First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「KNOCK on the CORE」by (K)NoW_NAME

「灰かぶりの少女」 (Haikaburi no Shoujo)
“Ash-covered Girl”

Tales about war are ubiquitous. They’re in the cinema, on the television, in novels, comic books, and on the news. Fascination with war in abstract is endless. When viewed from a distance, the forge of battle has even been known to give birth to heroes and myth. But what happens to those heroes when the war ends? Do their stories end with it? Fairy Gone explores a post-war world where humans have driven fairies to the brink, and those who drove them there, the Fairy Soldiers, are treated like average citizens in the world they created – a world where magic is caged, bought, and sold.

Marlya Noel (Ichinose Kana) managed to escape when Lay Dawn (Tsuda Eizou) burned her village to ash to kill a nearby fairy nest. One time skip later, and she’s working for the mafia in an attempt to find the childhood friend who (maybe?) abandoned her that day. I’m not entirely sure myself on that front. In the prologue, Marlya’s friend returns to help her escape, yet in her fairy-fueled vision, Veronica (Fukuhara Ayaka) abandons her to pursue vengeance. There’s always the chance that the scene was meant to be symbolic of how Veronica’s quest for revenge created a rift between them, but then it still wouldn’t be clear why they split up in the first place.

Towards the start of the episode, the transition of the series from the end of the war to several years past came across disjointed. Without knowing why her and Veronica parted ways or why Marlya spent so long searching for her, it’s difficult to sympathize with the character’s motives. For example, it’s mentioned in passing that Marlya joined the mafia in order to find Veronica, but it’s never stated or implied why that action would have helped Marlya find her. Did Marlya know Veronica was stealing fairy artifacts? Has she been doing it for a while?

With the humans front and center, you may be wondering where the fairies are. Well, they’re actually CGI monstrosities that dwell within the humans, including an ex-soldier who actively fought against them in the war, only to come out when it’s time to do battle with other fairies. Additionally, since the focus of the series appears to revolve around Marlya’s estranged relationship with Veronica, the actual fairies themselves don’t appear to hold much weight in the narrative. While it’s not a bad idea to use fantasy elements to tell a well-worn tale of friendship and revenge, if you could change those elements out with any other creature or setting and not impact the story in a significant way, then you’re not using the genre to its full potential.

Case in point, look at the magic Veronica wields. Spitting up black sludge may be effective for killing, but wouldn’t it be more visually interesting and a better use of the medium if the men she fought grew flower petals from their necks or broke into a frenetic jig? From the beginning, the show was presented with a washed-out and dull color palette, which works fine with the somber material except the pathos shorthand hasn’t been earned. The audience hasn’t seen the beauty of the world as it presumably was when the fairies coexisted with the humans, so there’s no way to truly appreciate what the characters have lost. However, the color did noticeably lighten after Marlya joined forces with the undercover ex-Fairy Soldier, so it could have represented how cold and dreary everything seemed before they crossed paths. And, to be fair, their interactions were without a doubt the highlight of the episode. They play off each other naturally, trading banter like they’ve known each other for years instead of minutes, and the soldier even had a line or two that was genuinely funny. So long as their relationship and further world building are the focal points of the show, and hopefully not the CGI battles or Veronica, Fairy Gone promises to be an entertaining, if perhaps not overly compelling, watch.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Ash-like Snow」by [K]NoW_NAME

Preview

19 Comments

  3. I really liked this. Some of the things the reviewer demands explanation for are actually pretty obvious and don’t really need explanation, like the fact being part of the mafia would certainly give Maria access to a lot of information which would help her find her friend, specially if Maria knew Veronica was involved in criminal activities herself.

    Also, the fairy soldiers didn’t fight fairies in the war. They fought a neighboring country for unification.

    As for the reason Veronica is so obsessed with revenge and Maria so obsessed about reconnecting with her, this will be fleshed out along the way. I think it’s nonsensical to expect the first episode to explain this since it’s obviously not something that can be shown in a single scene. Eventually we’ll probably get an entire flashback episode showing how Lay Dawn attacked their village and what really happened to Veronica and Maria back then.

    This is supposedly a 24-episode show so there’s no reason for the staff to rush things up. All the first episode needed to do is lay the groundwork, and that it did just fine.

    Lin
    Reply

    1. I am in accord with this take on the first episode. I do get the impression (from other sites primarily) that there seems a good number of viewers who are uncomfortable watching a show when they don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. As an aside, while the scenery may be poorly lit, it is not inappropriately so. The action takes place in a theatre, its backstage, and out on the street at night. It should be pretty gloomy.

      We’ll see how it goes but so far, so good.

      Mockman
      Reply

  4. https://randomc.net/image/Fairy%20Gone/Fairy%20Gone%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2004.jpg

    +

    Possessing a unique power capable of possessing animals, fairies are considered valuable, for when the organs of possessed animals are transplanted into ordinary humans, they become Fairy Fighters

    I get an guts feeling, this Village was an “breeding spot” for these Fairy Soldiers

    because
    https://randomc.net/image/Fairy%20Gone/Fairy%20Gone%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2024.jpg

    She got really easy an own Fairy. So perhaps they done some medical experiments on them for the War for create more Fairy Soldiers

    Is just my hunch

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

  9. Ep 02:

    – Let me just say this: I nail it…about the past of Suna
    – It is like the description said. It’s about ex-Soldiers that “suddenly” got out of commision. Someones made it back into peace, others stuck in War
    – Nice “guitars music” as background music at fights. it will land on the youth and be out of ordinary
    – Seems like we still are at the World build, the great background is laid. But the Villains and such are about to be introduced

    2/3 done

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

  10. Ep 03:

    – I still did not found the Key for this Anime

    – I expand the 3 Episodes rule to 5.. But my hopes to find the fitting Key to this Chain is low

    3/5 passed..

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

    1. – ep 01:

      We got 3 Person playing the MC. the Man the Girl and the GF of this Girl
      – ep 02:

      We got 3 Person playing the MC. The Man the Girl and an old Pal of the Man

      – ep 03:

      We got 3 Person playing the MC. The Man the Girl and an old pal of the Man

      do you see the similarity?

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

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