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EP. REVIEW: Sugar Apple Fairy Tale


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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 1:30 pm Reply with quote
Forgot to say, re: candy sculpting, the show not showing any of it is in line with how it treats the fairy slavery situation (as in, a story element added for "flavor" but not being given much actual attention), but I imagine it's probably based on traditional amezaiku. You can take classes for it (in Japan, anyway, but I'd be very surprised if there were no classes available in the US).
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11429
PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:02 pm Reply with quote
MFrontier wrote:
Gina Szanboti wrote:
^ 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 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.

I think she just wasn't thinking. In this society, any human does have the right to take his freedom again, as long as he's not already someone else's property, and that's the issue. As for the rest, I already addressed that.

Quote:

Cute, but unless her husband was also carrying an actual torch upon his arrival home, her circumstances were very different! It wasn't the action I was chuckling at, but the fact that her hands were turning bright pink from cold and she could've warmed them in seconds once she had a fire blazing in front of her. Now, if he'd instead chosen to cuddle up to warm her back that's away from the fire, that would be both romantic and practical. Wink

@SHD: Thanks for those links! The first guy is not only a talented candy sculptor, but a fine artist in probably any medium. I mean, I could use all his tools and techniques, and still end up with a fish that looked like it came from Springfield's nuclear cooling ponds. Smile His work really does look a lot like glass blowing methods.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 11795
PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2023 10:13 pm Reply with quote
Anne just wants to make art yet keeps getting embroiled in trouble...now of a political variety.

William Alburn seems like your typical stoic and icy Kouki Uchiyama character, but I'm curious as to his relationship with this blue-haired fairy lady. And is there a connection with Challe and Liz?

Will this be Jonas' chance to redeem himself or just prove that he'll consistently be a thorn in Anne's side? Especially when he keeps getting reminded she's more skilled than he is?
Gina Szanboti wrote:
I think she just wasn't thinking. In this society, any human does have the right to take his freedom again, as long as he's not already someone else's property, and that's the issue. As for the rest, I already addressed that.

But at least in Anne's mind she shouldn't have that right, especially when it comes to Challe.
Quote:
Cute, but unless her husband was also carrying an actual torch upon his arrival home, her circumstances were very different! It wasn't the action I was chuckling at, but the fact that her hands were turning bright pink from cold and she could've warmed them in seconds once she had a fire blazing in front of her. Now, if he'd instead chosen to cuddle up to warm her back that's away from the fire, that would be both romantic and practical

I feel like a cuddle like that would've warmed her up a little too much.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1594
PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:29 am Reply with quote
Honestly I don't know what to make of Benjamin. For all intents and purposes, he's free, and Kat doesn't seem to care whether he has a slave or not... but does he know? This whole deal would be much different if he acknowledged the situation, as rather than an "oasis in hell" thing it would be more of a "liberation through mutual respect".
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2547
PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:59 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
...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.
I also appreciate the amezaikau link SHD and Food Network had some shows on it in the 80's-90's but I'd say SAFT fast-forwards because the process is a little boring to watch in entirety. The "sugar-apple" isn't an apple at all IRL but related to the cherimoya. As a distinction, some of what is called "sugar art" is actually made with barely-edible Isomalt (no apples involved), only chemically a "sugar" but it is naturally water-clear, high melting temperature and strong enough to make pieces as high as 6 ft! The piece in the link took 30 hours...

https://www.cordonbleu.edu/news/art-of-sugar-sculptures-explained-new-zealand/en
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xxGoodxx



Joined: 02 Feb 2023
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Sat Feb 11, 2023 3:40 pm Reply with quote
I like this anime
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NeverConvex
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Joined: 08 Jun 2013
Posts: 2341
PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:57 am Reply with quote
Catching up to this a bit late. Show feels kind of middling, but it's a slow season! It's cute, and the Anne/Challe romance is charming enough, if deeply tropey (and with the at least a bit distasteful 15 y/o / 70? y/o difference, but I'll just thank my stars she's not 6, or looks-6-but-is-6000, or some such nonsense).

Agree with earlier comments that the show's handling of slavery is not very thoughtful (albeit much moreso than the very low standard set, especially, by garbage bin isekai). Not so much because Anne herself doesn't think carefully about its implications, but because the show doesn't seem to frame her not thinking carefully about them in a way that invites us to critique. Also agree that the show is annoyingly inconsistent about this; one episode Anne will be an abolitionist, the next she doesn't bat an eye at anything but the most vicious treatment of fairy slaves. I don't even mind the idea of a story where she feels her ability to do anything is crippled by the immensity of the culture/institution, or some framing that suggests Anne herself is unaware of how deeply the notion of owning fairies has colored even her perception of what's normal and OK, but it just seems we don't really get any consistent reflection on it at all.

Though I thought Anne's response to the silver sugar theft a few episodes was plausible. She mostly seemed beside herself and not thinking very clearly; and, to the extent that she paused to consider at all, it seemed like the show'd left plenty of reasons the most obvious culprit was Lid.

Was surprised they decided to rapidly flip Jonas from obnoxious, un-self-aware, mildly creepy suitor to attempted murderer. I guess that's not too shocking a turn for a jilted lover, but still felt like it skipped a few steps in terms of demonstrating enough emotion from him to lead to him to trying to kill Anne.

Secondary cast could use some character work. Don't feel like anyone is especially well fleshed out.

Mostly, though, I just keep waiting for Anne to reveal that she's replaced her left eye with a sugar-confection rinnegan, presumably taken from her mother at the moment of her tragic passing.


Last edited by NeverConvex on Sun Feb 12, 2023 1:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2547
PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:11 pm Reply with quote
^^Wow, you really have to have a dark twist in the stories you like! Also, gives new meaning to the term "eye-candy" Wink
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 11795
PostPosted: Sat Feb 18, 2023 12:42 am Reply with quote
Honestly was not expecting them to double down on Jonas' awfulness, even if it seems like he's well aware of how pathetic he is by this point even if it doesn't negate the lengths he's willing to go to save his own skin. I really hope he's got a big comeuppance coming for him.

Mithril basically makes Anne realize her feelings by spelling them out to her after she's forced to send Challe away. Will she confess once they're reunited or build up to it?

So was the blue-haired fairy lady treated as an equal within the castle, or basically the Dukes' wife? Even referred to as "Lady Christina?"
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UltimaShadowfax



Joined: 03 Mar 2004
Posts: 288
PostPosted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:14 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:


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.


I also have no idea what the hell is the big deal about them in the world of the show. We never see them get eaten, nor even on display for whatever event they're being made for. I thought initially the sugar was going to somehow linked to the fairy slave market or something. But the show could be about almost any kind of sculpting and it would be the same thing. And why the hell is the king's personal confectioner a diplomat?
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zfunk



Joined: 05 Nov 2016
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2023 11:17 pm Reply with quote
I am not saying this in a bad way, this does feel like a novel geared towards women, something like Twilight, Anne is the only prominent female character in this series.

It is really Anne and a bunch of male characters that get the bunk of screen time. Anne has no female to confide in or best friend, the closest is the middle age bartender lady. I am pretty sure that is intentional. Anne is kind of like Elaine Benes.
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Hiroki not Takuya



Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2547
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:04 am Reply with quote
@UltimaShadowfax One has to consider the aesthetic of the writer and the world they want to portray, which in this case I think include prominent elements of " simplicity, beauty and elegance (refinement)" similar to that found in children's stories. As such, a plot focal device would be something that embodies most of that so it would be fitting for that to be artwork of a particularly specialized sort which is simple and delicate in some way.

Small-scale artwork like sculptures (or maybe tiny paintings) could qualify but I'd propose clay or stone aren't considered delicate, whereas glass would be. Sugar sculpture would be more manageable with the technologies of the middle-ages era setting and would be even more fragile. It helps keep reader engagement if they can imagine something edible that children would love i.e. candy. (don't even think of the duke licking that...)

I couldn't argue that proposing having a large, diverse population be fixated so strongly on something like art pieces is fully realistic given history IRL, but if one considers the current coffee boom, edible sugar art could be a credible fixation of social elites. As for the Sugar Viscount, I'd propose he is an elite who has been given a diplomatic position and is a sugar artisan on the side as a "hobby".

E8- I'm a perennial sucker for romance and personal tragedy but the duke's plight and loss were excellently handled by the writer as Ms. Silverman observed and it made me Crying or Very sad
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 11795
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:43 am Reply with quote
The story of the Duke and Lady Christina was tragic, I can totally understand why he was such an emotional wreck desperate to see her again. I guess this is also Anne's first real experience with a genuine romance between a human and a fairy and how that might end up paralleling her own relationship with Challe.

You have to admire Anne's fortitude in committing to her craft and her work, though it seemed to be as much for the Dukes' sake as her own. But in the end she gave the Duke what he wanted, got money and recognition out of it, and showed how talented she is. And the Duke has a physical memento of Christina (that may or may not lead to her being reborn or born as a new fairy, we'll probably never know). All's well that ends well.

Isn't Mithril a water fairy too? I wonder how much longer he has left. Challe will probably outlive Anne.

The romance between Anne and Challe is deepening. These two could barely keep their arms off each other. And Anne seems aware enough of her feelings to want Challe to stay by her side forever. I wonder if she's going to be tempted to confess?
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1594
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2023 1:18 am Reply with quote
zfunk wrote:
I am not saying this in a bad way, this does feel like a novel geared towards women, something like Twilight, Anne is the only prominent female character in this series.

It is really Anne and a bunch of male characters that get the bunk of screen time. Anne has no female to confide in or best friend, the closest is the middle age bartender lady. I am pretty sure that is intentional. Anne is kind of like Elaine Benes.

There are other important women, they just so happen to be dead Razz (or glued to Jonas, which might be the same as being dead)
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11429
PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2023 4:26 am Reply with quote
My main beef with this story was that getting the eyes silver was the final thing that brought her to "life." So who was the artist who made all the paintings of her with apparently not one of them portraying her with silver eyes? And how did the Duke ever expect anyone to craft her image properly if that detail couldn't be gleaned from the paintings, and he refused to tell anyone? oO

Well, that and those damn estrogen-triggered trip wires hidden in every castle, forest and parking lot where women might be...
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