Princess Tutu 10th Anniversary: An Appreciation Post

Everybody has times when they feel that they are unable to reach their dream. But deciding that there is no way you can do something is nothing more than a way of comforting yourself when you lack motivation. Are you sure you are not fooling yourself about how you feel? About what exactly is most important to you? 

- Neko-sensei

On the 16th of August, 2002 an original anime aired in Japan that had been over a decade in the making. The anime was, of course, Princess Tutu.  My ultimate topic for fangirling and ranting. My guilty pleasure. A metaphysical masterpiece. A show that challenged what it meant to be a magical girl years before Madoka did. Quite possibly the best feminist anime since Revolutionary Girl Utena. A true gem for those who persist in watching past the first few episodes. And one of the most relatable works I have ever come across.

Obviously, yesterday was the show's 10th birthday and I'm weeping because I somehow managed to miss it, even though I'd been thinking about it since the beginning of the year. I feel as if I've missed my child's 21st or something ahaha. But even if I am a day late, I have to contribute my share to love towards to show on this momentous occasion. Lord knows I have enough of it.

If you've read my blog before, you know the drill. There are four main characters, all of which get their fair share of screen time and character development, and all of which play several different roles. It's kinda something like this:

Ahiru: Literally a duck, transformed by a sadistic, dead writer into...
A clumsy, genki, duck-like, sweet girl who goes to ballet school and crushes on the emotionless popular guy, which leads her to...
Transform into Princess Tutu, a fairytale character, from said sadistic writer's story, whose only role into the story was to confess her to to the prince and then vanish into a speck of light. However, her role in the current story is to help the prince regain pieces of his fractured heart.
Also, Fakir's muse later on.

Mytho: An emotionless, innocent and naive ballet student, popular with the ladies because of his effeminate features and faraway look. Actually emotionless because...
He's the prince from the sadistic writer's story. He's come out of the book after tearing his heart (and therefore apparently his emotions) out to stop a monster raven from eating it and taking over the world.

Fakir: An asshole who tries to stop Ahiru/Tutu from helping Mytho regain his heart. A dick who is physically and emotionally abusive. This is because...
He's been trying to protect Mytho since he came out of the story when Fakir was a small, orphaned child. Despite truly caring for Mytho's wellbeing, the main reason he doesn't want him regain his heart is because...
He's the incarnation of the knight from the same fairytale, whose fate was to protect the prince, but die in vain, being torn in half. Thus, whenever he tries to be a knight and fight with a sword, he fails. Which later leads him to discover that...
He is a direct descendant of the sadistic writer of the fairytale, who is currently controlling everyone with another story. He also has the power to make stories into reality, but only when he writes about Ahiru. Ship ship ship.
He is also a kawaii blushing dork who gets awkward about nudity and has a soft spot for cute, fluffy animals.

Rue: Mytho's apparent girlfriend at the academy. Originally Ahiru's rival in love, she looked as if she'd become the big bad because...
She is also the daughter of the evil raven from the story.
Or not, as you find out later. She was really just kidnapped at birth, deprived of human love, and told by the Raven that Prince Mytho, who loved all people, was the only person in the world capable of loving her.
In the end, she is the one who proclaims her love for Mytho and sacrifices herself for him, not Tutu.

Understandably, all the leads suffer from very serious and very real identity crisis. Though Ahiru can transform into the mature and talented Tutu, as a girl she is underdeveloped and downright untalented at dancing. As a girl she can have fun with her friends, she can talk to Mytho, squabble with Fakir and dance with Rue, but she's really a duck. And a mere duck can't do anything, right?

Rue doesn't have a clue 99% of the time whether she's really Rue, or if she's the villain Princess Kraehe. And despite her love for Mytho being so strong, how could he ever love her, if she was the daughter of his enemy? Fakir's got more issues than Windows Vista. He doesn't want to be a knight. He doesn't want to be a writer. He doesn't want to accept that he needs to be involved in any of this, and he is for Mytho's sake, and later Ahiru's. He struggles with massive amounts of self-doubt, but like everyone else, he pushes forward. Mytho literally doesn't even know who he is and although he wants to regain his heart, a lot of the feelings he gets back cause him more trauma than anything else.

What I think I love most about this show is that, despite having all these internal struggles, everyone saves everyone. And everyone saves themselves. The women in this show are never talked down as helpless, weak or in need of a man. Instead, they fight even harder than the guys for what they believe in. This is a show where the princesses save the prince. I also love their strength isn't shown as emasculating the men that they save. When the men need saving, they're glad of the ladies' kickass powers and determination. There's no sexist comments about Ahiru's flat chest, or Kraehe's plunging neckline. When there's disagreements between the group, it's because of clashing beliefs, not because of gender. It also makes me really happy to see the girls being as badass as they are, while still being feminine. Because there's nothing wrong with femininity. This is a show that says "It's okay to be girly. It's okay to have weaknesses. Most importantly, it's okay to just be yourself, whoever that may be. Just stand up for what you believe in, and fight for those you care about."

Speaking of fighting for those you care about, can I take this time to insert another Fakiru rant? There's so many wonderful things about them, but for me, these are a few of my favourite things.

1. Their relationship is based on mutual trust and respect and loyalty. Canonically speaking, it has nothing to do with lust or sexual attraction or idolisation. They see each other for who the really are, a dorky coward and a duck. And they fully accept each other for it.

Fakir: Everyone is scared of returning to their true selves, because they're used to being given roles in stories. The real you is a duck. The real me... in the end, the real me has done nothing but be protected since I was a child. Even if I'm truly like that, I still want the story to end.
Ahiru: [..] If that happens, I'll go back to being just a bird, won't I?
Fakir: [...] That's alright, isn't it? Because that's who you truly are. Even after that happens, I'll stay by your side forever
Ahiru: (thinking) [...] I'm weak, but for some reason, Fakir always makes me stronger.

Me: Fffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkk ;_;

2. They making an amazing team.

Ahiru: My feelings belong to me. That's the same with anybody's feelings. They're all precious. I am not a marionette.
Fakir: I won't sit and be frightened by fate while everyone faces it.
Ahiru: I want to protect Mytho!
Fakir: I will!
Both: Together!

3. They can share anything with each other.

Ahiru: I could go check this out if I was a bird, but... if it's Fakir.
*proceeds to turn into a duck, exposing her greatest vulnerability and weakness to someone who she was enemies with not long ago, because she's seen his most vulnerable side while she was her duck-self. And he's just about to get the shock of his life.*

4. Their interactions are hilarious.

I'll stop now, but yes, they are my beautiful otp team forever. It really is possible to ship any of the characters in this show together though, because their interactions are just fantastic. There are some final things that I would like to fangirl over, though. Firstly, the art of the show. A lot of art from that time period really, really hasn't aged well. But the pastel colours and and softer lines used have helped it stay looking pretty good. Also, the character designs are pretty definitive and have a nice style to them. Obviously there were some budget issues, which led to lots of panning shots of cels, but it blends in well and still fits quite nicely.

Lastly, I love how much darker and complex this show is than you'd expect. This is no happy, predictable fairlytale. Everyone challenges their prescribed roles. No one is who you think they are. None of the characters stay stagnant or the same. Even Ahiru's two comic-relief friends face trials and tribulations over the course of the narrative. Then there's the whole fate vs. free will debate that I will never get tired of. And Neko-sensei's deep rants when he's not talking about marriage. And the "Fakir-sees-Ahiru-naked-and-freaks-out" running gag. And the story's lack of a proper villain. And the classical music. And the ballet/ fairytale references. And the animal motifs. And the dancing. And and and...

This is all just the tip of the iceberg that is this fantastic show. Ten years on, and it's draw more peoples into its small, but dedicated fanbase every day. I've recommend it many times before, and I'll recommend it again. This show helped me find the strength to believe in myself, and push through that final awful year of high school. I've watched it in its entirety 9 times in the past year, one of those times being recently with my sister. I forced her to sit down and watch it, even though she was very skeptical. Within 9 episodes, she was begging me to let her watch it, and started marathoning ~7 episodes a day. So, if a generally mainstream 1D fangirl can appreciate the awesomeness that is Tutu, then you can too! Watch at least the first ten episodes, even if it is a push, and I guaranteeing you'll be given a very rewarding viewing experience. It would make me very happy if the Tutu love could continue to spread for many decades more!

This has been a Princess Tutu fangirl post by [demisemiquavergirl]. Tutu on!

Yo Mama So Feminist

Fun, fun, fun, fun; looking forward to the weekend. *laughs maniacally*
Holy flying guacamole, if I hear Rebecca Black's Friday one more time, I am going to execute someone. Most likely her, or the idiots that wrote the song. Well, there probably not as dumb as we would all assume, seeing as their creation, which mixes appalling lyrics with nasal-y auto-tune and a singer who is as one-dimensional as they come has become a sensation over the course of a few days. Why? Because it is just so bad... So bad that you can't stop listening to it, singing along to it, thinking about it, and, most importantly, impersonating Rebecca and her "Imma so high right now" smiles. Argh. It's so frustrating, because part of me wants her dead, but part of me just wants to jump in her stupid car, and ride along "kickin' in the backseat".
Seriously though, her face in the video is ridiculous. Check this out:

"We, we, we so excited" - THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!

God, she looks possessed. I'm sorry, [missinvisible], I really didn't mean to copy you in having a little rant about RB. It was just (sadly), a large part of my day, so I just had to complain about it. Okay, enough with Rebecca Black, because, let's face it, the 3:48 you waste listening to her song is more than enough time of your life lost to rubbish.

Anyways, I had my weekly English Extension class this afternoon, and, for once, I actually enjoyed it. It's probably good that I had a decent English experience today, seeing as, in my Senior English class, my teacher had threatened to rip up my draft, and was growling because it was just that bad. Whoa. What a change from the last assessment, where I topped the class, and was ranked at an A+ in every single criteria. Needless to say, I didn't take the drop well. A lesson spent (not so softly) whispering: "FML. Guys, I just want to like give up and quit school and die. Ahhhhh!" resulted. I was joking, of course, but I was still 'totes devo' that I'd so epically failed at something in English.

Okay, back to Feminism. It's actually a really interesting theory, that has many different parts and interpretations. I'll leave the feminist ranting for my actual assignment, but here's a picture, just for LOLZ.

I tell you, I usually hate ExtEng, but I found myself laughing and having a good time there today, and it was bacause of Feminism and, er yes, RB's Friday. What? It's so incredibly fun to impersonate. And when the teacher jumps on board, hilarity ensues. Totally random, but I remember one of my fellow classmates yelling out this today: "You can't say 'happiness' without 'penis'"
Well, the Feminists would argue otherwise, but whatevers. I've been hating school so much, that any 'comic relief', I suppose, is completely welcome at the moment!