There are a lot of good series that get overlooked in the anime world, often resurging at random times into massive fandoms. Last summer I made my way through one such anime, entitled Princess Tutu. The series director is Shougo Kawamoto, by now probably best remembered for his work on Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s and Escaflowne. However, leading up the full series is Junichi Sato, which makes all too much sense.
Sato also worked on Cowboy Bebop at one point. He must really enjoy throwing these protagonists out windows.
While I have not watched Kaleido Star yet, I do eventually plan on doing so, even more now that Sato, the lead director of Tutu and Sailor Moon is on board. If you are not sold on the series yet, fret not, there is still a world that awaits you. I am not going to hold back on spoilers, and will presume the reader has some knowledge about the show. However, if you are trying to avoid them and still reading this I would avoid the section on characters and the last paragraphs of plot. That said, let’s take a dive into Princess Tutu starting with something I always feel is important to any anime: music.
MUSIC
Overall
Originally I was going to dedicate this section to the way the episode titles interact with the show. I still am, there is just one thing to get out of the way that honestly stunned me. The musical director of he series is one well respected among the RPG video game community: Kaoru Wada. Yes, this is the same Kaoru Wada who has been in charge of Kingdom Heart’s music direction (more notably the opening orchestrations) and Inuyasha’s musical direction as well. With that out of the way I want to look at something unique to this anime (I can’t say I’ve watched any other’s that utilize this). Each episode has a particular subtitle, so while the first season is known as Chapter of the Egg the episode title may be something like The Wedding Waltz or Swan Lake. Even watching episode 12 the suite Scheherazade appears early on in the episode, something that appears early on as a title. Even after it is played though, there is another suite that joins in. I’m not nearly familiar enough with ballets to identify some of these songs or when it is just Kaoru Wada’s touch to the series. This is perhaps a sign of a great composer. It might seem a little strange to have so much ballet music within it, but keep in mind that this is an entire show about ballet. What’s more, the show is designed with the idea that the whole world is a book, or a stage. It is almost necessary for the show to have such a strong classical influence, and what’s more the show does a brilliant job of picking the right suite for the right episode. Episode 13, Swan Lake carries most of this classical ballet and manages to make even the most elegant of music into a battle scene. So while not an entirely original score, the music of Tutu is one to be greatly desired: incorporated wonderfully and without shame.
Opening/Ending
Another interesting fact about Tutu is that it not only keeps it’s same opening and ending sequence without change, but also the same songs. I don’t know much about Ritsuko Okazaki aside from her work on Tutu, but from what I’ve pulled up across the internet is that it was one of her final works and she released one single afterwards. What’s more disheartening is that she died young. The opening is one of the better ones, and very fitting for a show like Tutu. It is almost impossible not to relax when listening to Morning Grace, and even harder to avoid conjuring up images of ballet. One of the cooler parts occurs right before the show starts when Okazaki brilliantly incorporates part of Swan Lake. When I first sat down to watch the series this wowed me and made me a little hesitant to continue on: was this just going to be a retelling of Swan Lake? Had Wikipedia (as it often does) lied to me? To this day I’m still not entirely certain if it did, but I am glad I continued on afterwards. With such a wonderful opening though, the ending, Watashi No Ai Wa Chiisaikeredo, becomes a little disappointing. It invokes the same soft feeling of a gentle lullaby and after an especially action filled episode takes out some of the drama, winding it all the way down. If I had to pick one to change I would choose the ending, even though it has its own calming merits.
ART STYLE AND ANIMATION
If I were to compile a list of difficult actions to animate, ballet would certainly be up there. For those who have ever fenced, you know that the entire sport was designed to make the body do things it was not meant to (this may be discussed later in a review of Revolutionary Girl Utena). Ballet is fencing taken one step farther: the French grew bored with making the body fight and decided to have it do even more difficult things. Thus, we have ballet. So for an anime to pull off animating something as difficult as ballet there has to be a lot of work put into it, and it certainly shows that there was. It is not hard to imagine an actual ballet dancer pulling off some of the brilliantly illustrated scenes. Unfortunately, this means some battle scenes are a little lacking, especially when Fakir or Muto (Mythos) is involved. There is a definite shift in the style of animation, and sometimes even the coloring. It’s not often notable, but when it does happen and is picked up on it can be a little annoying. This is probably more on the key animators, but let’s take a look at our animation director.
I don’t usually pay too much attention to the character design and animation director. Well, I do, but I don’t often notice if they match up. In this case Ito Ikuko is not only the original creator, but also the chief animation director and in charge of character design. He also worked on Sailor Moon, which shows in some of the character’s facial expressions. For the most part their quite smooth, but they can get silly. This is especially true with Drosselmeyer, who always seems a bit out of place with the other characters. This is probably done on purpose, as he stands outside of the plot itself.
Overall Tutu does not have the smoothest animation by today’s standards. Compared to other releases of its time (2002), it’s still not that sharp. If you keep in mind the fact the release time is well before the advent of full digital media, then the idea of quality improves somewhat. Even so, the slight grain in the animation and coloring is reminiscent of the eighties and nineties. In the end, what it gains for animating difficult scenes (and even mild use of CG for gears), the quality is still not quite there.
SEE PART II FOR PLOT AND CHARACTERS
Princess Tutu is now airing on Hulu.
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