Shelf Life

The Sweet Life

I don't know if you know this, but in Rothenburg, Germany, the weather is not controlled by meteorological phenomenon. Rather, it is directed by the magic of season fairies (if you threw up a little just now, this is not the show for you). Saga is the last person you'd expect to be able to see fairies. She keeps an OCD schedule and works at a coffee shop. If you're hoping some nut-job half-assed fairy apprentice with a heart of gold will shake up Saga's life and help her get over her dead mother and have more fun, your wish will be totally granted.

The show isn't actually set in Rothenburg, but a fictionalized German town. One of the DVD extras on in this set (besides a disappointing "music video" cut from the show's footage) is a long segment of the director's photographs of his research trip to Germany. It's an interesting bit, but it goes on a little too long.

Part of what drew me to this show in the first place was Koge Donbo's character designs. I can't get enough of her cracktasticly cute characters, although I tend to find the writing in her manga a little weak. Sugar isn't based on manga at all, let alone Koge Donbo's manga, and as a result I think the pacing is actually pretty good for television. A manga series was later adapted from the anime.

This is a standard kid's show, like Yumeiro Pâtissière, but what really started to kill me after several hours of viewing was the search for "Twinkles". In order to pass her fairy test, Sugar and the other apprentices must collect something called "Twinkles," but they don't have much to go on. A few hours of high pitched voices shrieking about finding something "fluffy puffy" is bound to get annoying, no matter how freaking heart-warming it is. And I'm saying this knowing fully aware that I not only watched The Get Along Gang as a child, I also collected the toys and books. (In retrospect, they weren't much of a gang.)

Sugar loves waffles so much so that “Waffo!” becomes a battle cry/exclamation of joy. The waffles eaten in the show are some kind of Belgian street waffle that look delicious, and left me with a vague craving for the same.

One highlight of this collection are the punk fairies Cinnamon and Basil, who control ice and lightning and aren't overly concerned with passing the exam. When Sugar and Saga have a fight, Sugar runs away to hang out with Cinnamon and Basil, and gets to jam with their weird miniature punk band. She even gets a punk hairstyle and two piercings - a couple of paperclip earrings. It's freaking adorable.

Early on there are some fairy conflicts with crows and mice, but if you're looking for more hijinks, you should probably watch Bottle Fairy instead. Shugo Chara! is also very similar in tone to Sugar (serious girl gets wacky magical help).

I wasn't familiar with Sentai Filmworks when I started this column, but now that I've watched several of their releases it seems like they don't usually include dubs. Because Sugar is a re-packaging of Geneon's release, it includes Geneon's dub. It's a fine dub, and I'm sure age-appropriate viewers will appreciate it, since they might not be up to subtitle speed yet.[TOP]

I'm not sure how much Shirow was involved in the show beyond its conception, but you can certainly see his influence. There's a talky intellectualism to the show, as well as some nicely done special effects. Nothing is on the scale of Ghost in the Shell, however.

When Taro was four years old, he and his sister were kidnapped. Although Taro survived, his sister did not, and the kidnapper was hit by a truck when he ran from the police. Now Taro is 14, and he still has reoccurring dreams about the incident. He can't remember the kidnapper's face, or the things his sister said before she died. The reoccurring dreams are coupled with real-time out of body experiences where Taro flies disembodied above his small town. One girl who lives at a Temple, Miyako, can see Taro's spirit.

One day, Masayuki, a smirky smart-ass transfer student from Tokyo, starts hassling Taro about the kidnapping. He gets the gloomy delinquent Makoto involved and insists that the three of them visit the site of the kidnapping, an abandoned hospital. Abandoned hospitals are already freaky enough, even if you weren't held captive there, but this one happens to be in the old town that was purposefully flooded when a new dam was built. So it's extra creepy.

Masayuki, Makoto, and Taro end up having a shared out of body experience that gives them the ability to start going on “OBE” trips at will. This always made me anxious, in a parental “your face will freeze that way if you do it to much” way. Their bodies turn an ashen gray color while their consciousness separates and I'm worried something bad will happen to them. Out of body, the boys look like ghost babies with enormous heads. They are mostly translucent, but some body parts are opaque, like their eyes and ears, and humorously, their butts. While experiencing an OBE the boys can see the ghosts of dead animals flying around, sort of like the invisible world of Shinto spirits in Kamichu!, or the microscopic world made visible in Moyashimon.

The new age out of body nonsense is nicely balanced out by real science in the series. Taro's psychologist appears in most episodes, spouting facts about brain research and the psychological effects of post traumatic stress syndrome. Some episodes relay information practically direct from high school Psychology 101, occasionally going so far as to feature Taro learning about brains in science class.

I think brain mapping is really interesting, so the intellectual bits held my attention well. I also listen to NPR's Radio Lab for fun, so your experience may vary. I'm less interested in the spirit realm and psychic children, but this show does a great job of balancing both.

This is a moody show without being depressing. In these 11 episodes, Taro seems to be getting better. It turns out Masayuki also suffered a trauma, and Makoto certainly has his own issues, but the three of them are starting to confront their fears and phobias together in both scientific and unscientific ways. So far, it seems hopeful.

This would almost, almost, almost be Shelf Worthy, but the lack of a dub or any extras really holds it back. Also there's not much re-watch value. I think after I finish watching the series and its "mysteries" are solved and everyone's pasts are revealed, I'm not going to watch it again. This is a show that's worth renting, and it is worth your time. I've realized a lot of people who read this column are also pretty hardcore collectors, so for a lot of you, this is probably going to be Shelf Worthy.[TOP]