History Anime / PrincessTutu

* BrainBleach: Duck, second episode [[spoiler:when an anthrophomorphic anteater ''licks'' Mytho. Ewww.]]

* ContemptibleCover and CoversAlwaysLie: The cover to the compilation of Princess Tutu. http://karmaburn.com/?p=173

* ComedicSociopathy: Shows up in a lot of areas, but ''particularly'' Pique and Lilie's treatment of Duck. In fact, in the second season Lilie pretty much becomes the patron saint of this trope.

& ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Mytho's prone to saying what he feels; {{justified}} as he's used to not feeling ''anything'' and has no idea what the emotions are.

* ThemeNaming: Several people in this town, including the main character herself, have names that are either animal names outright (Ahiru/Duck, Neko-sensei/Mr. Cat) or are animal names with a name-suffix attached to it (Anteaterina, Miss Goatette).

* HoYay: Between Mytho and Fakir.

->''"ScrewDestiny May those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory]]."''

->''"May those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory."''

* AnimeAnatomy: As seen in the series' several {{Out Of Clothes Experience}}s and when Duck transforms into a girl.

* ClosedCircle: Though it's not obvious at first, [[spoiler:the town is completely cut off from the outside world. It's not obvious, because people occasionally spontaneously appear at the town gate, and other, similar things are orchestrated to make it seem like the world is still connected; but as Ahiru realizes later on, you can't leave.]]

* HiddenDepths: At one point, Ahiru asks Mr. Cat if there's any way to repair a damaged love. Instead of delivering one of his outlandish marriage proposals like he does in every other scene, he freezes and turns away, telling her gently that sometimes lost love simply can't be repaired.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Despite its name and coming off as a Magical Girl series, it is surprisingly dark, especially in the second season.

* SchmuckBanquet: In the third act, as a reference to ''HanselAndGretel''.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: At one point, Edel has a tray full of jewels and offers one to Duck. She says its name is "Dream." Duck starts asking what some of the others are... "Hope." "Adventure." "Mystery." "Artistic License."

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

* 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 TheBigBad]].

* AnimeAnatomy: As seen in the series' several {{Out Of Clothes Experience}}s and when Ahiru transforms into a girl.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: At one point, Edel has a tray full of jewels and offers one to Ahiru. She says its name is "Dream." Ahiru starts asking what some of the others are... "Hope." "Adventure." "Mystery." "Artistic License."

** Fakir is initially portrayed as a {{villain}} that is selfish and manipulative. However, he shows his HiddenSelf when [[spoiler: Ahiru is temporally stuck as a duck , [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold she is able to see Fakir´s soft side]]]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The fantasies are broken, the good guys win, Rue and Mytho show their true love and this lets them defeat the Raven with the help of Ahiru and Fakir... but not only do Rue and Mytho have to leave Gold Crown Town so he can reclaim his throne, but Ahiru/Tutu has to return to her original duck form forever.]]

* ComedicSociopathy: Shows up in a lot of areas, but ''particularly'' Pique and Lilie's treatment of Ahiru. In fact, in the second season Lilie pretty much becomes the patron saint of this trope.

* ContinuityNod: A heart shard possessed lamp is taken home by Ahiru after she gives the shard back to Mytho, and it can be seen in her room in later episodes.

* CrashIntoHello: Mytho is introduced in the first episode when Ahiru trips and is caught by him. [[spoiler:Rue also met Mytho this way as a child.]]

* DreamBallet: Ahiru evokes this at least two times.

* FandomSpecificPlot: If you write ''PrincessTutu'' fanfic, there's a good chance you've written a story in which [[spoiler:Fakir writes a story to turn Ahiru back into a girl]].
* {{Fanservice}}: Although the {{Shirtless Scene}}s and Ahiru being nude when she transforms from a duck to a girl serve a purpose in the plot, it's hard to deny the fanservice-y component to the scenes.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Subverted in that Ahiru spends much of the show worrying about and trying to avoid Princess Tutu's destiny to 'fade away' after saving the prince.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: Ahiru isn't a girl named Duck. She really ''is'' a duck.

* FriendOrIdolDecision: Ahiru is given one of these at the end of the anime: [[spoiler:Give Mytho his final heart shard (her pendant) and watch as he rides off into the sunset with Rue, or keep the pendant for herself and continue being a girl?]]
* FurryConfusion: Many of the town's residents are barely-anthropomorphized animals that act, dress, talk, and are treated like humans, but look more or less like real animals, bipedalism aside. Ordinary, inhuman animals are also seen. Then there's Ahiru, whose original form is an "ordinary duck" that doesn't wear clothes, can't speak German, can't go to school... and looks nothing like an actual duck, being more of a cartoonish, emotive FunnyAnimal duckling.

* GoodMorningCrono: The first episode of each season has Ahiru having a dream and waking up tumbling out of her bed.

* HeroicBSOD: Ahiru has one after overhearing that [[spoiler:Mytho (who had just gotten the heart shard of fear) is afraid of Tutu]].

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All the episode titles are in German, and the subtitles name the classical piece used as a theme in the episode. Also, instead of using the word "episode", they use "akt" or "act".
* IdiotHair: Ahiru.
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: This was the lamp´s desire.

* InnerMonologue: Ahiru at different points, Rue in her backstory, Fakir in his backstory.

** Furthermore, none of the main four seem to have parents over the course of the story. We never see any duck parents for Ahiru, Mytho is a storybook character and thus wouldn't have been born the same way as a genuine human being (note that he doesn't age because the story hasn't moved forward), Fakir's parents [[spoiler:died to protect him when he was just a boy]], and Rue [[spoiler:was kidnapped as a child. Even if her parents were still alive at the end of the story, she would have no idea who they were or how to contact them. Given that it's been over a decade since her disappearance, Rue's parents likely stopped searching for her as well.]]
* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: Kraehe's transformation; it is never clear whether Ahiru or Drosselmeyer controls the Princess Tutu transformation. However, Ahiru ''doesn't'' control when she switches back and forth from a girl and a duck--when she quacks, she turns into a duck, and when she gets wet she turns back into a girl, as long as she has her pendant on. However, she starts using it to her advantage pretty quickly.

* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: Rue, the school's best dancer, wears a red leotard instead of the typical blue that everyone else wears. On the flip side, Ahiru indicates herself as [[CuteClumsyGirl the odd one out]] in her ballet class by wearing a white leotard.

* LookBehindYou: To keep Ahiru from telling Mytho that she's Tutu at the start of the second season.
-->'''Ahiru:''' Um, I... Well, the truth is... The truth is...\\

'''Ahiru:''' ''QUACK!''\\
''(Fakir yanks Mytho and faces him away from Ahiru just in time for him to miss her turning into a duck.)''\\

* LoveLetterLunacy: Ahiru's friends write a fake love letter from her to Fakir.

** The main one in focus throughout the series is Ahiru -> Mytho <- Rue. [[spoiler:This triangle is unusual in the sense that the main heroine ''doesn't'' win this one.]]
** Starting late in season 1, [[spoiler:Fakir]] -> Ahiru -> Mytho. [[spoiler: The [[AllThereInTheManual fan guide]] [[WordOfGod confirmed]] that Fakir loves Ahiru, although her feelings for him are never truely explained one way or the other.]]

* MagicPants: Averted when Ahiru turns from a girl to a duck, but played straight when she turns into Princess Tutu.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ahiru at the end of episode 6, [[spoiler:after giving Mytho the heart shard of fear]].

* NotNowKiddo: Ahiru tries to distract Rue from seeing Mytho with another girl in her duck form, but Rue just brushes her off. She tries again in her girl form, but doesn't make it in time for Rue to see--but Rue knows it's just because Mytho's heartless.

* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: Subverted in episode 5 -- Ahiru isn't being asked the riddles to test her, the voice is simply trying to communicate with her in a very fairytale-esque way.
* OrWasItADream: the most notable example being in the first episode, when Ahiru has dreams of being a duck. Turns out, she wasn't far off.

* PaperThinDisguise: Both Princess Kraehe and Princess Tutu look exactly like Rue and Ahiru, respectively, except wearing elaborate ballet outfits and with different hairstyles, and yet very few people are able to figure out who they really are, and those who do take quite a long time to accomplish it. It turns out that [[spoiler:anyone outside the main cast simply sees Tutu as a huge, white swan; something similar may apply to Kraehe, but she never makes a public appearance like Tutu]].

* PimpedOutDress: For the festival in akt 5, Mytho and Rue dress like nobility from renaissance times.
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: A running gag throughout the series, thanks to Ahiru's clothes not transforming with her.
* PostDramaticStressDisorder: Happens to Fakir after he [[spoiler:shatters Mytho's sword]] at the end of the first season. Also happens to Ahiru in "Wandering Knight ~ Egmont Ouvertüre" (after a battle with the titular ghost) and in the beginning of "The Prince and the Raven ~ Danse Macabre". Oh, and then there's [[spoiler:''Autor'' after he tackles the Book Man...]] okay, the series likes this trope a lot.

* ThePromise: [[spoiler:Fakir's]] promise to Ahiru in the lake before the finale.

* RunningGag: Several--most of the {{Catch Phrase}}s are running gags, for example. The most beloved is probably Fakir seeing Ahiru naked and freaking out.

* ShipTease: The show's promo [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6IfjJkHKg0 heavily implies Fakir kisses Ahiru]]. [[spoiler:Nothing like that happens in the show, so it was probably there to up the demographic by drawing in shippers.]]

* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate: The relationship fate-free will varies a lot. Fate can be fought [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption but some things can't be changed]] [[spoiler: like Ahiru being stuck as a duck]]. Ultimately this show's ArcWords explain it better: "Those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory."
* SlowClap: In episode 2, after Ahiru and Rue's pas de deux, the entire class remains speechless, until the silence is broken by Fakir clapping. Then Mytho starts clapping as well, and everyone else does the same.

* SmallReferencePools: The show noticeably ''doesn't'' have one. You can impress college professors with the knowledge of classical music you get from this show!

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: A {{Cloudcuckoolander}} in the second season claims, completely out of the blue, Ahiru's "inner world" is a duck.

* ThereWasADoor: Fakir's dramatic window-crashing scene in akt 9.
* TheyFightCrime: The premise of the show is really a little silly sounding. It's how it's pulled off that makes the series truly shine.
* TransformationNameAnnouncement: The manga version has Tutu say "I am Princess Tutu! I dance to guide your heart!" after every transformation. (This doesn't appear in the anime at all.)

* UncannyVillage : Ahiru is quite possibly the first to notice that something is wrong. For starters, she is the only one that realizes the weirdness of having a talking cat as a teacher, and animal classmates.
** When Ahiru tries to get outside of the town, she is unable to. She also realizes that [[spoiler:people spontaneously materialize, as if they had always existed, at the town´s entrances]]. The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue reveals that [[spoiler:the town was actually a real town trapped in [[BigBad Drosselmeyer's]] story]].
* UnresolvedSexualTension: [[spoiler: Ahiru and Fakir.]] There's hints of it throughout the series, but it only became blatant during and after episode 12.
** There sure are a lot of shots of [[MaleGaze Ahiru's legs spread out]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything whenever she's being intimidated by Fakir early on...]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Ahiru can ''sometimes'' control when she turns into a duck or a girl... although she can also accidentally trigger the transformations.

** In the first episode Mytho dances, apparently naked, on top of a lake, while [[CovertPervert Ahiru watches hidden in the rushes]].
* {{WAFF}}: Due to the BittersweetEnding and there being even more female fanfic writers in this fandom [[MostFanficWritersAreGirls than normal]], [=WAFFy=] fanfics pop up quite often, [[spoiler:particularly ones where Fakir either turns Ahiru back into a girl, or turns himself into a duck]].

* DarkMagicalGirl

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Despite its name and coming off as a Magical Girl series, it is surprisingly dark.

* IAmHeroHearMeRoar: The manga version has Tutu say "I am Princess Tutu! I dance to guide your heart!" after every transformation. (This doesn't appear in the anime at all.)

* AndYouMustMarryMe: Mr. Cat's CatchPhrase, often threatening his female students with it if they are to fail a class.

->''May those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory.''