Princess Tutu Vol. #2
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March 11, 2006
by: Kristin Segura
"If you watched the first volume of Princess Tutu, this DVD is a must."
Review Hardware Used: Compaq Presario Notebook with AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology ML-28, 14" WXGA high-definition widescreen display with BrightView technology and 1280 x 768 resolution
Disc Description
Returning one by one, the prince’s feelings lift not his hopes but a deadly new enemy, the crow princess Kraehe. Tutu struggles to reconcile her hopeful intentions with these horrific outcomes. Amidst the tempest of torture and trepidation, one question arises; is a happy ending consigned to the realms of fantasy?
Disc Features
Episodes 6-9
English & Japanese Languages
Etude
Outtakes
Staff Commentary
In the Studio
Clean Open/Close
Reversible Cover
Disc Review
Content: (This section may include spoilers)
This DVD starts off with the narration talking about a witch who cast a curse on a princess who has then fallen asleep for a long length of time. A man then comes along, intending to wake the princess by kissing her. However a voice stops him by saying what if she does not want to be woken up.
Mytho still has very little emotions in the beginning of episode 6. Duck is still trying to get Mytho’s heart shards gathered together so that Mytho will again be able to feel. Duck and her class are now part of a formal ballet so we follow her journey through putting on this ballet. When the class is preparing for their performance two new characters come into the storyline. They are married, and in charge of the ballet house. We start to get a bit of a background on Paulamoni, the female owner of the ballet house, and we also learn that Paolo, the male owner and husband, wants Paulamoni to do her best as a ballet performer. Paulamoni seems to overcome any nervous feelings she had previously when it came to dancing on stage.
At one point Duck notices a heart shard in the ballet house, and then we come to a scene where Duck is talking to Edel who is for some reason selling gems. Edel seems to be the person Duck goes to, when she wants to confide something. Duck seems to talk as though talking to herself to help her sort out her thoughts. Edel simply lets her speak only offering advice here and there. Fakir again reminds Duck that she should stay away from Mytho. While dancing Duck sees Mytho’s heart which takes form as Mytho himself one he see-through and tinted red. Duck asks him to follow her so she can give him to Mytho but he tries to fight it. She quickly grabs it and it returns to Mytho in the form of a heart shard. When he receives it though he cries out in pain, and Fakir runs them to safety. Mytho admits some of his feelings for Princess Tutu, so be sure to check out this next Volume in the Princess Tutu series.
Video:
The lighting and coloring are still the first things I noticed as I watched the second DVD in this series. Very few things have changed since the first in terms of style and animation. Some of the characters seemed sloppily draw, such as extra characters. They often use techniques such as the slightly blurred images when a character has a flashback. There is also the use of see through characters to give a ghostly appearance, when the characters are themselves flashbacks or simply not really there.
Audio:
The background music is still lovely, following suit with the previous DVD it features mainly classical music and ballet songs. As the audience watches they will probably hear a familiar tune or two and find themselves paying more attention to that than the actual dialogue. Sometimes this can be distracting but hardly in a bad way. It does go along with the anime beautifully, ballet anime with ballet music.
Menus:
The opening menu features the opening theme song as the background music. The DVD title is in big size font on the left hand side, underneath are the options of episodes, languages, and special features. On the right hand side is a picture of Duck and Mytho. The background is a beautiful pink with wheels spinning and occasionally a sparkle or two. Very eye appealing. The special features menu has the closing song as the background music and is very similar to the opening menu. All the options are on the right hand side, while a picture is on the left hand side. There are no moving images in this menu but it is still very eye appealing and simplistic. The languages menu is basically the same as the Extras menu.
Extras:
The audio commentary is always a wonderful feature to have because it gives you so much information both on the anime and on the voice actors. Some parts are of course more interesting and amusing than others. They do mention the fact that the anime seems to be getting darker and darker, which may or may not be more insight into future episodes. While this extra is lengthy (the same length as an episode) and it does require a bit of patience to listen to the whole thing, it is entertaining for those interested enough to watch. The clean opening and closing are the same as they were in the first Volume, but again it is always nice to have on each DVD. Outtakes are definitely my favorite in any type of DVD. These are no exception, especially since most of them are the voice actors going completely off-script. Etude is along the lines of the one from the first DVD, an educational aspect of the Extras. They talk about different ballets, with both voice actors in character. Ballet for beginners is also educational, with Mr. Cat teaching you how to do some different ballet techniques. In The Studio shows videos of the voice actors, in the studio of course, and has a small video of the anime as the voice actor talks along to what she is acting out.
Dialogue:
The English dialogue is the same as in the first volume, of course. I was expecting a bit of an improvement with the voices, but instead I just got myself used to the voices. Duck’s voice in particular was a bit harsh to listen to for long periods of time, and Mytho’s voice was at times hard to hear as he seems to speak only in a whisper. The extra characters in the anime seemed to have better voice acting than the main characters, which does make it a bit easier to watch.
The Bottom Line:
If you watched the first volume of Princess Tutu, this DVD is a must. If you were not too fond of the first volume, check this one out anyways as the storyline tends to get better. If you did not see the first volume, I'd recommend picking up both these DVDs.
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Content |
The storyline gets even more interesting and seems to get a bit darker. Held my interest to want to see more. |
9.0 |
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Video |
Some characters look sloppily drawn, but the lighting and shadowing is done fairly well. |
7.0 |
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Audio |
Sometimes a bit distracting but beautiful ballet themes are the source of the music. |
9.5 |
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Menus
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Very simplistic and beautiful backgrounds. |
10.0 |
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Extras
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Packed with tons of extras, including educational, entertaining, and hilarious ones. |
9.8 |
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Dialog
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Still a bit grating on the ears. While suitable for the characters, its not something I can hear for long spans of time. |
5.0 |
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Verdict
If you enjoyed the first Volume, go ahead and buy this one. The overall quality isn't wonderful but the storyline makes it worthwhile.
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7.5
[not an average]
+ Tons of extras
+ A unique storyline
+ Beautiful OST
- Sloppy drawing
- Annoying voice acting
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