical girl anime is that it's all about collect X amount of Y McGuffin, and this show suffers a bit from that as well. Tutu has to collect the pieces of the Prince's heart so he can feel again. Kinda silly, but on the whole I think I like it because A. It's a more personal motivation for going through with it than "I gotta SAVE THE WORLD" and B. You actually see change brought about with every collection of a heart piece.
The show also has a few things that I kinda dig in general. Princess Tutu actually being a duck. If she tells the Prince she loves him she'll disappear. And the villain's plan in the second season is actually kinda clever. I mean, it's not the Best Plan Ever, and doesn't really stand out as anything special compared to some of the better villain plans I've seen in anime, but it's better than I expected from a show like this.
I'm still not sure if I'd call it particularly good, but I'm still watching it, and I guess that's something. I'll reserve final judgement until I've seen the whole show.