Once upon a time there was a man who fell in love with a doll. Perhaps the man’s love made itself felt, for one day the doll came to life and began to dance. The man was delighted. He thought that a doll would never betray his love, and now he could have the world’s most pure and innocent love all to himself. Unfortunately for him, the doll who had been given life rejected the man’s love and fell in love with another man.

Coppelia is a relatively obscure ballet based on an E.T.A. Hoffmann story, but it’s surprisingly one of the strongest ballet motifs in the show.  The tune that Edel played on her gurney last season was “Dance of the Puppets”, and the music for the clocktower’s chime is, fittingly, “Dance of the Clock”.

Also the prologue is about Rue and Mytho.

Pay no attention to the wailing and moaning in the background of the Raven’s lair (and no, I don’t have a clue whether that’s an intentional Edgar Allen Poe reference or not).

The Raven: Other than myself, no one but the Prince in the story could truly love a pitiful person like you, who despite being a crow, have been born into this hideous human body.

And now you know why Rue was so dedicated to Mytho: She literally believes he’s the only human being who could ever love her.

In other news, Fakir is in the middle of a PR nightmare and just keeps on digging the hole deeper.

Mytho: Are you saying you believe Fakir pushed me out of the window, Mr. Cat?

Rue and Mytho are using Fakir’s widely known history of abusing Mytho against him, resulting in Fakir first being asked to not live with Mytho anymore and then being suspended from school.

Duck: Did something happen to Mytho?

Fakir: That’s what I’m trying to find out.

Duck: And what happened yesterday…Mytho jumped out the window himself, but in front of Mr. Cat he made it sound like he was just covering for you, and that made it look like you were the bad guy.

It’s a frustratingly effective strategy – even Duck herself couldn’t fathom how Fakir could be a “good guy” until five episodes ago, and he still has a volatile temper.

The exposition is a bit more graceful in this episode, even if it is still a tad repetitive.

Princess Kraehe: Shall I tell you what the Prince is moving towards becoming? […] The Prince will soon change. He’ll love only me, and he’ll find a young and beautiful heart for my Father and offer it up to him as a sacrifice. When the blood has finished permeating his whole heart, he will never go back to the way he was.

Fakir: Did you tell Tutu about all this?

Princess Kraehe: I should. If I did that I could make her suffer, couldn’t I?

And in case you couldn’t tell, Sato is at the helm of this episode, providing some wonderfully unique visuals.

This brings us to our new episodic plot thingy: Evil Mytho weaponizing his sex appeal!

To be specific, he’s looking for a girl with a “beautiful heart” so that he can take her heart and feed it to the Raven (which evidently would leave her in the same kind of emotionless state that Mytho was in at the beginning).

Mytho: The more beautiful the heart, the stronger the fragrance when it’s dyed in EVIL!

This is the part of the show where your enjoyment is greatly enhanced by an appreciation of ham & cheese.

This episode works quite well as an introduction to the new formula – Pique actually makes a lot of sense as the first victim, both in terms of storytelling and characterization.  She’s a little boy-crazy, and although she’s been around since the beginning of the show and thus (presumably) built up a little affection from the audience, she’s not such an important character that you wouldn’t buy that she could be seriously hurt.

Pique: I promise to love only you, and to hate everyone else, too.

The mingling of love and hatred is heavily associated with the Raven.  Interestingly, this is something of twisted echo of an element of Swan Lake: The vow of love, which is supposed to free Odette if it is kept.

Tutu manages to foil the plot this time, but the Raven’s power over Mytho is only getting stronger.

Drosselmeyer: Princess Tutu is the only one who can get back the Prince’s heart, but who can turn the heart soaked in Raven’s blood back to normal? Will Princess Tutu be able to do that?

Until next time…