Yousei Land Mukashibanashi

When we left the Furious Fairy Five, the show had overcome some of its more egregious technical issues but still hadn't figured out what it wanted to be. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to not knowing what to do: do classic folk-tales. Forest Fairy Five ~Fairy Tale~ presents us with the fairies spin on three well known legends - Tsuru no Ongaeshi, Momotarō & Urashimako – before the forest fairies themselves have to travel through the settings of these stories to rescue Mai from...her insecurities, I guess.

Surprisingly, given what a janky mess FFF was, it kinda works. Gone is the sense that the ... show is desperately scrambling around for ideas, replaced by what at times feels like a folktale version of Funky Forest or Peeping Life. Each retelling combines elements of other folktales, as well as some of the writers own strange ideas & at times were genuinely amusing – for instance Issun-boshi's girlfriend sulking that he can't do the wall push to her (Issun-boshi is one inch tall). No doubt some – or many – will find it excruciatingly boring (much like Funky Forest & Peeping Life), but it's still a marked improvement on what came before.

As is the shows production. While still janky as heck, FFF's look has reached the point where you can just take its weird & low quality animations & camerawork as part of the shows aesthetic. The character models themselves have improved notably &, perhaps even more importantly, the sound engineer seems to have figured out how to use their mixing desk. While the VA's themselves still have a habit of speaking too close to the microphone, in all it's still leagues ahead of where the show started.

Which is what is part of the charm of FFF – the equivalent perhaps of watching a game go from pre-alpha to final release (well, maybe Early Access). While I'd never call it good, it's been weirdly fascinating to watch this strange show that had no reason to exist outside of some dark corner of Nico Nico (it aired on Tokyo MX1!) but also seems to have been made by people who genuinely were trying to make a real show & kept trying to improve it throughout. If nothing else, it makes a nice change to see a production get better rather than deteriorate over its run time. Not that anyone would think to watch past the first episode.

On that note, if you couldn't stomach the first season of FFF, give this one a shot. The folk-tale stories & “improved” look really do make a surprising difference. & while you still have to put up with (or skip) that needlessly long 2-3minute intro to each episode, this time I'd almost say it's worth it. I don't know what they were thinking then they decided to make this series, but I'm kind of glad they did.