"Once upon a time, fairies were tools of war."
The story takes place in a world where fairies possess and dwell in animals, giving them mysterious abilities. By removing the organs of a possessed animal and transplanting them into humans, fairies can be summoned as an alter ego and be used as a weapon. Such individuals who used fairies as war tools were called "Fairy Soldiers." Once the war was over and they completed their roles, the soldiers lost their purpose. Some began working for the government, some joined the mafia, and some even became terrorists, as each chose their own way to live.
Nine years have passed since the war. The protagonist Mariya is a new recruit of "Dorothea," an organization which investigates and suppresses fairy-related crimes. Amidst the unstable political situation, criminals with lingering wounds from the war and past conflicts emerge and engage in terrorism as an act of revenge. This is the story of Fairy Soldiers, fighting for their own justice in a chaotic postwar world.
(Source: MAL News)
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Comentários
Stark700
I want to say congratulations to P.A. Works. Congratulations on making an original anime that I found almost as lifeless as Glasslip. Mind you, that’s an impressive feat. I’m a big fan of P.A. Works when it comes to their work so saying this wasn’t easy. But man, Fairy Gone is a show that I wish I watched on an airplane so I can forget about it after I land. P.A. Works seems to have two modes for their projects: it’s either really creative that makes a supreme impression or something that looked like it could’ve be written by a college dropout. As a fan ofP.A. Works, I’ve seen anime that were great, average, and terrible. Fairy Gone gets the honor of being uncharismatic trash. Because to be honest, even when there are garbage like Glasslip out there, that show managed to deliver some unintentional humor. Fairy Gone’s humor is just…gone
At first glance, I may sound a bit outspoken about this original show. Fairy Gone’s premise and story concepts sounds interesting on paper. I mean, just read that thing on the MAL page. “Once upon a time, fairies were tools of war”. When you get an impactful statement like that to start off a synopsis, it sounds like a deafening roar for potential. Even the setting sounded creative enough for world building. My initial vision for the show is a tragic, memorable fantasy war story with meaningful characters and breathtaking plot. After watching the first few episodes, a voice told me I was dead wrong for it managed to drop the ball week after week and after week. To get a general idea, we meet the main female protagonist Marlya Noel, a girl who survived and lives in the aftermath of the War of Unification. With an ability to see fairy primordials, she has one goal in her mind and that’s to find her childhood friend, Veronica. It doesn’t take long for the audience to meet Veronica as she debuts in the very first episode. Her true goals are a mystery but involves collecting pages of a mysterious artifact known as the Black Fairy Tome. It doesn’t help that the show throws info dump about the war at you with a lot questions that needs answers.
But backtracking a bit, Fairy Gone isn’t that confusing as a show together. I mean, we have anime about supernatural organizations with main characters dealing with tragic pasts in recent years. Bungou Stray Dogs, Kekkai Sensen, P.A. Work’s own Sirius are just a few to name. What makes Fairy Gone troubling is its oversaturated character cast with a weak set of main stars. I’m not going to lie, Marlya doesn’t give me the impression of a special snowflake despite her unique gift. There are scenes in the first few episodes that makes her feel helpless compared to some of her comrades. On the other hand, there’s Veronica who will no doubt make us wonder why she exists. Unfortunately, I don’t really get Veronica as a character. On the surface, there’s the childhood relationship between her and Marlya. As explored through some flashbacks, it’s told through with words and scenes to make them look like close friends. But do we care? I’ll be honest because I don’t. It feels way too scripted that follows some sensational dialogues and face expressions. Somehow, the show seeks to make a memorable impression of this character relationship. When in reality, it missed the mark by a long shot.
In the present, we also meet characters like Free Underbar who partners with Marlya during their missions. Joining them in the Dorothea branch also includes Klara, Serge, Lily, Robert, Oz, Nein, Chima, and some doctor’s name I can’t remember. Oh right, Eleanor Need. Mind you, this is just one branch consisting of characters with given names. With such an oversaturated cast, most of them are left in the dust with little screen time compared to the main stars. It’s a shame because our main characters can’t carry the show at all with their uninspiring personalities. You can bet that none of the others can either.
Fairy gone more or less follows a war story with its themes. Director Kenichi Suzuki previously worked on titles such as Drifters. However, it’s definitely not charismatic as that show. To be fair, Fairy Gone losses its energy almost whenever a character opens their mouth. The dialogues sounds so scripted that I can’t imagine how much I can endure after every week. As time went on, even some of the fights begins to look scripted although it does manage to bounce back occasionally with its cinematic performances. At the very least, P.A. Works seems to have a tolerable budget to work with this anime given the overall animation quality. On the other hand, I do wish they stop overusing similar music every episode during the big fights. It makes it look more like an AMV than a fight at all.
This is a disaster. It’s a disappointing disaster considering what potential it had. When Fairy Gone was first advertised with its trailers, narratives, and key visuals, I was hoping to see another worthy show to join P.A. Works’ original lineup. Instead, forget about all that because this is one of those anime that failed with what potential it had. There, I just saved you many boobless hours.
slavemaster_1991
OK, so the first part is over. While 24 episode anime could get better by doing something with the plot, those 12 episodes that we have on hand are just bad. First problem: The plot. While it started like your typical adventure with goals for MC to achieve, it ended more like some "slice of life cop story" - simply put, nothing contributes to the main plot and nothing moves it. MC did not even get a bit closer to her goal, most of the cast simply does not have a goal to begin with. Yes, authors try to convince us there is some scheming andpolitics involved, but they look like child's first fan fiction.
Second problem: The world: mismatch of styles, you have legged and wheeled vehicles, you have robots with medieval cannons and infantry with 20th century guns and heroes with swords. If I am to put aside the style, there arises a problem with world presentation: you are bombarded with dozens of organisations, and even more names, but the problem is - most of them will never appear again. Even some "big dudes" who are supposed to be major figures in the world appeared a few times and were never heared about after that. What was even the point? Oh, and from this comes another problem:
Third problem: The characters. Cause there are so many of them, even the MC crew are never given any development. We get all the story from uninteresting flashbacks, while characters themselves sometimes behave nothing close to those flashbacks. As example: cool army dude who survived on the frontlines and is tough as nails can't beat anyone in main story. And that is not even the worst part of the problem, main villain is given powers and skills, but wins battles not by using them, but by turning everyone around him in stormtrooper. A waste of potential, if you ask me.
Fourth problem: The art. CG is terrible and looks out of place, 2D can give you sometimes a fine image, but sometimes it goes into "where did my budget go" area, with faces and figures simplified to a laughable result. It could be ok if it only occured in mass scenes, but with 2 or 3 characters on screen simplified faces made with a few lines look really terrible.
The only good thing: music. Yes, this is the only point that felt satisfying. But good music in an action anime is not able to pull it from the pit of its problems.
Overall: this anime is disappointing: it was an original, it had a potential, interesting timeline + interesting powers, but the execution of every single idea failed miserably. I recommend avoiding this one and saving yourself time.
KANLen09
Fairy Gone? More like @kataneer's succinct words: Fairy is TRULY Gone. This series brings back a ton of similarities to when P.A.Works and its staff were wanting to focus on more original stuff with interesting but overwhelming storylines, decent action-animation, and a lombastic OST to boot. That my friends, is the debut of last year's Sirius the Jaeger, the vampire show that is at least good, if not decent. Fast forward another year or so, and with the director of the beloved Hataraku Saibou, and the abominable scriptwriting and composition of Ao Jumonji, comes Fairy Gone: a clusterfuck of political warfare, the power of friendship, and mindlesspower struggles. So much so that my ridicules of people telling me that "I don't understand", is truly an understatement.
So first, the story:
No.1, A story of the post-political war, where everyone can reside in peace...if not for the mechanical figures called "fairy soldiers". With a blow-whistle, their commands to the masters at ever beck and call.
No.2 A story about power struggles amongst mafia groups on the verge of assassinating one another when there's enough power to knock off opponents and their "summoning fairy" powers.
No. 3 A story about 2 girls, one lucky and the other, not so lucky. Marlya, a cursed child that bemoans and begets experiences while the other (Veronica) is smart and evasive (and it shows), but somehow that "friendship" tag seems to have been dropped off at some point.
And to think that this is ONLY the 1st cour? Well, well, wait for the Fall season to rethink all these thoughts again. And yes, P.A.Works, we're waiting.
The characters themselves are like too, a clusterfuck of characters that I can relate to some, but most of them (plus the royal ministers) are just too much deadweight to carry through.
Starting with Dorothea, the fairy organization posed to help bring peace unto the nation (that is United Zesskia), Marlya, Free Underbar, and their band of mercenaries come off as a group that is somewhat similar to daily-patrolling officers doing their duty to keep that peace running.
Add into the mix, the Seven Knights (Ray Dawn, Beevee Liscar and more to come), with their positions literally sounding like champions for causes, it's no wonder that as much as their background duties offer their façade and double-personality side of being traitors of a once political country.
Adding EVEN more fuel to the fire is the various mafia groups (Gui Carlin, Arcame) doing their own illegal shiz behind the scenes, and good luck trying to piece their connections (if you're paying extreme attention).
And as usual, I really wanted to advocate for P.A.Works' track record at shows they have done before (yes, we're looking at you Glasslip). The BAD side of P.A.Works. I don't know about you, but it seems that in recent times, the studio's magic in quality art and animation has begun its downfall with either experimentation of the tried-and-true formula of Sirius the Jaeger. Don't get me wrong, while the latter has some good spots here and there which makes it decently enjoyable, Fairy Gone is a convoluted mess of 2D artwork meshed with 3D "fairy" figures, while animation-wise it took a nosedive, while offering good scenic visuals. And that's all I have to say about it.
On the music side, [K]NoW_NAME is the anchor musician for the entire series, and I'd have to say that I was not prepared for the great-sounding BGM songs during the series' action plots, along with the literally "Knock on the Core" OP. It sounded great, but that's as much excitement as I will be getting for this series alone. Others were meh to OK.
Fairy Gone's 1st Cour is an absolute failure, how can Kenichi Suzuki and his production staff reel from this? It's time to either get cracking or change the formula altogether. Either way, 2 seasons to go. Let the 2nd Cour justify the underwhelms we have here.
Raggadish
I´m actually a bit surprised about the amount of hate, negative critique, bashing and low scoring Fairy Gone Part 1 has received both during and after its airtime. I really can´t understand most of the foundations of said hate and bashing either, I thought the show had several good qualities and enjoyed most parts of it. So, I will give my slightly more positive point of view in this review. Shortly described, Fairy Gone centres around a continental scale political intrigue in a post war society. Before the war several nations existed, which most fought for its independence, but the outcome of the war was theunification of the continent under one leader and the war came to be called the unification war. In this world creatures called Fairy´s exists, which has different special abilities and strengths. Humans as they are had found a way to exploit that in the context of war, by taking organs from the Fairies and implant them into compatible humans. The Fairy enhanced humans can therefore summon the Fairy and use it as they please, which was a crucial part of the outcome of the war. After the war ended, these types of human-fairy hybrids became illegal to produce, and the ones left was ordered to work for the government owned agency Dorothea or classed as outlaws. The story takes place some 10 years after the wars end, where a fragile peace is threatened by multiple sources, and we get to follow characters on different sides of the brewing conflict.
In addition to the main political intrigue, there is side themes such the search of a childhood friend, and the mystery about something called the Fairy Tombs which is old texts written by scholars who studied the Fairy´s and collected the knowledge into five books. These books are now highly wanted and valued by many, especially the Black Fairy Tomb, which explores something called “Fairy possession”, which is a rare occurring phenomenon of a Fairy fusing with a human without any surgery.
As foundations, I think these are interesting themes which they use, explore and develop during these first 12 episodes. Overall, this is more a story driven show rather and character driven one, which could be a `yay`or `nej`for some. The pacing is typical for this kind of plot, with some shorter arc format, where we get to know the characters and their connections, the structure and background of their society, and clues to the schemes that brewing in the Empire. I liked this concept and was always looking forward to a new episode and what it would explore. Is this the most unique and well written work ever done? Of course not, but I found it enjoyable in many aspects, and it do build on itself nicely. I much prefer these types of stories from P.A. Works before their slow-paced unrealistic dramas that they usually produce.
Fair waring though, Fairy Gone do demand your attention and focus to understand the connections of all story threads it has going on, geographical places and to keep track of all the characters (there are quite many). So, if you are looking for something you can enjoy while browsing your phone or watching with just half your attention, don´t bother. It will not be enjoyable since you will have no idea what´s going on.
There are some direction issues, where they choose to just show short glimpses of backstory (often non-linearly and geographically hard to place as well) spread out over several episodes instead of having one proper backstory episode were things would been more coherent. Fairy Gone also has so many things going on at the same time, and a large cast, which did not make it ultimately best watched on a weekly basis. I highly recommend watching it as coherent as possible time wise to get a good flow which will allow you to have all the names and places fresh in memory, and the experience will for sure get better that way.
We mainly get to follow Marlya, a teenager who´s village was destroyed by one of the now ruling dukes when she was a child. She was one of the few that escaped alive together with her slightly older childhood friend Veronica. They get separated shortly afterwards, and Marlya has been looking for Veronica ever since. So, to survive alone in the world she joined a mafia group, and during an assignment she runs in to the Dorothea agent Free. During an incident that evening Marlya comes in the possession of a Fairy and joins Free to work for Dorothea.
It is mainly though Marlya and Free and their missions we get to explore the story´s themes. Free is a fairy veteran from the war and carries the baggage that comes with it – lost comrades, the experiences of the battlefield and all the destruction it holds. Marlya is like most young women, slightly naïve in her world view, strong in her believes and emotions, but also struggles with self-doubt and survivals guilt. Even though neither of their characters was super unique or deeply developed I enjoyed them as mains and their dynamic. They form a bound throughout their journeys and starts to trust and support each other with a tenderness rarely showcased in anime. Their interactions were actually one of the highlights of the show for me. There so many more characters, and many still haven´t been explored nearly enough either, such as the more important characters Wolfarm and Veronica, which only have gotten the base exploration so far. But with 12 episodes left in the second cour, I still have my hopes up.
I think P.A. Works has done a great job with the art and animation; it looks good. It also holds the quality along the way, and some parts like the CGI fairies even improves (they looked kind of out of place in the beginning). The characters have their own distinct design which can´t be confused with any other works. The backgrounds are often detailed, beautifully coloured and highlights the scene. Like a golden lit stone cobble street at night, a library filled with books in the light of an open fire or the ruins of a long-abandoned castle, it all looks very good and creates a suiting atmosphere. The fight scenes are fluid and detailed, and the animation overall besides the CGI is seldom jerky or sloppy. Cuddos to P.A. Works for that.
The soundtrack is probably a hit or miss for most people, it contains a lot of vocal tracks. I quite enjoyed, and for most parts I think they matched the music well with the scene. The VA´s was well matched and did their job well, no complains there at all.
I might belong to the minority that actually thought Fairy Gone Part 1 was a good and interesting show and was enjoying it, but I guess I belong to the minority of this site as well (female and 30+). I think it had a lot of good things going on for it with just some miner downsides that I could easily cope with. And with 12 more episodes to go, it still could develop from good to great, depending on which themes and routes they decide to develop. So, I can warmly recommend Fairy Gone to any that can live with conditions I just mentioned and enjoy it for what it is.
Chapterhouse
Oof. I really wanted to like this one, but it ended up being a huge disappointment. First I'll start by saying this is one of the most bland anime I've ever seen. It's like a rice cake, except you're not even allowed to add any toppings of your own because that would at least be a little bit exciting. When making this show it seems they wanted to avoid taking any risks, and that killed any chance Fairy Gone had for being memorable or special as a show. 1. The characters. Characterization is generally a thing you want to have in your show, but Fairy Gonesays nah to that. Marlya wants to find Ver - that's the most motivation you'll get. But Ver only shows up early in the show and again in the middle, then disappears. What really is Ver's motivation? What is Marlya's motivation? We get brief shots of Ver and Marlya together as kids, but you barely get a sense of connection between the two. Hell you barely get a sense of connection between anyone. What is Free's motivation? What does Free enjoy - where is he from - what are some of his quirks or special talents? Apply this to all the other characters, and you begin to realize you know absolutely nothing about these people. They're cardboard cutouts with overly tragic backstories that spend 95% of the plot talking about the plot instead of acting like real human beings. Marlya's backstory: "I'm a cursed child. Everyone around me is dead. As soon as I was born, both my parents died." The joke writes itself.
Combine this with too many characters, and I end up not caring about anyone or anything that's happening to them. I know next to nothing interesting about these people and their lives, connections, motivations, etc. My favorite character, incidentally, is the little blue creature Marlya finds because it's adorable and I want to pet it. Talking about the magic blue creature transitions well into the second point now:
2. The fairies. This is a big one for me. One of the things that surprised me most about Ancient Magus Bride was how the magic actually felt, well, magical. It brought the world to life and was intertwined in almost every aspect of the show. So what do fairies add to this show?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I got interested by the story initially because I thought it might tackle the idea of fairies being used wrongfully by humans for war, but no, this is never brought up for even a second. In fact, fairies have zero connection or meaning to the humans they're bonded with. This is easily one of the biggest missed opportunities in my mind. You could've had a story where fairies fights alongside their humans pokemon-style, but they also act like spirit animals and have personal connections and backstories to the people they're bonded with. Imagine characters with meaningful ties to their fairies, and with a bunch of fairy technology and lore integrated into the fantasy world too. You could've done sooo much with magic fairies, but in Fairy Gone they're used as nothing more than occasional fighting gimmicks, and the world feels about as magical as the real life of your average otaku shut-in.
'Fairy Gone' is an accurate title, come to think of it, because the fairies don't do shit in this show.
3. The story. You like exposition dumps? Yeah I'll bet you do. On paper, this show's story isn't actually that bad. It's mostly about war and betrayal and royalty in power and stuff, which is fine, but the way it's told could've been done a lot better. When it isn't dumping boring technical info about the war, it seems like Fairy Gone keeps jumping between locations and plot points without much care for what's happening. Suddenly there are "fairy weapons" we need to get. Suddenly there's a new thief we need to chase. Suddenly there's an evil evil colonel who loves to fight because he's evil. The story doesn't feel focused at all, and yet it's the only thing the characters talk about. What's the next place to go? What's the next item to find? How about the black fairy tome? Well that sound interesting, maybe we'll get to learn more about how fairies work and why they're important to the world! ...nope.
4. The animation and sound. I've never been one to hate a show too much for its animation/sound, so I don't have a lot to say on this. The action scenes are okay and maybe the most enjoyable parts of the show. The characters seem off-model a lot though. Combine this with awkward fairy CG and I'll pass on the art department. The Japanese voice acting is solid. I hate the opening theme, and a lot of the background music too. Pass on the sound.
Last observations. There's a character named Bitter Sweet. There's a character. Named. BITTER. SWEET. Incredible. (She also disappears midway through and never appears again)
Back to that cute little blue creature - someone said it could detect fairies and magic and stuff. So why is it never used once in the story? Why are there not more of these creatures or any other magic creatures shown? Again, the magic setting means absolutely nothing to this show.
Evil guy whistling as he slowly walks toward soldiers shooting at him. Really.
The politics are dull and forgettable. I don't remember any of the involved character's names, years of the war, etc.
So much stuff from the beginning of the show was forgotten about by the end. How did Marlya absorb the fairy? What is Wolfran doing? Who are all these mafia groups? Why am I still watching this?
That ending. Despite everything I've said so far, I wan't groaning in annoyance at most of the show, I was just bored. The ending changed that too.
Overall I thought this show was really bad. My love for fantasy stories is the only thing that kept my attention to the end, and I admit I'd still take another season of this over most harem anime or lucky-star style comedies any day. I can't see a second season bringing this one back, but they could do it if the characters got complete overhauls to have more personality, more inner thoughts and motivations, and better connections with the people around them. And for the love of god, do something, anything, with the fairies and the magical world you've created. Is that too much to ask?
LegendAqua
"Once upon a time, fairies were discount Jojo's Stands..." Fairy Gone was one of LA's most anticipated for the Spring 2019 and well...LA won't drag this along but Fairy Gone was underwhelming and for this being a first season, it didn't give LA the best impression for this anime. Like Fairy Gone from it's outset was a PA Works original anime and with the setting of it being in an aftermath of a fairy war, so LA would have thought this would be a much dramatic, serious and character driven anime, it got one out of the three. Fairy Gone follows Marlya Noel voiced by Kana Ichinose,a fairy soldier who's extremely unlucky in her life with her trying to find her long lost friend Veronica Thorne voiced by Ayaka Fukuhara, she latter joins the Dorothean Army to uncover Fairy Weapons, a push to another Fairy War and again...to find Veronica again. Marlya does have the narrative focus in the anime, but Free Underbar voiced by Tomoaki Maeno also gets narrative focus with similar instances to Marlya in finding someone. The premise itself is fine, it's just the execution in it all and how slow-paced, bogged down in world building of the political structures, massive expositions and huge character backstory dumps that ultimately makes Fairy Gone an absolute slog. yes Fairy Gone DOES have it's moments, especially when it actually goes into it's climax and things starts going into motion, but it's the build up and how slow paced everything is just made the experience watching Fairy Gone.....meh.
Fairy Gone's world building and character development was at LEAST decent in this respect and one of the core strengths to the anime, world building is very fleshed out especially with backstory of the previous war, current tech of the world of Fairy Gone and how intrinsic the fairy powers are (as much as it's apes from Jojo's Stands that LA joked at the start of the review) but Fairy Gone's world building was nonetheless very fleshed out. Character development does make the characters....decent, some not even needing backstory or development and we get their personality very easily. Of course Maryla and Free does get the majority of the character development and backstory but some of the Dorothean cast gets some backstory, sometimes outta nowhere...like Klara Kysenaria voiced by Ayaka Suwa. But again with how focused Fairy Gone is with it's world building and sporadic character backstory...it of course will slow down and bog down what is already very precarious, heavy plotlines and setting.
PA Works nonetheless did a great job in the animation, cept in the Fairy Jojo Stands and the humanoid mecha, where the CGI was janky which is given some grace with the humanoid mecha, but man the Fairy Jojo Stands were blatant and out-rightly...ugly at times. JOJO's STANDS were animated better than this. PA Works nonetheless great in it's character designs and it's backgrounding, everything else....just meh...yes even the FIGHTS....and uhhh that's saying something.
The voice cast at least make sup for it as the entire cast sounded like they did their all in this anime, from Kana Ichinose as Marlya, Tomoaki Maeno as Free and Ayaka Suwa as Klara. LA will gives special props to Kana Ichinose as Marlya and really the voice cast at least held up and they sounded like they did their all.
Fairy Gone will have a second season but as much as this first season did go out with a bang at the ending, Fairy Gone's first season DID NOT give LA a best impression and with it also being one of LA's anticipated animes of Spring 2019 and failing in multiple elements....yeah...LA was HIGHLY disappointed by this without a doubt as it's weakness of being such a slow-paced, scattershoted expositional, character fillery plot just outweighed it's strengths of fleshed out world building and some decent character backstory. In the worse light reminded LA of another PA Works work, Glasslip where it fleshed out it's supernatural element but did NOTHING with it's characters or plot (at least Fairy Gone HAS some motivation with it's characters and it's story elements are utilized to a fair degree). And no just "waiting for it to get better" doesn't work for as LA is looking at the first season and first season only and LA was not impressed to say the least and with it announcing a second season...LA isn't jumping at the notion of watching the second season but LA WILL get to watching it, one time or another. Fairy Gone's first season can for LA be summed up in three words...
Slow and DISAPPOINTED
NekoCatSidhe
Honestly, I am not sure why that anime got such a low score. That show is not perfect, and it had some issues, but it really did not deserve the amount of hate and vitriol you find in the reviews here. My best guess is that it is a matter of expectations : the people leaving these reviews seemed to expect the show to be something it was not : a fast paced action shonen, or something like that. Maybe something either like Full Metal Alchemist or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. So they watched it, but instead they got a slow-paced and atmospheric steampunk Noir mystery, withmorally gray characters, a complex plot full of confusing politics and original worldbuilding, and a story that was about the scars that war can leave on people and society, and about the futility of revenge and the necessity to give it up and move on for the sake of protecting a fragile peace. So they hated it, because it was not what they wanted or expected from that show. And I liked it, because I love that stuff, but it is not something you normally find in anime. I would still recommend it though, if you want to watch something that it different from your standard battle shonen anime.
Endrance88
I am so very disappointed by this show. The first episode was decent, the animation is great, and the main character was very cute. But that's where all the pros end. everything else is very very bad. AND BORING I was expecting some big epic plot to happen but all they did was look for some book while not accomplishing much of anything.They don't take their subplots anywhere
They didn't make the main character and her "stand" interesting enough.
The colors make you want to fall asleep.
The universe isn't properly explored.
IT DOESN'T GO ANYWHERE.
Avoid this anime at all costs. I thought it was going to be a great show like ergo proxy; boy was I wrong. Watch Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin instead, you'll get a lot more from it.
This youtube video pretty much sums up how I felt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_vYTWmab18
PyraXadon
You know, I'll give P.A. Works this, the plot at least seems interesting this time. Compared to Sirius's seemingly generic story idea or how Irozuku is situated in high school, this one at least has a new setting. Unfortunately that's about the only pass for it I've got... Story: The fractured continent was brought together under the name of 'Unified Zesskia' nine years ago after a long period of war to unify the smaller nations thanks to the the liberal use of fairies and 'Fairy Soldiers', warriors created by implanting the creatures' organs into suitable hosts. As a victim of the war, Marlya Noel joins the neutralfaction of Dorothea as the tensions of this newly unified nation arise all the while a figure from her past appears amidst the chaos.
Fairy Gone is a lot of things. It's a series about the dirtied history and politics of the story's setting, the illegal activity involving three mafia families that each hold secondary power to the government, the secret of the 'Black Fairy Tome' and the lore of the fairies, and one girl's journey to defy her own preconceived notions and search for her friend after the death of her village. Just at a glance, the story of Fairy Gone is so incredibly dense with material that it actually begs the question what on earth P.A. thought was going to happen when they decided that they only had twelve episodes to pull maximum half of this off.
As such, pacing is the one major issue this series has. At any point in the series, the story is running at least two concurrent story threads where in one scene, we'll see members of Dorothea follow a lead for something before quickly switching to another perspective a few seconds alter that builds things up from behind the scenes, switching back, then conjoin the two so that the narrative fits together in the end for the story to come to a close. However the mileage on how well this style of storytelling is executed is heavily variable due to how the story will sometimes bracket the secondary thread and elongate it into the next arc, therefore making it so that the conjoining point encompasses EVERYTHING seen before like some kind of domino effect.
If the series had less plot threads than it did, it would've worked out. But unfortunately because of P.A.'s narrative decisions, everything feels wholly incomplete: Marlya's story is largely thrown to the side a few episodes in as she's no longer the only focus, the interesting lore of the fairies and by extension the artificial fairies is never touched on to explain any details about them aside from what we see visually, the mafia families serve as more of a convenient plot element to throw in wrenches for the sake of adding more unnecessary characters, thus leaving the whole political element which by comparison is the only functional aspect of the story the series has.
But even that's not really all that interesting because so many parts of the show make it abundantly clear that 'peace' is impossible, so none of it is really a surprise the moment the series does a one-eighty by the end by unleashing the most predictable civil war possible given the numerous amount of anti-political sentiment shared among the side cast.
Because of all of this, Fairy Gone falls into the unfortunate group of shows with "Great Idea, Bad Execution", a trend that plagues P.A. Works to the point that I'm not even surprised anymore. Granted there is a season two airing October 2019, but the damage to the series is already done given how messy and incoherent the series already is as a result of its less than stellar story presentation and execution. It's so goddamn rushed that I've had to do a number of double takes to make sure I've got everything down because there are an absurd amount of jump cuts and scene changes that it's just sometimes jarring to watch.
Characters:
Marlya Noel is about the closest thing this series has to a protagonist. A girl who considers herself unlucky due to the sheer amount of people that've died around her because of her mere presence, a lot of Marlya's character revolves around her newfound purpose of trying to do right in Dorothea and searching for her friend, Veronica, who disappeared some time nine years ago after their village burns down. Even with a new fairy embedded somewhere in her chest, the show doesn't make enough of an effort to make her a protagonist worth rooting for. So much of her time is devoted to watching her mope around, including an entire episode devoted to hammering in how little she thinks of herself by revealing a backstory where some other dude in her past died with her around. I find it really hard to root for her and wished the series sometimes just dropped her instead of using her to introduce things while also trying to grow her character.
Free Underbar is another character I'll choose to mention only because both he and Marlya are rarely seen apart. Free's character...isn't at all fleshed out, and this becomes a common trend amongst a majority of the cast. Because the show is heavily focused on story above else, the bits of character that we are shown matter little in the long run, and that's no different with this man. There're a few backstory moments like the day he gets his fairy and flashbacks from the war, but Free largely doesn't do anything aside from function as the Dorothea lapdog that he's made out to be.
Similarly, most if not every other character follows a similar, unfortunate pattern of just being just a pawn in the grand story of this political nightmare. And not in the good way. Every episode to couple episodes reveals a new character in some form or another, whether or not they be members of Dorothea, government officials, 'mysterious figures' with motives not shown (and probably will never be shown), mafia people who get stupid names like 'Bitter Sweet' (seriously, what the hell), or people in flashbacks who ultimately don't matter because exploration of character is stupid and who needs that when we've got a war to fight?! It's best to see these characters as the stage puppets they are since ultimately their impact to the story is only skin deep at being a member of the some seven odd factions that exist in this series. Because yeah, that makes sense to reveal in a twelve episode season.
Aesthetics:
I'm not really a fan of P.A.'s work this time around. Fairy Gone lends itself to a darker aesthetic where the colors are more drab or dark with the few colors that do exist have themselves be muted to give off a more serious and mature look to the series. On the note of characters, one thing that the style really likes to do this time is really exemplify the lips, particularly of the female cast where they either have a noticeable gloss to them that makes them pop out more and/or has a curl in the middle to make them seem more 'realistic'. Personally I'm not a fan and it was weirdly distracting for me to see so much emphasis, especially on one particular character who seems like a big fan of botox. Ultimately, the art itself is functional and still lends itself to the style, but compared to what the company is capable of, I'm just not that impressed.
The one thing I will note for art are the fairies and how despite being CGI monsters that clash with the typical style of the series, are genuinely interesting to look at. Aside from the tiny primordials (who don't get an explanation), each fairy from the characters that wield them physically look different and are more reminiscent of European folklore's fae creatures that take on numerous horrendous or monstrous designs with their own unique skillsets. I'm just personally a fan because anything that uses the original meaning of fairy with interesting, unique designs is just better in my book.
Animation is largely saved for the fight scenes which are fluid enough to warrant being noted. Of course the CGI models for the fairies cut down on costs, but the fight choreography is good enough to warrant interest. However it's not really anything special, especially given how a lot of the 'fight' scenes involve guns and ducking behind cover, with only a few featuring the swords and fairy weapons showcased.
As for the soundtrack, "KNOCK on the CORE" by (K)NoW_NAME is an OP that I've grown to have interest in only for the background choir and the steady rock beat that it has to really push how the show is an action-packed adventure despite having 'Fairy' in the title. It's a nice song that's worth a listen to, but that's about all I can really credit it for since beyond that, I don't really find it memorable. Similarly, its ED sister "Ash-like Snow" by the same artist is only interesting because of how it starts with the lead up of the piano before going into a song that largely feels generic despite how it starts.
Personal Enjoyment:
I'm just going to have to accept the fact that P.A. Works doesn't know the definition of 'follow through', now do I? Like all P.A. Works shows, I was very, very, very, very, very, VERY skeptical on how Fairy Gone was gonna do. The company only does original shows, and while the onset looked interesting, I was almost positive at the time of seeing this advertised that this was going to crash and burn somehow; I just didn't know how.
Well, apparently it's by following in the steps of Angel Beats and Charlotte by making the narrative so absurdly complex through dumping in every idea you could think of for the plot and saying 'no' to none of them. I'm honestly just tired having to write and say the same fucking thing for every P.A. Works, but they keep fucking doing it! Now I don't hate Fairy Gone. In fact, I actually find the show to be very interesting because of how many facets of this narrative they managed to cram in here. But because all of them are half-assed in the way they are, I find it very hard to give the show any other positive qualities aside from maybe neat designs for the soldiers' fairies. It's just...disheartening, really disheartening to see the same cycle get repeated season after season, year after year.
So ultimately I do not recommend this series. I'm still watching the second season just to know how it ends (and I've signed a blood oath to watch everything P.A. makes henceforth), but I think for the casual/typical watcher, you're better off finding something else to watch. A damn shame too cause a part of me was really looking forward to having something from this company to recommend to people aside from the usual three to four shows I found to be at least of decent quality.
ExaltedSenpai
It has been so long since I wrote a review but this anime is truly GONE. Fairy GONE is a terrible anime with a terrible story to boot. ~SPOILER FREE review~ TL;DR: Garbage anime do not bother watching, might cause brain damage. Story:2/10 The entire premise of the anime is shallow and does not have much of anything. It just overloads you with mundane information and finishes the story way too quickly. It is just like a nightmare, but you could not escape from it. Art:6/10 It has a decent art backing its disgraceful story. I cannot imagine how much money is spent on designing thispiece of garbage, that is getting a second season. Truly disappointing with what is has done other than depicting the terrible storyline, it could have done some truly amazing things with their art.
Sound: 7/10
Pretty decent, it has the right sounds as the right time and have the story in its control. The music is what make one want to watch the story not the other way around.
Character:5/10
Pretty terrible character development, things happen and they just kill off characters as they deem fit. Too many characters and too little development to understand them and their motives to do the things they do. It become quite underwhelming when it is a seasonal anime that is supposedly hyped up.
~ Overall: 5/10 ~
Honestly, I would not recommend anyone to watch this. It might just give you brain damage for all I know, this garbage anime that is.
RebelPanda
Like an undetected tumor, Fairy Gone wormed its way into the popular seasonal anime before it began airing. Soon enough it became clear this show would be nothing but a cancer. I just wanted a dark fantasy anime filled with fun action scenes! Was that so much to ask for? Instead, what I got was a borderline unwatchable train wreck. “Once upon a time, fairies were used as tools for war.” This tagline and promising poster art were the bait at the end of P.A.Work’s fishing rod, and they successfully baited me into watching it. Unfortunately, this is not about an army of Disney Tinker Bell fairieswielding rifles. What we got was closer to a cheap Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure knock-off; suspiciously the fifth part of Jojo was airing at the same time as this. Each main character is a soldier possessing one of these fairies: which are super-powered monsters that can be summoned at will during fights. They are the gimmick of this show, nothing else is original. Although the fairy's had enigmatic designs, they are animated with janky CGI at a low frame rate. The fairies look like otherworldly monsters, which fits their alien way of moving, if only it weren’t nauseating to look at. The fairies are tied to each user’s life, if it is injured, the user will receive damage as well. If it is damaged too much then it will need to recover before the next summon. These rules are frequently at play during fairy fights, which adds to the tension and the consequence of death or serious injury. When Fairy Gone is at its best, the soldiers fight each other in sword duels or rifle shoot outs while their fairies mirror their fight on a larger scale. There only a handful of these fights though; usually the protagonist is injured, preventing her from summoning her fairy. The fairies have abilities useful to each soldier’s specific fighting preference; the sword fighter has a werewolf brawler, the rifleman has a fire wielder, and a sniper has a long distance lookout fairy. If action and fairy fighting were the focus of this show it may have been good. Unfortunately, P.A. Works prioritized mind-numbingly boring dialogue rather than action. That brings us to the elephant in the room, the exposition dumps.
At the end of every episode, I was always left overwhelmed by all the information that was dumped onto me. After reading through the Wikipedia summaries for the sake of this review, I can say that there is definitely a story! But it’s only the skeleton of one. There’s no substance, no delivery, there is still no reason to care about Fairy Gone. If you told me this show was written by a robot, I would believe you. It’s like the P.A. Works anime machine went down a checklist of all the necessary parts to a political fantasy story.
1. Name the main guy something cool, like Free Underbar… Genius.
2. We need some giant edgy monsters to fight each other in epic duels, just call it supernatural.
3. Add a femme fatale and name her Bitter Sweet, because she is bitter and sweet. Damn, give these writers a raise.
4. Make the main characters trust the femme fatale so that she can betray them, then repeat that cycle a couple of times. People like twists, right?
5. Add politics to appeal to the intellectuals. Do any of our writers know how to write political drama? No? Just wing it.
6. Make a villain walk through a barrage of bullets while whistling and chuckling like a lunatic, for five minutes straight, without getting a single scratch on him. Logic be damned!!
“Show, don’t tell” is a rule all great stories follow, and if they don’t they end up like Fairy Gone. We are given dozens of names of places, people, and things, with no reason to care other than the hope it will be important later on. The exposition dumps are paced so slowly, but then the transitions from one location to the next are so breakneck fast that you’ll spend most of the new scene figuring out what’s going on. To the show’s credit, much of the information does get reincorporated later. Are you likely to remember everything by the time it becomes important? Not likely. I know I didn’t. I could only manage to recognize certain character names as they got introduced in person, rather than by a narrator. Once a previously named character meets the protagonist, she gives a sliver of information to know the basic outline of what is happening. Dialogue this repetitive usually makes a show worse, but without it, the story would be incomprehensible. Some context is better than none, I suppose. Some of the info dumps are just a bunch of random old dudes discussing politics for a while. At the beginning, there are some emotional stakes in the show worth caring about, but it is quickly forgotten.
The protagonist, Marlya, has one interesting motivation, her relationship with Veronica. She is a fairy wielder fighting for the enemy. Her fairy is so badass, it enters people’s wounds and blowing them up inside out. Through flashbacks, we find that they were childhood friends, separated during a chaotic invasion, leaving them on different sides in the aftermath. If Fairy Gone had played to its strengths, it would have developed the duality between Marlya’s choice to defend the greater good opposed to Veronica’s goal to seek revenge against the government. Needless to say, it did not develop this relationship past the first episode. Marlya acts determined to speak to Veronica and mend their friendship, but it never happens. A plotline the second season will likely address. The rest of the story feels deplorable, you could read a Wikipedia summary instead and lose absolutely nothing. There is no benefit to watching this anime, it looks so bad that you would be better off just reading about it.
P.A. Works is known for their beautiful artwork and consistent animation, neither of which is anywhere to find in this anime. At first, there was some good background art here and there. Early on there was greatly detailed forestry, overgrown moss covering dilapidated castles, dynamic lighting as the time of day changes. But that’s as far as my praise for the art will go. It wasn’t anything special, but it was detailed. The visuals quickly devolve into a mess of awful animation. Zoom shots are used ad nauseam to convey motion, sometimes so poorly that you can see the big ass pixels all over the screen! Character designs are off model 100% of the time unless if the shot is a close-up. This is a huge problem from the start of episode one until the end. Even in the first shot of the opening, Marlya’s face looks weirdly disproportionate and missing details of her normal design. Calling the lazy character art a distraction would be an understatement. There’s no way to enjoy anything without being reminded how ugly everyone in it looks.
An opening is meant to show off the best visuals to get you hyped, but it shows the worst of it, foreshadowing the rapid decline in art quality. The song is pretty good though, it could do without the Engrish and rap/talk-singing. I wish the rest of the soundtrack was as good, but it’s generic and forgettable. The whole OST contains only a couple of songs replayed over and over. As for the ending song, it’s much better, great vocals and piano backing. The ED begins just before the end of each episode as if to signify that something epic just took place, but I was always left thinking “That’s it? Really?” I watched the ending credits every time trying to piece together what I just watched and why the show thought it was so important.
Fairy Gone is the bankruptcy of creativity. It is not a real anime. Rather, this show is a giant block of shit molded to look like a real anime. How could I possibly care about this piece of crap if even the people making it didn't even care? If you managed to watch this show until the end you likely fall into one of these three categories: you are in denial, you’re REALLY skilled at selective blindness, or you wanted peaceful slumber. Or you are like me and you were curious if it would get better. Let me spare you the trouble with a quick answer—it only gets worse.
ktulu007
P.A. works is a studio I have a pretty positive history with. Charlotte, Another, Angel Beats, Canaan. Seems every time I review something of theirs, I like it quite a bit. This time, we're looking at Fairy Gone. An original anime by them from early 2019. Let's take a look and hope for the best. Story: We open to a flashback talking about the end of a war over unification where we see two young girls fleeing their village as it's destroyed. We also hear about fairy soldiers and see a group of them throw down their arms. Cut to the story proper, our heroine, Marlya,considers herself cursed since people always seem to die around her. Obviously, she's one of the girls from the village flashback and she's searching for the other, Veronica. She's acting as a guard at a mafia auction when she meets our hero, Free, a former fairy soldier. After an incident, she joins the organisation Dorothea which investigates illegal uses of faeries and flirts with the organisation Petra. Both Free and Marlya quickly find themselves facing old friends from the past and trying to unravel a plot against the unified government.
There are a couple significant issues with this series. First off, the world building is pretty sub-par. It feels like a lot of it comes through flashbacks that are a bit dull or through exposition that's a bit stilted. The pacing is also a bit awkward. Some major plot points get rushed through while you get flashback sequences and other bits that just drag on quite as bit. The climax is also kind of weak and features some really dumb moments. Like, there's a part where an antagonistic character is walking very slowly towards a gate while a bunch of nameless guards shoot at him and they all miss like they were trained by Cobra. Honestly, the way he moves so slowly and all these dipshits can't be bothered to aim just makes it seem like a parody rather than something we're supposed to take seriously.
I do like the concept of the series. The idea of people being surgically implanted with faeries that basically act as like the Personas from the game franchise of the same name. Those people having a limited place in ordinary society because of the legal status of their personae, I mean faeries. Those are all good ideas that could have been used much better than they are here. The series also does do a somewhat good job of handling the theme of survivor's guilt. Both our main characters have issues with it because they can't help but remember the situations where they lost people and couldn't do anything about it.
Characters:
To be blunt, the only thing that gives the protagonists any real depth is the survivor's guilt theme. You get some indications that they mean for the characters to be something more, but they never really amount to that much. The same isn't true with the antagonists. At least not with Wolfran and Veronica. They both clearly suffered some serious trauma during the war and they're both very clearly working towards something even if the anime says "wait until the next series to find out the full details." It's still evident that P.A. has a plan in place.
The character interactions aren't particularly appealing or that good. I like the dynamic betwixt Marlya and Veronica, it leads to some strong moments. But aside from that, I'm kind of ambivalent towards all of them.
Art:
This is one element where I can give the series full credit. It looks very nice. The action flows well. The characters are distinct. The backgrounds and various objects look good. The personae have very interesting designs. The Fairy Weapons, when they show up, have very nice designs. Looking intricate and decorated without being ostentatious.
Sound:
The actors do really well. Ichinose Kana, Fukuhara Ayaka, Hosoya Yoshimasa, Suwa Ayaka, Sonozaki Mie and the others all give strong performances. The music isn't the best, but the series uses it very well. Ramping it up during big action scenes but keeping it pulled back enough that you can still hear the battle. And they use it very strategically which gives it more impact.
Ho-yay:
There's a little bit betwixt Veronica and Marlya. Klara also talks about the director, Nein, like a girl with a crush. I doubt they'll go in that direction with either of them, but I wouldn't complain if they did.
Areas of Improvement:
1. Build the world more naturally. Exposition has its purpose, but that purpose is, in general, not to provide a short cut so you don't have to really build your world.
2. Those moments that give the characters hints of complexity need to be built on.
3. You can't have a scene where a character walks slowly past a hail of gunfire. Unless that character can turn invisible or they have a shield like Magneto, it doesn't work. I know, you think it looks cool, but it's really dumb.
Final Thoughts:
Fairy Gone could have been a great anime. It had all the parts in place for it. But it's ultimately let down by under-written characters by sub-par world building by poor pacing. And by that exceptionally stupid climax. It's not a good series. It's not a bad series either. It ends up being quite average. Which is why I'm giving it a 5/10.
CinaGinger
What do you expect from this? Don´t expect anything, just enjoy it. The Bad, the Nice and Bonus commentary. 1ST. Let´s start with the bad points. Spoiler-free. -There´s no clear goal. That could be good or bad. For some people is bad because they need the bad guy, something to defeat like a shounen anime. However, this isn´t a shounen anime, isn´t that right? It could be good because there could be a serious plotwist in the second half (see 2nd season that started on 9th September 2019). -This is a little biased opinion on my part, but I like FAIRIES. They don´t show how their world worksin this anime. Not gonna tell you much about this ;-) I promised a spoiler-free review.
2ND. Now with the nice points.
- It´s a FAIRY anime. That means there are different types of fairies in different forms, powers and evolutive phases.
- The combat system is pretty similar to Jojo's. The human fights with a weapon of his choice along their fairy alter-ego.
-Women character warriors are powerful and equal to men, at least the adult ones. War is a very ugly thing.
3RD. The most important aspect that invited me to watch it, after all.
Haven´t you seen that? It´s Shingeki no Bahamut ARTstyle. So gorgeous! So beautiful! It´s another of my biased, personal opinion and taste but if you liked Favaro's anime, at least enjoy their CGI+colours.
vladmirkarmaslay
SPOILER FREE This anime is an example of promotion . though it was enjoyable it was obviously holding back a details from the original sauce ( i am not sure if it was adapted form light novel or manga but i am guessing it is from the former ) . Story pretty good not much development though . Artvery good , they had CGI but its use was satisfactory , i guess the budget went to making the art rather than the story.
Character
i did not see any development with any of the characters.
English DUB
not good i thought they would put some effort but they did the average amount
i know i am being to harsh with this anime but i am upset that they are trying to hold back so much just for the sake of better manga or light novel sales
1nvader
The animation is amazing, the soundtrack is awesome, but if the story is not interesting enough, it sadly won't matter. After the first couple of episodes, honest to god, there were some where I legit just fell asleep in the middle of it, or I kept skipping through scenes and watched entire episodes that way. I was bored out of my skull. Fairies are basically this anime's version of weaponized Jojo stands. It's kind of unique. The story follows the members of what is something like the secret police of sorts, created specifically to oversee and control fairies in the country. But good lord, the story isa mess. You jump from one place to another, each time for something seemingly less important than the task at hand. No mission is ever really completed and you lose track of what's important (like those oh-so-important research books on fairies), because everything just flies by quickly each episode.
Eoussama
"Once upon a time, one of the worst Anime adaptations existed", fixed that for you, MyAnimeList. But seriously though, it's laughable how I remember my anticipation of the show from ready its synopsis before it was released, it's like that one movie you keep anticipating for a month until you're satisfied after having watched it. But Fairy Gone overwrote that kind of feeling for me by giving me a life-long implication for what to come. It was partly my fault, but Anime itself was no innocent angel either. Originally planned to span 24 episodes, it was later announced that it was going to be a split courof 2 parts, I don't know if that was the right thing to do to save a doomed adaptation like this, but it could go either way. Giving you a breather between the two parts to only torture you back again might be some of the evilest things ever, but it could also turn out to be a change for the better, exactly the kind of change I'm hopeful for.
- Story (3.5/10):
Calling it a story would be a stupid kind of a stretch. I could not for the love of God grasp anything. Too many locations, too many dates, lots of names dropping on us all the time, remember when watching an Anime was about having fun? It felt like a painful chore in this show's case.
The show really had great potential, and it's easily apparent by just ready the initial synopsis, if anything, it was a matter of bad direction. Way to underestimate what bad pacing can do to the flow of the story. Every event starts off by kicking fast pace action composed of random shots of many characters, each doing their thing, but then, and with no prior notice, you find yourself listening to the narrator telling you how it ended in an annoying third person pov, almost spoonfeeding you the story the way they want you to, the worst type of gatekeeping.
- Art (8.5/10):
Undoubtedly, the only good thing going for this God forsaken adaptation. But at what price? I guess that what happens when you have way too much budget dedicated to a single department.
To say the least, Fairy Gone still retained a status of what a modern Anime should be like, visually at least, but lacked every other rule of thumb that makes an actual Anime worthy of one's time.
The character designs and the background and how both blend so well were definitely the stars of the show. The cast of characters looks like a group of first-class models, very pleasing to the eye at least. The background feels lively and very well blended into the scenes. It could have been easily the best-animated show of the season with a great deal of consistency between the episodes, however, the horror of horrifying CG struck like there was no tomorrow. The Fairies, the thing that made ready the synopsis hype the show for me looked like true nightmares. CG can be bad, but this? They better re-think their choices for the second cour of the series.
The high paced fight scenes that made most of the latter part of the series were on a standpoint of production, very good. But something that reeks of negativity rendered every effort put on them useless. They pretty much felt like though shitty AMV compilations you see so often on Youtube. Cool characters exchanging blows while a party banger of a song is playing on top with an out of sync volume. It just didn't feel right.
- Sound (7/10):
Good enough to keep up with the great visuals, average voice acting, and good opening and ending theme songs. Those both definitely found a decent following in between the fans.
The soundtracks were lively, nothing revolutionary thought.
- Character (2/10):
Just how bad could this have been?
You would think that at least one character out of the mass would strike the cool-dude/cool-girl vibes, and in terms of character designs, they definitely did. But God were they some of the most one-dimensional characters ever. No character development whatsoever throughout the serialization, at least, none that matter. The protagonist set off for a goal at first, 3 episodes later, they abandoned what they set off for altogether and never tackle it again.
- Enjoyment (6/10):
It felt more or less like a grid to me. Just like when you boot up a game in your steam library just so it doesn't remain unplayed, I really had high hopes for this show, it turned out I should be more careful doing research before I dedicate valuable time to a series.
- Overall (5.4/10):
Long story short, just stay away from this. At least for now, until a better cour is released, you don't want to grind through both cours with a down expression on your face, unless you really hate yourself that much.
AngeVGC
This series is 'fairly gone' just like its name suggests.When I saw that this anime was an original show about how these soldiers will adapt to society after a war,I was expecting great things.However,little did I know that this anime has little to no idea of what its trying to achieve that Fairy Gone is one of the worst anime of this season. Let's begin with one of the tools this show loved to use,flashbacks.Flashbacks are a good way to introduce to the viewers character backstory and is an easy tool to utilize.It seems almost impossible to misuse these assets but Fairy Gone managed to achievethis incredible feat.How does Fairy Gone achieve this?Simple,just slap flashbacks whenever you want,even if the timing is absolutely terrible.One example of this would be when a flashback of Maryla being depicted as a "cursed child" appeared even though all that happened in the present is the train being attacked while Maryla is unconscious(Note:She was just chilling on the train before that).The flashbacks have absolutely no link to the present events and feels extremely random.This is why you would barely understand this anime,the presentation of information are mostly flashbacks that feel extremely random.
Moreover,the name dropping is just obnoxious.Even right now,I only remember a few names.This show has very lackluster characters that can't be remembered on top of the big cast,making it difficult for any viewer to remember who is who.
In particular,I have a big issue with Dorothea.This governmental organisation is supposed to be an organization which investigates and suppresses fairy-related crimes.But how can you expect this useless group which is inferior to the criminals to uphold justice.Dorothea has constantly failed in this series with Bitter Sweet tricking the group, losing to Liscar and so on.This is especially infuriating when Free who is part of the "main group" is an experienced veteran.Are we supposed to believe that Free is an experienced veteran when he got his ass kicked and stood no chance against Liscar who is also an experienced veteran?Come on,they should be around the same level,Free should at least put up a significant resistance.
You might be asking,"But Free put up a resistance against Liscar in the final episode,surely that is a plus to the story?"Absolutely no.It makes no sense that Free can suddenly stand a chance against Liscar when in between the two fights,Free has undergone zero training and preparation.This is another example of how this show does not know what it is doing.
Next,let's talk about characters.They are bad,really bad.Maryla wants to find Veronica,but since the story is geared towards the political tensions for the most part,this motivation of Maryla is vastly ignored and I even forgotten that she actually had a goal.On top of that,Maryla felt like she had no place in the story, as she does not have a stake in the overarching plot and this is supposed to be our main girl.Free also does not have much of an established motivation.Pretty much the whole squad is conscripted at this point and it makes us root for the villains because our protagonists are incompetent buffoons who does not have any motivation at all.This does not mean that the villains are good.The villains have solid motivations but were not explored fully by the show despite the show hinting to us that these are deep characters,maybe the second season can salvage this?I really hope so.
Finally,it's time to dive deep into the story.Wait,what is the main theme of this show?No idea,the synopsis says one thing but the show depicts a bunch of them.Without a main theme,this show lacks focus and perpetuates the problems in its characters.This is a show desperately tries to do everything but failed at everything.The writers obviously could not handle so much content and clearly needed to just focus on one specific theme.
On a side note,the art direction is alright,reminds me of the upcoming Fire Emblem Three Houses game.The soundtrack is actually really amazing,I actually feel extremely sad as this trainwreck of a show really does not deserve this god of a soundtrack.
All in all,this show is bad,really bad.It obviously had an amazing concept but the execution and subsequently abandoning of this very concept is what has solidified this show's place as a classic example of how not to write a story.
lwright31
I have not written any reviews, and there is a reason this is my first one. I was SO excited for this when I saw the main theme and the art styles and the first episode, was pretty solid and really got me excited for this series. So perhaps it got me too excited. Story: let's jump around time for the first 6 episodes for flashbacks of characters that are mentioned only once. And then try to have all these majorly important characters explained only by text at the top of the screen saying who they are. And the last episode? Worst in any anime I haveever watched. I understand that there will be a part 2, but that last episode wasn't a cliffhanger. It was showing people an empty bottle of story, and then walking away from it the already bad nothingness that is the story.
And the Fairies themselves? There was more about the artificial ones than the real badass ones, whats up with that?! And don't get me started on the damn books. They should have done 24 episodes for part 1, and then 24 for part 2. They tried cramming way too much into 12 episodes, and it made it shit.
Art: Bloody amazing, holy cow. The saving grace. Beautiful art. And with that I will add the fight scenes with fairies in them. Amazing, I am obsessed with the concept of the fairies, and the way you fight with them, and not made too overpowered in the sense that when injured, you cannot use them right away after. So really, fairy concept themselves, wonderful. And the creativity and artwork used with them is spectacular.
Sound: It's definitely a love hate from reviews that I have seen, and I am one of the few in between I think. Some of the songs were annoying as shit, and some matched perfectly, and the occasional that I was just meh. The sound was fine.
Character: NO.DEVELOPMENT. No one progressed, everyone is the exact same as when they were introduced, the main character literally learned 1 thing in 12 episodes, and it was the most cliche and obvious shite ever. It happened, they tried to make it dramatic, and it was awkward for me to watch that. It was like watching someone throw a paper airplane at a wall. Saw it coming, knew it would hit it, would crash, nothing further, life moves on. They could have at least thrown in some obvious romance, they tried it a couple times, got me interested like hey, maybe they will aaaaand nope back to coworker office relationship where you can only say hello to each other.
Enjoyment: 5 of the 6 points I gave were from the art, primarily in the form of the fairies and their fighting, and 1 point goes to Sweetie.
Overall: Basically what I said for enjoyment. This show had the potential and something insanely unique with the fairies, and decided to cram a couple seasons into 12 episodes. 4/10. Seems appropriate, thank you art for capturing me to bear with the 12 episodes.
COLGkenny
The Story and Art were there for a good to great anime. But unfortunately they never had any background noise or Character development to draw you in and ultimately it took away from my enjoyment of this anime. I hate that people's work turns out this way when they try so hard. Story: - Very Interesting with great twists along the way. - May have been a little drug out. ART: - Fairies coming out was awesome and interesting. - Character and background design was well done. - Tried for the 3-D Fairy and it didn't work. it really took away from them. Also why do the fairies look the waythey do? it was never explained in the anime.
Sound:
- Dub had clear voice acting. the main sounds (gun firing, swords clashing, heartbeats) was good but they didnt really have to much in the way of extra noise (people talking in the background, or cars going by).
Character:
- Really sucked the life out of this anime for me.
- NO DEVELOPMENT. Only short flashbacks on why they feel the way they do out side of the MC.
- Most Characters are just replaceable. No emotion really.
Enjoyment:
- First episode draws you in, but it doesn't really keep you.
- Becomes a choir to finish.
