# This is a review I originally wrote up in March 2014 during a failed attempt at reviewing as many unreviewed and older titles on my DVD shelf as I could. Due to issues beyond my control, I find myself needing to repost this review on The Otaku’s Study as the original article has since been removed. Content wise, the review itself and final grade remains unchanged. This paragraph and the final bits of information at the end of this review are the only new additions.
While we don’t see too many anime publishers licensing anime marketed towards the younger audience nowadays, back in the early to mid 2000’s it was something we saw quite often. While some may have gone down the route of being licensed for morning cartoon blocks riddled with unwarranted edits and poor quality English dubbing, publishers such as Geneon Entertainment and ADV Films seemed genuinely interested in targeting the market… perhaps to hook them in early for a lifetime of anime fandom.
Unfortunately neither of the two company’s are now active in the US-market. However out of a rather sizeable collection of former acquisitions still left in limbo, Sentai Filmworks decided to do a license rescue of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar back in 2009. With nothing to do this afternoon and the two-collection series just collecting dust on my shelf…. time for a look at something a bit older than a few days / weeks / months old.
Your first impressions from the title, opening sequence and the development of the first episode will more likely than not give you the exact same first impression… this is a sugar-coated series aimed at a broad all-ages audience. It follows the mature-for-her-age 11 year old Saga Bergman who resides with her grandmother, already works at a coffee shop and is a complete stickler for perfection. While her life is pretty much ordinary in her books, it all changes when the Season Fairy “Sugar” sets up residence in her house.
Sugar is the polar opposite to Saga, with a relatively carefree and childish personality. She, along with other fairies-in-training have been sent to the the area in order to locate the vaguely named “Twinkle”, an item that will allow them to become fully fledged Season Fairies. As the only person who can see any of the season fairies, Saga gets drawn into the ensuing “chaos”….
While the cuteness can go well overboard what could be considered normal limits, this is primarily a series about Saga and how she develop as a person and how she adapts to the new situation she has been put into. If it were not for her… I don’t think this series could have been tolerable for more than a few episodes. The differences between Saga and Sugar are key to a number of the plots that take place over this series and are mostly well handled, however the secondary characters can be pretty hit and miss – some interesting and enjoyable and some downright annoying or poorly used.
Unlike Princess Tutu however which started off cutesy and became darker near the end, there are a few “watery eyed” moments but the series maintains a cutesy, slice-of-life approach from start to finish.
A Little Snow Fairy Sugar features animation produced by Japanese studio J.C. Staff who in recent years has worked on big name titles such as Little Busters!, A Certain Magical Index and Toradora!. While the Season Fairies may be portrayed as overly colourful and cutesy, everything else including the human characters and the locale (A german town “Muhlenberg” based on the real town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber) are relatively normal in appearance and don’t go overboard to suit the younger target audience. While there is nothing special about the visual quality, it certainly works well for what the studio was trying to present.
Both opening and ending themes “Sugar Baby Love” by Yoko Ishida and “Snow Flower” by Maria Yamamoto encapsulate the light-hearted nature of this series. The rest of the soundtrack on the other hand doesn’t overpower the experience, and as with the visuals don’t try to play up the “cutesy” personification of some of the characters.
While younger audiences would most probably want to stick with the English dub included on-disc, Sentai Filmworks did throw in the original Japanese dub for those who prefer to watch the series as it was mean’t to be watched. Voice casts for both dub languages managed to reflect their respective characters well, even if the Japanese dub does feel more realistic. Reba West does a solid performance of Sugar with a childish tone of voice she has used in a number of anime series (and has refined quite well over the years according to demo samples on her official website), while Michelle Ruff as Saga also delivers a sufficient voice to her character.
While Sentai Filmworks nowadays seem to be pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to extra content in their anime releases, there was a sufficient supply of on-disc goodies across both volumes including clean opening / ending sequences, “Snow Flower” videos, a location hunting video, interviews and more.
While giving the initial impression of being a series “for kids” anime series, A Little Snow Fairy Sugar made for in my opinion a rather enjoyable watch. There are some occasional dry moments and the cuteness goes overboard more than a couple of times during the 24-episode series, but compared to other anime titles aimed at the younger markets this is one of the more tolerable and offers something for the more mature viewers.
You can pick up A Little Snow Fairy Sugar via RightStuf.com HERE and HERE at $29.99 per half-season
At the moment, the only way to legally and officially watch A Little Snow Fairy Sugar seems to be through The Anime Network – a video-on-demand service accessible to those in North America only. Want to watch A Little Snow Fairy Sugar outside if North America? I strongly recommend either picking up a DVD copy through a legitimate online retailer OR petitioning your local anime publisher to acquire the rights. Given this is an old and more child-oriented anime series however, I wouldn’t get my hopes up on the latter option.
Acknowledgements
A Little Snow Fairy Sugar is © Haruka Aoi and Project Sugar. North American rights to the series are held by Sentai Filmworks.
All images in this review have been sourced from the official DVD release of this series.
