Fairy Gone Part 2

Fairy Gone is a series that has got a lot of flack, some of it is justified, which I'll touch on in a bit, but much of it is exaggerated hyperbole. Despite, the criticism, it remains my favourite series of the year.

Fairy Gone 2 has improved a lot of the issues I had with the first cour, such as a the direction, cuts, fight scenes, link dumping and the overall feeling of not caring that I often had when watching the series. Don't get me wrong, I love Marlya and she's in my top 10, but the other characters like Ver, Free, the supporting cast ... in Dorothea, etc. just felt like cardboard cutouts who served no real purpose. In the first 4 episodes of this, we have received more development than we did in the entire first 12 of the first cour. The action scenes have improved, the character motivations are a lot more fleshed out, I can now understand the actions of the main factions and we finally got the lore explained to us.

The final few episodes are extremely well paced, written and the action scenes are well animated. The type of quality that would have really got the show increased popularity and scores had it debuted with.

Unfortunately, for some odd reason, PA works waited 16 episodes in to begin doing this, at which point most viewers have long since dropped the series. For a studio who brought us such works as Angel Beats, Charlotte, Shirobako, Hanasaku Iroha and Sakura quest, I am very surprised at this. Regardless of that, the second half of the series has made serious strides to improve and as someone who already loved the first half, the setting, story and characters, it's easy to give this one the stamp of approval. Another banger OP, ED and more best girl.

The finale episodes left me a bit disappointed narratively, felt like the show had been pushing several ships the entire time and then all of a sudden dropped them and offered no resolution. The CGI boss fight was also slightly off putting. But overall I still enjoyed the series throughout.


TL:DR If you are interested in the series at all, strong female MC's and waifus, you'll love the second half.

Edit: I have also now just learn there is a manga available through Kadowakawa, so I have ordered it and can't wait to get more of the story.

I've talked about Fairy Gone. It was one of those series that had potential with its concept, but bland execution. Well, it's time we looked at the second series and see if it improves in that regard.

Story:

We pick up where the last series left off. Marlya's old friend Veronica wants to take revenge on mass murderer, Ray Dawn. Dorothea is trying to protect him and cleaning up after the attack from the climax of the last series. While all this is going on, another piece of the Black Fairy Tome is found and Dorothea, the terrorist organisation Gui Carlin and the shadowy Eins ... Order all want to acquire it.

There are a couple issues with the narrative. One is that the head of the Eins Order basically draws attention to himself unnecessarily. Seriously, the man is in a position where he's going to get the piece of the Black Fairy tome after Dorothea retrieves it but he sends people to get involved and draw a huge amount of attention to him. It's almost as bad as the antagonist of Tiger & Bunny exposing himself for no reason. Aside from that, the main issue with the series is one of the same we had in the first. The pacing is awkward and it doesn't elaborate on some of its big plot points properly.

That being said, there are a few notable areas where the writing does improve. First off, the climax is much stronger in this one. The series also continues with its survivor's guilt theme and starts incorporating this idea of moving away from past tragedies and looking to the future. Which is a theme that goes very well with the first. And the whole concept is still a good one with this group fighting criminals and terrorists using their Personae... I mean Stands.... I mean Faeries.

Characters:

I have the same issue with the characters that I had in the first. Aside from the major characters and the themes of survivor's guilt & Moving On, there isn't much depth or intrigue to the protagonists, except for Marlya. Marlya's back story, her interactions with Veronica and the way she contributes to those themes does elevate her. The rest are just bog standard. Wolfran and Veronica are still the strongest characters in the series and this one does do a good job of fleshing them out more. Veronica & Marlya still have the only interpersonal dynamic that I actually like. And not just because it's really gay. All the stuff you get about their childhood and them trying to reconnect is actually pretty good. I would even go so far as to say if the rest of the cast had greatly reduced roles and the focus was on those two, this anime would be really good.

Art:

The artwork is still a strong point of the series. The characters look good. The backgrounds are nicely detailed. The designs for the various Personae are well done. The action sequences are very nicely done.

Sound:

I'll say basically the same thing I said for the first series. The actors give strong performances, in spite of most of them not having much character complexity to work with. The music, though mediocre on its own, is used very well.

Ho-yay:

Marlya and Veronica's dynamic gets pretty les-yayriffic without becoming blatant enough that it's basically canon.

Areas of Improvement:

1. The series legitimately would benefit from dropping most characters to very minor roles and focusing on Veronica and Marlya. And there's a very simple reason for it. They're the only characters with a compelling dynamic while most of the other characters are a bit bland in general.

2. The series could definitely do a better job with the pacing and extrapolating on its plot points.

3. there's no reason for the antagonist to draw attention to himself the way he does. And it's frustrating because it's an easy fix. Have attention drawn to him by another source and let him catch wind of it. You can still have him clear out by the time Dorothea arrives without looking like an inept dumbass.

Final Thoughts:

I do think the second series is a bit stronger than the first but it also shares a lot of the same problems. Most of the characters are very flat archetypes. The pacing is all over the place. There are some dumb elements where the writers clearly weren't thinking. But it did improve on some of its characters. The climax is well done. The artwork and acting are both strong and there are some compelling themes. So, I'll go up to a 6/10.

This review will cover both seasons of Fairy Gone.

The best thing about watching an anime train-wreck is seeing your hope and exceptions for a series get destroyed like dirt. Like many others from the net, I was excited for Fairy Gone. It had a great appealing poster that stood out compared to other anime of the season. I really thought that Fairy Gone was going to anime of the year material alongside with Fruits Basket 2019 and Vinland Saga thanks to its great premise. Instead, what I got was a badly directed, uninspired, and incoherent train-wreck of a show that contradicts almost everything that ... I value in anime.

The biggest problem with the anime is that it doesn't explain the plot. It has a lot of things going on yet the show doesn't even bother to explain shit. It doesn't take the time to give you the character motivations instead of stuff that just happens for the sake of it. It doesn't feel like a story at all and because of that the show ultimately becomes pointless just like a pre-made asset flip game on Steam.
Sure you may have the assets of the project that you want to make but there should be a purpose of all this and in Fairy Gone case a story that is worth telling. One of the reasons why people have gotten interested in this medium is for the stories that the writers have in-stored for us to experience. The varied story-lines, the intriguing themes and character growth.

The fact that this action-fantasy show doesn't have a story is not only insulting to the eye but it completely contradicts why people watch anime in the first place.
You can get away from being plotless in a slice of life series but for an action fantasy show, it's really pathetic. By the time I got to the second half of the series aka Fairy Gone Season 1 Part 2, I stopped giving a rats ass about the plot as it was so incoherent. I tried to care about many of the events of the second half but once again the show still didn't learn from its mistakes that plagued the first half.
This is what happens when you don't explain the story to the viewer and as a result the writing and characters suffer because of this.

Fairy Gone is an anime original project yet the writing is on par with generic light novel garbage. It hamfists you with info-dumps, flashbacks, stock cliches, monologues etc.
Now here comes the sad part of Fairy Gone, the characters. I really wanted to like the characters because they could have been good but the light novel garbage writing and the show's failure to explain the story competently killed these characters as they came off as husks rather than actual people. Not only are there so many characters that the show expects us to care about every one of them. I can only remember 1 character in the show Marlya.

The rest of the characters I had to go to the Fairy Gone Wiki just to remember the other characters names and if I have to use outside assistance just to remember the names of your cast then something is wrong.

Getting back to Marlya, she's one of the most annoying and blandest female characters of 2019. Not only she's a total Mary Sue but her motivation is weak. I also hated how she contradicts the show's setting. She gets a spirit by touching one while people like Free have to get surgery just to get a spirit. I think the writers in Fairy Gone had no idea of what they were doing, and they just had to contradict the setting to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I really wanted to like Free but the show wouldn't allow me to like him. He seems to be a cool character that has a decent amount of personality but thanks to the show's failure to explain the plot properly it breaks this character to a point where just becomes just another generic male action lead. The rest of the characters just exist for the sake of existing. They are not even worth mentioning all just like this lifeless shell of a plot and it includes Veronica who is nothing more than a plot device for Marlya.

Fairy Gone visually is on par with other P.A works in terms of art-style, background scenery and character designs but at the same time, it's not as consistent or colourful as other P.A works shows. For starters, the style gradually gets more inconsistent as it progresses.  The first 3 episodes are visually pleasing but after that, the show starts to deteriorate to mediocre territory making it the worst anime from P.A works visually. Animation while competent at times is rather stiff.
The kicker of Fairy Gone visuals is the crappy CGI. I honestly have never seen CGI used so poorly in a long while. It makes the show look cheaper than it actually is with still frames, horrid fight, choreography and choppy animation. It just breaks the immersion drastically.

I honestly forget this show had a soundtrack. Despite the show having a great number of tracks, the show seems to play the same handful of tracks over and over again to a point, it becomes grating.
The opening themes, on the other hand, were good and easily the best thing about Fairy Gone. The ending themes were good but nothing special.
Both the Original Japanese Audio and the Funimation Dub are solid. The voice actors suit the roles nicely and the line delivery is consistent.

Fairy Gone is a textbook example of great ideas but poor execution. The series had everything right from its great premise and setting but the writing, empty characters, inconsistent production values and atrocious story structure ultimately killed it.

There is so much better action and fantasy out there like Bungou Stray Dogs, Golden Kamuy and The Ancient Magus Bride. Fairy Gone is a failure that is a void of passion, substance and creativity and you should avoid it like the plague.