Princess Tutu!!!!!

[streussal]

So I've finally watched the first two episodes of Princess Tutu and aaaaaaahhh oh my goodness. Silvie has been yelling at me to watch this for years and it's one of those things that I've been meaning to BUT and yes.

For those who haven't heard of the series, it's basically a fairy tale/magical girl series with ballet. And the main character is a duck (Ahiru is the most adorable okay). Instead of violence, she uses dance and emotional appeal to solve conflicts. The second episode features an angry anteater doing angry ballet, and the anteater turns out to be really sympathetic?? FEELINGS!!

Also there's stuff about stories and the importance of narrative and endings. And a really creepy old man whose able to reshape reality through the power of stories (or something??) and wow he's so creepy. GET AWAY FROM MY AHIRU-CHAN!!

MORE THOUGHTS:

• Mytho's name has been translated as "Mute" in the first two episodes of the fansub. At first I thought Ahiru was thinking of him as Mute-senpai because he's so quiet but then everyone called him that so. I'm not sure if this is a case of literal translation or what. (I know Mytho isn't the only romanisation but...) It actually kind of amuses me.
• Okay so if I didn't know from the internet that Fakir is actually a good dude, I would probably have read him as controlling to the level of being abusive in the first episode, and still pretty suspect after that. I mean he actually tells Mytho not to read any books aside from the ones he tells him too. Which. What. But then Mytho basically jumps out a window a few stories up to save a baby bird so. Self-preservation is really lacking there, which makes overprotectiveness understandable. And Mytho is LITERALLY HEARTLESS, as in he has no emotions or preferences whatsoever so. It is a complicated situation.
• ANTEATER-CHAN. I knew an anteater appeared at some point, but I didn't know it would be so early in the series. I actually got kind of attached to her?? But it seems like she's just a single-episode character. Too bad. I mean even if she didn't appear much in other episodes, it'd be nice to see her in dance classes, just. Being an anteater ballerina.
• I enjoy the blonde and pink-haired girl who are always going on about how cute Ahiru is, in a somewhat patronising manner. The blonde girl sometimes seems like she has a crush on her actually? But also treats her like one would an adorable puppy so.
• RUE: Seems to have more in the way of curves than the other girls, possibly to signal that she's more mature? And they all fangirl her, which is cute. At first when she asked Ahiru to dance with her, I thought it was just to emphasize what a talented dancer she was in comparison. Which would be kind of cruel, really, but I would have been okay with it because a) I know from elsewhere that Rue is actually a sympathetic and complex character, and b) even if I didn't, mean girls can be fun. So what actually happened surprised me. The other dancers were impressed with Ahiru's ballet when done with Rue. Rue made Ahiru look better, while still obviously being a fantastic dancer. She was not out to benefit at Ahiru's expense. What a great subversion of expectations. Now, the fact that Ahiru performed better than usual still reflects well on Rue. And this was likely her goal: I'm such a wonderful dancer, that I can raise lesser dancers to a new level. So there's an element of manipulation there, but not in a mean way? Just. Really good.
• Also I could see shipping potential in that dancing scene. There was chemistry, for adolescent girls that are animated.