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.