A Little Snow Fairy Sugar: Episode 14 Commentary
Pepper and the Dream of Mr. Turtle
Watching the “Snow Flower Music Video” DVD extra (as well as in the “Sugar Promotional Video” DVD extra), I noticed it looks like Saga’s mother holding her in the prologue. This goes against my theory that Saga ran away after her mother died, but it strengthens the theory that Sugar’s mother and Saga’s mother were friends. It means perhaps Sugar’s mother created a warm snowfall to keep young Saga safe while guiding Saga’s mother to her.
The “Sugar Promotional Video” has a nice variation on “Sugar Baby Love”. Too bad there’s dialogue voiceovers near the end. I’ll have to see if there’s a soundtrack CD with this variant on it.
Finally, Pepper gets her time in the spotlight. Her residence, the Animal Hospital, is yet another place with an English name in an apparently bilingual German town. Even the medicine packages are a mix of English and German labels. Inside, Pepper sleeps with her sandals on, unlike Sugar who removes her shoes. I imagine Salt removes his boots and gloves as well. We also get to see Pepper without her glasses on, as well as the location of her Magic Flower. But isn’t the location a bit unsafe? What if the teddybear is moved, or knocked upsidedown? Thankfully the baby is crib-bound.
Pepper is able to understand any animal, and all animals seem to understand her, as well as Lancelot perhaps understanding Salt’s comment about racing. If this is the case, the animals being able to understand the fairies, then does this mean they can understand humans as well? Either way, what does this mean looking back on Pepper’s using meow-speak to try and talk with Mr. Cat previously? Maybe I’m over-analyzing things. If the animals can understand one another, then it would make sense that Pepper can understand all animals.
The interesting scene in the animal hospital is the baby’s ability to see Pepper. Does the baby have the ability to see Season Fairies, or can all babies see them? If the latter, then under what conditions growing up does a baby lose the ability to see Season Fairies? Is it something which never happened with Saga, ensuring her ability to see Season Fairies continuously? And why didn’t she see any before Sugar (not counting Sugar’s mother back when Saga was lost in the snow?)
I was surprised the method of flight for the fairies was revealed. It reveals why their wings are not needed for flying. I don’t recall if their wings have actually been used for anything yet.
Once more, Saga’s plans for the day mean nothing as she stops her own work to look after the fairies. When Salt helped Phil, there was no growth of his Magic Flower, but Saga’s assisting Pepper led to a second bud for Pepper’s flower. Rather, Saga’s learning from Pepper was certainly the cause. This follows with Elder’s lesson on sticking close to a human able to see Season Fairies to find Twinkles. Normal humans cannot learn from Season Fairies, but Saga can.
The mystery of the episode is Saga’s slight blush when Phil says how mysterious it was for her to join him with his inventions on her own. Phil definitely was due for another appearance. Again, I believe the pacing of character appearances is well played (with this episode showing Joe again, as well). I imagine Salt will get an episode where his Magic Flower gets a second bud, but not within the next episode or two. Most shows seem to put these events one episode after the other.
The scene leading up to Lancelot’s flight is just downright silly. It reminds me of those Tom & Jerry cartoons where an elaborate trap is set up, with one thing setting off another which puts another in motion which triggers another.
Cute scene of the episode: Sugar’s NASA flight. Perhaps this is a modern day series, even though much modern technology isn’t shown. (I dropped a screenshot of Pepper falling over from being tired to keep in the screenshot of NASA Sugar.)
