A Little Snow Fairy Sugar: Episode 16 Commentary
The Faraway Town's First Snow
The fairies get their first real test. I was surprised to find Pepper in first and Sugar in last on Elder’s chart, however. Does that means everyone else surpassed Sugar with their Magic Flowers? Even the troublesome Basil and Cinnamon? Maybe the growth of the plant and the appearance of buds are two separate metrics the Elder judges on. When Salt helped with Phil’s aurora experiment, Salt didn’t gain a flower bud, but perhaps the stem and leaves of the plant grew. Likewise with Pepper’s efforts to help Lancelot.
Setting the troublesome two aside, Sugar’s learned there are still many lessons for her to face. Simply creating snow to create snow is no good, especially when it’s out of season. The sun can shine many days, and there may always be wind, but the snow is tied to a certain and specific time of year. Not only can an out-of-place snowfall cause trouble, but it also will worry those who are not expecting snow any time soon. On top of this, even though the children may love the snow, Sugar may have to cope further with the words of the adults, troubled by the snow. A blow to the ego comes in when Sugar’s snowfall lacks endurance. She’ll need to practice hard to improve, but how can she practice when she’s staying in a town not yet ready for snow for the year? Because the trip takes her to cities where snowfall is due, chances are Mulenburg will reach its snowy season soon as well. Saga’s calender has a picture showing green plants, so it might actually still be summer, even if the end of summer. (I’m not sure how German calenders mark weekends, but Saga’s has only Sundays marked in red, typical of a Japanese calender.)
The Elder, unfortunately for him, has given Ginger and Turmeric a chance to get closer. At least, that’s the case from Ginger’s side. Turmeric remains oblivious, instead taking the trip to heart and watching dutifully after the aspiring young ones. If I don’t feel sorry for Ginger, I can at least be happy for Elder, and that is enough to feel bad for poor Ginger.
Salt has expressed an interest in clouds. Can it be he’d rather work with clouds than with sun?
For perhaps the first time since meeting Sugar, Saga is able to stick to her schedule. While Sugar is learning a hard lesson about Season Fairies sticking to the schedule of the weather, Saga’s facing the reality that a schedule alone isn’t enough to get through the day. I’m sure her mother could never keep a schedule when Saga was a little girl, and now Saga’s found herself adjusting to that sort of life.
This episode has a blatant scene reuse. The scene with Sugar, Salt, and Pepper eating a waffle is straight out of an earlier episode. Reusing scenes in this way is unfortunately too easy to do when everything is done on the computer. It saves time and money arguably at the expense of overall quality.
