There's a writer called Drosselmeyer (lulz) who died in the middle of a novel. His characters got bored waiting around, so they broke out of the story. Those characters are a prince and an evil raven. To stop the raven from destroying the town, the prince 'shatters his heart', which seals away the raven because fairy tale reasons. But because he did that, he's pretty much just a mannequin who can talk and move around, so the story has ground to a halt. The author is still alive as a ghost, living in a bizarre clockwork realm, and he still wants to continue the story, so after many years he finally finds a way. A little duckling who has a crush on the prince wishes she could become a girl and hold hands with him and other cute things. So the author gives he a magic pendant that not only turns her into a girl, it also turns her into a character from the story, the only one who can return pieces of the prince's heart.
Phew. Premises should not take that long to explain, but there you go. The show is a little confusing at first, but it's fairly easy to get into. The first two episodes are pretty weak, and they look even weaker when you consider how strong the episodes at the end of the season are.
The cast is strong and dynamic, which is one of my favorite things about the series. Especially in regards to once character, their arcs go in very unexpected directions. The main character, literally named Duck is a very sweet character once she gets out of the first two episodes, where she is a little manic and over energized. Once the show as a whole settles down she does too, and we get to know her personality more. Duck is hyper and cheery, but she is equally insecure and constantly questioning herself and her motives. The other two interesting characters I can't really say much of anything without spoilers, but suffice to say that they are really interesting to watch. The only weak link in the cast is the prince himself, who has his moments but is mostly bland. Unfortunately he is the one that Duck is in love with, but we can't really find anything about him that's worth it.
However. The interesting thing is that the show itself mentions this. There's a scene where Duck questions why she loves the prince (called Mythos, apparently pronounced Myu-toe), and the dialogue goes in a really interesting direction before they are interrupted by killer crows. There's a lot of those in this series.
Anyways, let's get to the music! Each episode has a piece of classical music that sums up the thematic material of the episode, or just fits really well with the action. Or acts as sneaky bits of foreshadowing. The episode music includes these pieces, as well as many more that are just used as incidental music, or character themes.
Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, The Blue Danube, Pictures at an Exhibition, Scheherazade (!!!), Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet (the ones by both Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev!), and Danse Macabre! So far all the music has been really well used, and the Scheherazade episode was probably the best of the season.
We're looking forward to the second season. The show is very sweet, even if it has random weird things that kill the mood sometimes. Like the fact that the ballet teacher is a human sized anthropomorphic cat. Ahem. But anyways, school starts tomorrow and I wanted to do a fun post before I start complaining about school. Which might happen. Anyhoo, see you guys later. :)
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