A Little Snow Fairy Sugar: Episode 3 Commentary
Twinkle-Twinkle, Comfy-Warm, Puffy-Fluffy
Saga gets a day to herself and her friends. Because Anne and Norma have already had screen time, their time in this episode was nicely limited, and well used to introduce more about the two friends. Anne is more conservative in how she dresses, with Norma being less so (also seen when she’s trying on about 13 rings at once). What remains to be seen is whether or not they’ll be seen wearing any new outfits bought later in the series, or if they’ll always be wearing the same outfit.
I’d say I’m leaning towards either Salt or Phil as my favorite character, and Phil is in the lead. He has the drive necessary to become a great inventor. Whether he has the skill yet is another thing all together. His desire to make rain is a good contrast against the Season Fairies, as a rain fairy can pull out an instrument and call the rain on a whim.
The main focus of the episode is on Sugar and friends, Salt and Pepper, and their search for a Twinkle. I must say, they do have me curious as to what a Twinkle is. Something きらきら (twinkling), something ぽかぽか (body warming), something ふわふわ (light, airy).
Just as their appearances would suggest, Pepper is a proper young lady with very polite speech, and Salt is more rough around he edges, probably a bit of a rebel. It would be nice to see how the three met; they probably became friends as classmates sitting near one another in the classroom (assuming fairy schools are structured similar to human schools).
Wasn’t it Salt and Pepper who told Sugar that it’s no use talking to humans, as humans cannot see them? While they were wrong about Saga, what are the chances of another human seeing them? The two fairies didn’t appear to be checking if Phil on the others could see them. Rather, they acted as if they could be seen and heard, then reacted upon finding they couldn’t be, after all.
Just as Sugar puts a lot of effort into creating a single snowflake (I’m not sure what manner of impact she had on Phil’s Rain Genie EX in the classroom), Salt and Pepper both have limited abilities. Nothing says amateur like being caught up in your own wind. So, what does moving from apprentice to full-fledged Season Fairy mean? Will the Magic Flower increase their magic, or will they require many years of hard work and study and practice to improve?
While eating waffo, er, waffles, Norma and Anne don’t notice the three pieces of waffle floating near Saga. This might contradict Greta seeing her ring fly up into the air in the prior episode. What interests me more for the moment is whether Joe (the crow) can see the fairies, or if he simply went after the twinkling object. His aggression suggests he did see Sugar trying to take his bell away. This would mean animals can see the fairies.
The fairies came across the story of “The North Wind and The Sun”. While the books in Saga’s bedroom are German, and Saga writes in German in class, the book’s cover is written in English. The story is an actual Japanese story, something I remember from Japanese class back in high school. The other books look to include “Sleeping Beauty” “Snow White”, “Alice in Wonderland”, and a two-volume book of “Moon and Mars” and “Mercury …”, alongside one starting “Spa”. There’s also a book with a title undoubtedly ending in “Mouse”, which could be the “City Mouse and Country Mouse” story. It’s an interesting mix of European stories with English titles, a Japanese story with an English title, and being in a German town.
In the story of “The North Wind and The Sun”, the North Wind and the Sun argue over which is the stronger. The two decide to see which can get a passing traveler to remove his coat. The North Wind uses force, by blowing a strong wind to blow the coat off the traveler. The opposite happens, as the traveler holds the coat close. The Sun’s turn comes up, and the Sun shines brightly. The traveler gets hot, so he takes off his coat. The moral is that it’s better to not to be forceful when trying to get someone to do something.
The above story is known in Japan as much as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Tortoise and the Hare” are known in the United States. It would have been nice if Pioneer had a quick explanation of this story on the pamphlet which came with the DVD. Additionally, during the credits, the English voice actors list doesn’t name which actor played which character, which is rather unfortunate.
No scene really stood out to me, although the shampoo audio at the was fun, and the easygoing bath scene leading up to it was just precious.
