Characters / Princess Tutu

On this page, you'll find information on the characters of Princess Tutu. Please note: since a lot of Tutu's plot revolves around Character Development and Back Story, some spoilers will be unavoidable. Spoilers will be marked when possible, but some unmarked spoilers will be necessary just for ease of reading. You Have Been Warned!

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Main Characters

Ahiru ("Duck")/Princess Tutu

Sometimes a girl, sometimes a duck—but ALWAYS a klutz.

Voiced by: Nanae Katou (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

"My feelings are my own!"

Once upon a time, there was a duck that wished she could do anything to save a lonely prince. There was also a clumsy girl that dreamed of one day becoming a ballerina. And there was also a princess that was cursed to turn into a speck of light and vanish if she confessed her feelings to the one she loved. Duck/Ahiru is all three.

Drosselmeyer heard the duck’s wish to save the Prince and (to amuse himself and because he needed something to kickstart the story) decided to grant it. He gave her a pendant that allowed her to become a girl—and also the Magical Girl Princess Tutu.

As a girl, Duck spends her days struggling in her ballet class, getting into hijinx with her friends, fawning over the popular and distant Mytho, and arguing with the equally popular but hot-tempered Fakir. Duck adores ballet, but due to her clumsiness and lack of discipline, her performances are somewhat lacking. This causes her teacher to constantly criticize her (when he's not threatening her with marriage), much to her dismay. However, other characters often note that her enthusiasm and personality shines through during her dance, making her dancing entertaining to watch.

Duck is sweet, outgoing, and ditzy, but has a stubborn streak. This causes her to constantly butt heads with Fakir, particularly since she's so interested in Mytho. However, by the end of the first season, the two develop an understanding and learn to work together.

In contrast to Duck is her Magical Girl form, the titular Princess Tutu. In The Prince and the Raven (a fictional fairytale from the world of the show), Tutu was a minor character who confessed her love to the Prince, which caused her to turn into a speck of light and vanish due to a curse. Still in love with Mytho, her quest is to gather the pieces of his missing heart and return them to him. Tutu can retrieve Mytho's heart shards (hidden in the hearts of the residents of Gold Crown Town) by dancing with them and helping them to realize their true feelings. However, Tutu's curse still haunts her; while she encourages others to be true to their hearts, she's unable to speak her own true feelings aloud.

In Duck's eyes, Princess Tutu is everything she is not. She's poised, graceful, a talented dancer, and nearly perfect. Duck often struggles with comparing herself to her alter-ego, unsure if Tutu is really her or simply the story character somehow working through her. Also, while restoring Mytho's heart means he can feel joy and love, it also means he can feel sadness and pain. This causes Duck to doubt if her actions are truly helping him. Because of this, she actually has quite a bit of angst throughout the show—but she pushes forward, hoping that in the end she'll be able to see Mytho smile.

In Japanese, "Ahiru" literally translates to "Duck"—so in ADV Films' English dub, she is named "Duck" (the series' translator spends a lot of time during one DVD Commentary informing people—presumably those who had already seen the fansub—that "Ahiru" is not a proper name in Japanese). One of the few ways to cause a fight in the Tutu fandom is to insist that you have to use one name or the other when referring to her—inevitably fans that prefer the other name will object (luckily, most fans have learned to use both interchangeably^note Outside the core PT fandom, though, the fight gets nastier, as it serves as a particularly large lightning rod for the eternal Subbing Versus Dubbing war. Those who use "Ahiru" exclusively are MUCH more insistent about it, so those who prefer "Duck" have largely been confined to sites where the English dub is discussed).

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• Abstract Apotheosis: Near the end, Princess Tutu becomes a symbol of hope to the other characters in the story, fully personifying the heart shard that she used to transform.
• Acrophobic Bird: Ahiru almost never remembers that she can fly in her duck form, even though it's her natural state. Averted in a couple of occasions, but most of the time, she struggles with climbing, even as a bird.
• Adaptation Species Change: In Swan Lake, Odette is a human princess whom Rothbart turned into a swan. In the anime, she's a duckling whom Drosselmeyer turned into a human and gave the ability to transform into Princess Tutu, who, to the vast majority of people sans the main characters, appears to be a giant white swan with a crown.
• All-Loving Heroine: Both Ahiru and Princess Tutu—the latter because she always saves the Victim of the Week by helping them admit their true feelings, and the former because she essentially saves everyone in the end with hope.
• Animal Motifs: Ducks, of course; the whole Ahiru->Princess Tutu transformation is a metaphor for The Ugly Duckling turning into a swan. In the end, she saves the day as a duck, implying she is better as herself.
• Badass Pacifist: She's not a fighter, but can accomplish quite a lot on her own through a combination of sheer love, hope, and excellent dancing.
• Become a Real Boy: Ahiru often angsts about how she's "just a duck", and towards the end of the series she admits that she wants to stay a girl so she can keep dancing and stay with her friends. But in the end, she gives up her pendant to save Mytho, and returns to being a duck—thanks in part to Fakir, who encourages her to be her true self, and also promises to never leave her.
• Be Yourself: In the end, the show seems to say that Ahiru is better as herself meaning her original duck self, instead of as Princess Tutu or a human girl.
• Break the Cutie: She really gets put through the wringer at several points, most notably when she nearly kills herself over despair from being unable to get her pendant off to return to Mytho.
• Catchphrase: "Quack!"
• The Chosen One: Played with. Drosselmeyer specifically selected her as Princess Tutu, but she didn't exactly "follow the plot", so to say.
• Clark Kenting: Subverted. While Tutu and Duck clearly have the same face and hair color, her identity is obscured by the fact the Tutu transformation 1. gives her a much shorter and neater hairstyle 2. physically ages her up by a few years 3. makes her MUCH more proficient at ballet than she is in real life and 4. to the vast majority of people sans the main characters, appears to be a giant white swan with a crown instead of a young ballerina girl.
• Commonality Connection: Their care for Mytho becomes the foundation for which Duck and Fakir build their partnership and friendship on.
• Cross-Popping Veins
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She's very clumsy and awkward, which is a problem for a girl who's studying ballet. Justified since she's really a duck, and ducks are well known for moving rather awkwardly on land. Most of the characters note that she moves rather like her namesake animal, unaware that it's not just her name.
• Deal with the Devil: She originally gets the pendant that lets her assume human form and become Princess Tutu through making a deal with Drosselmeyer. It has a subtle, nasty catch she never quite clicks to: if she acts like a duck, she'll transform back into a duck, but if she gets wet while a duck, she turns back into a human girl. This means that she'll never be able to be happy in either form, since she's denied the ability to fully express herself as a human but as a duck she can't do what makes ducks happiest and swim.
• Did Not Get The Guy: In the finale, Ahiru does not get together with Mytho, who falls in love with Rue. However, it's a subversion as she doesn't end up alone, since Fakir promises to stay with her.
• Disappears into Light: Princess Tutu's fate, should she confess her feelings to Mytho. It's ultimately what happens to her once she returns her necklace containing the final heart shard to Mytho, rendering her permanently to her original duck form.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Ahiru is really just "duck" in Japanese, which is why she's called Duck in the dub version. It's intentionally meant to sound like an awkward name for a human girl.
• Fiery Redhead: Ahiru has red hair and is energetic.
• Fire-Forged Friends: She and Fakir at first don't get along because of their conflicting opinions of how to help Mytho. Eventually, Ahiru gets to know Fakir better and they team up to face Princess Kraehe. This allows them to become closer as allies and friends.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine.
• Genki Girl: Ahiru has quite a lot of energy, which is particularly shown through her tendencies to ramble. She's much calmer as Princess Tutu, however.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: She has huge blue Tareme Eyes, even when she's in her duck form, showing her innocent, sweet nature.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Princess Tutu's quest to find the missing pieces of Mytho's heart.
• Green Thumb: Princess Tutu can grow a plant of vines to help herself get around.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ahiru has major issues with her self-esteem, partially because she thinks of herself as "just a duck".
• Hope Bringer: Princess Tutu represents hope. This is what saves the town and ends Drosselmeyer's story. Also, this feeling is literally what allowed her to transform into Princess Tutu in the first place - her pendant is a heart shard, the Prince's feeling of hope.
• Humanity Ensues: She's a duck who is granted the power to transform into a human, and then again into a Magical Girl. Her name in Japanese is, in fact, Duck (Ahiru), and she regains her duck form whenever she accidentally slips a quack.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the end, she allows herself to give up her pendant - Mytho's last heart shard - so he can save Rue, whom he'd fallen in love with.
• Iconic Item: Ahiru's pendant.
• Idiot Hair: Ahiru's ahoge even exists in her duck form as a single feather that is as tall as her head. At several points, it actually gives her position away when she's trying to hide.
• Inner Monologue: When Ahiru's not rambling out loud, she's rambling inwardly about her various problems — particularly her identity issues and love towards/worry for Mytho.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: She has blue eyes to match her innocent personality.
• Interrupted Suicide: Near the end of the story, Ahiru tries to drown herself at a lake. Though this was partly due to her own despair over not being able to get her necklace off to return it to Mytho, and partly Drosselmeyer trying to manipulate Fakir's Reality Warper powers. Fakir arrives to save her and gives her the resolve to finish her role as Princess Tutu without fearing to go back to being just a duck.
• Interspecies Romance: She's a duck who fell in love with a human prince. Normally, being given a human form would fix the problem, but there are more complications in this case. At the end, Ahiru has to stay a duck forever while Mytho/Siegfried gets together with Rue, but Ahiru accepts this. She still has Fakir to keep her company and it's confirmed he has feelings for her, and she's heavily implied to have fallen in love with him at the end of the show. With Ahiru being a normal duck again, their relationship will lack the "physical" aspect but it doesn't seem to bother them too much.
• In the Name of the Moon: "Please, won't you dance with me...?"
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: When she quacks (which happens often when she's flustered), she turns back into her true form as a duck. But, when wearing her pendant, water turns her back into a girl.
• It Was with You All Along: Her pendant is the Prince's last heart shard.
• Late for School: Subverted in the first episode, where Ahiru gets confused and actually arrives to school early, causing her Crash-Into Hello meeting with Mytho. However, it's played straight in several other episodes, and even lampshaded in the dub when Ahiru makes a comment about it being early in the morning and Fakir responds "Early for you, anyway."
• Leitmotif: The Miniature Overture from The Nutcracker.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Ahiru/Duck is a cheerful and clumsy Genki Girl whose mission in life is simply to get Mytho, the boy she admires, to smile. Rue is an elegant and aloof girl who also cares for Mytho, but in a far more possessive way due to her Broken Bird nature. Both girls have white and black costumes of their respective Magical Girl personas, Princess Tutu and Princess Kraehe, who are both based on Odette and Odile from Swan Lake.
• Light Is Good: Princess Tutu wears a white dress over a pink tutu to emphasize her purity and goodness.
• Love at First Sight: Ahiru fell in love with Mytho the first time she saw him...when she was a duck.
• Love Freak: Tutu, although she's calmer than the other examples of this trope.
• Loving a Shadow: Unlike Rue, Ahiru was more in love with the idea of Mytho than with Mytho himself; her feelings were more geared towards admiration. At one point she admits to Fakir that she isn't really able to describe what she likes about Mytho.
• Magic Dance: She defeats her enemies and betters their lives by engaging in ballet with them.
• Magical Girl: A different take on the archetype. When she turns into Princess Tutu, Ahiru gets magical powers and a pretty dress and has a Gotta Catch Them All mission. However, her abilities are mostly limited to dancing instead of sparkly spells and Ahiru is not a normal girl, but a duck who was given magical powers by someone who doesn't have the most benevolent intentions in mind.
• Magnetic Hero: Ahiru quickly wins over most of the characters she comes across due to her kind, cheerful personality. Despite her flaws (and sometimes even because of them), she's an endearing girl that finds it easy to make friends.
• Maybe Ever After: While she doesn't get Mytho, maybe Fakir will love her one day.
• Missed the Call: Rue breaks Mytho's curse by confessing her love instead of Princess Tutu, and gets chosen to be Mytho's princess instead. Granted, Rue wasn't bound by the story to fade from existence if she did this, which is the main reason why Ahiru didn't manage to do it — and she later acknowledges this.
• Motor Mouth: Ahiru tends to ramble a lot, especially when she's excited or nervous.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Since she's really a duck, she has a tendency to quack when she's surprised. Unfortunately, quacking or showing any other duck-like behavior will immediately revert her back into her original duck form.
• Naïve Newcomer: Particularly in early episodes.
• Nice Girl: When it comes down to it, she's kind at heart and wants to help others, which is more emphasized when she's Princess Tutu.
• Odd Friendship: With Fakir, once they start to actually listen to each other. With Rue also, in a way.
• Only Sane Woman: In early episodes, Ahiru is shocked to realize she's the only one that recognizes the odd things in town (like a cat that teaches ballet). Eventually, she takes it in stride and gets used to being in a fairytale.
• Pink Heroine: Princess Tutu has a pink tutu underneath a white dress and pink ballet slippers.
• Plucky Girl: At awesome levels. Ahiru is a girl who won't give in no matter what.
• Polly Wants a Microphone: Averted. Although Ahiru is shown as sentient, she can't speak in her duck form, even though other birds in the series are shown as being able to. She's able to talk to Drosselmeyer like that, though that might just be because he's the author.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Inverted; as Princess Tutu, her hair becomes shorter, going from a long braid to a neat bob.
• Princess Classic: Tutu dons some of the traits associated with this trope. She's kind, graceful, demure, wears an elegant ballerina dress and is an amazing dancer. However, it's played with in that she's not meant to have a Happily Ever After with her prince.
• Rage Against the Author: In the second season, Ahiru begins to actively defy Drosselmeyer.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Fakir's blue.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: In her duck form — check out the image above.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Her outfit outside of the uniform.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Energetic Girl to Fakir's Savvy Guy.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Princess Tutu is noticeably more graceful than Ahiru, complete with a melodious voice and stunning dance skills.
• Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: When Ahiru transforms from a duck into a human, her clothing doesn't change with her—so when she returns to her human form, she's naked.
• Shapeshifting Lover: Tutu sometimes appears as a swan to people, and was in love with the Prince from her fairy tale—but she's the one who has to hide something, instead of the Prince.
• Shout-Out: Her ballet outfit as Princess Tutu is based on Odette from Swan Lake.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She wants to give Mytho his heart back because she wants him to be the kind and happy Prince Charming he once was. She also shows attraction towards Fakir only when she gets to see his gentler side.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: She is a Cool Average. Despite not being described as the most attractive person, her personality and her happy disposition made Fakir fall in love with her.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • The reason Drosselmeyer added her into the story because nobody was willing to continue it.
  • Becomes this to the Big Bad. Despite being just a duck.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: A somewhat different take on the trope. She's a teenage girl who is clumsy and a bit ditzy, but also has a kind and cheerful personality that inspires hope and loyalty in others. She leads a normal life until she discovers she has received magical powers in order to carry out a fantastic quest. She even gets paired off with a brooding knight. The twist comes in when it's revealed she's actually a duck that got turned into a human by magic. Unlike most Magical Girl heroines, Ahiru doesn't get involved in magic fights; she instead uses dancing and pep talks to save the Victim of the Week. Also, she gets a more bittersweet ending than most shoujo protagonists.
• Talking the Monster to Death: This is how she deals with all her opponents that have a heart shard. She talks to them about their problems and gets them to get over their insecurities so they let go of the shard. The most notable case is when she did it to the Ghost Knight.
• Tareme Eyes
• Technician Versus Performer: Ahiru is a performer, thanks to her duck-like movements and cheerful attitude. Rue is more on the technician side, although this trope only truly comes into play in the "Sleeping Beauty" episode with Paulamoni.
• Tongue-Tied: She cannot tell Mytho that she loves him, or else she will disappear in a speck of light.
• Transformation Sequence: Both duck —> human and Ahiru —> Tutu. However, both are surprisingly short. The promotional trailer gives her a longer and more traditional one, but it's never used in the series proper.
• Water-Triggered Change: Ahiru turns human if she comes in contact with water, but only if she's wearing her pendant. Otherwise, she'll remain as a duck, no matter how soaked she gets.
• Youthful Freckles: Ahiru has them, but not when she's Princess Tutu.

Mytho

Get used to that vacant expression. You're going to be seeing it a lot.

Voiced by: Naoki Yanagi (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)

"When I think of Rue, when I think of you, Fakir, and when I'm thinking about Princess Tutu...Each one makes me feel different. But I don't know what names I should give these feelings. Tell me, Fakir, don't I need to know what they are?"

Once upon a time, there was a Prince that was battling with an evil Raven in a story. When the man that was writing the story died, the Prince and the Raven escaped from the pages of the story into the town where the man once lived. In order to protect the people, the Prince used a forbidden spell to shatter his heart and seal the Raven away—losing his emotions in the process. That prince was found wandering aimlessly by Fakir, who gave him the name "Mytho", from the Greek word "Mythos", which means "story". And so began Mytho's emotionless existence — until Princess Tutu appeared in the story once more.

Thanks to his heart being missing, Mytho seems lifeless and has no understanding of emotions, or even things like pain, feeling hungry and feeling sleepy. Because of this, he relies completely on Fakir and Rue to tell him what to do, making him little more than a doll. In the beginning, there's only one piece of his personality that remains intact — the part of him that wants to protect the helpless.

As Princess Tutu starts to return his emotions to him, his true personality starts to slowly be revealed. He's gentle, kind, brave and even a little inquisitive (which only causes his caretakers more headaches once he gets back the feeling of Curiosity). The story claims that he was "a prince who loved everyone — and was also loved by everyone". The more his heart is restored, the more this appears to be true.

However, in the second season Mytho's heart is tainted with the Raven's blood, twisting his selfless personality and he starts to search for a pure hearted girl to sacrifice to the Raven. However, Mytho's true personality is still within himself even as the Raven's blood starts to taint him more and more, causing a struggle between the two personalities as they fight for control.

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• The Ageless: Doesn't appear to age outside of his story; in Fakir's and Rue's flashbacks of when they met him, they are both small children, while he looks exactly the same.
• All-Loving Hero: His heart is described as one that loves everybody.
• Cain and Abel: With Fakir. In the second season, he and Fakir develop this sort of relationship as Mytho constantly abuses Fakir and tries to cause him trouble because of the Raven's blood in him.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: In the first season, another side-effect of losing his emotions. In the second season this isn't true at all, since he has many of his emotions restored and has been poisoned by evil.
• Catchphrase: "I don't know" and other noncommittal phrases in the first season — "Love me, and hate everyone else" in the second season.
• Character Development: Very blatant when it comes to Mytho. With each additional heart shard, we start to see more and more of Mytho's true personality.
• Chick Magnet: Played with - in the second season Mytho has girls falling all over him, but it's because he's casting a spell on them to make them fall in love.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed. The only part of his original self that remains intact is his natural urge to protect the weak. Unfortunately, without his emotions to guide him, he often puts himself into danger that's disproportionate to what's at stake — like jumping out a window to save a bird from a crow when the bird knows how to fly and he doesn't.
• Cool Sword: His magical sword — the very tool he used to shatter his heart.
• The Corruption: What happens to Mytho in the second season as the Raven's blood slowly infects him.
• Designated Victim: Particularly in the first season, Mytho is constantly targeted by the Monster of the Week and Princess Tutu has to rescue him.
• Distressed Dude: In the first half of the series, Mytho always gets himself in trouble for Princess Tutu to come and save him.
• Dull Surprise: His defining "emotion" for much of season 1.
• Emotionless Boy: A bit unusual in that he's literally emotionless, and a male version of the trope.
• Evil Costume Switch: Second season, along with Evil Wears Black.
• Evil Is Hammy: Perhaps to make up for spending most of the first season wondering around with a blank expression on his face, Mytho gains a sadistic sense of humor and an overdramatic flair in the second season.
• Evil Laugh: In the second season, natch.
• Evil Wears Black: When he's possessed by the Raven's blood, he wears a black outfit.
• Extreme Doormat: When he doesn't have his heart, Mytho seems unable to think for himself and does whatever other people order him to do, making him little more than a doll.
• Faux Affably Evil: When his heart is tainted by Raven's blood, he's quite sardonic and demeaning, especially towards Rue.
• Feel No Pain: Thanks to his missing heart. This has a tendency to cause problems for him.
• Fighting from the Inside: In the second season, he sometimes regains control over his raven-induced evil persona, begging Tutu to help him.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic.
• Friend to All Living Things: In the story. But obviously not the Raven.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: He normally has Tareme Eyes; they turn into Tsurime Eyes when he's corrupted by Raven's blood in the second season.
• Grew a Spine: As Mytho starts to regain his heart, he slowly starts to not go along with whatever Fakir and Rue tell him to do and begins to make his own decisions. Then things go south when Mytho's heart is tainted by the Raven's blood.
• Heart Trauma: Mytho's sacrifice of his heart.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Mytho does this once to Tutu.
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: He spends an awful lot of time running around in an overly large, barely-fastened white button-down shirt and nothing but.
• I Shall Taunt You: One of the tactics evil!Mytho uses in the second season.
• Knight in Shining Armor: His original self was a brave and strong prince who would sacrifice himself to protect the weak and needy.
• Living MacGuffin: Particularly in the first season, Mytho's main purpose is to be a living plot object that gives Ahiru a motivation to gather his heart shards and make him complete again.
• Love Hungry: In the second half, his emotion of Love is corrupted by the blood of the Raven. Rather than "a prince who loves all and is loved by all", he demands that people love him, and hate everyone else.
• Love Makes You Evil: A literal case. The fragment of his heart that contains Love gets soaked in the Raven's blood so that it turns him evil when it's returned to him.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Mainly in the first season. Mytho appears to be in love with Princess Tutu, but later tells Ahiru that he considers her a good friend.
• Martyr Without a Cause: One of Mytho's major character flaws — partially due to his missing heart, but it's implied he was getting himself in trouble with this even when he had one.
• Meaningful Name: As noted above, "Mytho" means "story". Also his true name, Siegfried, is the name of the prince from Swan Lake. He's also the main character of The Ring of the Nibelung, and music from that opera plays during some of Siegfried's battle scenes.
• Messianic Archetype: He eventually slays the Raven and saves the town like he was supposed to, but it wasn't entirely his doing.
• Mystical White Hair: His hair is white, he has magical powers, and is apparently The Ageless outside of his story.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Second season again.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: The Noble Male to Fakir's Roguish Male.
• Official Couple: With Rue.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Mytho" is only the name Fakir gave him, so he wouldn't just be called "prince". His real name is Prince Siegfried.
• Painful Transformation: The Raven's blood causes Mytho to slowly turn into a crow himself, including molting feathers. It's obvious that it causes him irritation and pain.
• Petal Power: Siegfried can fly around on winds full of Cherry Blossoms.
• Prince Charming: His original self before he lost his heart was said to be the classical charming, loving and brave fairy tale prince. This start to show as he regains more of his emotions.
• Really 700 Years Old: Aside from him being The Ageless, Mytho came from a story that is hundreds of years old.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mytho's eyes turn pink when he's tainted with the Raven's blood.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Mytho is a male example, being an Emotionless Boy with short white hair and golden eyes, a Love Interest and in the process of regaining feelings.
• Rescue Romance: Rue's Anguished Declaration of Love frees the prince from the Raven's curse and she sacrifices herself to the Raven in his place. This causes Mytho/Siegfried to fall in love with her and choose her as his princess.
• Romantic False Lead: For a good part of the series, Mytho serves as Ahiru's love interest, even though their romance seems to be doomed. At the end, Mytho falls in love with Rue after she sacrifices herself to save him. Mytho/Siegfried makes Rue his princess and leaves with her. Meanwhile, Ahiru has grown closer to Fakir, who promised to never leave her even if she now has to stay a duck forever.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: He mostly wears his school uniform when he's not going around in nothing but a long shirt.
• Sealed Good in a Can: He does not literally seal himself, but shatters his heart and seals the pieces in order to seal the Raven. As Princess Tutu returns his heart shards and emotions, the seal on the Raven gets correspondingly weaker.
• The Shadow Knows: As Mytho's heart becomes more and more corrupted by the Raven's blood, his shadow becomes that of a crow.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: He (at least from Ahiru's point of view) is described as divine level, due to the fact that Ahiru became completely obsessed with him, even becoming Princess Tutu for him. It wasn't love as revealed in the final episode, because Kraehe was the one who was really in love with him.
• Spell My Name With An S: Mytho was known as "Mute" in early fansubs since both the Japanese original and the English dub pronounce it as something close to "Mew-Toh".
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: He has golden eyes and he's a magic prince from a fairy tale.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Justified: Mytho will often explain how he's feeling, but it's because he's slowly regaining his emotions and they're rather foreign to him.
• The Vamp: Second season — Mytho convinces girl after girl that they're in love with him so that he can use their "pure hearts" as a sacrifice to resurrect the Raven.
• Villainous Breakdown: His evil/crow side starts having one as Tutu continues to foil his attempts to steal hearts; he apparently takes great pride in making women fall for him.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Ahiru's reaction in the first episode after he saves her from falling when she trips. She ends up being able to stare deep into his eyes.
• What Is This Feeling?: He asks this question constantly throughout the series. It makes sense because he shattered his heart (and thus lost his emotions) to seal away the Raven and slowly regains emotions with each piece of his heart he is given by Princess Tutu.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He has white hair and becomes evil in the second season because of Kraehe tainting one of his heart shards. Subverted when he gets his final heart shard back, causing him to perform a Good Costume Switch back into his princely persona.
• The Wise Prince: When he's his complete self, the prince is wise, brave and noble.

Fakir

Making frills look badass since 2002.

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Chris Patton (English)

"Listen carefully — never come near Mytho again. If you do, I'll make sure you'll pay for it."

Once upon a time, there was a knight that served a Prince. Ever loyal to his liege, he pledged that he would serve the Prince with his life. When the Prince began to fight an evil Raven, he was granted a chance to fulfill his vow—and died when the Raven clawed him in two.

After the Prince escaped into Gold Crown Town, the story gave this role to the Knight Reborn—a boy named Fakir. He found the Prince and gave him the name of Mytho, and decided that he would be his Knight like the one in the story. However, he soon found out that protecting Mytho was no easy task when he was constantly rushing into danger to save something. After an accident where Mytho nearly died in order to save a bird, Fakir put his foot down and began to treat Mytho harshly, ordering him around and protecting him from anything that could hurt him—including his own feelings.

By the time Ahiru steps into the picture, Fakir has become a bitter, cynical young man that constantly orders Mytho about and treats everyone around him distantly, if not cruelly. He and Ahiru immediately clash—she wants Mytho to regain his lost heart, while he would do anything to stop that from happening. He dreads the reappearance of Tutu into the story, and when she finally reveals herself he treats her as an enemy.

However, underneath Fakir's harsh exterior is a boy that genuinely cares about Mytho's wellbeing. He desperately wants to protect Mytho and prove himself as his knight—but he also is afraid that when the story begins to move forward, he will be killed just like the Knight from the story.

As the details of his Backstory start to unravel, Ahiru realizes that he's not as bad as he seems and starts to reach out to him. Fakir rejects her at first, distrustful of her, but he eventually relents and reluctantly agrees to be her partner—at least for a little while. That one concession drags him into Ahiru's world (practically kicking and screaming), and he finds himself slowly changing his views on Mytho and Princess Tutu—as well as his own role in the story.

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• Accidental Murder: Fakir accidentally killed his own parents by causing a crow attack when one of his stories went out of control.
• All-Encompassing Mantle: Wears one of these (complete with hood and a mask) in "The Fountain of the Warriors".
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Probably part of the reason Fakir's one of the most popular guys in school. Pique in particular feels this way about him.
• Ambiguously Brown: Many fans believe that Fakir is from the Middle East because of his name and skin tone, but Ikuko Itoh has denied he's Arabic (Although she did concede that he might have some Middle Eastern heritage in his bloodline somewhere).
• Anger Born of Worry: Much of the reason behind his treatment of Mytho in the first season. Fakir knows how Mytho can be reckless and put himself in danger to protect the weak, so he's harsh and tries to maintain Mytho under his control to keep him out of trouble.
• Badass Bookworm: Later in, he is often shown researching in the library in addition to being an excellent swordsman.
• Badass Normal: Even before learning about his powers, Fakir was able to hold up against a swarm of magic crows and a Ghost Knight with nothing but a normal sword.
• Birthmark of Destiny: He has a large scar-like birthmark that cuts across his chest and back, like the wound that ended the prince's knight in the fairy tale. Fakir is thought to be the reincarnation of said knight because of this.
• Blessed with Suck: His Rewriting Reality power can seem cool and incredibly useful. However, this power can have very horrible repercussions when used carelessly such as accidentally getting his own parents killed.
• Break the Cutie: Part of Fakir's backstory.
• Brutal Honesty: Often blunt and harsh with people.
• But Not Too Foreign: Implied. He's German-born (or at least the story's equivalent), but if his name and skin are anything to go by, he's possibly of Middle Eastern descent.
• Cain and Abel: Fakir becomes "Abel" to Mytho's "Cain" once Mytho is tainted with the Raven's blood and Fakir is forced to fight him.
• Clothing Damage: Fakir's clothing gets torn up enough that it's become a popular fandom joke to show him tearing clothing, having a tear even when he's wearing a different costume, etc.
• Commonality Connection: After settling their differences in opinion, Fakir and Duck build their partnership on their care for Mytho.
• Compassionate Critic: He's harsh and critical, but he cares deeply for others.
• Color-Coded Eyes: Has green eyes to match his hair. He definitely fits the "exotic and sexy" implication of the trope... and he inherited Drosselmeyer's Rewriting Reality powers, so he fits the magical implications as well.
• Cool Sword: The Lohengrin sword.
• Curtains Match the Window: Dark Green hair + green eyes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His is particularly important to the plot, especially in the second season, when his bloodline is revealed. Fakir is Drosselmeyer's descendant who inherited his Rewriting Reality power. One day, one of his stories went out of control and caused a crow attack that killed his parents. Fakir then sealed away the memories of his parents' death and his powers.
• Deadpan Snarker: Particularly once he starts to loosen up in the second season.
• Declaration of Protection: He swore to protect Mytho no matter what.
• Defrosting Ice King: In the beginning he seems cold and cruel, particularly towards Mytho, but once he warms up to Ahiru he starts showing how kind he can really be.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: He dreams of fighting the Ghost Knight in Episode 18.

• Failure Knight: Fakir feels like he has to protect Mytho no matter what. In the second season, we learn that his parents protected him from an attack of crows as a child, which lead to their deaths, and he feels responsible.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He and Ahiru bond and become friends as they learn to work together to protect Mytho.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric.
• The Gift: Fakir appears to be exceptionally skilled with the Story-Spinning powers.
• Hair Color Dissonance: While his hair looks black in a lot of shots, it's actually colored green. There's never been clear consensus among fans on what his "real life" color is.
• Happily Adopted: He was adopted by the blacksmith Charon. They are introduced in slightly bad terms because Charon initially doesn't approve of Fakir putting himself in danger for Mytho's sake, but it's clear Charon loves Fakir very much and only wishes the best for him.
• Harmful to Minors: Fakir witnessed the deaths of his parents — which he blames himself for.
• Heroic BSoD: After Ahiru dredges up his suppressed memories of his parents' deaths.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Akt 13, Fakir prevents Ahiru from confessing her love for Mytho so she won't disappear into a speck of light. He fights Kraehe's crows for her and Mytho, despite being vastly outnumbered. He ends up falling into the lake as blood spreads across the water, climbs back up to break Mytho's sword so he won't shatter the heart shard, and finally falls unconscious. He gets better since Edel saves him..
• Hero with Bad Publicity: It's incredibly easy for the raven-possessed Mytho to cast Fakir as a dangerous, violent traitor in the second season, thanks to pretty much all of Fakir's behavior before then.
• I Am Who?: A direct descendant of Drosselmeyer, and gifted with the same Story-Spinning Powers he was.
• Iconic Outfit: A few tears in some of the costumes he's seen in during the series has led to some members of the fandom humorously portraying him as very uncomfortable unless his outfit is torn up in some way.
• I Just Write the Thing: Non-fictional example. It's explicitly stated that part of his powers is recording what happens in reality and that if he doesn't do a good enough job then his story will conform to reality rather than reality conforming to his story. In the last episode he attempts to get the crows to stop attacking Ahiru...and has to write that they didn't stop, which almost forces him to stop writing completely to save her.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: With Mytho in the second season when Mytho is under the influence of raven blood.
• Implied Love Interest: He and Ahiru become very close and get a lot of Ship Tease, especially in the second half of the story. Since his and Ahiru's loyalty to Mytho is paramount, Fakir never openly pursues anything with Ahiru, but supplemental materials confirm he developed feelings for her. Ahiru's side is more ambiguous, but she did form a stronger bond with Fakir than she ever did with Mytho. They stay together at the end, but it's left ambiguous whether they are romantically involved since Ahiru is back to being a normal duck forever.
• Ineffectual Loner: Particularly in the first half.
• Inner Monologue: Once we get into the second season, we start to hear a little more of his thought processes — and just how angsty and emotionally damaged he can be.
• Interspecies Romance: He developed feelings for a girl who is actually a duck. He declared he didn't care if she had to give up her human form forever and promised to never leave her side, which Ahiru appreciates.
• In the Hood: His outfit in Akt 8, in which he wears a cloak with a hood to cover up his hair, combined with a mask to keep him completely disguised.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sarcastic, rude, and overall very rough around the edges, particularly in early episodes. However, the "heart of gold" part comes out when he starts to loosen up in the second season.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Fakir takes on the role of the Knight, but his personality is aloof, bitter and very troubled.
• Leaning on the Furniture: He does this a lot.
• Like Brother and Sister: Fakir's relationship with Raetsel.
• Loners Are Freaks: Not blatant, but the show definitely thinks he's better off once he starts to be slightly more sociable.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Starts off as standoffish and antisocial, but grows to be somewhat less so when he and Ahiru become friends.
• Luminescent Blush: Holy cow can Fakir turn red when he's embarassed.
• Manly Tears:
  • In Akt 10, Ahiru sees Fakir crying after an argument with his adopted father over why he can't protect Mytho without risking his life. Fakir later becomes extremely embarrassed when he realizes the duck at that time was Duck, and he cried in front of a girl.
  • In Akt 17 a tear is seen running down his face while he laments his inability to protect Duck from being hurt by the ghost knight.
  • In the final episode, Fakir cries as he writes down the final battle where Duck is now a defenseless little duck and the crow minions keep mercilessly attacking her.
• Master Swordsman: He's pretty handy with a sword, being in the role of a knight and all.
• Meaningful Name: Fakir is a word for a sort of Arabian mystic (those guys that walk on coals, for example), which makes him sound mysterious and also hints at his powers.
• Mr. Fanservice: Brooding demeanor masking heart of gold? Check. Good with ballet and swordplay? Double check. Chance of showing off skin? Frequent.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: The Roguish Male to Mytho's Noble Male.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Akt 9, Princess Tutu is almost getting through to a clearly distraught and upset Kraehe who is questioning who she is and if she's needed, when Fakir bursts in through the window and swings at Kraehe while calling her an ugly old crow. This, as expected, causes Kraehe to double down on her beliefs about herself and promptly flee the scene.
• Obliviously Superpowered: Fakir has Rewriting Reality abilities he has suppressed all memory of since childhood, when one of his stories led to his parents' deaths. Prior to this reveal, Fakir finds himself drawn to Drosselmeyer's unfinished stories, and dreams the ending of one of them, foreshadowing that he and Drosselmeyer share the same power, by blood.
• One Head Taller: He is one head taller than Ahiru.
• Odd Friendship: With Ahiru.
• Orphan's Ordeal: As Fakir's backstory is revealed, it becomes clear that a lot of his flaws and issues stem from his parents' deaths, and how he's (poorly) dealt with it.
• Perpetual Frowner: So much so that when Fakir smiles, it's a big deal.
• Pet the Dog: The moments in which he's so kind to Ahiru in her duck form (unaware it's really her) is when we start to realize Fakir is not that bad of a guy.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: A running gag in the show is Fakir being around to see Ahiru transform from a duck into a girl, and then freaking out when she's suddenly standing naked in front of him (to the point where he dives behind a building in one episode).
• The Promise: When Ahiru nearly drowns in the Lake of Despair, Fakir saves her. She says that she doesn't want to return to being "just a duck." Fakir assures her that no matter what form she takes, he will stay by her side forever..
• Quivering Eyes: Fakir has these a couple of times, notably when he starts to remember his parents' deaths.
• Rage Against the Author: Fakir's goal in the second season is to actively fight against Drosselmeyer's intention to trap his characters in an endless tragedy.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Ballet is typically seen as feminine. However, Fakir is one of the best ballet dancers in the school and is portrayed as strong and tough.
• Red Herring: In early episodes, it's quite easy to think of him as the human incarnation of the Raven, given how his hairstyle looks like black tail feathers and his less than friendly personality. If you look closely however, said hair is green, which is a hint to his true nature.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The logical, calm blue to Duck's fiery, energetic red.
• Reincarnation: He's the reincarnation of the knight who was killed by the Raven while trying to protect the prince in the fairy tale.
• Reincarnation-Identifying Trait: Fakir is the reincarnation of a fairytale knight sworn to protect his prince. To confirm this, he has a birthmark that resembles the wound that killed the knight.
• Repressed Memories: Fakir is aware of his parents' deaths, but doesn't give any indication that he remembers how it happened until Ahiru drags up the memories. He also completely forgot about his powers.
• Rewriting Reality: Fakir has the ability to bend reality to his will by writing stories.
• Rummage Sale Reject: When he's not in his school uniform or knight costume, he's almost always seen wearing a blue shirt with a ripped sleeve.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: He and Duck have this dynamic, so very much.
• Second Love: He turns into this for Duck, as she learns to let go of her feelings for Mytho so he can save Rue. However, it's a bit Played With because her "love" for Mytho was never romantic in nature and was more akin to intense admiration.
• Secret-Keeper: Fakir is the first character (outside of Drosselmeyer and Edel, who knew from the beginning) to find out that Ahiru is Princess Tutu — and then, as an act of trust, she tells him she's really a duck.
• Self-Made Orphan: A story he wrote as a child went out of control and caused the deaths of his parents.
• Shirtless Scene: Several, mostly to show off Fakir's important birthmark (...but probably also for fanservice).
• Spell My Name With An S: Early fansubs wrote his name as Fakia.
• Superpowerful Genetics: He inherited the Rewriting Reality from his ancestor, Drosselmeyer.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: The tallest character in the cast with dark hair and dark skin as well as one of the snarkiest.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Mytho isn’t the only one with fans—Fakir’s got quite a few of his own, including Pique.
• Took a Level in Badass: Upon finding out about his writing powers.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Grows to be less and less of a jerkass as the plot goes on.
• Troubled, but Cute: Has his fair share of fangirls in-universe but is mainly alone, aside from Mytho and Ahiru, with a sad backstory.
• Tsundere: Harsh type. He's aloof and gruff most of the time, giving the impression that he's a much more uncaring guy than he really is. Ahiru sees glimpses of his gentler side.
• Tsurime Eyes: Particularly angular earlier on, but his eyes soften ever so slightly as he defrosts.
• Undying Loyalty: Fakir swore loyalty to Mytho to be his knight when he was only a child, and his feelings of loyalty never waver in the slightest. This later extends to Ahiru as well, as he promises to stay by her side even after she becomes a duck permanently. The epilogue shows he kept this promise.
• The Unsmile: According to Pique.
  Pique: He smiled. It totally ruins his bad-boy appeal!
• White Shirt of Death: Downplayed. He wears all white in the climax of the story and while he doesn’t die, he does end up getting stabbed in the hand.
• Would Hit a Girl: He manhandles both Duck and Rue on separate occasions, and he has no problem attacking Kraehe or even Tutu.

Rue/Princess Kraehe

Obviously, the school uniform does nothing for a girl's figure.

Voiced by: Nana Mizuki (Japanese), Jessica Boone (English)

"The only one I've ever had eyes for is Mytho. Whether or not he has a heart does not change the simple fact that I love him. I will continue to love him. I'm still far from having loved him enough."

Rue is the star ballerina of Gold Crown Academy and Mytho's girlfriend. Although very beautiful and an amazing dancer, she's proud and cold towards others, rarely thinking about their emotions. However, she does have a good heart, and once Ahiru reaches out to her and tries to become her friend she begins to open up to her—at least until she finds out Ahiru is Princess Tutu.

As you can probably tell from the quote above, Mytho is the main focus of her world. She's completely, absolutely in love with him, but fears that if the Prince regains his heart, he will no longer be with her and instead fall in love with Princess Tutu. Desperate, Rue becomes her alter-ego, Princess Kraehe, and attempts to keep Tutu from returning the pieces of Mytho's lost heart. As Kraehe she's even colder and far crueler than she is normally, but there are hints of her true personality even when transformed — no matter how she denies it.

In the second season, Kraehe dips one of Mytho's heart shards into the Raven's blood, tainting Mytho's personality and twisting him from the kindhearted prince she fell in love with. At first, she enjoys that Mytho sides with her, but as his personality becomes more and more violent she starts to doubt her choices.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Odile from Swan Lake is the evil daughter of Rothbart sent to seduce Prince Siegfried. While Princess Kraehe starts out with the same basic characterization except that she was kidnapped and raised by the Raven, she eventually reveals some Hidden Depths and makes a Heel–Face Turn to save Mytho.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She has Raven Hair, Ivory Skin. As the star ballerina, she has many admirers for both her beauty and her talent in ballet, though she acts distant towards them.
• Ambiguously Human: Rue's father, the Raven, tells her she's a crow born in a human body. In reality, she's actually human but was raised on his blood, so she's gained dark magical powers from it and may essentially be part crow at this point.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Gender-Inverted. Princess Kraehe threatens to marry Mytho.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In the second-to-last episode, Rue confesses her love for Mytho as she offers to have her own heart eaten to save him.
  Rue: Please, I love you! My prince! I have ever since I was little! I’ve always loved you!
• Animal Motifs: Ravens and crows are strongly associated with her, due to her status as the Princess of the Crows, particularly when she's Kraehe (which even means "crow" in German; note that translations use raven and crow interchangeably).
• Anime Hair: Kraehe has a ponytail that sticks up from the top of her head, representing feathers.

• Because You Were Nice to Me: Mytho was the first person to show Rue compassion and treat her kindly, which is why she fell deeply in love with him.
• Beneath the Mask: Initially, it looks like aloof, enigmatic Rue is Kraehe's mask. It's quite the other way around-strong, arrogant Kraehe is abused, lonely, and deeply sad Rue's mask.
• Broken Bird: She has been raised by the Raven to believe that her human body is "hideous" and that only he and the Prince could ever love her — and even then, not enough to die for her.
• Changeling Tale: It's eventually revealed that she's not actually the Raven's daughter, but a human girl he kidnapped when she was a baby.
• Clark Kenting: Makes even less sense than with Ahiru and Tutu, particularly since the personality difference between Rue and Kraehe is much vaguer.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: As Princess Kraehe, Rue tries to have Mytho for herself before he regains his heart and fall in love with Princess Tutu. Justified in that she is made believe by her abusive father that only he and the Prince could ever love her — and even then, not enough to die for her. She eventually grows out of it as she becomes more sympathetic by the end.
• Cute Monster Girl: The Raven tells her that she's a crow born in a human body, making her this, something she hates because according to her father it means she's too pathetic to be loved by either humans or Ravens. Ultimately subverted in the final episodes, turns out she's human.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Rue's transformation into Princess Kraehe is spurred by one of these. Mytho is the only person who ever cared about her, so when he starts falling in love with Princess Tutu, one she couldn't possibly surpass, she cracks.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Princess Kraehe is the daughter of the Raven, the titular antagonist of The Prince And The Raven. She wants to have Mytho for herself and unseal her father. She eventually finds out that the Raven kidnapped her as a baby and pulls a Heel–Face Turn to save Mytho from him.
• Dark Action Girl: Princess Kraehe, to an extent. Although she doesn't actually get physical, she is shown to be able to hold her own against Fakir in a battle.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Rue's begins to be explained in the second season, adding a lot to her character in the process. She was kidnapped as a baby by the Raven from her human parents, then emotionally abused by him.
• Dark Is Evil: Kraehe has black hair, dark red eyes, and a ballet outfit made of black feathers, in contrast to Princess Tutu who dresses in white.
• Dark Magical Girl: She is protagonist Princess Tutu's rival with a reserved and melancholic personality, a black color scheme contrasting with the former's white color scheme with a tragic past (she was kidnapped as a baby by the Raven who she believed was her father. She was abused by him and became desperate for love. She fell in love with Mytho after the latter showed her kindness.), a face-heel turn that was largely motivated by both her fear of losing Mytho (the only person she believed unconditionally loved her) and her desire to get the approval of her "father" the Raven, and eventually a change of heart as offers to have her heart eaten by the Raven in place of Mytho and helps him and the others defeat the Raven.
• Decoy Backstory: Rue is originally revealed to be Princess Kraehe, the Monster Raven's daughter, who was told from a young age that she was "a crow born as an ugly human girl" who could only ever be loved by her father and the Prince. It's revealed late in the series that Rue is actually an ordinary human girl who was kidnapped as an infant by the Raven and fed his blood, giving her the powers of Princess Kraehe.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Even before her alter-ego stepped into the picture, Rue genuinely appeared to be warming up to Ahiru.
• Delusions of Parental Love: Rue/Princess Kraehe has been raised to believe her abusive father, the Raven, and the Prince are the only ones who can ever truly love her, as she is a raven in an "ugly" human girl's body. The Raven is actually only using her so he can eat the Prince's heart and isn't even her birth father — Rue discovers she is a fully-human girl stolen in infancy and given the Raven's blood so she would have some of his powers.
• Desperately Craves Affection: So desperate that Rue makes a guy with literally no heart and emotions pretend to be her boyfriend and orders him to tell her "I love you" so she can pretend that it's real. Having an emotionally abusive monster father that has made her believe nobody but the prince can love her might have something to do with it.
• Distress Ball: Near the end of the anime, she's swallowed and held captive by the Raven. Mytho, after transforming back into Prince Siegfried, rescues her.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Kraehe is German for "crow", and she is said to be a crow born in a human body Subverted because she is actually human.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Playing up the crow imagery around her, Rue has dark hair and very pale skin.
• Evil All Along: She is introduced as a Defrosting Ice Queen to Ahiru, only to reveal herself to be the fake identity of Princess Kraehe, the evil daughter of the Raven. Zigzagged since when the revelation comes out, she's not happy about being a villain.
• Evil Wears Black: Princess Kraehe wears an all-black outfit, which contrasts with Princess Tutu and emphasizes the crueler and more manipulative personality she has than when she's Rue.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Kraehe wears purple eyeshadow, in contrast to Tutu who doesn't wear any sort of makeup.
• Expy: She's based on Odile from Swan Lake, but given greater depth and a character arc. They are both the beautiful daughters of the Big Bad, are bird-themed, dressed in black, and instructed by their fathers to seduce a prince named Siegfried. It's made even more obvious because the series is based on the ballet, having a Shout-Out in episode 13 of the same title.
• Femme Fatale: Rue has her moments where she uses her sex appeal to her advantage — particularly when trying to lure Mytho in the first season, and when trying to take the hearts of some boys in the second season. Kraehe also has trademarks - black curls, black dress, Excessive Evil Eyeshadow, and competition as Mytho's love interest.
• Femme Fatalons: Kraehe has long dark nails.
• First Girl Wins: Rue has known and loved Mytho long before Ahiru, and at the end Mytho chooses her to be his princess.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Kraehe's costume is made of black feathers.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic.
• Freakiness Shame: She was raised her entire life believing that she a raven born in a "disgusting human body", and thus too pathetic to be loved by either humans or ravens (apart from Mytho, on the basis that he's a Friend to All Living Things and thus loves everyone by default). Thus it comes as a complete surprise to her when Autor insists that not only does he love her, but enough to die for her.

• Friendless Background: She's the best in her class and has many admirers, but doesn't seem to have much in the way of real friends.
• Good Costume Switch: She wears a modest white dress in the final episode when she becomes Prince Siegfried's princess.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: She has red Tsurime Eyes which is narrower than Ahiru's, but not nearly like Fakir's. As Princess Kraehe, her eyes look significantly more narrow. She used to have Tareme Eyes as a child and eventually regains them once she finds out that the Raven kidnapped her as a baby.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Rue's dark curls should've probably been a clue that something was up with her. Her hair is even compared to raven feathers at one point.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the end, Rue does a Heroic Sacrifice to save Mytho. After he rescues her, she helps him kill the Raven once and for all.
• Heel Realization: Eventually, Mytho turns into a crow because of the Raven's blood and Rue is horrified at seeing that her selfish love only turned her beloved into a monster.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When Mytho is fully under her father's control, Rue offers to have her own heart eaten instead. This breaks the spell on Mytho and allows him to fully become the Prince, just in time to witness the Raven abduct and swallow Rue instead.
• Hidden Buxom: Her Princess Kraehe outfit shows she has an impressive chest compared to her school uniform and ballerina outfit.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: All Rue wants is to have Mytho's single-minded love and attention, even if that means preventing him from recovering his heart so he can't fall in love with someone else.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Kraehe's bodice always stays in the exact right place without any straps.
• I Shall Taunt You: One of Kraehe's favorite tactics — probably taking after Papa Raven.
• Knight of Cerebus: The point where the series starts its Genre Shift can be marked with the introduction of Princess Kraehe.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Princess Kraehe is an unusual case, since she was raised with a specific purpose in mind as part of the Raven's Evil Plan, but rather than teaching her to hate Mytho, he sets her up to fall desperately in love with him. The Raven tells Kraehe that she's a crow born with a "hideous human body", and as such, no human but the Prince could ever love her. Once Mytho falls for Princess Tutu, Kraehe is willing to do anything the Raven asks if it helps her get him for herself.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: She is the star dancer of the school and wears a red leotard in contrast to the blue ones of other students. Inversely, Ahiru is a Cute Clumsy Girl just barely keeping herself out of the probationary class and wears a white leotard.
• Leitmotif: Satie's Gymnopedies.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Ahiru/Duck is a cheerful and clumsy Genki Girl whose mission in life is simply to get Mytho, the boy she admires, to smile. Rue is an elegant and aloof girl who also cares for Mytho, but in a far more possessive way due to her Broken Bird nature. Both girls have white and black costumes of their respective Magical Girl personas, Princess Tutu and Princess Kraehe, who are both based on Odette and Odile from Swan Lake.
• Light Is Good: With her Good Costume Switch, Rue wears a modest white dress like Princess Tutu.
• Little Black Dress: Kraehe wears a Sexy Backless strapless black ballet dress.
• Love at First Sight: She instantly fell in love with Mytho after he saved her.
• Love Makes You Evil: Her motivation turns out to be her desperate desire for Mytho's love.
• Love Martyr: Rue is practically this. She puts up with her "father's" emotional and physical abuse, blaming herself for the Raven's behavior and believing she just needs to be a "better daughter". When she taints Mytho's heart with the Raven's blood, he begins to take on her father's abusive personality—but, as Mytho says, she "never stopped loving." In the end, her efforts are rewarded—her declaration of love reverses The Corruption and restores Mytho's pure-hearted personality, and he confesses love for her in return and takes her away to be his princess.
• Love Redeems: It's true that her love for Mytho was the reason for her evil actions in the first place, but at the end, Rue realizes she loves Mytho too much to let the Raven fully take control over him. She turns against the Raven and helps Mytho/Siegfried defeat him once and for all.
• Mayfly–December Romance: She fell in love with Mytho when she was a little girl and he hasn't aged a day since then. It probably doesn't come into play when they get together though, since Rue will live forever inside his story with him.
• Meaningful Name: "Kraehe" is German for "crow".
• The Mole: From the very beginning, she was sent as a spy for the Raven so she could keep an eye on the prince and get her hands on one of his heart shards so the Raven could corrupt the prince with his blood. Rue simply forgot about it for a while when she tried to enjoy a normal life with Mytho, until Princess Tutu came into the picture.
• Ms. Fanservice: Kraehe has Raven Hair, Ivory Skin, and a SexyBackless ballet dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In the second season, Rue gradually starts regretting having corrupted Mytho's heart with the Raven's blood as Mytho becomes increasingly more aggressive and malevolent.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: As Kraehe, her bodice only consists of two narrow straps of black fabric rising from the waistline to cover her boobs.
• Official Couple: With Mytho/Prince Siegfried.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Rue's real name is Kraehe. Rue is that Kraehe just took the last syllable of the Japanese characters to spell Kraehe. She gave herself that name to forget that she's supposed to be a crow. And then it turns out that "Kraehe" is just the name given to her by the Raven when he kidnapped her as a baby. The name she was given by her true, human parents is never revealed.
• Painful Transformation: Kraehe's transformation scene includes her body being wrapped in thorns as she screams in pain.
• Precocious Crush: She's been in love with Mytho since she was a very little girl. And yes, Mytho looked exactly the same back then.
• Raised by Orcs: It's eventually revealed that she was actually just an ordinary human child abducted by the Raven and not his real daughter.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: She has very dark hair and pale skin. She's also very beautiful and is greatly admired by her peers.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Represent her cruel, cold personality, at least initially.
• Rescue Romance: How her attraction to Mytho began. When she was a little girl, he saved her from a swarm of crows that was harassing her. It was very likely the first genuine act of kindness she ever received.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Kraehe wears a strapless, backless black dance outfit with a Navel-Deep Neckline.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Rue is never seen in any type of civilian garb. It's either her school uniform or the dark, revealing outfit she wears as Princess Kraehe.
• Shout-Out: Kraehe's costume is inspired by Odette of Swan Lake.
• Single-Target Sexuality: She loves only Mytho. It doesn't matter if he is an emotionless doll, corrupted by Raven's blood, turned into a monster or just his real self.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Rue fell in love with Mytho because he was nice to her. In the second season, when she has a corrupted Mytho at her side, Rue gradually realizes she doesn't want to be with a Mytho like that and what she really wants is the kind-hearted prince who would give her unconditional love.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: She is is described as a "world class" by her classmates. She is envied for both her beauty and her talent in ballet by a lot of characters.
• Spell My Name With An S: The original fansubs mistakenly called Princess Kraehe "Princess Claire". In fact, a few fans even believe ADV changed the name, even though it would take away the meaning behind it. Although in a strange bit of Fridge Brilliance, the name Claire has the triple meaning of clear, bright and famous, which is ironic, given that she's the series' Dark Magical Girl.
• Stripperiffic: Kraehe wears a Sexy Backless off-the-shoulder ballet dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline.
• Take Me Instead: When Mytho is fully transformed into a crow and abandons her to have his heart eaten by the Raven, Rue offers to have her own heart eaten instead. This breaks the Mind Control on Mytho and he's released, but Rue is taken captive instead of him. Mytho has to go rescue her, and once she's free, they defeat the Raven together.
• Tareme Eyes: She used to have droopy eyes as a child.
• That Woman Is Dead: In the second season Ahiru insists on continuing to call her Rue, no matter how much she insists her name is Kraehe.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: When her Kraehe persona resurfaces, Rue initially fights back, struggling to maintain her identity as a human being. However, Fakir continually fights her and treats her as a villain, until she finally snaps and lets the Crow Princess take over.

  Kraehe: That's right. I am a crow.

• Tomato in the Mirror: It's eventually revealed that she's not actually the Raven's daughter, but a human girl he kidnapped when she was a baby.
• Tragic Villain: She was raised to believe that she was a crow born as a human girl, and because of that no one could ever love her for who she is. However believing the prince loved everyone meant he was the only person who could love her. So everyone of her actions were her just craving to be loved.
• Tsurime Eyes: Always there, but especially prominent when she turns into Kraehe.
• Tyke-Bomb: The Raven kidnapped her as a baby and raised her as his agent for his own ends, telling her that her human body is "hideous" and that only he and the Prince could ever love her — and even then, not enough to die for her. Kraehe, as he had named her, rebelled by creating her human identity named Rue, and eventually finds out her own origins and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
• Unwitting Pawn: She was made believe that if she helped her father with his plans, the Raven would help her have the prince all to herself. In reality, the Raven was only using her so he could corrupt the prince with his blood and the prince would let him eat his heart. Poor Rue takes it pretty hard when she finds out.
• Vapor Wear: Kraehe has nothing underneath her Sexy Backless Little Black Dress with a Navel-Deep Neckline, befitting for a Femme Fatale.
• Villainous Princess: She is the princess of crows and local Dark Magical Girl, as well as Daddy's Little Villain to the Raven, who tries to stop the titular heroine from recovering the pieces of Mytho's heart. Though she eventually does a Heel–Face Turn.
• Villain with Good Publicity: She's the school's Prima Ballerina and was a genuinely decent person before her Cynicism Catalyst, so nobody suspects that she would want to hurt her dreamy boyfriend or that she would actually turn him evil. She uses this to her advantage after Fakir has his Heel–Face Turn.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: She desperately wants the love and approval of her father, the Raven.

D. D. Drosselmeyer

What prolonged exposure to TV Tropes can do to a person.

Voiced by: Noboru Mitani (Japanese), Marty Fleck (English)

"Now, tell me the best story that was ever told! Tell it to me with no regard for your lives!"

Years before the opening of the series, D. D. Drosselmeyer was a writer that was working on his masterpiece, The Prince and the Raven. However, before he could complete his story, he died, leaving his story unfinished and the two title characters trapped in an endless battle. Eventually, the characters were able to leave the story — and it turned out that Drosselmeyer, while dead, could somehow control the story even from the grave...

In the series, Drosselmeyer takes a mostly passive role (or at least seems to be), commenting on the action and giving Ahiru (and occasionally other characters) little pushes in the directions he'd like to see the story go. At first, he appears to be mostly on Ahiru's side, trying to encourage her to continue in her task to recover Mytho's lost heart, even when things become difficult for her. But he has a sadistic streak that's obvious from the start, and it soon becomes clear that the sort of story Drosselmeyer finds entertaining likely won't be as happy as the characters might want.

Thanks to being a writer and storyteller in the series, Drosselmeyer is often very Genre Savvy, particularly when it comes to fairytales. He takes great delight in telling the other characters what they should be doing per their "roles" in the story, and will sometimes even scold the characters for subverting their roles and trying to do something beyond what's expected for them. However, even when things seem to be going against what he'd wanted, after a brief moment of frustration he chippers back up as long as the twist is at least entertaining.

This is, perhaps, the part of Drosselmeyer that is most chilling: Although his "characters" are real people trapped in a story, he's fine with anything happening to them — as long as the story is entertaining. While this is a perfectly reasonable reaction towards fictional characters (as tropers that love The Woobie will often admit), the sociopathic personality needed to treat real people this way can be quite frightening, indeed.

Named after the character from The Nutcracker, and visually and musically borrows several of his motifs — although the Drosselmeyer from the ballet was more benevolent.

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• An Arm and a Leg: In life, his ability to write stories that came true began to frighten people because of what it could do, so eventually a group of people chopped off his hands so he couldn't write anymore. It's later shown that this carried over to his self in death, as his hands are apparently detachable and liable to fall off.
• Author Powers: Directly interacts with his characters at points.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He gets some of the funniest moments in the series, all of which are jokes at his expense, but don't let that give the wrong idea about him, he's far from harmless.
• Beware the Superman: He's a Reality Warper with the power to make stories real. His love of writing stories with a Downer Ending means this power is very, very dangerous and cares nothing for the consequences — and in the end, that's what got him killed.
• Bright Is Not Good: He wears a long colorful coat and has long flowing white hair, but don't let that distract you as he's a remorseless sadist that thrives on his characters being miserable.
• Catchphrase: Drosselmeyer closes every episode preview with "All children that love stories come, gather 'round..."
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Drosselmeyer is always sporting one with an deep cackle.
• The Chessmaster: As the author, Drosselmeyer manipulates everyone throughout most of the story.
• The Chooser of the One: He was the one who chose Ahiru to be Princess Tutu, but he admits he didn't have any particular reason for it. He simply found it "amusing".
• Clocks of Control: Drosselmeyer controls his story with a clockwork gear machine and doesn't take well to it going off-rails.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Drosselmeyer died after the angry townsfolk cut off his hands to stop him from warping reality with his writing, but he managed to bring the writing machine that controls Gold Crown Town into existence, and by proxy give himself a form of immortality, by writing about it in his own blood.
• Creator Breakdown: In-Universe as part of his backstory. Drosselmeyer was a profitable writer until the townspeople began to fear his ability to warp reality with his writing. They chopped off his hands to prevent him from writing any more, but with his dying breath and blood from the stumps on his arms he wrote the last bit of the story that allowed him to continue writing it even after his death. It goes a long way to explain Drosselmeyer's insanity and taste in plotlines.
• Decomposite Character: The Raven and Drosselmeyer embody traits of Rothbart from Swan Lake. While the Raven is the Big Bad who sends his evil daughter to seduce a prince named Siegfried, Drosselmeyer is the sort of evil sorcerer who turns Ahiru into a human and gives her the ability to transform into Princess Tutu, who, to the vast majority of people sans the main characters, appears to be a giant white swan with a crown.
• Determinator: He kept writing after his hands were chopped off, just to keep fooling around with his stories even after death.
• Downer Ending: Determined to induce this into his story. The others disagree.
• Dying Curse: People feared Drosselmeyer's ability to make stories come true, so they cut off his hands. Drosselmeyer then wrote himself into immortality as he was dying of bloodloss, and this caused Gold Crown town to become trapped in a pocket dimension influenced by his writing for the next several hundred years.
• Eccentric Mentor: Subverted. Drosselmeyer is kooky, he's the one who gives Ahiru her powers and guides her along the way... But he really wants the characters to be trapped in an endless cycle of death, rebirth and tragedy.
• Evil All Along: Drosselmeyer is kooky, he's the one who gives Ahiru her powers and guides her along the way... But he really wants the characters to be trapped in an endless cycle of death, rebirth and tragedy.
• Evil Is Hammy: Drosselmeyer can be completely over-the-top when commenting on the action in the story, particularly in the dub, where he was given a booming aristocratic voice completed with rolled R's. Which just makes his commentary more entertaining.
• Evil Laugh: In every episode preview he has a low evil chuckle, and he seems to have an evil laugh pretty much Once an Episode.
• Evil Old Folks: He's an old man and is the Greater-Scope Villain.
• The Fatalist: In a way. When Drosselmeyer wonders if he's a character in a story himself, he smiles and says the writer can do whatever they'd like. This is in contrast to the Rage Against the Author of the other characters.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's surprisingly polite for a lying Manipulative Bastard that toys with people's lives because he thinks that any happy ending is a boring one. In one memorable moment, he tries to convince Ahiru to resume being Princess Tutu in the midst of her crisis of confidence, and fails because he can't stop bursting into gleeful laughter at the thought of misery and tragedy befalling her and everyone she loves.
• For the Evulz: Even though he does have a few things in his backstory that give him a motive for what he does...he mainly seems to be into it because he seems to think tragedy and pain make for a fascinating story.
• God Is Evil: Or the writer is, but when you're a character in a story, he might as well be God.
• Graceful Loser: Whenever his plans are disrupted, he expresses anger/confusion, then interest in the new direction of the story. When he loses, he basically shrugs it off, and goes with Uzura to find a new story.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Raven is the Big Bad within the story, but Drosselmeyer is the origin of all the troubles in the story since not only was he the one who created the Raven, he put the entire town under a spell so he could keep warping reality with his tales. His ultimate Evil Plan is to have the characters trapped in an endless cycle of death, rebirth and tragedy. However, he barely intervenes directly in the course of the story and at the end, he only sits back as he sees the story play out completely different from what he wanted.
• Greek Chorus: When he isn't meddling in the story, he just stays on the sidelines and provides commentary.
• Jerkass: He knows his stories become real, he's seen the consequences this has on others, and he doesn't care.
• Karma Houdini: His plans are foiled, but he himself doesn't seem particularly bothered by this and goes off to mess with others instead.
• Laughably Evil: Even when it's revealed that he is the true villain, it's impossible not to get a laugh out of his antics.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When all his plans are ruined at the end and the characters get their happy ending, Drosselmeyer wonders how they overcame his script as an author. Then he wonders if he himself might be a character in someone else's story.
• Leitmotif: The March from The Nutcracker.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He is the direct ancestor of Fakir.
• Living Memory: Of sorts. Drosselmeyer as we see him was written into spiritual immortality by his dying human counterpart. Whether that means we should take him as a literal ghost of the man or merely a sentient construct representing him is never clarified.
• Mad Artist: Due to his powers, the entire cast is subject to his whims, and is obsessed with tragedy — even if the characters he's putting through trial after trial are real people.
• Meaningful Name: He's named after Drosselmeyer from The Nutcracker, Clara's magician godfather who gives her the toy.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the second season, Drosselmeyer taking Tutu captive, telling her about the fact that she's a story character and trying to force her into a Sadistic Choice made her realize she didn't want to follow his commands anymore. The story also points out that the reason the story had a happy ending after all was precisely because Drosselmeyer added Ahiru as a character, so it really is all his fault!
• Ominous Pipe Organ: Drosselmeyer's leitmotif is the Nutcracker March played in a minor key. Often, it's played on an organ for extra creepiness.
• People Puppets: Drosselmeyer's powers apparently give him the ability to control people like puppets.

• Posthumous Character: The story begins with 'Once upon a time, there was a man who died'. Drosselmeyer is that dead man. And he's very dead. He even says as much himself, even as he somehow is able to haunt his story, controlling it from the background.
• Psycho for Hire: Before his death, it's implied that Drosselmeyer would happily write any story — and in the end, that's what got him killed.
• Rewriting Reality: He has the power to warp reality with his writing.
• Shout-Out: He is named after Drosselmeyer of The Nutcracker. Fittingly, both characters give the protagonist something for her to have a fantastic adventure.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He is all for tragedy and finds anything idealistic and hopeful in a story to be "boring". At one point, he tries to get Ahiru to stop putting Mytho's best interests before her own and be more selfish about her love because a selfless heroine isn't of his liking.

• Time Stands Still: Whenever he speaks to Ahiru or Fakir. Justified as they're his characters, so he can do whatever he wants.
• True Art Is Angsty: In-Universe example. He wants all his stories to end in tragedy because stories with happy endings are "boring" to him.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Justified; As a old man, he has white hair. He's also a Faux Affably Evil Mad Artist.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Is under the impression that he's in a story with Downer Ending and he's the writer. In fact, he's nothing but another character in the story.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: Literally speaking, Drosselmeyer's immortality functions by way of him being an idea his living self wrote, that he would be able to continue to write stories even after his death. The townspeople had him killed, but he could keep existing as a story come to life.

The Raven

Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (Japanese), Mike Kleinhenz (English)

The Raven is the villain from The Prince and the Raven, and the series' other main villain apart from Drosselmeyer. His real name is never given if he even has one, and while called a raven he's more like a Godzilla-sized demon. In the story, he enjoyed toying with the hearts of the people that loved Mytho, tainting them with his evil before devouring them, and eventually set his eyes on the prince's heart. Mytho fought the Raven, but could only stop him by sealing the beast away and shattering his own heart. In the 2nd season, Rue covers a shard of Mytho's heart in the raven's blood, turning more and more evil. The Raven's goal is to have a heart sacrificed to him so that he may escape from the seal.

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• Abusive Parents: He constantly tells Kraehe that her human body is "hideous" and that only he and the Prince could ever love her — and even then, not enough to die for her. He even tries to eat her heart after she fails to bring him a sacrifice one time too many. By the end of the series, she finds out that she's not his biological daughter, but a human girl he kidnapped her as a baby — which frees her up to help Mytho/Prince Siegfried kill him.
• Adaptation Species Change: Rothbart from Swan Lake usually appears as a giant owl, only showing his human form in act 3. The Raven is always a giant Animalistic Abomination that only looks like a raven.
• Animalistic Abomination: It only looks like a raven, and very vaguely at that.
• Antagonist Title: He is the in-universe antagonist of The Prince And The Raven, a fairytale written by Drosselmeyer.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: He's never fully seen on screen, but the glimpses we get of him indicate that he's downright massive, possibly larger than the town the anime is set in. A good reference to his size is the fact Rue is smaller than one of his talons and she can hug it.
• Big Bad: The in-universe one.
• The Corruption: The Raven's blood grants those who are affected with it dark powers, but also twists their personality to be crueler and more selfish. Prolonged exposure ends with them turning into anthropomorphic crows and being completely under the control of the Raven himself.
• Dark Is Evil: Big and black; shadows follow wherever his magic is.
• Decomposite Character: The Raven and Drosselmeyer embody traits of Rothbart from Swan Lake. While the Raven is the Big Bad who sends his evil daughter to seduce a prince named Siegfried, Drosselmeyer is the sort of evil sorcerer who turns Ahiru into a human and gives her the ability to transform into Princess Tutu, who, to the vast majority of people sans the main characters, appears to be a giant white swan with a crown.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: The Raven, in-universe, there's no explanation as to where it came from, which is probably intentional since fairy tales usually didn't explain where the supernatural creatures came from.
• Eldritch Abomination: A monstrous, shadowy entity that can corrupt people and only has a vaguely solid form.

• Generic Doomsday Villain: He steals hearts because he likes eating them, and has no real characterization beyond that and the fact that he's evil. Like his lack of backstory is likely intentional since he's the type of fairy tale villain who doesn't have much characterization in the first place.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Double subverted. What originally appears to be his slanted eyes in his conversations with Kraehe turns out to be the sides of his mouth glowing around the hooked tip of his beak. But the finale reveals he does have the traditional kind.
• Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: He kidnapped Rue when she was a baby.
• Large and in Charge: The Raven is GIGANTIC. To give it perspective, a teenage girl can hug a single of his feet claws and his wings blacken the sky.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Raven is revealed to be the father of Princess Kraehe in the second season. Subverted when she finds out that her parents are actually normal humans, and she was kidnapped as a baby.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The in-universe villain, with glowing red eyes. Sometimes, they're the only part of him we can see. Then he really gets mad and it turns out those aren't his eyes.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He was sealed away by the Prince.
• Would Hurt a Child: He attempts to eat his daughter's heart.

Secondary Characters

Edel

Don't ask us how she does her hair. We don't know, either.

Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese), Christine Auten (English)

"May those who accept their fate find happiness; may those who defy it, glory."

A mysterious woman with an organ grinder, who seems to collect and sell gemstones. She speaks cryptically and poetically, working as a listening ear for Ahiru whenever she might need it.

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• Anime Hair: She has her hair piled in a Beehive Hairdo with the sidelines just appearing to be floating around it. Since she's a puppet, having hair evocative of painted and chipped wood makes sense.
• Artificial Human: Secretly, she's a puppet controlled by Drosselmeyer to push her in the right direction.
• Beehive Hairdo: She somehow keeps her hair piled in a conical shape on the top of the head. With the revelation that she's a literal puppet, it makes a bit more sense.
• Dead Person Conversation: In Akt 24, Edel returns to talk to Ahiru one last time through Uzura, revealing her pendant is the final heart shard.
• Cryptic Conversation: She always speaks in enigmatic and ominous poetic phrases that confuse Ahiru more than help her.
• Foreshadowing: The music that plays from her organ is "Dance of the Automatons" from Coppélia, a reference to her true nature.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Became curious about human emotions; this is why she saves Ahiru, Fakir, and Mytho in the first season finale. She admits, though, that she can't truly feel.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She sacrifices herself to save Fakir and guide Ahiru and Mytho to safety.
• Last Request: She asks Ahiru and Mytho to perform a pas de deux for her, which they are more than happy to do.
• Meaningful Name: Edel's name literally means "noble" or "precious" but most certainly comes from "Edelstein" - Gemstone, referring to the stones she collects and sells.
• The Mentor: Dispenses useful bits of advice at crucial moments.
• Ms. Exposition: Edel is an in-universe one: she is a puppet made for just this purpose by Drosselmeyer.
• The Philosopher
• Spirit Advisor: Appears as such in the second season to Uzura, who is made from parts of her body.

Neko-sensei/Mr. Cat

Don't stare at this picture too long; you might end up having to marry him.

Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese), Todd Waite (English)

Neko-sensei/Mr. Cat is the ballet teacher at Gold Crown Academy. He's obsessed with marriage and constantly threatens the girls with it when they mess up, but otherwise he's a competent teacher who actually does care about his students' well-being. Oh, he's also an anthropomorphic cat.

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• And Now You Must Marry Me: Played for Laughs; his standard threat of punishment for any misbehavior by female students.
• Babies Ever After: The epilogue of the final episode reveals that Neko-sensei (who is now just a normal cat) has finally found himself a mate, and they have kittens.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Neko-sensei, for all his comic relief, is a genuinely accomplished teacher who is actually capable of dispensing valuable advice to Duck. This is most prominent in his classes as well - he puts an emphasis on knowing the basics and doing them well, even at a professional level, and outright refuses to give pointe shoes to Duck because he feels she's not ready. This last part is somewhat Truth in Television - girls are typically not allowed to go en pointe until they show strong fundamental technique and their feet have finished growing. Dancing en pointe is painful for even the most experienced of ballerinas, and a young dancer can permanently damage their still-growing feet by doing it too soon.
• Catchphrase: "You have to [insert command here], or I WILL HAVE YOU MARRY MEEEEE!"
• A Dog Named "Dog": A cat teacher named Neko-sensei/Mr. Cat.
• Fatal Attractor: Neko-sensei, although his focus is marriage, and every time he gets a girl that actually likes him...he runs. Because the girls who like him are typically Abhorrent Admirers — the first example is "Miss Goatette" in season 1, who is basically a female goat in a tutu and acts even less anthropomorphic than any of the other Talking Animal characters.
• Funny Animal: He's a human-sized cat who walks on two feet and can talk like a human.
• Furry Reminder: He's constantly cleaning himself with his tongue and paws, stretching on the ground and will even chase dangling or fast moving objects seemingly on instinct.
• Hidden Depths: Mr. Cat shows this sometimes when he escapes his usual Plucky Comic Relief status to give actual advice.
  • At one point, Duck asks Mr. Cat if there's any way to repair a damaged love. He freezes and turns away, telling her gently that sometimes lost love simply can't be repaired.
  • Another time, when asked what to do about an impure love, he asks Fakir if Odile's love was impure.
  • Actually pretty much anytime one needs advice, Mr. Cat is always there to give very deep advice that usually helps the character. Though he will more often than not lead said conversation back to marriage.
• Hot for Student: Played for Laughs, as he's always trying to find an excuse to force his female students to marry him.
• Mars Needs Women: For some reason, Neko-sensei only seems interested in marrying human women. Whenever a non-human suitor shows up, he freaks out. This is subverted in the finale, where is revealed Neko-sensei got himself a cat mate after turning into a normal cat.
• Morphic Resonance: When he is turned into a crow in the finale, he still retains his purple splotch and eyes.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After an entire series of failed marriage proposals and rejections, the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue reveals Neko-sensei finally found a mate after turning into a normal cat.

Pique and Lilie

Pique is on the left; Lilie is on the right.

(on Rue's dancing)

Ahiru: “Wow, so pretty!”

Lilie: “Totally unlike Duck.”

Pique: “Oh, she got depressed.”

Lilie: “Oh no, did she really get depressed? How cute!”

Pique voiced by: Sachi Matsumoto (Japanese), Cynthia Martinez (English)

Lilie voiced by: Yuri Shiratori (Japanese), Sasha Paysinger (English)

Pique and Lilie are Ahiru's two friends from class. They function mostly as comic relief, gossiping about the characters in the show and getting into crazy antics with Ahiru. Pique is tomboyish and supportive of Ahiru, while Lilie is girly and takes sadistic pleasure in Ahiru's failures so she can "comfort" her.

Their characterizations aren't really delved into that much; mostly they are there to provide a sense of normalcy to Ahiru's adventures. Pique gets a spotlight episode in Akt 15, however.

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• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Pique's crush on Fakir seems to be based on this.
• Audience Surrogate: It could be argued that the two of them represent the readers of a story: both of them observe and cheer for Ahiru in her journey, but while Pique hopes for a happy ending, Lilie wants to see the characters suffer because it will lead to things being interesting.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Lilie's defining character trait.
• Damsel in Distress: In the second season, Pique nearly gets her heart taken out by Mytho when the raven's blood in his heart possesses him. However, Princess Tutu rescues her before that can happen.
• A Day in the Limelight: Pique has Akt 15.
• Genki Girl: Especially Lilie.
• Girlish Pigtails: Lilie has these.
• Jerkass: Lilie's done some pretty questionable things to her friends.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Pique, by contrast, genuinely wants the best for Ahiru, but is still pretty insulting towards her.
• Morphic Resonance: Their crow forms in the finale share their hairstyles.
• Muggle Best Friend: Both of them are this for Ahiru—they're genuinely normal human girls, but Ahiru is a duck transformed into a girl who's also in the role of a storybook princess.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Lilie is obsessed with tragedy and failure. If she's not squeeing over Duck's latest troubles in class, she's sighing over how exquisitely terrible the episode's events are sure to become.
• Rubber Face: Lilie does this to Ahiru often.
• Shipper on Deck: Lilie and Pique both ship Fakir/Ahiru, albeit for different reasons. Pique because she genuinely wants to see Ahiru happy, Lilie because she thinks Fakir's dark, mysterious image will clash well with Ahiru and cause lots of drama.
• Spell My Name With An S: Pique's name is spelled "Pike" in the English credits.
• Those Two Girls: They're mostly just there to be Ahiru's Muggle Best Friends and give her life as a girl a sense of normalcy.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Brash, outgoing Pique is the tomboy while cute, giggly Lilie is the girly girl.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Pique, a tomboy who likes to take ballet.
• Wistful Amnesia: In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, Pique and Lilie seem to remember that they had a third companion now that Ahiru is gone, but don't think anything of it.
• With Friends Like These...: You really have to wonder how Ahiru puts up with Lilie all the time.

Uzura

Here to continue the story... zura.

Voiced by: Erino Hazuki (Japanese), Christine Auten (English)

Uzura is a young girl puppet made by Charon, Fakir's foster father. Curious and emotional, she's fascinated by Ahiru's ability to transform from a duck to a human, and causes several awkward moments between Ahiru and Fakir.

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• Artificial Human: She's a puppet made from the burnt remains of Edel.
• Catchphrase: "Lovey-dovey-zura!" or "Love-love-zura!", depending on the translation. She also loves to say "Hoooooo~!" It's more of a Catch Expression, really.
• Cheerful Child: Uzura is happy, bright, and completely adorable.
• Cute, but Cacophonic
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Reincarnation: Uzura can be seen as such, since she's made from the burnt remains of Edel. Edel can appear as a spirit to Uzura and communicate to others through her.
• Spanner in the Works: Uzura singlehandedly derails Drosselmeyer's schemes at points.
• Third-Person Person: She refers to herself in third person.
• Verbal Tic: She ends all of her sentences with "-zura".
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Uzura is fascinated by the idea of love.

Autor

"I'm sorry, I wasn't able to hear that over my own ego."

"Just what is it that you know?"

"Everything you've been dying to know!"

Voiced by: Yu Urata (Japanese), Adam Conlon (English)

A relatively minor but important character in the second season, Autor is the main source of information for Fakir and Ahiru. Before he's properly introduced, Autor has several cameos showing him shushing people at the library and hovering in the background watching Fakir. Once he enters the story, he proclaims himself to be the expert when it comes to Drosselmeyer and his powers. Autor is in fact a fanboy of Drosselmeyer and finds the very idea that he's still around pulling the strings "thrilling". That, combined with his massive ego and Training from Hell that he puts Fakir through, causes him to be a very unsympathetic character at first.

As the series nears its end, however, he's given some minor attempts at Character Development that make him more than just an overenthusiastic Info Dump vehicle. In the end, he's an interesting enough character that he's gained a small but dedicated following in the fandom.

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• Attention Whore: Possibly; although he's shown as a loner, he tends to go to great lengths to play an active role in the story and get the attention of the other characters.
• Break the Haughty: Autor's pride gets absolutely thrashed in the course of the story.
• Catchphrase: "Would you please be quiet?"
• Chekhov's Gunman: Although his official introduction isn't until Akt 21, he has a cameo in every episode from 15 to 20, ranging from blatant foreshadowing to blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments of him hanging around in the background.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: When the delusion of his greatness starts to unravel, Autor throws a tantrum that culiminates in him storming down a street muttering to himself "Then what was I put on this world for?"
• Hair Color Dissonance: It's either blue or purple, depending on who you ask, but it still counts as stylized black.
• Heroic Bystander: In the final episode, Fakir gets attacked by the leader of the Book Men, who's wielding an axe, and Autor fends off his attacker using only a book and his bare hands.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Hinted at being the driving force behind his research.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: It soon becomes obvious that his egotistical attitude is covering up for a massive inferiority complex.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Autor's portrayed at first as having little useful information about Drosselmeyer; most of what he tells Fakir is trivia. Eventually, it's subverted — he is helpful, although probably not as much as he would've liked.
• Leaning on the Furniture: Tends to lean over the desk in an obnoxious way.
• Loners Are Freaks: Doesn't appear to have any friends and has an extreme obsession with Drosselmeyer.
• Love at First Sight: When he meets Rue, he falls for her in an instant.
• Male Gaze: In one scene, Autor is following behind Rue, and the camera focuses on Rue's back and slowly pans down to examine her rear end and legs. The camera then switches to show Autor looking downwards and blushing, implying that the view we were seeing was from Autor's point of view.
• Meaningful Name: "Autor" is German (and coincidentally Spanish) for "author".
• Mr. Exposition: Really, when it comes right down to it, this is Autor's main purpose for being in the show.

• Nightmare Fetishist: Somewhat debatable, but considering his manic approval of Drosselmeyer and the gleeful manner he handles Drosselmeyer's powers, it's likely he falls under this trope.
• Only Sane Man: Believe it or not, Autor may qualify — he's the only character outside of the main cast that seems to realize that Gold Crown Town is being controlled by one of Drosselmeyer's stories. This may have something to do with his being a Drosselmeyer descendent - he's more distantly and tenuously connected than Fakir and can only vaguely hear the oak, but that suggests that he has some vestige of the power.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: We don't even see Autor's eyes until he talks to Fakir in akt 21.
• School Uniforms are the New Black
• Spell My Name With An S: Some fans still use the Japanese romanization of his name, "Aotoa". Author and Arthur show up sometimes, as well.
• Take Over the World: According to the Japanese official website, Autor's goal is "world domination".
• Training from Hell: Autor puts Fakir through an intense and absurd training regimen to hone Fakir's writing powers, starting by exactly replicating Drosselmeyer's preferred desk set-up to making Fakir stand up straight without moving, eating, or drinking for days.

Minor Characters

Anteaterina

Anteaterina

Voiced by: Akemi Kanda (Japanese), Tiffany Grant (English)

From Akt 2. An anthropomorphic anteater who strives to overthrow Rue as prima donna; part of her scheme involves getting Mytho to pick her for a dance. She turns out to possess the first of Mytho's heart shards that Tutu must recover - the feeling of disappointment.

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• Aardvark Trunks: Her snout is rather expressive, changing position from being straight from her face to rather droopy.
• Always Someone Better: Rue became this to her eventually.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Subverted in that she was never really interested in Mytho and only tried to take him as an act of revenge on Rue, who she believes snubbed her.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": She's an anteater named Anteaterina.

Ebine

Ebine

Voiced by: Rie Ishizuka (Japanese), Kelly Manison (English)

From Akt 3. A woman whose restaurant hasn't been getting enough patronage lately for one reason - while expertly cooked, her food is always stone cold. Her heart shard is loneliness.

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• Always Someone Better: She mentions her husband's cooking was this to her own.
• Back for the Finale: Makes a cameo in the finale as one of the people turned back from being crows.
• Beehive Hairdo: A less noticeable one than Edel's.
• Curtains Match the Window: Purple hair and eyes.
• Excessive Mourning: She's consumed by loneliness after the death of her husband, leading to all her food being extremely cold.
• Lethal Chef: Played with; she can cook perfectly well but magical interference makes her food incredibly cold. Once Princess Tutu helps her out, her restaurant begins to flourish again.
• Lethal Eatery: Owns one until Princess Tutu takes the shard of Mytho's heart, and she begins to move into Supreme Chef category.
• The Mourning After: Her deceased husband was her inspiration for running the restaurant. The gap in her heart came from her grief over her husband's death.

Wili Maiden

Wili Maiden

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Robin Terry (English)

From Akt 4. In life, she was a beautiful woman who was fated to die without being with her lover, so she instead took another man down with her. She is based on the titular character from the ballet Giselle, who in turn was based off of the wilis of Slavic folklore. Her heart shard is sorrow.

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• Cue the Sun: The wilis only appear at night; the sunrise drives them away.
• The Dead Can Dance: As in the original ballet. In the series, one has to be able to out-dance her in order to escape.
• Driven to Suicide: Due to the grief of unrequited love.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: As a ghost, she has a very pale complexion, with dark hair to go with it.
• Ethereal White Dress: The Wili Maiden, the ghost of a woman who committed suicide and now tries to bring young men into the afterlife, dresses in an all-white tutu with white tights. Of course, she's based on a character from a ballet which shares the name of the episode—"Giselle".
• The Fair Folk: Based off of the wilis of Slavic folklore fame.
• Flowers of Femininity: Wears a wreath of white roses to emphasize her gracefulness and femininity.
• Unrequited Tragic Maiden: Jilted just before her wedding day, leading to her suicide.

Paulamoni

Paulamoni

Voiced by: Masako Katsuki (Japanese), Shelley Calene-Black (English)

From Akt 6. The leading lady of a traveling ballet troupe, she faces insecurity and self-doubt on the eve of her opening night (during which she was to play Aurora, her dream role). Her heart shard is fear.

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• Even the Girls Want Her: She has several female admirers in-universe.
• Happily Married: Her husband openly supports her and even offers to postpone opening night for her well-being.
• Performance Anxiety: Although normally a capable ballerina who has no problem with this trope, Mytho's heart shard manifests itself this way, causing this to happen.

Malen

Malen

Voiced by: Erino Hazuki (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

From Akt 9. A shy student with a passion for art. Her heart shard is devotion.

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• Back for the Finale: Makes a cameo in the finale as one of the people turned back from being crows.
• Bespectacled Cutie: Portrayed as shy, sweet girl who wears glasses.
• Homoerotic Subtext: The heart shard possessing her compels Malen to paint nothing besides Rue, but it is unknown if these feelings were already there or not.
• Meaningful Name: "One who paints," which is exactly what she does.
• One-Track-Minded Artist: The heart shard of devotion turned Malen into this, making Rue the sole focus of all her artwork.

Charon

Charon

Voiced by: Mugihito (Japanese), Robert Leeds (English)

Fakir's adoptive father, the local blacksmith. He introduced Fakir to The Prince and the Raven when the latter was just a boy. His heart shard is regret.

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• The Blacksmith: He's the local blacksmith.
• Good Parents: Despite limited screentime, he does seem to genuinely care about Fakir and acts mostly for Fakir's own interests.
• My Greatest Failure: The gap in his heart came from his regret over introducing Fakir to The Prince and the Raven and telling him that his birthmark was a sign that Fakir was the knight from the story reborn. This ended up inspiring Fakir to fight as Mytho's knight, even if his fate is to die protecting the prince. Princess Tutu got Charon to let go of his regrets by advising him to have faith in Fakir.
• Spell My Name With An S: Charon or Karon?

Freya

Freya

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Kaytha Coker (English)

From Akt 16. A beautiful student with a passion for flowers, she becomes one of Mytho's targets when he's possessed by the Raven's blood.

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• Back for the Finale: Makes a cameo in the finale as one of the people turned back from being crows.
• Curtains Match the Window: Golden hair, golden eyes.
• Damsel in Distress: Nearly gets her heart taken as a sacrifice twice by a corrupted Mytho. Princess Tutu saves her both times.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has blonde hair (with golden eyes to match), and her kindness and purity of heart are particularly emphasized.
• The Ingenue: A sweet, pure-hearted innocent girl who loves everyone.
• Innocent Flower Girl: Loves flowers and often spends her free time watering the school's gardens.
• Meaningful Name: Freya is a Scandinavian fertility goddess often visually associated with flowers.
• Nice Girl: Hands-down the nicest in the series, portrayed as loving, sweet, and incapable of bearing ill will towards anything. Naturally, this makes her an ideal target.

Femio

Femio

Voiced by: Papaya Suzuki (Japanese), Vic Mignogna (English)

Femio only shows up in Akt 17, but if you've seen the series, you'll remember him. With curly purple locks and a fondness for French (despite having distinctly Spanish accoutrements), he runs around Gold Crown Academy passing out roses to girls and claiming to be "a prince that loves everyone... and is also loved by everyone" (copying from the Prince in The Prince and the Raven). He's such an over-the-top parody of bishounen that he became a wildly popular character among fans, showing up in fanart as much as characters with far more screentime than him. Despite his foppish personality, he was the only (non main) character able to break the Raven's spell all on his own.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: He's as Bishōnen as any of the young men in the show but every character he expresses attraction to is turned off, especially since he's pushy about it and interprets signs like stiff politeness and fleeing from him as positive.
• Catchphrase: "Oh, heaven! Please pour judgment upon... THIS SINNER!"
• Commitment Issues: This is what ends up saving his life, in a bizarre fashion. Femio can't bring himself to love only one woman, which is why he refuses to sacrifice his heart to Kraehe.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Parodied, Femio peppers his dialogue with flirtatious French. Since it's Femio, he comes across more like Pepe LePew.

• Heroic Willpower: Of sorts. As said above, he stands out as the only non-main character to resist the Raven's curse (albeit in an over the top manner).
• I Kiss Your Hand: To Kraehe.
• Large Ham: All his actions are done in an overly theatrical manner.
• Milking the Giant Cow: He always talks with exaggerated gestures and theatrical effects.
• Prince Charming Wannabe: He pictures himself as the gorgeous prince everyone is crazy about when all girls really try to get as far away from him as possible. While Kraehe does go after him, it's really because he seemed like an easy target to sacrifice to her dad.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Parodied. He believes that he's so beautiful, it's a sin because it makes every woman (and a few men) who sees him fall maddeningly in love with him—so much so that they can barely stand to be around him! It's SUCH a sin, he constantly "repents" for it by allowing himself to be trampled by a bull called by his faithful servant. However, it turns out that he's so egotistical and so bizarre with the self-imposed punishments that everyone hates him and does everything they can to avoid him, and he's too obsessed with himself to see it. One of the people he clearly expects to be into him is Mr Cat.
• Something about a Rose: Femio has a thing for roses and even has a servant to scatter rose petals all around him.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Femio really overestimates his Bishōnen cred.
• Vocal Dissonance: Such a deep and husky is not what you expect to come out from a teenage boy.

The Ghost Knight

The Ghost Knight

From Akt 18. His heart shard is pride.

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• Blood Knight: Implied. His lover begged him to put down his sword for his own good before he killed her; in death he's still unable to pass on because of his fighting.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Murdered his lover because she was a spy for another country.
• The Voiceless: He never speaks.
• Would Hit a Girl: In addition to murdering his lover, he also doesn't hesitate to attack Princess Tutu when she tries to reach him to gain his heart shard.

Hermia

Hermia

Voiced by: Tomoe Hanba (Japanese), Hilary Haag (English)

From Akt 19. A girl who delivers love letters in a donkey costume, she becomes one of Mytho's targets when he's possessed by the Raven's blood.

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• Cannot Spit It Out: She has a crush on a guy named Lysander, but is too shy to confess her feelings to him. She does gain the courage to confess at the end of her episode.
• Damsel in Distress: Nearly gets her heart taken by a corrupted Mytho, but Princess Tutu manages to save her.
• Huge Schoolgirl: She nearly towers over Ahiru and is a bit taller than Mytho.
• Motor Mouth: She gets into this mode when she's denying having any feelings for Lysander.
• Official Couple: In love with Lysander, a sculptor. The end of her episode reveals he was in love with her too. They appear in the epilogue as a couple Autor shushes in the library.
• Playing Cyrano: She delivers love letters of students who are too shy to do so themselves.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: She, Lysander, and her "Bottom" donkey alias are references to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Even though Lysander has the Face of a Thug, it's the gentle and sensitive feelings of love and warmth she can sense from his sculptures that captivates Hermia.

Raetsel

Raetsel

Voiced by: Sayuri Yoshida (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

From Akt 20. A longtime friend of Charon who has feelings for him, and a big-sister figure to Fakir.

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• Cool Big Sis: To Fakir and later Ahiru, being a source of guidance and emotional support in her sole episode. It's implied she was one to Mytho, as well.
• Damsel in Distress: Ends up being the fifth person to be targeted by a corrupted Mytho as a sacrifice for the Raven.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A bit of a strange one: Her name appears in the ending credits for episode 19, but Raetsel herself does not appear until the following episode.
• Hopeless Suitor: She has had feelings for Charon for a really long time, but he has always only treated her like a child. Raetsel's difficulty to move on from her unrequited love is what makes her a target to corrupted Mytho.
• Like Brother and Sister: She herself states that she's like a big sister to Fakir.
• Love Triangle: The source of her problems in the episode is her inability to choose between Charon and her fiance, Hans. In the end, she chooses Hans.
• Meaningful Name: Raetsel is German for "riddle" or "mystery" which plays off her mysterious role in the first half of her episode.
• Mistaken for Romance: Ahiru and her friends first think that she's Fakir's girlfriend. Raetsel soon corrects them and makes clear she and Fakir are Like Brother and Sister instead.
• Second Love: Raetsel was in love with Charon, but ends up marrying another man, Hans.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Raetsel's introduction is what reveals Fakir's storyspinner powers and her situation ultimately encourages him to actually see if he can use it to save Mytho and the rest.

Miscellaneous/Group Tropes

Tropes that apply to more than one character or a group of characters.

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• Always Chaotic Evil: The crows are so evil that even their blood can affect a character's personality. Justified because they're characters escaped from a fairytale.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Book Men. The group existed when Drosselmeyer was alive and were the ones watching Fakir in secret for fear of his rewriting reality powers.
• Animal Stereotypes: All over the place — it is based on fairytales, after all. Especially prominent with the crows and raven, which indicate evil.
• Cosmic Plaything: Everyone is a character in Drosselmeyer's story. Autor goes as far as comparing them all to puppets.
• Eccentric Townsfolk: Would you believe that the girl who's really a duck is one of the more normal residents of the town?

• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Funny Animals and humans exist in Gold Crown town due to the influence of fairytales, and no one bats an eye.

• Shipper on Deck: Could possibly apply to the eel in Akt. 6. When Fakir and Duck/Ahiru are on stage and about to perform their pas de Deux, the eel enthusiastically surges with electricity.
  Paulo: Ooh. Our leader’s [the eel] approval gauge is maxed out.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Book Men attempt to chop off a sixteen-years-old Fakir's hands.

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