“Sugar Apple Fairly Tale” (January 2023, J.C.Staff) is a story about a girl on a journey to become the best sugar artisan for her late mother.

The story starts off with the viewer being introduced to Ann Halford (voiced by Yuka Nukui) watching her mother create a sculpture out of sugar. Once Ann comes of age, she sets off to a city called Lewiston to become a Silver Sugar Master. On her journey she meets Shall Fen Shall (Masaaki Mizunaka) a warrior fairy, and Mithril Rid Pod (Rie Takahashi) another fairy who joins her. She must go through the toils as a woman working towards being a Silver Sugar Master while being ridiculed by other confectioners and making friends with others.

This show’s visual department went unbelievably hard, the color palette suits the name terrifically being shades of pastel colors most of the time to show the dreamy-like feeling of the show, then becoming gloomy during some of the more somber scenes. 

After that comes the character designs, every single one of the characters was unique in their own right, be it in their build, the way they carry themselves, or their hair colors. The eyes were truly beautiful, some of the most personalized compared to other shows.

The background shares the same light color as the characters, with the skies being a baby blue and the environment not feeling out of place or unnatural. The structures had some sort of touching up, but in one particular scene took it off just to emphasize how drab the interior was.

As for the music, it always felt dreamy, with windpipes and marimbas being played to emphasize the mysticality of a scene. Then when it comes to tense scenes they speed it up, adding brass instruments and strings culminating in the viewer being taken back into the reality of the situation the characters are in.

The way the characters were written was not without thought either, they felt more flushed out than anime of a similar genre. The way the show’s director unveils information about characters leaves even more questions about them that will slowly be revealed. 

Another thing of note is that the show’s pacing is unlike other anime, it’s well thought out and feels natural, it flows really well and most episodes end on a cliffhanger, making viewers wait for the next episode.

Although there are so many unique small details of the show, they must be put aside for the sake of time and to make room for the poor qualities.

The show ended rather abruptly, on a massive bittersweet cliffhanger that left many viewers longing for more. However, season 2 starts airing in July of this year so all those heartbroken fans will have more content to help soothe their wounds.

For those who like an anime with a bittersweet feeling set in a fantasy world, then this anime would be rather an enjoyable show to experience. If they’re not a fan of ugly crying nearly every episode then they should probably watch something else.