History Anime / PrincessTutu

* SensibleHeroSkimpyVillain: Duck's outfit is fairly modest while Rue's is fairly revealing.

%%* SensibleHeroSkimpyVillain:

%%* ToBecomeHuman

* GrandFinale

%%* MagicalGirl

* AnAesop:
** It's alright to be yourself, whether you are [[spoiler:a duck, a prince with a messiah complex, a failed knight or the spawn of the BigBad]]. Also, true love is not selfish.
** And on the more postmodern side of things, [[spoiler:stories don't have to have tragic endings to be good.]]

* AmputativeSentencing: The Book Men are a mysterious order charged with protecting Gold Crown Town from the storyspinning powers of Drosselmeyer. They reveal they cut off Drosselmeyer's hands long ago to stop him from writing once his abilities started scaring the townsfolk (which, considering Drosselmeyer's love of tragedies, was likely warranted). Drosselmeyer died from the blood loss, but his story continued even in death, so that [[spoiler:the Book Men try to cut off Fakir's hands when he starts using the same abilities, afraid that even with good intentions Fakir's efforts will only add to Drosselmeyer's power.]]

* StraightToThePointe: Usually averted. the girls are really just in the phase where the best of them graduate the basics and are allowed to start their pointe, and many scenes [[JustForPun pointe]] out how hard it actually is, even for the dance genius Rue. However, for Princess Tutu (the MagicalGirl form for Ahiru, who in her civilian form is rather clumsy and very often under threat of being assessed additional exercise for being so incompetent in dance class) it's justified in that thanks to her magic she can dance however she wants.

!!Please troper, come dance with me:

* ShoutOut: Neko-sensei/Mr. Cat's mentor Nyajinsky/Meowjinsky is a reference to the performer Nijinsky and the series is full of other ballet-related references.

** Also, Episode 19 shouts out to Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream.

!!This show provides examples of:

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' and to Junichi Sato's earlier fairytale MagicalGirl show, ''Anime/{{Pretear}}''.

* {{Deconstruction}}: ''Princess Tutu'' literally pulls apart fairy tales to see what makes them tick, and then defies the tropes within.
* DeducingTheSecretIdentity: In "Cinderella", Fakir cuts the chain on Princess Tutu's [[TransformationTrinket pendant]] mid-fight, which later falls off, leaving Ahiru [[BalefulPolymorph stuck in her duck form]]. Fakir finds the untransformed pendant and, realizing it must be Tutu's, keeps it, hoping to force Princess Tutu's true identity out of hiding. While he later decides it's not worth the effort of acknowledging Tutu (leaving the pendant, unwittingly, with Ahiru's duck self), when he sees human Ahiru sneaking back into the dorms after another battle, he spots the untransformed pendant on her and deduces she's Princess Tutu. Downplayed, since he doesn't figure out Ahiru was the duck until she reveals it herself in "Banquet of Darkness"; he assumes the human Ahiru found it with the duck.

* SpeakingUpForAnother: In "Swan Lake", when Kraehe blames Ahiru/Tutu for all of the pain and conflict now occurring due to her returning the shards of Mytho's heart to him, setting the story of ''The Prince and the Raven'' back into motion, she tries to get Fakir to agree with her. Fakir, while he used to be of the same mind as Kraehe, defends Tutu -- Mytho himself now wants the shards of his heart back, and Fakir stands behind him and Tutu. Soon after, when Kraehe tries to force Tutu to confess her love to Mytho in order to free him, which is supposed to cause Tutu to vanish into a speck of light as per ''The Prince and the Raven'', Fakir steps in and tells her to TakeAThirdOption.

* DownerEnding: Before his death, all of Drosselmeyer's stories ended in tragedy. [[spoiler:He's hoping for this story to end unhappily as well]].

* BeastInTheBuilding: Subverted. Ahiru attempts to deliver a letter to Mytho in her duck form by breaking into the boys' locker room, hiding so as not to get caught and thrown out. The [[NotGoodWithPeople normally gruff Fakir]] finds her there, causing her to flush with embarrassment and expect the worst. However, he is surprisingly gentle with her (thinking she's just a dumb duck), bringing her back outside before feeding her breadcrumbs, only lightly scolding her for being silly enough to think she would find food in there. [[spoiler: This is the first hint that he is actually a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.]]

* UnrequitedTragicMaiden: Interesting in how both {{The Hero}}ine ''and'' the {{Anti Villain}}ess vie for this position. Considering that [[spoiler: Drosselmeyer was trying to write a tragedy]], it's not that surprising. And considering [[ScrewDestiny the theme of the show]], it's not surprising that [[spoiler: they both subvert this role]].