English Dub Season Review: Fairy gone Season One

RIP to what could’ve been a good show…

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Marlya Noel is a ‘cursed child’. Or at least that’s what she’s always told herself. Every guardian who has taken her in over the years has met with a terrible fate. Even Veronica, her closest companion, abandoned her when she left to join a gang bent on assassinating an important political figure. When the show begins, Marlya is on the move, searching for any trace of her former friend. She learns that Ver has become a wielder of a fairy, and joins an organization called Dorothea that is tasked with arresting illegal users of fairies and generally keeping peace.

Together with her boss/supervisor, Free Underbar, Marlya assists Dorothea in many adventures, like tracking down a threat to the kingdom’s security, fighting off an assassin thief named Bitter Sweet, and defending the kingdom against their biggest threat yet – a former fairy weapon-wielding soldier named Beevee Liscar. Despite experiencing loss at a deep level when one of her teammates is killed, Marlya comes to realize that she’s at home with Dorothea. And that some things are worth the fight and sacrifice to protect.

Our Take:

I’ll just come right out and say this: I wouldn’t really recommend Fairy gone to many people. It’s not the show that it could’ve been, and though I liked a few episodes and many of the characters, it ended up falling flat for the most part. Much of this has to do with its insistence on exposition. So, so much exposition. Much of it unnecessarily complicated information on the geographical, political, and wartime situations of the land. There’s certainly a place for these kinds of things in historical shows, and including background details can show that the world is well thought out and add to a sense of reality. But here’s the thing: a little goes a long way. When you’re overwhelming viewers to the point where they have no idea what’s going on or why it’s important, you’ve done something wrong. I can see how the overly-elaborate nature of Fairy gone’s world might appeal to some, but it’s not going to be entertaining for very many.

I was going to write about the plot, but honestly, it’s pretty messy. Fairy gone tries to go in a lot of different directions in this first season, and it gets bogged down in its own ambition. There are fairies, assassins, flashbacks to wartime battles, mafia gangs, secret informants, and a book called the Black Fairy Tome that is really valuable and also really confusing. Suffice it to say that what the show should have been about was Marlya and Free solving mysteries and having bombastic battles alongside their fairy friends. That would’ve been more interesting to watch, at least. Instead, I felt like the plot gets sidetracked after the first couple episodes, never really getting back into Marlya and Free’s point of view until later on. Sure, they’re still ostensibly the main characters all the way through, but the whole smorgasbord of vice ministers, secret organizations, and scheming gangs takes a lot of the focus away. By the end of it, I wasn’t even sure why Marlya and Free were fighting on the side they were.

Marlya and Free are good characters in their own rights. Free is an ex-soldier, a tough guy who also has a soft spot for Marlya. He is the next in line of command in Dorothea after their president, and he’s a good mentor for Marlya. Marlya herself is really just looking for belonging at the beginning. Without Veronica around, she’s been meandering around, never staying too long in one place. She is able to find a home with Dorothea, and though I don’t think her reasons for joining and staying were very clearly defined, the home she finds with her teammates is good for her.

When it comes to the fairies themselves, things are pretty ‘meh’. They’re all animated with computer graphics, and they clash horribly at times with the more traditional 2D animation of everything else. I hate how they’re all designed, too, without any cohesive elements or explanations about why everyone’s fairy looks like a fanfiction alien monster. It really feels like the producers of the show wanted to include giant CGI monsters battling, and just threw in the ‘fairy’ explanation at the last second.

The dub is good when it comes to the main cast. Ian Sinclair does a commendable job voicing Free, giving him a lot of depth underneath his stern exterior. Jill Harris plays Marlya, and is probably my favorite casting. Some voices just seem perfectly suited to their character, and hers is one of them. The supporting cast isn’t quite as perfect, with a few voices clashing with their characters and sounding out of place. The script on the whole is fine, although I can’t help but feel like they could’ve done something to make all the exposition less boring.

Overall, I think I would recommend that people watch Fairy gone. The first two episodes, I mean. Then they should seriously think about stopping and finding another, more consistently engaging show where things actually happen and people don’t just sit around talking. I really wanted to like Fairy gone. I enjoyed a handful of the characters, a few of the fight scenes were well executed, and the concept had some potential. But it was quickly squandered away. Fairy gone could’ve been cool, exciting, and thought-provoking. Instead, it ended up confusing, chaotic, and worst of all… just flat out boring.