Shoujo Anime - Blog Posts

Princess Tutu and Grand Narrative

Once upon a time, there was a clumsy school girl granted the power to transform into the magical ballerina Princess Tutu.

“Once upon a time” is a familiar phrase used to connect stories that take place in lands distant and times different from one another into the same fairytale world. Each episode of the anime Princess Tutu begins with this familiar phrase and then proceeds to tell a story both known and new, where Hans Christian Anderson’s Ugly Ducking becomes Odette, the Swan Queen, from Swan Lake, thanks to the magic of the mysterious Drosselmeyer, who bares a striking resemblance to the character of the same name from The Nutcracker. Princess Tutu is not just a retelling of a handful of fairy tales, it’s an adaptation of stories across literature, ballet, opera, and of course, anime. Each piece of Princess Tutu’s narrative belongs to worlds larger than its own. The series challenges paradigms about typical narrative creation by weaving together multiple “grand narratives”.

While working as an editor for Kadokawa Shoten in the late 80s, Otsuka Eiji wrote a paper called “World and Variation: The Reproduction and Consumption of Narrative” in which he explains the idea of the grand narrative. An individual story only gives the audience a small glimpse into that wider world that the story is set in. This wider world is full of countless narratives told from countless perspectives that make up the grand narrative. Eiji uses the Gundam franchise to illustrate this concept where any given episode of the anime is a small snapshot of narrative within the larger universe(s) Gundam takes place in. Eiji explains, “Countless other [stories] could exist if someone else were the main character.”

Everyone is the main character of their own story. But most of these stories that make up the grand narrative of a world are hidden from view. It’s impossible to tell every story at once and have it be comprehensible. Instead we can only consume small bite-sized narratives that give us a snapshot of the (hopefully) interesting parts of a protagonist’s life. But who, exactly, is controlling these smaller narratives? This is a question faced by the characters of Princess Tutu.

The concept of shifting protagonists and expanding the audience’s view into the grand narrative heavily ties into Princess Tutu’s premise. The anime’s story is catalyzed by Drosselmeyer, the author of a fictitious book called The Prince and The Raven. The book’s ending is a stalemate between the titular characters so Drosselmeyer decides to promote the minor character of Princess Tutu to the role of main character to help the story move forward.

As you can probably tell by the name, Princess Tutu is heavily influenced by ballet. One of the show’s more significant influences is Swan Lake. Through the anime’s re-purposing of Swan Lake’s Odette as a magical girl, Princess Tutu continues to uphold ballet’s tradition of adapting the story for its own purposes.

Princess Tutu and Odette

The basic story of Swan Lake is about a prince falling in love with a girl cursed to be a swan from sunrise to sunset by an evil sorcerer. The sorcerer tricks the prince into confessing his love for his daughter, Odile, instead of the swan girl thus dooming the swan girl’s chance at true love and breaking the curse.

Amanda Kennell, an American scholar, outlines in her paper “Origin and Ownership from Ballet to Anime” Swan Lake’s production history and the evolution of the ballet’s narrative. The original staging in 1877 had the story end with the villain going unpunished and the two lovers drowning in a flood. In a revival staging from 1895 the villain was defeated and the two lovers reunited in heaven after throwing themselves into a lake. In a single scene production called The Magic Swan from the 1940s, the iconic “black swan” was introduced setting the precedent for the same ballerina to play the role of Odette and Odile in striking white and black costumes. And finally, another staging in 2006, not only adopted the White and Black Swan motif, but also changed the ending once again so that the prince kills the villain and he and Odette live happily ever after.

Despite each staging of the classic having significant differences, none of the variations are cast away as counterfeits. The value of the production isn’t in how close it is to the original Swan Lake but instead in the relative merit of each variation. In fact, it doesn’t really matter which you consider “the original” where the additions made by each carry their own merit and add to Swan Lake’s grand narrative. In this same regard, it would be acceptable to consider Princess Tutu another variation on the world of Swan Lake’s grand narrative.

There is terminology for this phenomenon in Kabuki theater. Eiji points out in his paper the similarities between the concepts of Sekai (world) and Shukou (plot) from Kabuki theater and his ideas of the grand narrative and the smaller narratives.

In Kabuki, Sekai represents the world a story takes place in and Shukou represents the story that is a product of that world. Each staging of a Kabuki play is its own Shukou derived from either a single Sekai or the mixing of Sekai. What matters in creating a good performance is not necessarily conveying the Sekai but instead the relative merit of the Shukou’s take on things. No performance is exactly the same and different actors bring different strengths to a performance and in turn provide a different experience for the audience’s entertainment. This of course carries over to more art forms than just Kabuki, classic ballet is in a similar position where entire songs are sometimes re-choreographed just to match the strengths of an individual ballerina. Ballet in particular has a long tradition of making minor and major changes to suit an individual performance. Whether it be tweaking choreography or straight up giving the story a different ending. The evolution of Swan Lake’s production is an excellent example of how productions of what are considered to be the same story can dramatically vary.

But Princess Tutu borrows from more stories than just Swan Lake. This brings us back to Kabuki and the idea of mixing Sekai in order to create another Shukou.

Princess Tutu takes pieces of classic stories and rearranges them to create something simultaneously familiar and completely new. Princess Tutu is not forging a new Shukou from only Swan Lake’s Sekai, but instead is connecting the canon of European literature and performing arts together into an even more extensive grand narrative.

Just look at the series’ opening for example, where Swan Lake and The Nutcracker are intertwined with one another as the anime’s titular character is dressed in the ballet costume of Odette and dances to The Nutcracker’s Flower Waltz to simultaneously combine the worlds of two ballets while producing an entirely new moment unique to the Princess Tutu anime.

The anime ends on the implication that if one person tries to control a story and the grand narrative it’s connected to, that person will fail. Princess Tutu is an excellent reminder of how stories are dynamic. Stories end up taking on a life of their own evolving, expanding and being reworked by both creators and consumers.

Eiji explains that once the consumers feel they have a grasp on the grand narrative they are free to produce their own small narratives from it. This is exactly how its creators forged Princess Tutu from the grand narrative of classic literature and performing arts. Just as mangaka can’t help it if a doujinshi adds to the narrative of their original story, Travosky can’t control the new life his ballets have taken on in Princess Tutu. Stories will take on a life of their own, abandon the need for an original and become a part to a larger grand narrative to be consumed and reworked over and over.

I just made @sillydelusionnight watch the first episode of Ouran Highschool Host Club and OML IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TEXTING THOUGH IT I LOVE YOU BBG

*At the dinner table*

Tamaki: Mommy, can you pass me the salt?

Kyoya: here you go, Daddy.

Haruhi, in her head: Am I the child in this situation?

Haruhi: Tamaki, I wasn't aware when I married you that we also married Kyoya

Tamaki, dramatically: don't tell me you didn't know Kyoya and I are a two in one package?

Kyoya: I thought I couldn't leave you alone with this idiot, so I strung along. There is no better motivator than self interest.

Haruhi: eh? Whatever.

I feel like Fruits Basket had a missed opportunity to write a great arc for Yuki instead of him ending up with Machi. And I LOVE Machi and their romance is really cute but I didn't feel satisfied with that ending for Yuki.

When I first watched Fruits Basket I was sure that Yuki was supposed to be queer-coded and his arc about self acceptance and love was him coming out of the closet.

The reason for that is because of the way Yuki is constantly presented and the way he reacts to other people.

Yuki always gets mad at Kyo for calling him "girly boy" or "pretty boy".

He tries to put up at tough persona to try to appear more masculine.

He has a fanclub with both girls AND boys crushing on him.

Whenever he "flirts" with Tohru it would come off as awkward (I know it's because he considers her as his mom figure but still!!! And yet he has some unspoken rizz when it comes to flirting with guys tho)

Even his dislike of Ayame and not wanting to be like him was kinda him not wanting to come out of the closet (Ayame also gets a last minute love interest to make him more hetero. I thought he was definitely not straight)

It just made sense to me this was going to be his arc. Especially since Fruits Basket is sooo good at depicting emotions. I thought Yuki's arc was him overcoming his hatred of that part of himself and essentially coming out of the darkness that Akito had made him live in.

When the Student council members were introduced I thought Kakeru was going to be both a foil AND a love interest for Yuki. They just had that dynamic and chemistry that made it seem like Kakeru would change Yuki and help him understand his true self and feelings. I thought Machi was the quiet/ weird side character that would have a similar role as Kimi (comedic).

Then the whole Machi x Yuki happened and I was proven wrong. I didn't hate it but....Kakeru and Yuki just had so much growth in their friendship, I couldn't help but ship them.

I would have been happy with even a Bi-Panic moment for Yuki with Kakeru and Machi (who are both half-siblings)

Yuki just had the perfect personality and backstory for a good coming out arc but it never came to be.

(Ps: I am NOT hating Machi and Yuki's relationship. It's just that Fruits Basket had many opportunities to have gay characters but didn't commit to it)

Me watching Fruits Basket:

What I thought it would be about: Oh it's a typical shoujo anime with two pretty boys falling in love with the main girl. I can watch it and be relaxed. And they turn into animals! Haha, fun.

What it was: Trauma, PTSD, Parental neglect, isolation, self loathing, self depreciation, depression, physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, guilt, regret, grief, loss, heartbreak.

Now I need therapy.

(PS: as a girl who loves Girly media and Shoujo manga. I am so happy that this is a Shoujo that subverts a lot of people's expectations and makes you understand that Shoujo/Josei are NOT all the same as well as depict such a good story about familial trauma which is something we don't usually get.

I wish we could get more Shoujo/Josei anime each season 🥲)

oh to be loved in a shoujo anime ⊹ ｡+ﾟ₊˚♡

Tomoe and Nanami is Toxic as HECK

I know I’m really late to the party when it comes to this, but I feel like if no one else is gonna say it, I will. Nanami seriously deserves MUCH better than ANY of the male love interests in this series—ESPECIALLY Tomoe. Yep. She does. Sorry not sorry. At this point, I genuinely feel like all I'm doing is stating the utter obvious and I'm gonna lose it if anyone says otherwise.

Before we go any further, I wanna make it clear I haven’t read the manga for Kamisama Kiss, I’ve only watched the anime. So everything I am mentioning is going to be based on stuff that happens in the ANIME. I watched this when I was 12. And now as a 20 year old woman looking back on it eight years later, I can say with my whole front chest that Tomoe and Nanami are a terrifying asphalt of a couple. Tomoe is TERRIBLE love interest to the point where I think he's actually worse than Edward Cullen.

The OVA is something that deserves its own topic due to the APPARENT supposed ‘complexity’ that defenders of the ship will say is there (despite it being very clear what the truth actually was). But for the sake of not putting up with more bullcrap than I already have to by even mentioning the initial topic, I think there is one scene we can all agree that is absolutely NOT justifiable by any means—no matter how you look at it. Because some of us apparently don’t agree on the OVA, but I’m VERY sure we can all agree on this.

There’s an episode where Tomoe—pretending to be a male student at Nanami’s school—the emo black winged guy (can’t be bothered to remember his name because he’s literally another liability just like every other male character in this show—if not all of them) tells Tomoe to be cautious around Nanami because teenage girls tend to fall in love easily (I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point).

Tomoe acts in denial about it and is like, “Pfft, not Nanami. She’s smarter than that.” Which, admittedly, would be a more wholesome moment if the following/previous context didn’t exist. Based on this alone, you probably know what I’m going to be talking about.

Nanami asks Tomoe out to the aquarium (not that he’s too aware of it being a date) and near the end of it, Nanami and Tomoe are on the rooftop of a building during the night. I know, soooo romantic (ugh). Tomoe then asks if Nanami is falling for him, to which Nanami confirms she is—much to the hypocritical chagrin of Tomoe (considering he marries her much later on in the series).

So what does Tomoe do since he doesn’t want to return her feelings? Does he calmly reject her? Does he explain it would be unprofessional? Does he at the very least say, “No.” and then leave with no closure? Newsflash, the answer to all of that is no because he then picks this 16 year old girl up with one arm, holds her on the open side, and WALKS ON THE OPEN EDGE OF THE BUILDING.

Nanami, obviously emotionally jumbled, starts questioning him and asking if he ever thought she was cute. During this ‘conversation,’ this piece of absolute SHIITAKE MUSHROOM then proceeds to DROP her.

“Oh, he dropped her on accident—” Yeah, but here’s the thing. It happened because this crazy turd was holding her near the edge of a building IN THE FREAKING FIRST PLACE. What sane person rejects someone’s feelings by HOLDING THEM on the EDGE of a 50 STORY BUILDING and then is surprised when they inevitably drop them?

Even if he DIDN’T, the fact he even DID IT at ALL tells me a LOT about who Tomoe is as a person. In what universe would this concept EVER fly? Would y’all be okay with this if it were a man were to actually do this to a woman and then his excuse was, “I didn’t mean to drop her?” BRUH, YOU WERE STILL HOLDING HER NEAR THE FREAKING LEDGE, WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN?!

I don’t even blame Nanami for telling this man to screw off as she was falling because what the actual heck, bro. I wouldn’t want him to touch me, either. At this point, I legitimately would rather Tomoe not respond, jump off the building, and dip. He’d still be a horrible jerk for that, but at least he wouldn’t have HELD HER OVER A BUIL—

I don’t care what anyone says or any other things that happen later on. “Oh, it’s just fantasy, it’s just fiction.”

I can tell you one thing—if you fantasize or gain entertainment from the concept of a man throwing an innocent woman off a building after he rejects her, I don’t think you’re okay. Why would you want that?

Obviously with Kamisama Kiss being a supernatural series, of course there are some logistics that we throw out the window—like the fact that it was somehow okay for Tomoe to propose to Nanami when she was a kid (oh yeah, I didn’t forget that gross mess). But there are just some objective realities I feel CANNOT be ignored simply for the sake of plot. And the objective reality is that you are wrong if you think that a guy holding a girl off the ledge of a building is something that can be ignored.

I don’t expect stories or couples to be perfect. Nothing made from humans is ever going to be perfect. But you got me messed up if you think I’m gonna look past a guy grabbing a teenage girl like a wine barrel and holding her off the edge of a BUILDING.