Hello, and welcome to our week. There yet and exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.
I'm an anime expert, dana hollander.
And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime rat king.
Rat King.
I hate it. My tails are tied rat king so much.
My tails are tied together, and I'm just rolling around through the subway system in New York looking for that pizza.
No, thank you. Can't. Can't go with you on this journey.
Not this fun. Wrong.
I don't know why. In college, Rat Kings were introduced to me as Bloodborne was being played just, like, the most visceral no. And that just has stuck with me forever. So whenever it comes up, I'm just like, oh, no.
Got a Google bloodborne ratking.
Add that to my search terms that I'll eventually have to delete.
I will warn you now, if anyone sends me anything, I will immediately block you. That's how serious I am.
Got you, nasty boy. Yeah, they fun. I mostly picked it because he's the antagonist in The nutcracker, which is a ballet. Just about as much as I know about this show, which is Rat King, but okay.
I thought it was a rat King.
It's a ballet.
It depends on your interpretation, where you see it. I've seen it. Rat King.
That's the one. I've always known. Well, that's the one. Near and dear to my little rat heart.
But yeah. How does that tie into this show?
Let me know.
I say tentatively.
Well, this is my birthday episode, which means I get to pick the show.
We just all lost a few brains.
Thank you.
So I picked Princess 22, which is an old anime. It's not that old. It's in the 2000s. But it's an anime I watched in middle school when I was like, dabbling.
Just testing the waters of anime.
Yeah.
Oh, interesting. I know nothing about it.
Oh, how exciting.
Yeah, me either.
I assume there's ballet.
There sure is.
It'D be weird if they had a show called Princess Tissue and it's about underground street fighting with robots.
Yeah. This is that shot put anime we were talking.
Someday we'll get there, we'll be thirsty enough for any sports at some point.
Shoot your shot. That's in. Title.
Wow.
This is episode 200 of our rebelia. We're making a legitimate anime this time.
Funding is in.
Sending it to a production studio.
Yeah. We got people working on already. We got the drafts in.
Yes. Surprise.
But yeah. Shall we hop on in?
Yeah. There's not much else to say. We're watching the first three episodes.
Got to do your stretches. Got to get warmed up. Deliver possession on my back. I'm down.
Hey, dana. Why?
This is your rudimentary, run of the mill, magical girl anime. I have no idea what you're talking about.
But why, though?
This mill is awfully funny looking. I don't know. It might be running at this mill, but it's a weird mill.
This dreamtime mill that turns jelly beans into confetti.
Yeah, this thing like that over to Garden Wall Mill, where it's just like, monsters and black echoes, like, pouring out. This is like Dr. seuss mill.
Yeah, well, it's where I live, and I'm happy to be here.
Welcome to my home. wipe your feet.
I had a great time and I'm ready to go.
Welcome to my twisted mind.
I love these weird, weird, terrible folks.
I just imagine, like, a disturbed music video. It's like, welcome to my twist did Nightmare Circus. And then it's just this ain't bad. Like, it's weird. This ain't bad, though.
What if a duck was horny?
It's horny. Just get ready. It's going to be a lot.
Let's talk.
Let's get into it.
Episode one, we have, like, a narrator, and she is saying that there was a man who wrote fairy tales and he died. And when he died, he was in the process of writing a story about a prince that fought a raven. And because he died and the story wasn't finished, the prince and the raven fought for, like, ever. And the raven was like, I'm tired of this, grandpa. So he left the storybook, and the prince was like, oh, no, I have to follow the raven. So it doesn't do anything crazy in the real world. The prince followed him, and then in order to keep the raven at bay, he locked away his heart. Who knows how that worked? But it's what he did.
It's what you do.
Yeah. And then we get the opening and I love the opening. Don't even talk to me.
Get away from it. Don't touch it.
Yeah, I love a two minute opening.
It's just like the quietest.
I'm happy they went with the very ballet opening versus a very glitter force type of anywhere. It's like magical girls. You'd be like what? This is a totally different tone of the show, so I'm glad they kind of went with that.
Yeah, this show has a tone and it sticks to it, and the tone is weird as hell.
It's public domain music and story.
So we're in a mysterious forest, and there's a duck in a pond, and she's watching a handsome prince dance, and she wants to dance with the prince, but she's just a duck, and she wants to see him smile because he always seems so sad. And then she hears a voice talking to her, and he's like, you care about him, don't you? And then she sees a big spooky man.
Got them crazy hypnotized eyes.
And then she wakes up and it's the main character. Her name is Duck. And I have a bone to pick with this problem. One, because in the Japanese, her name is a hero, which means duck, so I guess right, but it's also her name. So wouldn't they just call her a hero in the English?
That's up to the discretion of the localizing four kids team. That clearly did. Yeah.
This early 2000s dub is very clearly of yeah, they'll get it.
I am always curious because yeah, that is a good point. There are some animes where they localize and they keep the original Japanese name. And then there are some where she's like, ah, your name's Brett now? Why?
Yeah, but so her name is Duck. That's what we'll call her. It's easy. And she's seeing a cute little morning song to the tune of one of some of the music from The nutcracker, which is cute. And then she opens the window and a bunch of birds fly in.
It's got a chuckle out of me.
Just absolutely annihilate her.
Morning birds fuck you.
And she feeds them and she talks to them like they're friends. And she's like, oh, canary mom, your babies leave the nest soon, don't they? And she just talks to all of them. And she says she has a night. She had a nice dream even though she was a duck, which sucked. I feel like she says that a lot. She was like, this sucks.
And I'm like, jeez, existence is a nightmare.
I've seen that video of the duck eating a bowl of peas out of water. It seemed pretty good. I don't know.
Yeah.
So, yes, she was a duck, but Muto was the prince, which was nice. So Muto is a boy that also goes to the school. She calls him senior Muto in the English dub, which is also kind of funky because I'm sure it's just senpai.
Senor.
This is your translation choices. Because I feel like nowadays in orland High School Host Club, they say senpai.
Yeah. I don't know if they're trying to go like, oh, he's like an upper classman, he's a senior, quote unquote. But you still don't be like, hello sophomore dana. Hello freshman, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, so then she hears the clock chime and she's like, I'm going to be late for class. And she's like freaking out and running away, yelling at her classmates for not waking her up. But then we see that they were still in their rooms because it's only six in the morning. Silly duck.
That's the kind of kooky quirky main character we have.
Yeah. And she's running to class and she's just thinking about Muto. And she says she would give her life to dance a padded with him, which is a bit extreme, but okay.
She says it a few times. I was like, you got to chill, Duck.
You don't even know him.
Yeah. I'd like to say before we get too much deeper, the pitch in which so many of these characters speak is borderline chipmunk and just so hard to listen to. I have a little mixing board I run my audio through. I had to turn the bass all the way up just to listen to this because it's just so high pitched and so many characters just shrieking about boys in super high pitched voice. I was like, I can't. My head is going to explode.
Dogs just running around the apartment, freaking out.
So she gets to class and she's like, sorry I'm late. But then there's no one there because she's super early. But Muto is there and he's just rehearsing on his own. And she watches in awe. And he eventually sees her and she gets super embarrassed. And she, like, trips over her feet. But he reaches down and catches her and she stares into his beautiful, lonely eyes, those beautiful eyes, and she freaks out again and like, rambles. And she's like, oh my God, I'm so weird. And then Muto is like, I do not think that.
I do not think anything. I indebted.
I have zero feelings and zero thoughts.
Head empty, neutral.
And then oh, boy. fakir shows up. This absolute shit dick. Oh, boy, he's just a broody dude. And he comes in and he's like, muto, you left the dorm without telling me and that's not allowed. We're leaving. And then Muto is like, my foot hurts. And then he's like, oh my God, did you hurt your foot helping this little useless piece of garbage?
And she's just like, that's not yo. What?
That's not nice, bra. But they leave.
They have a dom relationship. It's not addressed at this point in the show, but absolutely. There's some dom sub stuff going on in, like, everyday role play.
Yeah, which is terrible because they're middle schoolers.
Yes. I mean, for this show, pretty horny.
Anyway, I kept hearing mito. His name is Muto. Or like yuki moto. And I kept thinking of this guy's pakora. And then the dark haired ones. yami pcora. This was me middle school.
So now it's actually class time. And her friends are teasing her for having a crush on Muto when he is already in a relationship with someone named ru. And they're already like, fakir is obviously the superior male.
And it's like, he's the Chad.
He's an asshole. But also they're right. Anyway, and then the teacher shows up and he's a cat. And Duck is like, the only one that questions it. And she's like, Cat. And everyone else was like, that's Mr. Cat.
I wrote down. Oh, hello, Mr. Cat. And then they said that's Mr. Cat. I was like, oh, I was right.
First character I got you, Mr. Cat was my father.
And then he tells me he tells everybody to quiet down, and if they don't, he will marry them. I completely forgot about this whole thing.
This running gag of his.
Yeah, it's absolutely crazy.
I do like because we've seen enough cat people and cat boys and cat girls and anime. I do like that he's just this feral, disgusting old man. Like, they're not even trying to be like, oh, he's an elegant dancer who teaches like, no, this is a creepy old motherfucker who's just, like, licking himself cosplay don't hurt. He's just gross and I kind of.
Love that refreshing change of pace.
Yeah.
And then it's ballet time, and they're doing their bar exercises, but ducky's daydreaming about Muto, of course. And then the cat teacher goes up behind her and is like, you better focus her.
I'm going to marry you.
Such a weird threat.
It feels like one of those creepy people who quote unquote joke about things. But they say it just enough to be like, hey, you're really pushing for this, aren't you?
Where'S my hug?
Yeah, you say it to see if you can get away with it and if it leads to something. But if they get mad, it's a joke. Why are you upset? It's just a joke.
Yes. My dark humor.
Yeah.
Schrodinger'S fuck boy.
So they sit down and they're going to watch a performance from the special class. And ru is in that class. Everybody else is wearing blue leotards, but she wears a red one.
She's the only one that's named. She's special.
She is. She's beautiful. And then Duck gets sad thinking about ru and MUTO'S relationship. And then she's like, oh, my gosh, I didn't apologize to him for hurting his foot. I better do that. And then after class, she's like, thinking out loud, and she's like, I should drop by, surprise him. And then she just runs off to the boy's dorm. She's not allowed in, but she wants to apologize. But she also can't bring herself to go in. ew. Boys. And then fakir shows up and tells her to move. She's like, I just want to know how MUTO'S foot is. And he's like, It's not serious. Goodbye. And he closes the door in her face. And then he goes to see Muto and he's like, does your foot hurt, babe? It's funny because Fuck here is like sometimes he's, like, very gentle with him. And he's like, is your foot okay? And then he's like, I don't know. And then he's like, you're such a fucking he calls him a useless wretch.
I felt he was coming off real strong in this first episode. But then after the other two episodes, I was like, he's kind of right. He's just like a paper doll. He doesn't do anything ever, and has no thoughts. I mean, there's hot reasons for that, but from what?
You are a shell of a person, and I have to keep you alive.
Yeah.
You don't experience hunger. I need to feed you by I need to hand bottle feed you so you don't die.
I need to mother bird you. Birds are a big theme in this show. And then Fuck here is like, see, this is what happens when you help people. So don't help people. Only listen to what I tell you, okay? And Muto is just like, all right. And then it's nighttime, and Duck still feels bad about hurting Mewto and still wonders about his lonely eyes. And she wants to help him again, saying that she would give her life. Got you. Smile. And then the night gets spooky and she sees out of the window, she sees the shadow of the scary man from her dream. But then when she goes outside, he's not there. So this is josa meyer, the man who wrote the story about the prince and the raven. And he is like, the in show narrator. But then there's also, like, that out of show narrator, but he interacts with the characters sometimes. So he's, like, just watching, saying ominous stuff about the story starting. And then it's the next morning and fakir is leaving Muto in the dorm. And he's like, hey, I'll bring some books back for you, hun, but you can only read what I bring you. And then he calls him an idiot and leaves.
Bacchus.
And then Duck is with her friends, and they're, like, cheering her on as she talks about going to see Muto. And then she notices that the canaries are leaving their nest and one of them looks like it's going to fall. And then Muto what compelled him to do this? Who knows? He opens the window and he stands on the window still and he's like, watching. The canaries do this. He's got no pants on. He is wearing a collared shirt, but no pants, like a small Victorian boy, but he's too tall for it. And then crow or raven or whatever comes and attacks the mama canary. And then the baby falls. So he falls forward to rescue it. But now Muto is going to die, which josel meyer says he's like, now.
You ever just jump out of a third storey window fully porky pigging it to save a little bird?
We've all been there, like, Sunday afternoon. And then Duck is running to save him, and the old man is like, do you remember who you are? And she's like, yes, I do. I'm Princess tutu. And then there's a magical girl transformation sequence, which is, like, super short and sweet. It's great.
Yeah. It doesn't overstay it's. Welcome.
Yeah.
Like, so much was going on already.
Yeah.
I didn't fully process that there was going to be a magical girl element. So this truly did surprise me. And I just went, oh, fuck. It's like another layer.
This first episode is really like there's no exposition. They're just like, this is what it is.
Figure it out.
Yeah.
Good luck.
So she rescues him by, like, manifesting a field of lovely pink flowers. And she's and her voice doesn't change when she's Princess tutu, but she talks more like eloquently. And she's like, I'm glad I could rescue you, Muto. And he's like, how do you know my name? Who are you? And she's like, bye. And she leaves just the whole scene.
Of him not wearing pants. I can't. It's so insane.
And then Josiemier is like, yes, who indeed? You're just a duck. And then she runs off and it turns out she was a duck the whole time.
Oh, no.
And that's episode one so concise.
Again, easy to understand. rudimentary run of the mill.
I mean, I picked a raw or I can't I can't judge any other show because the show isn't, like, so insane. Like, we've seen crazier bat shit nonsense that makes no sense, like pantya stocking or something. This is just, like, crazy enough where it's like it's crazy enough to pique my interest, but not crazy enough for me to justify. Like, oh, it's just all artistic. Like, no, there's some logic in here, and it's weird.
Yeah, because clearly the audience is like, tween girls, and you could easily do half of the shit in the show and be like, okay, this is a great show for tweens. But then they're like, okay, we got ballet. We got Magical Girl, we got a storybook prince. We got ducks. More stories, more things. We got furries. Just things unexplained and just thrown in to be like, okay, yeah, you got it right?
Yeah, it is interesting, but it's just like, wow, this is one of those where I can't tell if it was a manga first and they just copied it, or if this is just someone's, like, Fever Dream where they fell asleep reading Mother goose, like nursery rhymes.
Or maybe it's both.
It might be both. So we'll start with episode two, and it opens up with a very similar opening of a narrator telling a story. But I think this one goes into more depth of the prince and the raven saying, like, the prince captured the raven in his heart and then shattered his heart to stop it from getting out, and the prince has to get pieces of his heart and goes a line. And they said it was making stories around town real, which was definitely, like, the first clue for me, at least, of like, oh, that's why there's just bonkers that shit everyone's okay with, like, Mr. Cat and stuff like that. And it seems like duck's the only one that rarely notices this stuff because she's one of the stories. So then we get the opening, and then Duck wakes up and is a duck. She's back in her little duck form in the pond. And then the crazy old man, drossel. meyer, says he wrote the story of the prince. And look at how much I wrote senor Muto muto the whole time. I was like, Senior muto makes more sense.
Wait, I'm sorry. Did you say bonjour first?
Listen, I'm not making any more sense than this show is. I'm not putting the effort just jumble.
In a bunch of stuff.
Yeah, this makes sense. It's foreign. That's how you know it's foreign. And he's saying that mito is the prince and that the ravens after him or he's stealing away the raven, and Princess tutu has to fix his heart, and then he talks to her, explaining the whole situation of, like, I made you. You're a duck, but I made you into a girl. Who that got made into princess. Two. Two. Boy. Here we go.
Got layers.
It doesn't need to and he says if she says or does anything resembling a duck, that's what changed her back into a duck. So at the end of the last episode, I think she got flustered when she talked to him and said quack and then ran off and then turned into a duck. So then we see her. She falls into a pond, and then that's what transforms her back to a girl. I don't know if it's like a pond or a lake or body water business or just any kind of water.
It's any water.
Any water. Okay. Yeah. So she turns into a girl. She's in the pond. And then we see ada, adele. adele.
Adel.
Adel. adel guard. We see is just this mystical storytelling clown lady who just shows up with an organ grinder. And she starts playing a little song and telling her, like, speaking of riddles, you know, the mystical guide for the protagonist. She's like, why not? Why the fuck not? We're at this point, it's not the.
Weirdest thing we've seen so far.
Yeah. It's just her design is kind of like, this is odd, but otherwise it's like, all right, she's fine. And then Duck is just running around yelling until she see she's just very blissfully in her own world, kind of just stumbling around. I forget even what she was saying, but she's kind of non sense, but it's just very loud. And I'm just like, all right, why not, Duck? You just do. You're having fun. That's what matters. And she sees mito reading on the hill. She's like, oh. She hides behind the statue, trying to talk to herself. Like, I got to talk to him. I got to apologize for his leg. I still never did that. But if I talk to him, I get nervous. And she's going back and forth with herself for a bit, but eventually she goes up to him and talks to him. And she's trying to talk to him, and it's very clear she's very flustered. She's like, oh, are you reading a book? In terms of course he's reading a book. But what else would he be doing here? It's like, oh, do you like that book? Why would he be reading if he doesn't like it? And just, like, doing quick asides of bashing yourself and then empty thought, Muto. Just like, no, I don't know if I like this book, but I'm going to keep reading it's like that's. All right, just just go with whatever's currently in your your vicinity. Have no other agency.
Muto, that's a blank notebook. You can't read that. I haven't noticed.
I'm on page 74. What?
It's a bit dull so far.
Yeah, it's empty, but fakir said it's the only thing I can read, and I do whatever daddy says.
You too. I don't know if you can read. And while talking to him, an anteater shows up. Because why not? I do. Like, it's just as random as an anteater. It's not another cat person, like a bunny girl or any other B stars. We've seen something weird like an anteater. And she sits down next to meto, kind of asking him, like, oh, well, your partners with Miss ru, so you're going to be dancing with her because you love her, right? He's like, she's fine. I got no real hard feelings about anything. She's like, well, if you think she's just all right, maybe you'll be partners with me instead. Yeah, okay. I got no problems with that. And she's like, done. We're in. See you. And that whole time, duck's freaking out. Like, oh, no. Aunt eater reina, which is her actual name.
It's a good name.
It's a great name.
It's solid.
Love it. That's my grandmother's name.
Very traditional.
And she's freaking out the whole time, seeing like, oh, no. mewtwo is being stolen away by another girl.
Mewtwo.
We made it.
Listen, it's getting worse. We knew this was going to happen. And she's like, he's going to get stolen away by another girl. I got to go tell ru. And she runs off. But while she's, like, freaking out, she quacks and then transforms into a duck again. So when she finds ru, she's just a duck freaking out. ru is just like, oh, cute. Duck moving on. And so Duck finds, like, the school fountain and jumps in there. And she's like, great, I'm back to being a girl. Let me go talk to her. Who up naked? Let me run back into a bush. Quack, turns into a duck, gets her clothes, runs back to the water, jumps in that, jumps back into her clothes. Just a lot of energy.
It all makes perfect sense.
It makes sense. Just a lot of energy in the scene. I'm just like, we got to calm down. I'm too old.
Yeah, there is too much nudity in this show about middle schoolers.
I will say, to be fair, they don't glorify it because I've definitely seen shows where they'll show, like, a middle school or high school student, like bathing or something. And they put a lot of fucking detail and attention into it. Like, we watched it before, miss Kobiashi's Dragon maid, where it's like two younger characters. They put a lot of detail into some of those scenes, and it's super, super uncomfortable. This is just like she's a betty spaghetti figure. Like, she's just blank. There's nothing there.
Yeah, that's true.
So I'm like, at least they're not, like, glorifying it like, oh, look at her naked. No, they're not doing it for the boys, which is what a lot of anime do. So it's like this shows aimed for girls, so it doesn't matter.
We just also see MUTO'S butt at some point. I can't remember where it's made for girls.
So yeah, of course we see mewtones.
But got the soft, dimple cheeks hanging up. Oh, my God. This boy's porky Pigging. It alive to the dumb naked idiot.
It makes him feel free.
He's just feeling the breeze under his undercarriage. Anyway, no.
We just got to talk about how it's middle schoolers.
Anyway, she can transforms back, runs up to ru, and all right, I'm also my notes now. She shows up. ru shows up while Anti terna is carrying off mewtwo. And I'm just deleting it to that. Now.
That's fine.
Saying like, ha ha, looks like I'm the winner to this time. And she's like, all right, cool. Peace. I have no issues with this whatsoever. I'm also empty headed. But I think it's just she had no she wasn't worried at all because it wasn't a challenge. She's like, good luck. Good luck with this dumb idiot. And she turns to Duck, and it's like, oh, thanks for trying, though. That was sweet of you. She's like, oh, sweet of me? Oh, my. Hello.
Can we kiss now?
Can we kiss now? You're very pretty. You remind me of gisele from the pokemon anime. That's what I was looking up earlier when I was quiet. And then we get to then not even going to try. His name sundari. Boy talks to mewtwo.
That's fine.
Mew talks to me too, saying he's an idiot for not even considering ruse feelings. He's like, how dare you not even think of that? He's like, I don't think of anything. Why would I bother? He's like, yeah, that's fair. And then next day in dance class, we see Mr. Cats assigning people to the special class. The five girls we saw in the previous episode. And you know, it's based off skill. They're the best dancers, so you got to be the best to get in there. And they're going to do evaluations. So Anti narina says, then it looks like someone's going to have to drop out of that class because I'm definitely going to get into the special class. It's like this, boss bitch. ant eater. I kind of love her.
She's taking initiative.
Yeah, I don't hate it. And it's also just an animator, which never is not funny to me. And yeah, so she says they'll have to make room for her, and she'll prove it by dancing with her new partner. Partner. Me too. So everyone's like, they're going to dance together? He's like, yeah, okay. I have no concerns with anything ever. So they start dancing, and Duck says, like, they're dancing. And it's good. But there's no joy. There's no love of the dance. There's no passion. So it was technically proficient, but it wasn't very evocative. And then afterwards annie and arena challenges. Ruth like, top that, bitch. And then Ruth is like, all right, well, I'll need a partner. Hey, Duck, you want to be my partner? She's like, I can't. She's like, I'll do all the. Work just to follow my lead.
This part rules.
I know you're a very simple creature, and yeah. So they do their dance, and it's beautiful. Even though Duck isn't as technically proficient, it was evocative and emotional.
It's a touch gay, and I love it dearly. I'm sure this awakened something in me when I was younger. I was like, pretty girl, dancer girl.
Somewhere in your brain, an accountant was like, Let me make a note of this.
File this way for five more years and see what happens. It was an investment. Was it? Bonds, this joke is not worth it. After their dance, the sundari lad starts clapping first, and then everyone else joins in, and everyone's clapping. And afterwards, after class, we see Duck wandering around, and she comes across auntie and arena and me, too, talking in private. And auntie and arena slaps him across the face, saying, you made me look like a fool. This is where she kind of becomes a bitch. Don't hit people. Even if you're an anteater. Especially if you're an anteater. You got claws. And she's yelling at him for embarrassing her, saying he didn't put any effort. ru upstaged them, even with a bad partner. And she says she only asked him out because she knew he was ru's boyfriend. He's like, oh, how'd that work out for you? He has nothing. So she runs off and starts just having a tantrum in the woods, like digging to let her rage out.
I guess that's what I do.
Just start digging a hole to cry.
And do dig a hole in the woods.
I need some comfort food.
Wearing all the ant I need to go to my quiet place. Dancing in the woods she does. And when Duck comes up upon her, she sees a red ghost of Me too, senor, me, too. Standing above her, talking to her. And turns out this is one of the shards of the princess broken heart. So what? She sees that she transforms into the Princess two two. She tells the annie to do arena that isn't her partner and offers to dance with her instead. But annie Arena rejects her, saying, like, no, this is how I dance. And just starts earth bending around her, and all these style agmites fly up. She's like, no, you're dancing is cold and, like, heartless. She's like, yes. I want to intimidate the audience. It's like whoa. What? I'm not familiar with dance. I am a simple peasant folk, but I don't know what's happening.
Makes the audience feel uncomfortable.
And, yeah, Princess Tutu just says, like, there's no joy in your dance. You're not dancing for the joy, but you're dancing out of, like, hatred or anger of revenge. And then we get a flashback of rue Anti dorina talking to ru after practice, saying, like, oh, and dancing is beautiful. She's like, thanks. I know. I'm great. And she's like, Could I get to be as good as you? One day and ru just like, no, no, not likely. That's not possible. And that just destroyed Anti an arena. And that's what created the vendetta against her and her rival and love and dance. And then we see through the joy of dancing, tutu is able to alleviate some of the feelings of bitter disappointment. Which is what the harsh shard of the prince that possessed antid arena is it's bitter disappointment?
You know, that extremely important emotion, bitter disappointment?
Oh, yeah. From these? Well, we didn't really see one in the first episode. From the two episodes, the two heart shards we've seen have just been bad feelings. Is there ever love, is there ever joy in a hard shard? Or is it just like no, they're happy. They can keep that heart shard.
I want Mewtwo to feel again.
I want them to feel pain and loneliness. Yeah.
Does it just get all the shitty feelings back?
Just really tear them down so you can build them back up?
I mean, if you make mewtwo hold the heart shard and then trade him, he'll evolve into a super mewtwo, like X form, and he's got higher attack and special attack stats. It's great.
He'll also have depression, so be careful.
About after one battle, he has to sleep for four. It's a train off. So we see the ghost of the prince turn into the heart shard, which flies over to Tutu. And as soon as Tutu gets it, mewtwo shows up. And then she just floats it over to him and it flies into his heart. And he immediately gets really sad because now he's filled with bitter disappointment.
Fuck.
Why?
What have you done to me?
I feel one thing in my entire life and it hurts. Make it stop.
And then when she gives it to him, the sundari lad shows up and Princess Tutu flies off. And then Mewtwo says, like, I feel something weird in my heart. Is like, you feel anything at all? That's a shocking development. And then the next day in class, turns out no one changed classes because like I said, even though Anti arena's dance was technically proficient, it wasn't good enough. It didn't beat ruse. So everyone stays the same. No real progress in anyone's development. No, it's not true. Anti dorina says, like, that's fine, I'll stay in my class, but I'll keep working on it. And it's no longer a bitter rivalry with ru. And more like, I want to just do better for myself. Beautiful Mr. cat's. Like, oh, by the way, Duck, you're hot garbage. You're fucking terrible. You're on. What's?
It not probable probation.
You're probation. So, yeah, she's in like, the shit class, so she's got to work harder to be the same as everyone else. And yeah, that's episode two.
Great. It only gets clearer in episode three.
Super concise.
With the story time openings, we just get a little bit more of the Prince and the Raven story. So here we see that the prince, in shattering his heart, he can't feel feelings anymore or remember that he was a prince. And those heart shards go and in essence, fuck up other people's lives. Blowing up. Let me make it not hey, yo.
Man, dog are popular. Heard you talking about Princess Tutu. What's going on? Let me in.
Hi, I'm calling from the nythia ramen campaign. Can you stop talking about this bullshit?
Can you knock it off?
Okay, so, yeah, these heart shards take over people who have big desires like Duck and just ruin their lives. So Duck is practicing, trying to get off probation. All of her friends are trying to help her out. And they're like, hey, you've been real distracted. I'm sorry.
Hey, you've been real distracted lately.
I'm like, tonight is shit.
So she's like, okay, I'll tell you what's going on. So I had this weird dream about a prince and a raven and goes into the whole storytime stuff. And they're like, I'm sorry, are you messed up because of the children's story we all know? And she's like, Wait, I'm sorry. This is a children's story you all know? And they're like, yes, yes, somewhat. Some dude, like 200 years ago started writing the story about a prince and a raven and died and just never finished it. And she's like, what? This book is by drosselmeyer and it's like the weird guy who's talking to me. So she's like, oh, some some weird story fuckery is going on.
And can we agree if this was a Western cartoon? Drawsle myer 100% be voiced by Mark hamill?
Absolutely.
Okay, yes.
Pretty good.
So she sees through the window muto going out with rue, and fakir comes into the practice room and is like, has anyone seen mewto? He snuck out. I haven't seen him.
Where'S my boyfriend?
My slave hasn't reported to me yet today. Who is getting a whipping.
Jeez, I don't like that.
So she's like, oh, I saw him out with ru. And he's like, oh, fuck, he's stuck out behind my back. He doesn't do this sort of stuff and he's acting up. My boy, my boy thinking for himself. So as he's leaving, Duck is like, hey, you like books, right? Have you heard of this Prince and the Raven story? And he's like, no, it's a children's book. Who cares? Not important. Goodbye.
Get away from it.
And with that very confident, not defensive reaction, duck just goes, oh, I guess he doesn't know anything about it. No further questions.
All right, just shut in the dark here. Is he the Raven?
I'll tell you, but not right now.
Okay, yeah, we'll get to the end, but yeah. So Duck goes out looking for Muto, just I'll happen to stumble across them and organically ruin their date and sees the weird organ grinder lady who gives her more weird cryptic advice. And she's like, cool. I don't know what that means. Goodbye.
Didn't help me at all.
She's like, I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but thank you, Miss adel.
Goodbye, hot top for now. So she finally finds them in a park having a picnic. And she sees them say they love each other. To which it's ru saying, hey, do you love me? And Muto is like, I guess real passionate. So rue pours out whatever their piss drink is and is like, Go get me water. It's just nondescript yellow liquid.
Oh, my God.
So the long car ride to the park. We've all been on the 405 in a rush hour. We know what this is like. Okay, get the wide mouth caterer. No.
Anyway, moving on.
Please stop episode.
So Duck goes and is fantasized, can be out in Utah, just being like, I wished he would get me water. And accidentally bumps into him. And again, flustered. Just word vomits. Like, oh, you're getting water. Of course, if you add them water, you have an empty bottle, blah, blah blah blah. And just freaks the fuck out at him and sees sorry, I'm lost in my notes. He says somehow I forget the connection because she is just rambling, saying like, I don't understand love. And she's like, oh, you poured love deprived soul.
She said something about being like, oh, of course you love her. And he's like.
She gave me a suggestion. And I went, I guess yes. And yeah, he's just a very strong improviser, but isn't good at initiation.
He's got the yes part down. He doesn't have the and part quite yet, but yeah.
So she sees he has like a bite or something on his hand. Just some hand injury.
His hand brushes against the plant and cuts him. He's quite literally a paper doll. He's so fragile.
So they use the water. He got to clean the wound. And she's like, oh, I used up all the water saving your life. So I guess I have to go find more water for you. And just runs around town, just truly like a chicken with its head cut off water. where's water? Like when Muto obviously got water somewhere nearby. And she could be like, hey, let's just go back. And she's like, no, I have to find it independently. where's the closest well? And just runs around, I think.
She says we can't give root like stream water or like river water.
It has to be the best water.
But that leads me to believe that that's what mewtwo got. That it was like river water. And she's like, no, that's dirty. But it's clean enough for me to clean your hand with that boy's gang.
To your hand, not stomach. Yeah, but yeah. So she runs and eventually is just in the woods. And apparently Muto followed her because where.
Else would he go?
Yeah, he's like, I guess this is something to do.
A new suggestion.
Yes, perfect. So they get into the woods and they see a little cottage that's apparently a restaurant, I guess. And they walk in and they see an owner who is just so ecstatic that someone's there and is just like, customers. Finally, I'll make the best food for you. All that. And she's like, I'm sorry. We just want water. And she's like, nonsense. You're here. You're getting a meal anyway. Sit down. And just forces some food upon them. But all the food that they eat is cold. But Muto again couldn't feel a punch in the face. I noticed nothing. So he's like, I guess this is food. But Duck is like, something's up here. So she goes and spies on the kitchen and hears the woman talking and being like, I wonder which one will taste better. And she's like, fuck story book time. This is literally just hansel and gretel and looks out the window and sees a grave. And like, yep. yep. That's the only explanation. Yeah.
If I saw one grave, I wouldn't be like, that's who she ate. I'd be like, that's weird that she would consume the flesh of another human being. And I put the dedicated time and effort to bury them. Put a gravestone there, I'd be like, no, there's just bones in my cellar.
Yeah. Who leaves a marker of the murder? They did.
Yeah.
It's the perfect crime.
Yeah. No one would expect that's where I laid a body. Not with the tombstone right there.
Yeah. So she's like, okay, we got to get the fuck out of here. But Muto is like, I was told to sit here and eat, so I guess I'll just sit here and eat. But the lady catches her snooping around and kicks her out and is like, all right, I don't need you. I have a friendly customer right here with Muto. I'll stick with him. Goodbye. And kicks her out. And seeing her prince in danger, that's the motivation she needs to activate Princess Two too. So the magical girl transforms and runs back in. Somehow converts everything to just vines, just weird set dressing change.
Magic, baby.
That's magic power. Pine salt, baby.
But when she gets inside, she's like, oh, this lady has one of the shards of the heart. And turns out I first thought the shard. Because the prince just pops out in his, like, ghostly red form of the shard. And it's like, yeah, food's good. This hunger, the feeling of just I like food.
Yeah, I was confused for a bit too.
But then we get to the root of the matter and the tragic backstory of this lady. And she was married to another chef, and they ran this restaurant, but then he died, so all the passion in her cooking is gone. They used to side by side cook and be like, oh, which one will taste better? And it's like, oh, that's what she overheard in the kitchen. Ha ha. Fun stuff.
It all comes back around.
But this weirdly took a very sweet turn for based on just how random and bullshitty a lot of the other stuff is. They're like, hey, I know you're sad that your husband's dead, but he loved cooking and left you all of these recipes. So it's a gift that he left you. And to honor him, you should cook these recipes and bring the passion back into cooking again. And that will bring customers because she truly just wants to trap these customers so she has someone to talk to because it's the ghost, the spirit feeling of loneliness. So great. gotta got to make this boy bitter about defeat and lonely.
Dumb, sad boy.
Yeah. You have no one in your life, right? Everyone's just manipulating you. I want you to feel loneliness again. But yeah. So reinvigorated. This woman gives up the shard and wants to relive cooking in the good ways. And we see the heart goes back into the prince. Everything is resolved. Princess Tutu runs away and hides around the corner. And we see fakir and rue arrive because they were looking for the prince or Muto, whatever, who gets it, and he's like, oh, I was saved by Princess Tutu. And Princess Tutu hiding around the corner is like, he knows who I am in love.
That's all it takes.
But then fakir and ru are like, that's just an old story. And Duck is like, that's a what now?
Excuse me.
So josel meyer comes out and he's like, yeah, fucked you too. So you're a tragic princess. Once you confess your love to a prince, you turn to stardust and disappear. So fuck you, I guess. Goodbye. And we end the episode.
Yeah.
On a high note. unrelated misabina and drosselmeyer. Ship that I call them benal meyer.
I love that. Okay, so don't you want to know what happens in the rest of the next 23 episodes?
Yes. So I don't have to watch it?
Yeah, just no, I we aren't we but aren't there yet.
No.
Show is weird. But I need to know what happens because honestly, if we take a hard turn into sci-fi at some point, I would not be surprised. So I do need to know what happens every Sunday.
I'm going to do the best I can. I'm going to do the best I can. To summarize this. So it's pretty formulaic for a while where it's just Princess Tutu getting the heart shards. Obviously, Muto is the prince from the story and it is addressed. I think drosselmeyer is the one who is like, all of these heart shards are negative. Like, you're really just hurting him. Do you really want to keep doing this?
Okay. At least they address that.
Yeah, yeah.
And then we find out that ru is the Raven Princess. So there is a point where ru and fakir know that he is the prince and they don't want him to get his heart back to the point where fakir tries to shatter his heart. Again, he is not successful, but ru gets a piece of the heart, which is the love piece, and she soaks it in raven blood. So once it's in him, he just like there's like this weird arc where he just tries to, like, fuck make girls fall. Oh, God.
I only love ravens now.
Oh, no, he's an avian.
He tries to he tries to make girls fall in love with him to sacrifice them to the Raven King.
Sounds like a D character.
Yeah, so that's fun. And then faqir turns out that he is, like, the knight from the story, but he also doesn't want to be because the knight is killed by the raven. So he's like, oh, my God, I have to change my story. And then there's an episode where Muto gets lost and then fokir and Duck team up to find him. And then from that point on, they're like, kind of a duo. And then it's also revealed that Foxir is a descendant of Drosselmire, so he can write stories and make them real. So he's like, oh, I can rewrite these stories so they don't end tragically. And then I guess there's also an episode where villagers find out that he's a descendant of drosselmeyer and try to cut his hands off.
I'm on board of this nonsense.
I will give the narrative of this. This is some very old fairy tale folklore bullshit. Yes, he's the mythical author, so all the villagers try to cut it on his hands.
We're sticking this shit.
And it's interesting because these first episodes are like like I said, they're extremely formulaic of like, she's a pretty princess and she's getting his heart shards back. But then later in this series, shit like this happens. So you're like, who is this for? But so toward the end, for some reason, ru gets eaten by the raven, and then Muto loves her so much that he rescues her. And then I think fakir has rewritten the story at that point. So, like, everybody has a happily ever after, and ru and Muto end up together and fakir and Duck are together.
I couldn't help but notice in your brief summary of the rest of the show, you very rarely talk to the princess too, to the protagonist.
Well, she's still doing it. Like, she's still getting his heart shards. She's still very involved. It turns out that her pendant is the last heart shard, which it's red.
So is she a Duck Forever at the end of it?
No, I don't remember how that resolves, but it's like, I don't remember how.
The main characters yeah, everyone else, we.
Got there's a happily ever after for everybody. That's all I remember because I was rereading the synopsis of every episode. And it was funny because some of them had super long synopsis. And then for the last three, they were like two sentences, like, super vague. And I was like, what? I don't want to watch these right.
Now, but I got to know, like.
You can't be worried about spoiling the finale in the synopsis of the finale.
Yeah. So it takes a weird turn, as you would in a magical girl series.
Right?
I mean, yeah, that's what I expect for magical girl shows at this point. So, yeah, I'm not going to continue it, but I will say I'm not disappointed by this show. It's definitely like, hey, you did you A plus. Good job.
Yeah. This is buck Wild, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. Yeah, it says, oh, you wanted this to make sense. That's cute.
Your first mistake was watching anime. You knew what you were getting into.
That's your fault.
Yeah.
You say no.
So who's your favorite? I really like fuck here because he's terrible, and I love that for him.
Drousemayer.
He's fun.
He's fun. He seems like a fun time.
Anteater. Of course.
Anteaterina.
We stand.
I kind of want to just skim through the rest of the show just to see what other weird animal people there are.
I think there's an alligator. I think I've seen a screenshot where there's just, like I would try and find it.
It's none of the cutesy animals that you see, like dogs and cats and, like, a chipmunk or something. It's like, no, this is like a bearded vulture. It's like, oh, God, he's hideous. It's like, yeah, ballerina is a new whale.
Hold on. I'm going to send this to you guys.
You can also tell who the demographic for the show is by how long the eyelashes were, because when ru and moota were having their picnic, like, just like, three inches long and just a full sheet of eyelashes on both of them. I'm like that's for middle school girls.
This little crock is so cute.
Oh, my gosh. Look at it.
It's so good.
He got a little feet. See, this is good. This is a good show. Once again, still not watching it, but this is a good show.
This picture alone changed my mind. I do like this show more now.
Yeah, we brought it back around. Happy birthday to me happy birthday to.
You made a good pick.
Thank you.
This is the first glad birthday episode we all enjoy. Feel like all the others are punishment.
Yeah, enjoy is a strong word, but this is the first one where we ended it going, at least something cute happened. Yeah.
Well, maybe so I can honor two or two precious.
My first birthday episode was uri on Ice.
That's right. That was a good pick. Maybe it's just dana. Maybe dana.
Last year, my birthday pick was Tokyo mumu.
All right, debatable. Two for three. That's a lot better than my track record. And mine just always ditch them on. Anyway, what do we have going on next week, tis? The spooky season.
Yeah.
And it turns out Halloween is primarily an american holiday, so there's not a ton of Halloween based anime, so we're just going to pick Spooky once. So I'm picking a show that terrified me, seeing the commercials four on tunami late at night, so I never actually watched it. But we're going to watch the first three episodes of paranoia Agents.
I'm so excited.
Very good. Same director as Perfect Blue yay, so it's high quality shit.
All right, dinghy's crossed. If there's a show you would like us to watch, spooky or otherwise, you can send your recommendations to us. Our email is are weveriet@gmail.com. Or you can reach out to us on Twitter. Instagram. Are we there yet? On both? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at mrpatrick. dugan.
You can find me on Instagram at queen. Period Weebu, and on Twitter at queen underscore weebu and queen underscore Weebu art.
You can find me on Twitter at aBTS Brendan. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast do, and sometimes we play on twitch stream games.
Thank you for thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.
I'm just going to go watch barbie and the nutcracker now.
Practically keep watching b stars. Key you.