Anime

Review of Fairy Gone Episode 01: A Twisted Friend from the Past and Fairy Primordials

Quick Summary

In Fairy Gone episode 1, “Ash-Covered Girl,” Mariya Noel and Veronica Thorne barely escaped the brutal destruction of Suna, the fairy village, at the hands of Ray Dawn and his army. That army set fire to the village and the surrounding forest, and as fairy primordials fall all around them, Mariya and Veronica try to escape. Unfortunately, they get separated. Nine years later, Mariya thinks she’s found her old friend, but there’s a problem: her old friend is trying to steal a precious artifact, and Mariya’s new boss, Free Underbar, is paying her to prevent the theft. Will Mariya be able to reunite with her old friend? And what will happen if Mariya touches a fairy primordial that escaped from its cage?

Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious. 

What’s in This Post

3 Favorite Moments

I have a feeling neither Mariya nor Free lie very often; they’re both terrible at it. Capture from the Funimation stream.

Moment 1

I liked the vibe I got the first time Mariya and Free met. She was poking around behind the scenes as the auction got underway. You got a clear impression that she probably should have been doing something else, but she was either just enjoying herself by looking at the merchandise or she was looking for something in particular. Free shows up and tells her to get to her post (5:54). As she apologizes, she realizes she doesn’t remember his name. He gives it to her, and he chides her for not remembering it, but then admits he might have forgotten to tell her. She admits that “Maybe I wasn’t listening closely” (6:17). I came away from the scene with the impression that neither of them were there for the stated purposes and both were pursuing some agenda. Not only that, but there were both more or less honest people — they both admitted they might have been at fault. Yeah, it’s a minor thing, but I love those kinds of character moments!

Veronica wasn’t exactly overjoyed to see her old friend. Capture from the Funimation stream.

Moment 2

The auction house is clearing out because Veronica Thorne’s attack scared everyone off. Everyone, that is, except Free and Mariya. When Veronica manifests her fairy, Free is unfazed. We saw earlier that he had been a fairy soldier, so he’s used to that kind of thing. Mariya comes running out, aims her rifle, and freezes. She recognizes Veronica! We saw the two of them in the opening sequence that showed Ray Dawn destroying the fairy’s village and forest. Two little girls, apparently Veronica and Mariya, had escaped, with Veronica being the older of the two. Apparently, Mariya has been searching for her, and she’s overjoyed to finally find her (10:33). Veronica, though, is considerably less happy to see her old friend. And Free? He’s just curious — curious enough to pause his attack — but not stop it entirely. I have a feeling we just saw one of the main conflicts for this series. 

Guess they never learned not to bring a gun to a fairy fight… Capture from the Funimation stream.

Moment 3

We had hints earlier when Veronica first launched her attack, but it happened almost too fast to see. We got confirmation as Veronica was trying to escape. The other guards opened fire on her, heedless of the safety of the fleeing patrons or of Free’s orders for them to stop firing (12:57). Veronica still charged the guards and slashed their forearms with her knife. Immediately, her fairy changed into a black cloud, entered the attackers, and destroyed them from within (13:16). It was visually effective as the black cloud, almost acting like a liquid, exploded out of their eyes, mouth, and ears. 

Thoughts

Did you notice the nation called Fanatica on the map they showed near the beginning of the episode? Is that where all the fanatics come from? I didn’t realize they self-identified like that…

I really hope we find out more about why Ray Dawn torched Suna and the fairy forest. Also, I hope he gets his — I’m kinda tired of seeing humans trash the environment and get away with it. Seeing the dying fairies spiraling down through the smoke was really sad.

The shot only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was tragic to see the fairy primordials dying in the flames. Capture from the Funimation stream.

I’m a big fan of this show’s animation style — even the CG. I think both the 2D and CG animation is beautiful. The characters eyes in particular seem so expressive! 

The soundtrack was effective, too — particularly during Veronica’s escape and Mariya’s desparate attempt to save the fairy primordial. There were time when I wondered if this series is going to be a lot of style over substances, and I realized that if this was going to be the style, I’d be okay with that. At least to a point!

And that’s probably my take on this first episode. We got a lot of exposition, and we’re left with a lot of questions. For example, why did ray Dawn decide to destroy the village and forest? Mariya didn’t have a fairy within her before, but Free did. How does that work? Why didn’t Veronica want to reconcile with Mariya?

Free seemed pretty happy to cut loose! Capture from the Funimation stream.

At this stage of the game, I think these are questions that narrative wants us to ask. It’s a very different beginning than Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, which started off by kicking us right in the gut. This seems to be taking its time to setup some important questions, and given how beautiful I think the show looks, I’m willing to give it some time to develop.

I adore strong women, and this show doesn’t seem to be shy about presenting two of them. Both Veronica and Mariya seem not only strikingly beautiful, but they’re both exceedingly dangerous. We saw Veronica’s knife-work, and did you see Mariya’s rifle? That was a qualify firearm! 

I’m looking forward to seeing what this show does with these characters and situations.

What did you think of the animation? What were our favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!

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8 thoughts on “Review of Fairy Gone Episode 01: A Twisted Friend from the Past and Fairy Primordials

  1. That feeling when you’re reviewing it, and I’ve totally managed to miss the post… For some reason, didn’t see it on WP Reader section.

    “I came away from the scene with the impression that neither of them were there for the stated purposes and both were pursuing some agenda.”

    Wow, you’re good at reading characters’ intentions! I’ve got the feeling Mariya was looking for something and, like, wanted Free to leave by convincing him she’s going to follow right away, but I’ve honestly thought Free was working there, and was worried Mariya would get in trouble for being found at a wrong place. Though I remember being surprised Free wasn’t as strict with her as one would expect from someone working for mafia.

    “It was visually effective as the black cloud, almost acting like a liquid, exploded out of their eyes, mouth, and ears.”

    It looked very scary! I mean, once she gets to you, there’s no way to escape… Good thing Free’s skilled swordsman.

    “Is that where all the fanatics come from? I didn’t realize they self-identified like that…”

    That’s a good one XD

    “I’m a big fan of this show’s animation style — even the CG. I think both the 2D and CG animation is beautiful.

    The soundtrack was effective, too — particularly during Veronica’s escape and Mariya’s desparate attempt to save the fairy primordial.”

    Fully agree with that! And I liked all three songs too.

    1. “I’ve got the feeling Mariya was looking for something and, like, wanted Free to leave by convincing him she’s going to follow right away, but I’ve honestly thought Free was working there, and was worried Mariya would get in trouble for being found at a wrong place.”

      You might well be right — actually, I think you are right and our interpretations aren’t mutually exclusive! That’s one of the things I liked about the scene: There was a lot going on on multiple levels!

      I enjoyed your review, too!

      Thanks for stopping by!

    1. For some reason, it didn’t feel that way to me! Maybe Planet With destroyed my ability to gauge what speed means!

      Though to be honest, I did more or less ignore the myriad country names — and the implied political implications. So maybe filtering that out helped!

      Beginnings are really hard — I’m really interested in seeing how they develop the ideas they’ve thrown out so far!

  2. I’m not a fan of the look of the show. I don’t like CGI, and it’s rather dominant with the fairies. Other than that, I’m low-key intrigued and curious about where this is going. What I don’t like is the line “Your very existence is illegal.” If that’s true I’m auto-rooting against Dorothea and the law. The thing is, the fairy just seemed to have possessed her straight away; it’s not like she underwent some organ transplant or something. What are people supposed to do? Illegal? As if you have a choice. The problem I have isn’t that they include the line, it’s that they use it to recruit Mariya, and in such a prominent position that there’s a chance that – if it’s not a major plot point – they’re going to let it slide. Not a deal breaker, but I’m not fond of the potential implication here.

    A bit context: PA Works is one of my favourite studios, but their action shows are usually not amongst my favourites. And here we have the director of Jojo (and Cells at Work) working with the writer of Grimgar, which is a combo that could go either way for me. We’ll see. I’m almost certainly going to finish this.

    1. “The problem I have isn’t that they include the line, it’s that they use it to recruit Mariya, and in such a prominent position that there’s a chance that – if it’s not a major plot point – they’re going to let it slide. Not a deal breaker, but I’m not fond of the potential implication here.”

      That could make the difference between this being a series I watch and forget (if they just ignore this point) and a show that could make a major statement — which might elevate it.

      Beginnings are hard. I enjoyed this episode even while wondering about some of the finer world building points.

      I do like CG (if you can’t tell by reading my Arpeggio reviews!), so I’m really like how this show looks. I’m even a fan of Mariya and Veronica’s body types! They’re realistic, which is something I felt like I was missing and didn’t even realize it.

      I must have watched The Testament of Sister New Devil one too many times…

      1. In terms of body types etc. you can generally rely on PA Works. (I haven’t seen Testament of New Sister Devil beyond episode one, and I can’t remember if I even finished the first one, I think so, but yeah – there are shows which exaggerate, and then there are shows which streamline.) They’re pretty grounded that way.

        Part of my dislike of CGI is that I’m prone to motion sickness, and CGI ups the likelihood of it happening, but I also tend to see the math over the picture, if that makes sense. Not always, and there’s a good likelihood that I’m missing well-integrated CGI. But I’m not even a fan of CGI in computer games, where it makes a lot of sense for exploration based games. But I can’t deny that, for example, the Atelier series lost a little of its charm when it went from hand-drawn sprites to in-game CGI for its story scenes. I can accept CGI when I really like the show (most recently High Score Girl), but I’m not and will never be a fan, and to the extent that it’ll take over anime, I’ll need to find a new hobby. (I’ll always watch the really good shows, though.)

        1. “Part of my dislike of CGI is that I’m prone to motion sickness, and CGI ups the likelihood of it happening, ”

          That’s gotta be a real pain!

          TBH, I hope CG doesn’t take over entirely. I really like how it makes this show look, but something like Fruits Basket wouldn’t be the same.

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