Princess Tutu: the rewatch Disc 4-5
Jan. 14th, 2008 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockDisc 4:
I used to always go back and rewatch my favorite episodes, so I forgot how good the others were too. Like episode 14, which has the hilarious fountain scene AND the creepy-awesome-disturbing window scene. The way Mytho manipulates Fakir, and their classmates, in the second half of the show is just delicious.
Episode 18, the ghost knight episode, that's still one of my favorites. Besides my obvious shipper inclinations being tickled, I love that we get to see students from the drama department, and other areas of the school as well. It does the show good every once in a while to remind the audience that the world of the town, while tiny, is inhabited by more than just ballet people. This plot and cast is so small and exclusive, so wrapped up in the complications of figuring itself out, that it's easy to forget that they don't all live in a bubble. Or at least-- that the bubble is larger than merely the walk between the dorms and the dance rooms.
The commentary on this disc was more of the informative vein, less of the laughability. I'm enjoying listening to both styles, though. The production staff and the cast all have informative, interesting trivia to talk about with regards to characters, events, or music. This commentary was the new translator and the scriptwriter, and they went into detail about the research they did for the series and the extreme lengths they went to for finding the perfect way to talk about the elements and references properly in the English script. I enjoyed the explanation of using "crow" versus "raven" when discussing the Raven and Kraehe's bird followers. Apparently there's no distinction between the two species in the common Japanese lexicon like there is in English; they'd use the same word for any large black bird, whereas in English a crow and a raven are given distinct names to reflect that they're different. The writer and translator also discuss their decisions not to translate Uzura's name and speech style.
I've grown to like the fact that Ahiru was directly translated as Duck. At first it was awkward to the ear, but I've grown used to it.
Disc 5:
The episode with Fakir's adopted sister-figure was one of my favorites. It's all about Chibi Fakir's Tortured Past... god I feel so sorry for the kid. Accidentally killing your own parents via creative writing? It explains so much. He was probably such a happy little tot, too.
That is the episode with the commentary on this disc, and it's done by the actresses who voice Pique and Edel/Uzura. It's one of the funniest of the commentaries, right up there with the first disc's. Part of what makes it so amusing is that the actresses haven't actually seen the episode yet except for the scenes they individually recorded, and so they keep getting distracted by the show and not actually knowing what's going on. By the end they start ad-libbing for Fakir and Mytho, and its hilarious. You can feel the love that ADV people have for this series. I know they're supposed to promote the show in these things, but you can tell they love this one for real because the actors, writers, and producers get really excited during the commentaries. They go on long and geeky tangents, way more excited than most DVD commentaries I've seen for anime or film. Amusing side note: Every commentary so far has made fun of Chris Patton/Fakir.
I had forgotten how entertaing Autor is; he's such an annoying little snot, but I feel sympathetic for him anyway. It's not easy to love something and then have someone else waltz by and do it 20 times better than you ever could. I am amused that this is conversation is the entire span of the Autor/Fakir relationship, duplicated pretty much every time they interact:
Autor: Blah blah blah blah Life and DEATH blah blah
Fakir: *not listening*
Autor: Blahblah blah take this lightly blah blah dire blah
Fakir: *mid-revelation*
Autor: Blah CONSEQUENCES blah blah
Fakir: *epiphany*
Autor: Blahblah ARE YOU LISTENING?
Fakir: *done epiphinazing* Whoa.
Autor: Huh?
Fakir: I understand now. All is one. There is no spoon.
Autor: What?
Fakir: Step aside, bitch.
Autor: Fine, but you didn't even listen to--
Fakir: *enlightened*
Autor: DON'T COME WHINING TO ME IF YOU DIE! YEAH!
Fakir: *ignores*
This episode, with the tree, also illustrates one of my favorite themes of the second series: how Duck and Fakir both must learn to deal with helpless and lack of direction or control. Neither of them know what to do, and they fight each other and themselves as they struggle to deal with the fact that if they want to affect the story, they must change. Who they were before isn't enough anymore, so each must take on a new role. Rue, meanwhile, struggles with the fact that she's gotten her dearest wish but is beginning to realize she might not want it.
Episode 22
Azura: What's Fakir doing zura?
Duck: He's writing a story to protect the one who is important to him.
It's Ahiru/Duck, now. One of my favorite elements of these two characters and their romance... that Fakir can try and try to write Mytho's story, the story he thinks he's supposed to write, but in the end the only story he can write is Duck's. Because he's her knight now. OTP!
Fakir: So the Raven is not my enemy? My true adversary is the story itself?
Oh I love this show. I love this show! It's so unbelievably meta. It's so gorgeously good.
"There's still something I feel I'm lacking. I don't even know what it is I'm lacking, so I can't even start writing."
Babe, it's writer's block. This whole mess of a spell started because of an unfinished story, and until you get over your writer's block, until you can write the story you NEED to write, it won't end. But you're almost there! You're so close. And who would've thought, during the first few episodes of the show, that this whole thing is a metaphor for imagination. I mean, they TELL you write in the beginning that this is about the story left unfinished, but it doesn't really sink in until these much later episodes that this show about that. It's not about fairy tales or ballet. It's a ballet about reality vs. fiction, about writer's block and imagination, about not putting off or giving up because you feel lost, because if you abandon your story, IT WILL COME ALIVE AND EAT YOU. This is a lesson we should definitely pass down through a kids animated show. Yes.
I used to always go back and rewatch my favorite episodes, so I forgot how good the others were too. Like episode 14, which has the hilarious fountain scene AND the creepy-awesome-disturbing window scene. The way Mytho manipulates Fakir, and their classmates, in the second half of the show is just delicious.
Episode 18, the ghost knight episode, that's still one of my favorites. Besides my obvious shipper inclinations being tickled, I love that we get to see students from the drama department, and other areas of the school as well. It does the show good every once in a while to remind the audience that the world of the town, while tiny, is inhabited by more than just ballet people. This plot and cast is so small and exclusive, so wrapped up in the complications of figuring itself out, that it's easy to forget that they don't all live in a bubble. Or at least-- that the bubble is larger than merely the walk between the dorms and the dance rooms.
The commentary on this disc was more of the informative vein, less of the laughability. I'm enjoying listening to both styles, though. The production staff and the cast all have informative, interesting trivia to talk about with regards to characters, events, or music. This commentary was the new translator and the scriptwriter, and they went into detail about the research they did for the series and the extreme lengths they went to for finding the perfect way to talk about the elements and references properly in the English script. I enjoyed the explanation of using "crow" versus "raven" when discussing the Raven and Kraehe's bird followers. Apparently there's no distinction between the two species in the common Japanese lexicon like there is in English; they'd use the same word for any large black bird, whereas in English a crow and a raven are given distinct names to reflect that they're different. The writer and translator also discuss their decisions not to translate Uzura's name and speech style.
I've grown to like the fact that Ahiru was directly translated as Duck. At first it was awkward to the ear, but I've grown used to it.
Disc 5:
The episode with Fakir's adopted sister-figure was one of my favorites. It's all about Chibi Fakir's Tortured Past... god I feel so sorry for the kid. Accidentally killing your own parents via creative writing? It explains so much. He was probably such a happy little tot, too.
That is the episode with the commentary on this disc, and it's done by the actresses who voice Pique and Edel/Uzura. It's one of the funniest of the commentaries, right up there with the first disc's. Part of what makes it so amusing is that the actresses haven't actually seen the episode yet except for the scenes they individually recorded, and so they keep getting distracted by the show and not actually knowing what's going on. By the end they start ad-libbing for Fakir and Mytho, and its hilarious. You can feel the love that ADV people have for this series. I know they're supposed to promote the show in these things, but you can tell they love this one for real because the actors, writers, and producers get really excited during the commentaries. They go on long and geeky tangents, way more excited than most DVD commentaries I've seen for anime or film. Amusing side note: Every commentary so far has made fun of Chris Patton/Fakir.
I had forgotten how entertaing Autor is; he's such an annoying little snot, but I feel sympathetic for him anyway. It's not easy to love something and then have someone else waltz by and do it 20 times better than you ever could. I am amused that this is conversation is the entire span of the Autor/Fakir relationship, duplicated pretty much every time they interact:
Autor: Blah blah blah blah Life and DEATH blah blah
Fakir: *not listening*
Autor: Blahblah blah take this lightly blah blah dire blah
Fakir: *mid-revelation*
Autor: Blah CONSEQUENCES blah blah
Fakir: *epiphany*
Autor: Blahblah ARE YOU LISTENING?
Fakir: *done epiphinazing* Whoa.
Autor: Huh?
Fakir: I understand now. All is one. There is no spoon.
Autor: What?
Fakir: Step aside, bitch.
Autor: Fine, but you didn't even listen to--
Fakir: *enlightened*
Autor: DON'T COME WHINING TO ME IF YOU DIE! YEAH!
Fakir: *ignores*
This episode, with the tree, also illustrates one of my favorite themes of the second series: how Duck and Fakir both must learn to deal with helpless and lack of direction or control. Neither of them know what to do, and they fight each other and themselves as they struggle to deal with the fact that if they want to affect the story, they must change. Who they were before isn't enough anymore, so each must take on a new role. Rue, meanwhile, struggles with the fact that she's gotten her dearest wish but is beginning to realize she might not want it.
Episode 22
Azura: What's Fakir doing zura?
Duck: He's writing a story to protect the one who is important to him.
It's Ahiru/Duck, now. One of my favorite elements of these two characters and their romance... that Fakir can try and try to write Mytho's story, the story he thinks he's supposed to write, but in the end the only story he can write is Duck's. Because he's her knight now. OTP!
Fakir: So the Raven is not my enemy? My true adversary is the story itself?
Oh I love this show. I love this show! It's so unbelievably meta. It's so gorgeously good.
"There's still something I feel I'm lacking. I don't even know what it is I'm lacking, so I can't even start writing."
Babe, it's writer's block. This whole mess of a spell started because of an unfinished story, and until you get over your writer's block, until you can write the story you NEED to write, it won't end. But you're almost there! You're so close. And who would've thought, during the first few episodes of the show, that this whole thing is a metaphor for imagination. I mean, they TELL you write in the beginning that this is about the story left unfinished, but it doesn't really sink in until these much later episodes that this show about that. It's not about fairy tales or ballet. It's a ballet about reality vs. fiction, about writer's block and imagination, about not putting off or giving up because you feel lost, because if you abandon your story, IT WILL COME ALIVE AND EAT YOU. This is a lesson we should definitely pass down through a kids animated show. Yes.
