Princess Tutu

Either this is a very deceptive series or Japanese 10-year-old girls have a taste for the surreal. This is a magical girl series that could have been written by Borges.

Ahiru is a young student at a ballet academy, or perhaps she's a duck (in Japanese: ahiru) dreaming she is a young student at a ballet academy. Or perhaps she's a character in a fairy-tale written by the creepily nutcracker-like Drosselmeier.

There are strange things afoot at the academy: the star balletist is an affectless young man named ``Mute'', on whom Ahiru has an unrequited crush. Mute seems to be the pawn of the sinister Fakia, and the object of the talented, but icy, Ruu's desires. These two share a secret about Mute, which is part of the puzzle that Ahiru must solve.

Drosselmeier appears in a vision to explain that Ahiru, in the guise of "Princess Tutu", must gather the pieces of Mute's shattered heart, and restore him to wholeness. To get further clues, Ahiru can consult an oracular mechanical doll musician named Edel.

This is a pre-Disney fairy-tale, from the time when fairy-tales were grim preparation for (or consolation at) living in a harsh world. Drosselmeier warns Ahiru that she must not confess her love for Mute, or she will vanish with the mist. Ahiru soon discovers that, in restoring Mute's heart is not necessarily doing him a favor: in addition to happiness, the heart feels fear, and sadness, and loneliness.

Oh, and there's a good deal of silly slap-stick, too. A surprised "quack" will turn Ahiru into a duckling (and Gary Larson will tell you that a duck is an inherently funny creature). A splash of water is needed to lift the spell (just right for a duck).

Intriguingly bizarre.

Ahiru is voiced by Nanae Kato, who also plays Chika in Asagiri no Miko.

Chiaki Konaka's worked on Tutu, alongside series that he has worked on (e.g., Serial Experiments Lain, Hellsing). The series has some classic Konaka touches, e.g., the animated doll, Edel, the multiple levels of reality, and the central character's identity crisis. But the thought that Hellsing and parts of Princess Tutu were written by the same person is moderately bizarre.