Sugar Apple Fairy Tale – Nothing But Sweet

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale looks pretty good for the most part. It’s an art style I tend to like and the character designs are charming enough. I will say the environments are pretty simple and occasionally threadbare and there is some truly jarring CG here and there but for the most part, Sugar Apple Fairy Tale looks…fine. It’s fine!

I like the fact that most characters have a gradient in their hair making it look like they have fanciful colourful roots! It added something a bit more interesting to look at.

I actually listen to this one in both English and Japanese so I’m happy to announce that both casts did a good job. I actually don’t know which I would recommend on voice acting alone. If like me you happen to like the sound of Japanese, go with that!

When compared to bigger-name anime, it’s clear that Sugar Apple Fairy Tale is in a different bracket when it comes to budget but I think it does a decent job with what it has to work with. Except for the CG…

Like I said, I don’t know what I expected. Maybe Happy Sugar Life has left some deep wounds in my soul because I thought this would be way more cynical and maybe more of an action/adventure type of story. Instead, it really is more of a fairy tale, even if this is a pun because so many of the characters are actual fairies. At the end of the day, it’s a very simple love story with all the tropes you would expect. And it’s kind of sweet. If you overlook all the slavery and stuff.

Here’s the thing, if you are going to get all rational and critical about it, there is quite a bit to cringe at in Sugar Apple Fairy Tale. It’s difficult to really establish why the leads would fall in love beyond the fact that they are both attractive and main characters. A lot of the characters are in fact more like archetypes and the development is implied rather than actually written in. Most of what happens in the story is pretty cliché and you can see it coming from a mile away. In fact, if you bother to read the comments below episodes on Crunchyroll, you’ll see that a ton of viewers pretty much predicted the entire season after episode 1.

But so what?

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale is fluff. And it’s actually well-paced and pretty harmless fluff that makes it easy to enjoy when that’s what you’re in the mood for. No surprises, no deep questions, in fact very little depth at all. Just a sort of vague satisfaction from things happening as you know they should.

With one exception.

This is probably not going to be a popular opinion, although I don’t know if anyone has particularly strong feelings about Sugar Apple Fairy Tale. I think that the one character that does go at least a little against type on occasion, and consequently has the most involved and satisfying story arc is…Jonah.

I know Jonah is a bum. He is a complete bag of butts. But the fact that he isn’t near perfect like the other main characters means that he has something to work on, something he can improve or fail at. And that just creates a lot more possibilities for the character. The story never fully redeems him, nor should it because he is a bag of butts but he does get better, at times he’s pitiful other times, almost noble. You can see that his own adventures have changed him, his values, and his views on the world. This is going to sound crazy, believe me, I know! But I think I would watch a series from Jonah’s point of view. I would like to properly explore what managed to affect this spoiled bag of butts enough to have him risk his own future for someone else with nothing to gain.

Because everyone else is sort of a flat archetype, I fully expected Jonah to just be a basic baddie and was even surprised to see that he had a recurring role in the series. By the end though, he was still arguably a baddie but I don’t think anyone would call him fully basic anymore.

I spent so much time talking about Jonah that I might have fooled you into thinking he’s a huge part of the show. Not really. He might be the main recurring character but still definitely not a lead and there are stretches where we don’t see him at all. Heck, he’s not even my favourite character. That’s Mister Cat, don’t tell him I called him that!

It’s just that apart from Jonah all I have to say about the show is that it was a pleasant and inoffensive little series. And that’s just not very exciting to write about.

Oh wait, there is another thing I wanted to mention. It ends on a cliffhanger. Somehow the tone of the series made me almost forget that little part. But yeah, season one ends on a major cliffhanger which leaves the main characters separated and desperate to be together again. As I write this the second season is starting in a couple of weeks and I will be watching. Somehow, I figure this one will have a happily ever after.

Let’s meet back again to see if I was wrong. Wouldn’t it be something if my next review starts with, OMG…the bloodbath….

You want to watch a romantic anime with a fairy tale feel but don’t care too much about depth

The characters are a bit too underdeveloped for me to have a favourite. Mr. Cat maybe?