Anime Review: Fairy gone Episode 1

Fairy gone Episode 1

Studio: P.A. Works

Genre: Action, Supernatural, Fantasy

Stream: Funimation

Fairy gone was a series I was particularly interested in this season. Set in a world where fairies can be used as weapons of war, Fairy gone tells the story of “fairy soldiers” in a post-war world in which the purpose they were created to do no longer exists. It seemed like an interesting enough backdrop and story, so I was understandably looking forward to viewing this. P.A. Works was the studio behind more than a couple of series I’ve enjoyed in the past, so add that into the mix and you have an anime that I almost assuredly will at the very least find entertaining.

We follow Marlya, a new recruit to the Dorothea organization, and her superior Free. In a world filled with fairy-based terrorist and post-war crime factions, Dorothea is a group that works to suppress fairy-related crimes. We’re introduced into this world well with Marlya being our avatar to activate exposition conversations about the different mystical elements of the show. Both our initial characters are interesting enough: spunky Marlya and the grumpy Free have a decent enough rapport and you want to see how their relationship will develop.

But uh besides that I’m kind of at a loss. P.A. Works is known for taking interesting concepts and then boiling them down into being only about the romance (looking at you Angel Beats! and Charlotte) but I still enjoy those. Here, we don’t have that romance problem but instead, we have an interesting concept bogged down by poor animation and silly execution.

Once the action gets going the show devolves into a goofy parody but still trying to be dignified with political drama. On paper, the whole “fairy soldiers” concept sounds like it could be unique and interesting but in execution, the “fairy soldiers” are nothing more than knock-off Stand users from JoJo with worse effects and animation. At times some of the drama is wrapped up in the silliness of the combat scenes that when a character is experiencing a moment of growth and awakening, I laughed out loud.

The production overall was mediocre. There were times when the soundtrack really worked for me, but then other times where it was noticeably out of place and distracting. The animation ranged from fine to poor, and the CGI effects for the Sta—fairies was just awful.

The narrative is decent enough to keep me entertained throughout, but the action scenes just don’t hold enough weight to them to really make the episode pop. Next week the narrative’s really going to have to pick up to make this show worth tuning in for in the future.