Nowadays 90% of the animes are going with very straightforward storytelling since the average anime fan seems to be allergic to brainwork. Instead of the usual approach of spoonfeeding any and every relevant information so even the greenest vegetable won't get lost, Fairy gone starts off with an "In medias res" opening, without explaining much of anything. Then slowly, episode by episode builds up the world. I would say they are doing it excellently, if you pay attention, it is not too hard to piece things together. Still, with every "mystery" solved a new one appears, which the show will get to in due time. This means most of the time you won't know the full picture, there will be a lot of unanswered questions, but be patient, eventually everything will be answered.
The story is quite complex, it is something like a political-action-drama. I would say it is for a rather mature audience. The show is set in a post-war era, which is rather unique, most animes about the war, where the hero serves justice and defeats the evil. Fairy gone digs a lot deeper than that. It is not all just black and white, everyone has a good reason for their actions. There are a lot of people names and locations thrown around, but eventually, you will learn the more important characters' name, and the name of the locations isn't that important, I don't remember a single one, and I have no problem understanding what's going on. They are just there for lore, if you are really intersted you can look up a map and place the events, but you are totally fine if you don't do anything with them.
The story is moving quite slowly, although still there's quite much going on, also there are numerous cool fight scenes. From the beginning it is not quite clear where the story will develop. I would say it is a big plus for me since I am already sick and tired of nowadays all the anime are doing the same things over and over again, so they are very easy to predict. Finally, this is a story I don't know yet.
Art:
The show uses a mix of 2D and CGI. The 2D art is generally quite good, there are scenes that are really pretty and rarely there are scenes that doesn't look so great, but that happens in every show. Characters are having a western kind of desing, it reminds me of some old classics.
They are using CGI for the stands/personas called fairies. However, they are definitely not just plainly copying the idea from those shows. Unlike the stands/personas, with the fairies they went for a realistic approach, therefore anime fans immediately labelled them ugly. But they are supposed to be ugly, they are terrifying monsters being able to rip people apart, do you want to look them like my little pony? With this realistic outlook, the CGI blends in with the 2D animation quite well, but still looks kind of otherworldly, as these fairies definitely don't belong to the human world. The rules are very different too: unlike the other 2 shows it is not only the stands/personas are fighting. Here the fairy user usually fights the other 2v2, user vs user and user vs fairy too.
Characters:
At first glance the characters might look bland, but by time with flashbacks and their present actions we will get to know them better, what are their motivations, goals. The "villains" have their reasons for doing what they are doing, in their shoes maybe you would do the same.
Sound:
The music is great. There is almost always some undelying music fitting or setting the mood for the scene with a wide variety of styles. Also, the ending song is definitely the best of the spring season.
Conclusion:
This anime is definitely not for everyone. If you are interested in an anime with a grand theme, a complex story with a lot of underlying threads and in the meanwhile some pretty cool action, don't listen to the masses, be sure to check this out. It is natural to not understand a lot of things at the very beginning, you will get your clues in later episodes so eventually you will be able to piece the puzzle together.
Overall I am giving it an 8/10 now, but if the story wraps up nicely, we'll get some more good character developement, cool action and in the end everything falls into place, I can see myself rating it even a 10/10.
