The tale of Giselle is a sorrowful tale. A peasant man loves a beautiful peasant woman named Giselle, but a prince dressed as a peasant catches Giselle’s eye. When it’s reveal Giselle’s love is a prince, and already arranged to marry another, Giselle goes mad, killing herself with the prince’s sword. After her burial, she becomes a Wili, a sylph-like spirit destined to dance from midnight until dawn every night, luring men to dance with her until they collapse to death from exhaustion. The peasant who loved Giselle falls to this fate by other Wilis, while the prince finds himself enticed to dance with the Wili, Giselle. There are different endings to this story, one where the prince falls over and dies, one where he survives, but is left alone and heartbroken, and one where he survives, and goes off to marry the one with whom he was engaged. Another version has the prince not in love with Giselle, but simply toying with her for his own enjoyment.

To me, the true sad story is that of the presant man who loved Giselle, found jealously as she fell in love with another, and died in a dance with the other Wili on his way in search of Giselle’s grave.

The fate of a woman deceived by the one she loves, and whom dies before her wedding day, is to become a Wili. This is the fate Giselle knows, and it is the basis of the story in 4.AKT of Princess Tutu. It is title and subtitle for 4.AKT.

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Over at Borderline Hikikomori, Crisu writes about attempting a lecture on mahou shoujo. To this, Damien Kellis of Moe Check! responds with a piece on shoujo versus shounen. Considering that I’ve spent over four hours over the past two weekends working on an unfinished, content-light Cardcaptor Sakura post, I’m thoughtful on which magical girl series I’ve seen and enjoyed (or didn’t enjoy), and why.

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The German subtitle now points us to “Panorama”, from Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s composition for Sleeping Beauty. There’s actually only one scene which makes use of Sleeping Beauty‘s music. The rest is an assortment of pieces mostly from other composers heard in the first two AKTs.

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Whereas 1.AKT had an emphasis on Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, 2.AKT looks more to his Swan Lake, as well as pieces by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, from his Pictures at an Exhibition piano suite. Something to note, the episode preview at the end of the prior episode used “No. 28 Scene” from Swan Lake as its background music, and music from Swan Lake, as well as “No. 28 Scene” itself, appear in this AKT.

For 2.AKT, the subtitle is ～Shwanensee: Scène finale～, or “Swan Lake: Finale”. As with the prior AKT, this is the piece (and its ballet) which play during Princess Tutu’s part in this AKT.

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With 1.AKT begins “Chapter of the Egg”, the first half of the series. This also begins the first volume, titled Märchen, or “Fairytale” in English.

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