User Reviews

At first glance one might think this series is aimed at young girls with its pastel shades, cute fairies and pink haired protagonist... just watching the first episode will prove it is aimed at an older audience though... in an utterly surreal scene a loaf of bread starts ranting then tears itself apart and bleeding profusely! While this is officially a Seinen (young men) series I imagine it would appeal to women too.

Set in a distant future where the human population has declined and much technology lost the unnamed protagonist is a young woman who acts as a mediator between what is left of humanity and the fairies. These aren't traditional western fairies though; they don't have wings; they appear to be predominantly male and have fixed open mouthed smiles. Over the course of the twelve episodes she gets into a number of surreal scrapes; including getting attacked by a load of skinned chickens, being caught in a time loop (don't worry it doesn't go on for eight episodes like Haruhi Suzumiya!) and even caught within the pages of a Manga!

This series was a lot of fun; largely because of the juxtaposition of a cynical protagonist in a surreal world with the saccharine sweetness of its appearance. The unnamed protagonist is a great lead character and the sugar addicted fairies provide plenty of laughs. Early episodes provide some shocks although these seemed toned down a bit in later episodes... or I got used to them for the most part. The episode order may confuse some viewers as the various stories aren't told in order; the final story takes place before the events in the others. I really enjoyed this and heartily recommend it to anybody looking for something a little different.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles; at the time of writing it can be watched on Crunchyroll.

Evaluation criteria:

Story idea creativity - refers to a certain level of originality that should be met in order to have the full evaluation. Doesn't have to be the most original thing ever, but shouldn't fall to common themes. The idea of a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has declined, with small creatures (fairies) to kind of replace them isn't a common theme, therefore meeting originality standards. What loses some points in originality is the 'future' thematic, which is rather common to explore. 13 out of 15;

Story idea interesting - a rather subjective criteria, means how much I personally like the story idea, compared to other people (which means my evaluation has to be around other people's). The idea of a protagonist having to face surreal problems regarding both her life and the fairies is quite splendid, but it makes me expect to watch a rather nonsensical anime. 16 out of 20;

Internal coherence - means that the episodes, by themselves, as well as how single episodes connect to the rest of the anime, have to make sense, according to their universe rules and past experiences. For example, from the first episode: The three girls who were following the mediator's orders of hunting the chickens? Never to be seen again. Another example, from that one scene in which the mediator's assistant had separated from her in the second episode. He likely had to pass through the same life-threatening situation she had, which means seeing him alive a few minutes later leaves many questions in the air: How did he survive? And don't tell me that some stupid employees left that section underdeveloped for story convenience, that doesn't make internal sense. How did he know where to meet with the mediator to save her from the chickens? Finally, how exactly did he kill THAT MANY chickens who were just lying there for God knows why? ... Another one: How exactly is he the mediator's assistant if he didn't ever appear again? ... What saves a portion of the evaluation is that the episodes are understandable at the very least. 11 out of 25;

Characters - refers to how much I like the characters. This criteria is rather subjective, because if I really like at least one of the characters, the evaluation will automatically be higher than half. And, of course, I really liked the characteristics of "The New Humanity", also known as the fairies. Of course, the could have been better used, but they're the best characters from the story. The other characters, except for the mediator and her grandfather, are pretty much chaotic, with little character development. 13 out of 20;

Episodes, in general - means how much I personally liked the episodes, using the previous criteria and my personal opinions. For estimating, 'great' episodes value 1.2x, 'decent' episodes value 0.9x, and 'terrible' episodes value 0.2x. Two great episodes, seven decent episodes, and three terrible episodes. Final evaluation would be 9.3 but I'll round it to higher because there are only 12 episodes. 10 out of 20.

Final evaluation: 63 out of 100, rounded to 6 stars.