Having read the first volume of the manga, I was very excited to find out there was an anime adaptation of this. However, the story was paced a little too quickly, and often times felt disjointed. I also found it a bit difficult to get attached to the characters. Art and animation are kept to a minimum, like with most shojo anime. The voice acting was okay, and the music didn't really stand out to me. Overall, I don't think this anime can stand alone, meaning you wold have to get the original source material to fully enjoy this anime.
Loooooooong review:
Story and Characters:
Now, I've read the manga, but not the light novels. And I will be making comparisons between the manga and anime. So, let me try to put the story into a satirical form (minor spoilers):
Edgar: Help me become the Blue Knight Earl. Lydia: Why do I have to?
Edgar. I can kill you. But I also think I love you. Lydia: Uhhh...
Raven: I am Edgar's loyal servant. Nico: MORE SHRIMP!!!
Edgar: Mr. Carlton, please let me marry your daughter. Lydia and her father: ?!?!?!?!
Edgar: You know, I was once in love with someone named Ermine. Kelpie: I want to mate with you, Lydia.
And then there's Huxley, who I really don't remember much about him.
I give the story creativity points. But looking at the story as a whole, it only vaguely made sense to me. The transition from different plot points is sometimes sudden and/or doesn't make sense. This is the kind of story that needs to marathoned in order to remember everything and to remember all the mysteries and "clues" in the anime. It's also not very enjoyable, either. But that may just be me, because I was waiting for some real chemistry between Lydia and Edgar.
I am not afraid to say I was struck with bishi fever when watching this anime. Obviously, there's Edgar, but then there's Kelpie, the water spirit in love Lydia and kind of looks like Kaname from Vampire Knight (CURSE YOU). And there's (another) character every other fangirl seems to love but I didn't, Raven. All these bishis did have some sort of a (back)story, but was either applied too lightly (Paul, Kelpie), or too heavily (Raven, Edgar). The character relationships, especially the ones involving Ermine, seemed a bit confusing, and would be more confusing had I not read the manga. Okay, let's talk about Lydia. I have mixed feeling about her. I appreciate that she's not entirely helpless and she isn't stupid, either. But she's stubborn, although with good reason. She doesn't develop much, except for her (reluctant) feelings towards Edgar. And like Lydia, I also had mixed feelings about Edgar. He's manipulative, a charmer, and not afraid to get what he wants by any means necessary. But at least he didn't treat Lydia like trash. I think this "split" was a good idea, though, because it offers a bit of darkness and "reality" to a main male character in a fantasy anime. It's even better if that kind of guy is your thing, if you get what I'm saying. He isn't clueless, like Tamaki Suoh, or very abrasive, like Kyo Sohma. But I think Edgar is fine as he is, because he's a different type of male love interest in shojo anime.
Art and Animation:
The Earl and The Fairy was produced by studio Artland, who also made the anime Mushi-shi. The art style isn't that different between the two, but it didn't suit The Earl and The Fairy very well. I thought the art was too flat and the colors were a little too pale. But I also thought they put more work into drawing Edgar than anyone else in the anime. Because this is a 2008 anime, I expected this to be a very beautiful looking shojo anime. Honestly, I expect shojo/romance anime to look nice (Ouran, Clannad). Cardcaptor Sakura, an anime that's 10 years older than The Earl and The Fairy looks better, in my opinion. Which is a shame, because the artwork in the light novels and the manga is VERY beautiful. And is it just me, or were all of Lydia's formal dresses really ugly? However, I can understand why they didn't want to put a lot of effort into drawing or the art.
The animation is about average as well. What comes to mind when thinking about the animation is whenever Raven fights. I just thought the flash of green and then seeing all the enemies go down was kind of cheap and cheesy. The opening animation also looks kind of cheap. But this is a shojo anime, and I think animation isn't supposed to be one of it's focuses.
Music:
Before I talk about the music, I would just like to say there is no voice category for this review because this anime has never been dubbed. Yeah, after my Attack on Titan review, I realized I can't judge the original voices in an anime very well.
I don't think there was at least one memorable OST track. I think it "set the mood" of the anime, but just wasn't exceptional in any way. The opening theme was okay, but it wasn't that great. It really didn't fit a historical, shojo anime, either. And I'm pretty sure the ending (well, this is mostly the animation we're talking about here) caused almost as many ovaries to explode as did the trailer for the Free! anime.
Execution and My Enjoyment:
Kind of how I said a high school slice-of-life comedy should not be super-long, a shojo anime should not be only 12-13 episodes. I don't think that's enough time for true, satisfying romantic development. The story was just too much to be compressed into 12 episodes. Normally, one volume of manga = 4-5 anime episodes. The first volume of the manga became the first 2 episodes of the anime. Yeah, I think you get the idea what the pacing of this show is like. This anime had far too much (somewhat disjointed) story elements crammed into 12 episodes. I don't mind when an anime tries to do a lot of things, like in Angel Beats, but that balanced many different genres, while The Earl and The Fairy had too many plot points condensed and overlapping.
Overall, this anime had nothing really special about it, and had a story that was too complicated (for me) in 12 episodes. The production quality is a bit low, in my opinion, and from episode 3 onward, I kept trying to remember what had happened and who was doing what. Along with the changes made from the manga, things got confusing fast, and watching this anime almost felt like a chore towards the end. But, like I've said many times before, I partially watched this to catch bishi fever. Enjoyment may vary between person to person depending if they prefer a complete retell of the original story or a different one.
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