[Spring 2019] Fairy Gone Discussion Thread

[Buckeye]

フェアリーゴーン

A show about fairies that provide extremely powerful abilities that can be used as weapons, and there's quite a huge battle going on for these fairies.

Airs: Sunday, April 7, 2019

Studio: P.A. Works

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"Once upon a time, fairies were tools of war."

The story takes place in a world where fairies possess and dwell in animals, giving them mysterious abilities. By removing the organs of a possessed animal and transplanting them into humans, fairies can be summoned as an alter ego and be used as a weapon. Such individuals who used fairies as war tools were called "Fairy Soldiers." Once the war was over and they completed their roles, the soldiers lost their purpose. Some began working for the government, some joined the mafia, and some even became terrorists, as each chose their own way to live.

Nine years have passed since the war. The protagonist Mariya is a new recruit of "Dorothea," an organization which investigates and suppresses fairy-related crimes. Amidst the unstable political situation, criminals with lingering wounds from the war and past conflicts emerge and engage in terrorism as an act of revenge. This is the story of Fairy Soldiers, fighting for their own justice in a chaotic postwar world.

Notes
As usual, please try to follow these two easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please indicate in the first line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please quote that post (or a relevant reply to that post), or include the episode title in the first line. ("Re: Episode 1") Just make sure the episode is indicated.

For more guidelines please refer to this thread.

[Buckeye]

Episode 1

They meet again.

So it begins with an auction for fairies, which can be WMDs if it falls into the wrong hands, and Marlya is part of a mafia hoping to see her childhood friend Veronica again. Well, that is exactly what happened there, but she's not the same person she knows back in Suna as this person has revenge on her mind after war destroyed the village. That was quite a chaotic scene there with all the gunfire and spirits battling it out, and in the end what Veronica ended up stealing was a fake. As expected out of P.A. Works, the visuals are amazing, all while the action and stuff reminds me of Rage of Bahamut. The story is just a generic setup so far, but it's good enough for now and what happens next will be critical.

So with that, trial rules apply like normal, though with this being one of my anticipated shows that it's standing is pretty good.

[Buckeye]

Episode 2

The past is coming back to haunt him.

This time, it's Free meeting a former acquaintance, and it wasn't exactly a happy reunion as Wolfran is also out to cause trouble much like with Veronica. Marlya sure has lived an unfortunate life, and the first part certainly emphasized that. But now, everybody's allegiances are just all over the place. Meanwhile, there's that fairy that Marlya just took in, and the way it happened was unnatural, so it remains to be seen what the mystery behind that is all about. But until then, it's just more battles with the combatants and locations the only thing being different with great artwork and a killer soundtrack.

[Buckeye]

Episode 3

Throw the book on the fairies.

So this episode reveals the truth about Fairy Soldiers in that fairies were nearly hunted to extinction to make them, but now there are only 17 of them left with one of them being Sweetie, who has a history with Free. It is also revealed that Wolfran lost his family in the war, so it's understandable why he's quite hostile now though he doesn't realize that taking out his anger on Free isn't exactly the right thing to do. And then Free and Marlya go after a book that reveals the truth about fairy possession, and there's a huge battle for it, but Veronica had set this up. Sweetie sure isn't messing around as she shoots Alex to get the book, but Free is there to try and take it from her. There's just way too much chaos going on here as the truth about everything is still shrouded in mystery, and knowing the truth could change everything just like that.

[Buckeye]

Episode 4

How low can they go?

It looks like Veronica still cares quite a lot about Marlya seeing that she came to the rescue there after Jonathan stabbed her while in the underground beneath the abandoned church. This episode exposes Marlya as the insecure lady she is, as well as how things went south ever since she was separated from Veronica, but seeing her appear like that, she realizes not all hope is lost. This all started when Patty stole an important item from Marlya and Free leading the two to chase her into the underground where they are shocked at what they see, all while Jonathan was waiting to attack. It will be interesting to see just where exactly Veronica's heart is as if she had been completely gone to the dark side, no way she would have shown up like that.

So with that, the trial period is over, and while I'm probably going to continue to watch this, the show definitely hasn't exactly started off well out of the gates. It looks nice and the action is great, but the story, let's just say that I hope that with the two cours this show has that in due time things will come together since the story is all over the place at the moment.

[Buckeye]

Episode 5

Seven days without Veronica makes one weak.

Marlya shows just how weak she is after Veronica shows up to fight Jonathan. It didn't exactly help that Patty escaped after fighting Free herself. Nevertheless, Marlya took quite the punch to the gut after being rescued by Veronica, and then seeing her killing Ray after he went insane in his final moments. At least she got to see Veronica again and realizes that she still has some attachment to her, but nevertheless it also ought to serve as a wake-up call seeing that she's always the one who needs to be protected.

[Buckeye]

Episode 6

That search got derailed.

After dealing with some pieces of armor that move when whistled, the search for the real tome continues as their next hint takes them to search for the guy who bought it at the auction. Marlya and Klara go into town and chase the culprit into a train, and after catching him at the first stop, it turns out he doesn't have it. That was quite the thrilling chase there, but it was all for naught seeing that not only is there no tome, but he's not exactly in the mood to talk about it. I knew that they wouldn't get it seeing that it's just way too soon for them to possess it if that's their end game. Nevertheless, Marlya is becoming more and more involved in matters realizing that she needs to get stronger after that display of weakness last time out.

[Buckeye]

Episode 7

Fairy tailing.

More artificial fairy malfunctions, and that leads to a bunch of disagreement between two ministries, all while Sweetie is helping Marlya and Klara get the tome that's in Warlock's possession. Of course, they realize it wouldn't be easy to convince Warlock seeing that he isn't exactly obligated to show it. So Sweetie comes up with a plan. Last time Sweetie was shown she was quite ruthless, but there is a lot more to her than that as those flashbacks illustrate there. Nevertheless, something big is about to go down in all this chaos.

[Buckeye]

Episode 8

No matter what, he's still human.

So Sweetie pulls a fast one as after Gilbert showed her the way, she gives Marlya and Klara the slip getting the tome all to herself, but Dorothea the operation is still a success as they were after the book that Sweetie dropped. And then it turns out the person pulling the strings with the artificial fairy malfunction is none other than Ted, who used that to try and assassinate the prime minister. But of course, he was stopped just in the nick of time all while he was given a lecture to make him realize that despite all the awful things he might have done, he's still human. Quite a drama-filled episode there going to show that Sweetie isn't exactly someone Dorothea should be trusting, and that there's a lot of plotting and scheming going on.

[Buckeye]

Episode 9

Totally derailed.

That was quite brutal there at the end with Marlya seeing Ozz killed right in front of her by Beevee, one of the seven knights. He's showing why he's a knight there as he was just armed and dangerous, and that tactic Ozz came up with would have taken down just about anybody else. But not one of the knights. This episode is all about building up towards the war as it has become an arms race as Dorothea is transporting a fairy weapon on the train, but of course that wasn't exactly the best way to do it seeing how there are plenty of obstacles in the way. Nevertheless, Marlya just continues to get herself into all kinds of bad situations.

[Buckeye]

Episode 10

Not strong enough.

After Ozz is killed, Marlya becomes a huge crybaby again blaming herself for letting it happen. So she ends up visiting her former boss Jingle, who leads a mafia, and he wants her to return, but Marlya is quite steadfast in wanting to remain with Dorothea. Her pet peeve is that she doesn't want people dying for her sake, but Free lets her know that what Dorothea is doing isn't that, but as comrades they pick each other up, all while letting her know to keep going after Veronica. Marlya sure does get emotional, but this just pushed her over the edge. But Free and company are exactly who she needs when things go rough. Two more episodes before the show goes on break, and things are going to get chaotic with war about to break out.

[Buckeye]

Episode 11

Fighting over fairies.

And just like that, all hell breaks loose with Diese firing the first shot by declaring their independence from Zesskia. It?s total chaos out there, and HQ for Dorothea had to be evacuated. But things just go terribly wrong for them as the rebellion is just a diversion so that the emperor could become a sitting duck as that?s what Diese?s true goals are seeing that he wants to break the monopoly on artificial fairies. What Liscar said there at the end pretty much sums things up as while the castle had survived all those wars, that?s nothing but history and that?s not exactly going to help them this time around. One more episode left before this show goes on break until the fall.

[Buckeye]

Episode 12 (To be continued in October)

Powerless to stop him.

Just when things were looking bleak, Marlya and Free were determined to turn the tide. Free shows off his swordsmanship there against Liscar, all while Diese was in for a nasty surprise just when he thinks there's nothing standing in his way between him and the throne as Ray Dawn shows out and shows just how weak Diese really is compared to him. So with that, the battle is won and Dorothea defended the castle. Quite a battle that was with a lot of twists and turns going on, which is a solid way to end the first half of this series that will continue into the fall. It's mostly action here, but at least it's better than trying to tell a story that's too hard to follow. While it hasn't been sound storywise, the visuals and especially the soundtrack are great as I look forward to continuing this show after a break. I'm hoping that the second half improves on a lot of problem areas this show has.

[Buckeye]

Episode 13

When Marlya met Veronica.

To begin the second half, it's a backstory that tells Marlya's story and how she came to be, as well as how her friendship with Veronica turned sour. She was an orphan right off the bat as her parents died not long after she was born, and being marked a cursed child that she was an outcast. But her outlook changed when she met Veronica. And then everything went to hell when Suna village was burned with Ray Dawn being the one orchestrating the attack. But thanks to Jurgens and Monika sacrificing themselves and Veronica helping get Marlya out that she survived. Where things went wrong is that Veronica has lived to get revenge on Ray Dawn, while Marlya doesn't buy the vengeance angle of things.

That's one of the better episodes of this show that has done a poor job in building Marlya's character, and I felt that this episode should have happened much sooner as being kept in the dark throughout the first half made this hard to watch. This break was certainly much-needed as the first half just felt like P.A. Works was trying to play catch-up. But with more time to put together this that it looks like it's paying off, at least for one episode and hopefully moving forward, things continue to improve as the techinal aspects are great, but the storywriting has been a mess.

[Buckeye]

Episode 14

Found and lost, again.

Now that it's clear why Marlya and Veronica are the way they are, they meet again as Veronica is hellbent on killing Ray Dawn as revenge for setting Suna ablaze. But those plans are derailed when an explosion takes out the bridge as she was hoping to get on board and kill him on the spot. And then lots of fighting breaks out there with Free and Wolfram going at it, all while Marlya tries to talk Veronica out of her revenge, but that fails again as she just wanders off. And some pretty big revelations about Veronica are made there as she was rescued by a descendant of the tome's creator, and that she underwent fairy possession by accident. Quit a lot of conflicting feelings going on here as Marlya and Veronica just are too far apart for reconciliation.