Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Sugar Apple Fairy Tale
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Right. I like problematic trash as well (not in romance flavor though, but some of my favorite anime are Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, Prison School, etc...), but the thing is, this show is not that. If it was unabashedly trash I might have even liked it. But it's a well-intentioned, very vanilla, very pure-hearted romantic story in the vein of "sparkly romance for girls who like to dream" and whatnot... that just happens to have problematic elements and, more importantly as far as I'm concerned, glaring writing issues. (I'm pretty sure you can tell that nobody is "preaching" here about "more noble" stories. Personally I was pointing out stories that are better written and generally more intelligent.)
That's just my point, though. We've already put way more effort and thought into this important plot element that the show's writing ever did. We're being all "it'd make sense if" and "it wouldn't make sense that" and whatnot, about something that should have been explained, or at least touched on in the story itself, instead of Anne being like "oh, okay" because that's what the plot needed her to do. If you want to handwave it away as not very important, that's fine, but it was something that bothered me, that she was just taking it all at face value despite her generally trusting nature and her liking of Mithril who, mind, has already declared that he owes her one so why would he... anyway, you get my point.
As I said, I see that as well but I think it's half-assed and all issues are swept under the rug so she doesn't come across as a bad person. I think we're fundamentally seeing the whole thing from very different angles so there's really no point in debating about it further...
No, it's not separate - she wants to do the competition so when her mother's soul is laid to rest or something along those lines, she can rest assured that her daughter has proven that she can take care of herself as a sugar artist. Which is fine and all but it's not like she can't wait one more year.
I mean, despite the fact that she knows that Jonas is a dick to her, that Cathy is her slave and Anne is (ostensibly) very much against that... etc... I guess that's again something that one can just handwave away as "let's not think too deeply about it", but it bothered me because yet again she just comes across as a dummy. |
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Juno016
 Posts: 2397 |
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I want Challe to pin me against a wall. The show is alright. Very generic, but not overtly bad. Anne is super cute, too, and I would date her if she asked. But I want Challe to pin me against a wall. Like, casual-agressively put his knee between my legs or something. Help. ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ |
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ThrowMeOut
Posts: 260 |
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OK so Anne frees Challe by episode 4 and are shown that a tiny fairy can, in fact, eat an entire barrel of sugar. Is it in the clear now?
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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No? My problem wasn't whether he can or cannot eat an entire barrel of sugar, but that Anne never wondered about that for a single moment. But I explained that about a million times now, if you still don't get it or don't care that's OK then. As for Anne freeing Chal, yay? Again my problem was their whole relationship and dynamics being treated in a half-assed manner, so having the situation being resolved in a similarly half-assed manner and then the two of them doing all the usual tropes wasn't something I was happy to see. But if you're happy that's OK. (And I rolled my eyes at Anne being all "why did you protect me instead of going after them and "you just protected me so your wing would be safe" - girl, the reason you have him around is to protect you... that's why you bought him...  )
I'll readily accept that I'm not enough of a pure-hearted maiden to be the target demo for this show, but eh, whatever. I'll give it one more episode for the cat, if he's not interesting either I'll just move on. |
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ab2143
Posts: 720 |
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Have a feeling this won’t be the last time we’ll be seeing Jonas (ughhh)
Hmm. Maybe Hugh does have plans involving Anne? Didn’t really consider him when I was left baffled at the king’s decision to not give Anne the medal even after it was revealed that Jonas had stolen her first piece Wish Anne grovelled at Mithril’s little feet. Still mad at her for doubting him |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11795 |
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I'm glad we got Anne releasing Challe's wings out of the way so they can finally progress their relationship more naturally, especially now that it's clear how much they care about each other, Challe sees Anne as an exception among humans, and they're together for the foreseeable future. I expect a lot of charm, swooning, and Mithril being the 3rd wheel.
I find it amusing that Anne humiliated Jonas and outshined him while wearing his clothes. Like an anti-boyfriend shirt. It sucks Anne didn't win, but I guess the point wasn't that she win but that she come more into her own as a Silver Sugar confectioner and make what she wants to make instead of aping her mother. Since that's what she did to begin with, it kind of signalled her loss as much as it did Jonas'. But yeah, that slap was very satisfying.
I feel like a lot of it could be explained away by Anne's turbulent headspace at the time to where she's not thinking straight one way or another, but that's just me. |
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 593 Location: North America |
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Seeing Jonas being decapitated by Challe would be nice, since what he did crossed the line from theft into attempted murder. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2547 |
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Ep4- I think this really snapped the scattered plot elements into focus and the story seems more sophisticated than just pre-teen fluff...Definitely applauded Anne and appreciating Challe (so glad they didn't have him moaning with ecstasy when his "wing" is stroked) and almost instantly became one of my favorites of this season. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 666 |
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Regarding Hugh, I don't yet feel his intentions are necessarily nefarious, but I can see him not being a particularly good guy. He right now strikes me as the sort of Gordan Ramsay type - obsessive and brash even when the intentions are otherwise vanilla. I think it's a foregone conclusion that he knew the mom, probably knows a lot about her death too. But I think he's a "strive until you die" sort of idealist artist. Knowing Anne's mother, he probably knows a lot about Anne too, including her desire to be great like her mother. He is likely pushing her to those ends, not for some nefarious plot per se, but because he's also a top confectioner and wants that challenger. In essence, her success at that ultimate goal is his own pet creation or project, so he's throwing up obvious roadblocks to force her to make harder choices that will force her to make better confections.
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druv
Posts: 39 |
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I'm a bit disappointed that there doesn't seem to be much thought regarding the institution of slavery in this. The part in ep. 5 where Anne proudly says something like "no one owns him!" to a noblewoman is a typical example. You know, Anne, in a country where fairies have no legal rights, saying that to someone is incredibly dangerous.
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MFrontier
Posts: 11795 |
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I like how things are progressing between Anne and Challe. That hand warming was so romantic! Although I kept thinking of how Kensho Ono did that to Kana Hanazawa once.
It was cool to see Anne work with and learn from a more reasonable yet principled Silver Sugar Artisan in Alf. Now if only she can upgrade from being a struggling artist to making some actual money...
Well, in that context she's not wrong because he has his wing back and has his full freedom . But also you could see from his smile that he appreciated her standing up for him against that woman, which was nice. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11429 |
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^ It's not whether what she said is right or wrong, but that if no one owns him, then anyone could try to claim him. Ok, he's a warrior fairy, so it wouldn't be easy, but someone captured him once, so it could happen again. "He's not for sale!" is also true, but suggests to covetous parties that he's not up for grabs either.
I couldn't help but think that, as romantic as that hand-warming scene was supposed to be, if my hands were as cold as hers appeared to be, I'd rather just stick them out toward the roaring fire 8 inches away. 
We've now had several scenes of candy sculpting, and yet I still have no idea how they create those delicate spires and intricate shapes, and color the sugar. I wish they'd show more of the actual crafting than just stills and pans with the confection just off-camera. I imagine it's a bit like glass sculpting, which has fascinating techniques to watch, so it'd be cool to see this craft in more detail. |
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druv
Posts: 39 |
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Exactly, there are plenty of humans who would happily capture and enslave any free fairy because they are extremely valuable. I guess we'll see how it develops but I share the reviewer's fears. Will how the characters interact with enslaved and free fairies just be a shorthand of whether they're a "good" person (while not doing anything about the institution of slavery)? Given how important the topic is for the story, and the political level of some of the people we've seen in the story already, it just raises a bunch of questions: is there a political movement committed to the abolishment of slavery? Is it dangerous for humans to free fairies? Is it done to any great extent? Do fairies have communities outside of human realms? Are there people who help fairies escape in a more systematic way? Are fairies who manage to reclaim their wings hunted and captured? By freelancers? By the state? Yes, it's only an anime or whatever, but if you center slavery this is what I will think about, otherwise the stakes seem kind of meaningless. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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...and he wasn't even an actual cat.
 That's so disappointing. A cat pâtissier would have been adorable.
Ah well, I guess this is just the final nail in the coffin for this show for me, I'm just not a pure-hearted romantic maiden enough to find what it offers interesting. Maybe if the characters were more than walking trope collections. Or hell, even if Chal alone (him clearly being the main draw and object of attention) was more interesting, but he's just... every single "slightly bad boy but just enough to not be actually spicy" type love interest in romances for young girls. Oh wow he's mean and gives people insulting nicknames, but secretly he's impressed by our heroine and he's protective of her, be still my heart. If this is someone's jam that's fine, but it's not mine. Or maybe if it showed some interest in doing anything interesting or serious with the slavery or general fairy/human power dynamics instead of just using it as a backdrop element it can bring forward or put away as necessary. I wouldn't care as much if this worldbuilding element hadn't been set up as something to be taken seriously, and then it keeps not being handled in a consistent manner. I mean, we're meant to understand that Anne strongly opposes the way fairies are treated - one of her establishing character moments in the very first episode is standing up for Mithril; and when she goes to buy a warrior fairy she says something along the lines of "these are my strongly held beliefs, and yet I'm going to do something I hate." In this episode she gets all upset at that lady behaving as if Chal was a slave. And yet... she shows zero reactions to other people owning fairies, she shows no concern about how those fairies are treated as long as they're not being abused right in front of her eyes (but then again, she never once even as much as chided Jonas for being a dick to Cathy), she never bothers to ask fairies' real name... etc. Never mind the writing handwaving potential problematic aspects like the whole Benjamin situation away with "oh but Benjamin is staying with Cat because he wants to" because like Anne, Cat can't be shown as a bad person who "really" owns a fairy. Anyway, the show is clearly not interested in exploring this aspect, which I guess is its prerogative, but it sure doesn't make it more interesting for me. If at least the romance was more interesting! But it's again just the same old tropes presented in this very vanilla, very pure, very innocent way (which is why it's kind of hilarious to see some people talking about it as if it was some raunchy bodice-ripper). I haven't read the LNs, but this show really feels like it's for pure-hearted pre-teens. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing in and of itself (especially considering what's going on in even mags like Nakayoshi), and in any case everyone enjoys different types of fantasies, but I mean...
I had to chortle at this - sure, it's great that she's not being sexualized, but then again, this show feels like it would probably blush and run out of the room if someone said the "s" word.  Even when Chal does something that is technically sexually threatening it has this vibe of "oh, he pinned her down, maybe he'll kiss her?! maybe he'll kiss her with t-t-t-tongue?! oh dear!"
So anyway, I guess this show is not for me. Pity because it does look nice, the animation is surprisingly good, and I enjoy the character designs, Cat's eyes especially looked really pretty in close-ups. Maybe one day a shoujo manga I like will get an anime with similarly pretty visuals. (If we talk about the same general brood as this one... looking at you, Freya, Elia! too bad that Shounen oujo has been, by all signs, put on infinite hiatus...) |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11795 |
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I'm not really a pre-teen though I do like sweet, almost chivalric, romances. And I like Anne and Challe.
I think at this point the slavery aspect isn't the main focus and more just an aspect or part of the setting and not something that they're really going to dwell on unless Anne comes across a serious issue of it.
I don't think she was really thinking of the fact that anyone could try to buy him so much as that he has his wings and his freedom back and no one has the right to take that away from him again...or probably could, at this point.
It comes highly recommended by Kana Hanazawa.
I wonder if the novels go into more detail? |
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