Princess Tutu

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.

Who doesn't know them? The wonderful fairy tales you read as a child. It always comes down to these three words, "happily ever after". I'm saying, I apprieciate fairy tales, some are really nice and some are just the typical thing you'd expect. But, some people underestimate how dark these can get at some points. This anime however knows what it is doing. It is a fairytale gone dark - in a good way.

Story
Once upon a time, there was a man. This man was known for telling and writing stories. Despite all, he unfortunately could not forsee the hands of death. His latest work, "The Prince and the Raven" was kept in a static, with the prince and the raven battling seemingly endless war. Both were sick and tired of this battle. Soon enough, the raven escaped the pages of the story. To avoid the destruction it could cause, the prince sealed the raven away with his heart - at the cost of his own emotions. But then, just then, a long forgotten voice had broken the silence. "This is great!" murmured the man who was supposed to be dead.

So much to the intro of this anime. Our story truly begins with a small yellow duck simply named Ahiru ("Duck" in japanese) watching the now emotionless prince dancing gracefully at a lake, wishing to see him smile at least once. The old man - now a spirit - acknowledged that and gave the duck a chance to prove that she would do anything to get him to smile. Obtaining a red amulet from the old man, Ahiru could turn into a human girl and if it were to be used again, into Princess Tutu, the titular heroine of this anime, a graceful ballerina with the task of obtaining the scattered heart shards of the emotionless prince. There is, of course a catch, but you better watch the anime for yourself to know what catch.

It would be an easy task truly, wouldn't it be for two others trying to stop Ahiru from fulfilling her task - for one, Fakir - the reborn knight of the prince, now trying to protect Mytho at all costs and Rue, a mysterious raven haired girl. Emphasis on "Raven", for she is also the raven princess Kraehe, basically Tutu's dark counterpart. And even the story itself seems to have it's own secrets...

I won't continue here, so you can go mostly blind into this anime.

Characters
For one, we got Ahiru - the main protagonist and the titular heroine Princess Tutu. A clumsy girl turned duck, who is kind to anybody. As Princess Tutu, she is very graceful and hopeful, dancing with the people corrupted by these heart shards.

Then we got Mytho, the now emotionless prince, who once battled the raven to protect the people of the story. He often gets into strange situations because of his emotions being gone. Fakir is the third one, the knight of the prince who now tries to protect him in any way possible, going so far to threaten Princess Tutu to kill her if she would get too close.

Then, we got Rue - a mysterious black haired girl who is the talented primadonna of the class. Later in the series, she becomes Princess Kraehe, a cruel and dark ballerina princess who tries to stop Tutu from getting these heart shards back. She's my personal favorite character of this anime. You'll see why.

And last but not least - the old man himself, Drosselmeyer. The story writer of the fairy tale and the one who watches the characters unfold the tale before him. He seems to be helpful at first, but he actually does not have the best intentions in mind...

Other important side characters are for example, Pique and Lillie, the friends of Ahiru and the puppet Edel, which was created by Drosselmeyer to guide the characters in the story. Or Nekosensei, the teacher of the ballet class - and a humanoid cat. You better focus in his class...

Music
The music is special, being mostly classic and hopeful, fitting to a ballet performance, technically. Both opener and ending are calm classic pieces. Many of these tracks are from ballets, like the Nutcracker or Swan Lake. Which makes sense, considering these two seem to be the main influences. People who like classic music will definitely be happy here.

Art
The art is what you would expect from an anime released in 2002. But it has it's charm, definitely. The anime can be bizzare and crazy at times, but well, that just makes it more fun to watch. It knows when to make an dark atmosphere, but sometimes, it's kinda too much. It's very creepy when Drosselmeyer suddenly has his face on a house or on a wall. It's very unsettling sometimes, but in a good way. Kraehe and Tutu are references to Odile and Odette respectively, the main protagonists of Swan Lake, same with Mytho, while Drosselmeyer is originally from the nutcracker, the uncle of it's main protagonist if I remember correctly.

Overall
Overall, Princess Tutu is a well made anime. It has dark and unsettling scenes, but lights it up with the ballet dances. The second half is my personal favorite, considering how crazy things can get in that one. If you need an anime which is both a fairy tale and ballet-related, but isn't too overly cute and has serious darkness, your search just ended.

It's definitely worth a try.