This is one of the rare shows aimed at children that even adults can enjoy. The story flows like a fairytale often following fairytale logic as well- probably because the whole theme of the show is ballet. It does a great job of showing the dreamlike stories and mythos of ballet, while often poking fun at the more ridiculous bits and at us for having to suspend our disbelief so often. They also use classic ballet songs as background music and do so very skillfully, while blending it wonderfully with the plot.

The show starts off as your usual “magical girl” anime. A typical clumsy girl can turn into the magical Princess Tutu (you are allowed to giggle at the name) and use her suave ballet moves to save her prince. Sounds like the same old plot. But then it gets interesting. It turns out that the main characters aren’t the main characters. They are merely the supporting cast trying to help the mains get their happy ending.

The story often asks us to question the stereotypical story roles and how we’d feel if we found out that we were only minor characters, or worse, the villain. She really gets the rawest deal in the story. But is there really such a thing as a truly minor character? And do villains really have no choice but to stay in the role that was decided for them?

This anime is a lot like Revolutionary Girl Utena, what with all the symbolism, surrealness and the fun conversations on interpretation that come after it. But as I said before, it was targeted at elementary school children so it takes out all the mature issues Utena dealt with. A friend of mine mentioned that it’s marked 14 and over in the States, and I don’t really know why. There is nothing inappropriate for younger kids in it, but watch a few episodes first to be on the safe side before showing it to your three year old.

Don’t let that it was originally made for kids dissuade you! They didn’t dumb down the plot at all! It just leaves out all the excessive violence of anime aimed at older children. And only being 26 episodes, it doesn’t get monotonous like most magical girl anime! It truly is a something for the whole family.