A Little Snow Fairy Sugar: Episode 5 Commentary

The Elder Arrives!!

While all the main human characters were introduced, at least briefly, in the first episode, the fairies are working their way in few by few, and getting decent screentime.

I gather the elder fairy spent his youth learning to control all the elements, mastering the seasons. This would leave him with an empty spot, having never settled down. Unfortunately, he’s looking to spend his twilight years with a much younger adult fairy, Ginger. Ginger on the other end is wrestling with what feelings she may have for the other new arrival, the top Cloud Fairy, Turmeric. Turmeric doesn’t have any interest in a relationship, only in perfecting his work, which could lead him down the same road as the elder in life. My prediction is he won’t be able to perfect his clouds until he has a reason to, a driving motivation. He’ll probably one day want to make the perfect clouds for Ginger to draw rain from.

The elder has confirmed my theory that a Twinkle isn’t a tangible object, but rather an experience. He alludes to there being “something” about humans able to see fairies, and is amazed to learn Saga can see him. For some reason, there’s “something” about humans able to see fairies which isn’t there with Saga. On top of this, the elder says training fairies must spend time with a human able to see them to find twinkles. If not Saga, then exactly what kind of person should Sugar and her friends have found?

The product of the twinkles Sugar unknowingly found have been poured from her flute onto her growing Magic Seed. What about Salt’s and Pepper’s? Neither of them is close with Saga, especially not nearly as Sugar is. Will they fall behind Sugar’s growth, or will they follow the same rate of growth so long as they continue to stick with Sugar, and be near Saga?

There seems to be something about old men being dirty old men in Japanese animation. I’ll excuse the elder chasing after Ginger, as maybe he’s known her for some time have genuinely has feelings for her. However, if I was Saga, I would have enforced a different sleeping spot than until a doll’s dress.

From one class to another, Saga and her friends much have the same teacher. Miss Hanna has been seen teaching music and now art, as well as science before, and whatever the morning class may be (perhaps a “homeroom”, non-subject class?) She’s also been seen carrying graded math papers. This school must turn out some very cultured students, if the science, music, and art courses are daily classes which are taught in depth.

At Greta’s insistence, Saga is becoming more and more competitive with her. Whether this is a bad thing has yet to be seen. Perhaps there will be an episode showing something in Greta’s background explaining why she is this way. Did she compete with a classmate the year prior, or is Saga the first one she’s seen as viable competition?

I don’t really know instruments very well. Ginger has a violin, but what is Turmeric’s instrument? Another type of violin? It would make sense for two types of violins to make related weather changes. Side-note: the spice turmeric is actually in the ginger family.

Sugar’s sleeping pose at the end of the episode is familiar. It was used earlier in the episode. I wonder if it’s not the exact same frame used in a previous episode as well.

There were a few fun scenes this time around. One is when the elder learns Saga can see him. Another would be when Saga is squeezing poor Salt (“I’m dying! I’m dying!”), and Pepper’s unnoticed attempts to get Saga’s attention over it. And of course, nothing beats a crayon battle. I sacrificed a screenshot of Norma and Anne talking about how weird Greta really is to keep a screenshot of the crayon fight.