Well damn. Here I thought we would get something cool but this first episode already has me worried. It’s always bad whenever a show opens up about a fictional world and all of its fictional countries and names thrown at you right from the beginning. It’s not like I’m going to remember them already.
The show suffered from many issues such as the plot, pacing, and having many common tropes. It jumped around a lot and I felt like the show fed us way too much information without really explaining anything. We know that there was a war and that Free used to be part of it until their leader called their surrender to the territory they were fighting. We get a glimpse of a blonde man who was probably an old friend of Free’s. We don’t spend too much time on this so it was hard to get invested in it. In this same time, Mariya’s village was burned to the ground and her people were massacred I guess but she escaped with her friend Veronica. But they get separated and Mariya is on her own, and then we jump into the present time. Mariya is part of the mafia and is standing guard at an auction and meets up with Free in the backroom with the trinkets. They talk and we see a fairy vase that holds fairies, and apparently the vase is important. But the target is a page from a Black Tome and a blonde girl comes in to steal it while killing some guards with her fairy.
Turns out it’s Veronica. Not surprising in the least. Mariya seems like a naive girl and she called out to Veronica, who recognized her. But she runs off and fights against Free. This is just like any other show where two childhood friends get separated as kids and the main character’s friend appears later in the future as the bad guy, and the main character wants them back and eventually they fight each other. “Leave me alone, I’m not the same Veronica.” I’ve heard this kind of stuff before. Obviously Veronica is probably going to get back at the guy that destroyed their village.
Mariya also somehow attains her own fairy, which isn’t explained. But she and the others can summon (like Stands/Personas) it by clutching their hearts. The CG itself isn’t horrid but it does clash with the show’s artstyle. The designs of the fairies are actually real cool with Free’s being a badass werewolf with exposed ribs, Ver’s being this cool…thing, and Mariya’s being hauntingly beautiful. Ver’s ability is also pretty terrifying in action, but the fight scenes themselves weren’t really all that impressive or engaging. The plot continues to jump around with Mariya getting her fairy, Veronica escaping, and Mariya suddenly joining Free’s organization. The war plot, “worldbuilding”, Mariya and Ver’s relationship, getting a fairy, and joining the organization ALL in one episode. The first episode. This is the type of stuff that would happen over time in more episodes sort of in the middle, not all in the premiere. It’s too much altogether and it’s a cluttered mess. I can’t really care about Mariya and Veronica’s past since I barely know who they are, and I can’t even begin to care about the world they live in and what kind of war was waged since it was all over in just a couple minutes. Even at the end of the episode I can’t say I like any of the characters either. Mariya is the typical naive girl, looking for her friend. Veronica is the jaded childhood friend who’s all tough now. And Free is just a decent guy? I’m not sure about him really, I can’t exactly pinpoint who he is just from this first episode.
The only positives I can give is the artstyle and OST. The artstyle is really nice and feels more like a Western cartoon and it looks pretty good, sometimes a little wonky but still good. The OP is a banger and the ED is pretty, but the song that was playing during Veronica’s chase was another banger. But this is something I usually see with P.A. Works shows. They look and sound gorgeous, but the plot and characters themselves are terrible (Glasslip, Haruchika, Charlotte.) Not all of their shows are like this since they’ve made fantastic shows like Irozuku and Shirobako, but they really are a mixed bag and I feel like Fairy gone might be a dud.
But this is just the first episode, but I’m not totally confident. However, I’ll still give it a couple episodes just to see if it’ll improve. This was one of the shows I was really excited about this season, so obviously I’m really disappointed as of right now.
Possibility of watching: Moderate/Low
Possibility of blogging: Low – going to give it a chance up until at least episode 3
So apparently the only way to obtain a fairy is normally by transplanting an animal’s organ into a human, as fairies possess animals and are typically seen as one. However the way Mariya obtained gets (directly with no transplanting invovles) is unique.
I have a feeling the enemy faction may be interested in her and her fairy.