Food for thought

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Who's up for a bit of discussion and analysis?


Topic

Only a few times in the series (if my memory serves) do we see a character reflected in another character's eyes.


-The first time, episode 4, Fakir is holding Mytho up to the mirror, and Mytho sees himself reflected in the mirror-Mytho's eyes.

-The second time, in episode 8, Ahiru sees herself (as Ahiru) reflected in Fakir's eyes. It is during the scene where Fakir jumps from the balcony-bridge to interrupt Ahiru's conversation with Mytho on the lawn.

-The third time, and I really wish I could remember the episode, Princess Kraehe looks into Mytho's eyes as sees the reflection of Princess Tutu there, which angers her.


Those are the only three times I noticed when a character's image is reflected in someone's eyes. I made a note of it in my episode reviews when I first watched the series, mostly because it happened so rarely that the times that it did, it really stuck in my mind. Why put that in a few specific scenes, but not others? Why have some characters see themselves, and another character see someone else? How much does it matter who's eyes you're looking into versus who's doing the looking?

Now, given how deliberate the symbolism, foreshadowing, and character relationships are in this series...

...what say you?

(warning: comments will likely contain spoilers!)


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This actually first came to my attention because it reminded me of a scene from The Last Unicorn, where King Haggard looks into Lady Amalthea's eyes and at first he is disturbed because he cannot see his reflection in her eyes-- her eyes are "empty." Later in the film he looks again and he is disgusted, because all he can see now is a reflection of himself--- proof, in his mind, that she is truly becoming human and no longer a unicorn.

Being that PT always reminded me of The Last Unicorn in lots of little ways, I'm not surprised this popped into my head.

(no subject)

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Hey guys!

Last night I thought I'd poke around Wikipedia, and ended up spending two hours playing with the Princess Tutu entrypage. I added an entire new section: Themes and Arcs.

I added the following subsections:

-Storytelling, Writing, and Meta
-Free Will vs. Destiny
-Transformation, Anthropormorphism, and Existential Identity
-A Prince With Two Princesses, A Princess With Two Princes
-Fairy Tales, Myths, and Legends
-Ballet, Opera, and Classical Music

I filled in the entries for "Free Will vs. Destiny" and "A Prince With Two Princesses, A Princess With Two Princes", I added quotes to the start of the meta entry, and I started a bit on the ballet entry, but I had to stop since I actually know very little about ballet except the ability to identify it when I see it. There's a SPOILER WARNING for the entire "Themes & Arcs" section, so be warned! I didn't spoil the ending of the series, but the PT entry as a whole includes several spoilers for the end of season one and quite a bit of the plot of season 2.

Anyway, I was hoping you guys might step up and fill in some of the sections! Because I'm tired, and plus I'm pretty sure any attempt I could make at a coherent explanation of "storytelling, writing, and meta" in Princess Tutu would make absolutely no sense and jump around like crazy.

Edit as you please, folks!


P.S. Under the discussion of anthropormorphism, it'd be really cool if anyone knew about the Japanese mythological character of the cat spirit who seeks a bride. I believe Neko-sensei is a combination of that character and Puss In Boots. The cat spirit who is searching for a bride has shown up in other anime series... the one I remember most clearly is from Ranma 1/2. Unfortunately I have no idea what the story behind that is, but if someone does that'd be a cool thing to include--- I know that people I've spoken to who've seen the series always ask why Neko-sensei is threatening his students with marriage.