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A place to collect Princess Tutu related articles, events, fan research, real world inspirations and possibly more.

[spellthief]

One day, I will run out of things to screencap. Part 6.

FIRST: Carmen

SECOND: Don Quixote

THIRD/FOURTH/FIFTH: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

DVD scan from here.

[spellthief]

The incredible awesomeness of Princess Tutu, Part 5.

TOP: Coppelia

MIDDLE/BOTTOM: Swan Lake

DVD scan from here.

[spellthief]

Costume references, Part 3.

TOP: Swan Lake

MIDDLE: Pas de Quatre

BOTTOM: Don Quixote

DVD scan stolen from here, ballet photos stolen from teh google.

[spellthief]

The wonderful ballet references of Princess Tutu, Part 2. All three of these are from Sleeping Beauty.

DVD scan from here, ballet photos off Google images.

[spellthief]

Can we talk about how awesome Princess Tutu is? I am continually astounded by the amount of detail put into this show. Part 1 of a bajillion.

TOP: Swan Lake

MIDDLE: Giselle

BOTTOM: La Sylphide

DVD scan taken from here. Ballet photos shamelessly stolen off Google images.

[mildmilotic-blog]

princess tutu vs swan lake

[mildmilotic-blog]

princess tutu vs the dying swan

[spellthief]

Part 8. Even more dancers from Akt 16! (And there are still more of them… >.<)

TOP: Paquita

MIDDLE: Sleeping Beauty

BOTTOM: Giselle

[voyageviolet]

meta | video

[spellthief]

So while I was giffing this scene the other day, I noticed that Tutu strikes some very iconic poses from a bunch of different roles. Most notably, she does a bit of choreography both for Odile and Odette. I’m too lazy to try to figure out if there’s some deeper meaning for all of this, but I thought it was pretty interesting!

[henshins-blog]

The original promotional video for Princess Tutu (2002), directed by Sailor Moon’s Junichi Sato and originally created by Ikuko Itoh. (It is interesting to note that both of the Sailor Moon TV series’ major directors went on to direct anime about fairytale tropes, particularly princesses and princes. Junichi Sato, of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R, created Princess Tutu; Kunihiko Ikuhara of S and SuperS came up with Revolutionary Girl Utena. (1997))

Princess Tutu, though it was obviously a labor of love for both Sato and Itoh, was never a financial success and faced cancellation after the first thirteen episodes; the second half of the series did eventually air and the story was completed, but first it was moved to a different network and reformatted to fit the much shorter timeslot given it. From what I can tell, the series had a difficult time finding an audience, as it was rather dark for its intended young girl demographic, as the above promo will suggest. The series, while never as brutal as its spiritual counterpart Utena, is rife with themes of deception, manipulation and physical and emotional torment; its straightforward pacing and constantly-evolving narrative may also have been lost on the monster-of-the-week audience. For the sake of comparison, Princess Tutu aired in the same year as Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, another magical girl series with heavy fairytale influences that followed the formula of a long-running magical girl series more to the letter. Later “dark magical girl series” like Uta Kata or this year’s Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica would find much more success as late-night programming for an adult audience.

Another trailer, this one for the English-language version, can be found here; this one includes footage from the first couple of episodes, rather than the above promo, which is all-original footage.

[bookmen-archives]

fan upload of ptutu promo trailer w/english subtitles:

https://youtu.be/z4_OOcdWQSo

[alexanderhamiltonisthebottom]

“When exactly do adults stop speaking of their “dreams for the future”? Perhaps they’re buffed about by and swept up in the currents of reality, they lose things that are precious to them, and they become so exhausted by this happening over and over that they stop being able to have those dreams. Perhaps they stop dreaming because they’re too able to imagine their tomorrows. I hear stories of everyday life, rumors, and complaints from the people around me. It’s not that I don’t like hearing those things, but it makes me a little bit sad somehow. That precious something that we’ve begun to forget – I want to remember it again. Maybe my search for it was what gave birth to this story.”

—

Ikuko Itoh, End of Series Remarks

Original Story, Character Designs and Chief Animation Director of Princess Tutu 

[tomtefairytaleblog]

Came across an old Q and A with Ikuko Itoh about Princess Tutu, and one of the questions asked was if Fakir was meant to be Middle Eastern, based on his name. Her answer was that she didn’t consider him to be, but she didn’t rule out the possibility of him having Middle Eastern ancestry somewhere in his family tree.

It actually would make sense if he had some ancestry there, not just because of his name, but also because of the plot point regarding his ability to tell stories and have them come to life; after all, there is at least one character from Middle Eastern folklore who was known for telling stories…

[elle-lavender]

“Both Ahiru and I saw one of our dreams come true. There were also things we lost along the way, but now we’ve both begun to nurture new dreams. I think we’ll be able to face up to any difficulties we encounter. As long as we have the light of hope in our hearts.”

— Ikuko Itoh, creator of Princess Tutu. From the staff remarks in volume 6 of the Princess Tutu DVD collection.

[digeny]

If you are not en pointe yet please please PLEASE

DO NOT WEAR POINTE SHOES TO A CON

I saw several princess tutu cosplayers at the last convention I was at, and as a dancer, I asked each of them if they were dancers! While it is definitely fine to cosplay characters from Princess Tutu if you aren’t a ballerina, please understand that it is advisable to wear regular ballet slippers when cosplaying- not only are they more comfortable and easier to walk around in, but they’re also accurate for what dancers wear in their first few years!

It often takes ballet dancers between 2 and 4 years of class to get to pointe, and this is for several reasons. Ballet strengthens your calves and ankles, as well as training balance. If dancers have weak ankles or improper posture, they are not allowed to proceed to pointe because it could seriously injure them.

Most of the cosplayers wearing pointe shoes that I met were dancers, and so I wasn’t worried about them being injured as I assumed they knew this. Not everyone knows about the hazards of pointe shoes, however, and I did meet a few girls who would pose en pointe that had told me they were not in ballet. 

When wearing pointe shoes, ESPECIALLY if you are not trained for them, it is incredibly easy to cause permanent damage to your ankles and feet, pull muscles, and even break toes or ankles. 

I know it looks nicer for photos, but I can’t stress how important it is that you wear regular slippers if you are not en pointe yet. It’s not worth the risk. 

Thank you for reading!!!

[autistic-girl-academic]

being a princess tutu fan means you learn to recognize lots of classical music pieces, but always reflexively think of them as “the one from the fight scene in episode 20″ or “the song that plays whenever drosselmeyer appears”

[alexanderhamiltonisthebottom]

just think: the original story was called The Prince and the Raven

but it became Princess Tutu’s story in the end

‘cause at the start it’s like “Once upon a time there was a man who died…” they don’t even talk about who Princess Tutu is until the 2nd ep

THE TITLE IS META

THE WHOLE FUCKING SHOW IS META THE TITLE IS FORESHADOWING

i need sleep