Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy

I have seen this anime around but my impression of it was that it would be one of those vacuous 'cute for the sake of cute' animes about nothing in particular and the most the creator wanted me to take away from it was that 'OMG THAT WAS THE CUTEST EVER WASN'T THAT SO CUTE'. So naturally I stayed away. Despite what I thought initially however, this was actually a good story and yes, it is cute, but not cute for the sake of cuteness.

The story begins with an industrious young girl named Saga. Saga lives with her grandmother and has her life planned down to the minute. She doesn't like disorganization and even makes plans and decisions for her friends. This all starts to unravel, however, when Saga comes across a tiny fairy who almost passes out from hunger. Saga gives her a waffle to eat and the fairy follows her home. At first Saga dislikes the attention and is constantly trying to ignore or get away from Sugar, the fairy. Eventually though, the two become good friends and Saga becomes important to Sugar's mission.

Sugar is a snow fairy. Fairies control to weather, there are fairies who control wind, rain, sun, the clouds, etc. and Sugar controls snow, or will after her training period. Sugar is an apprentice fairy and she, along with other apprentice fairies, must spend time on earth to find 'twinkles'. Each fairy must find a 'twinkle' to make their own magic flower bloom, and only then can they become a full-fledged season fairy. Many of the episodes focus on the fairies trying to find these twinkles.

This show is not only for fairy lovers, there is also a a very strong musical theme. The fairies control their weather specialization with a musical instrument, and Saga herself loves the piano and plays often throughout the series. Music itself doesn't play as big a role as the love of instruments and the hold they may have on our memories.

The characters grow immensely in this series. Saga is not the up-tight girl who clung to a schedule. After she meets Sugar, Saga slowly is forced to loosen up a bit. Normally, people can't see season fairies so they fly out in the open and are invisible to people, but Saga is an exception and can see them. This poses a problem for her because not only do her schedules come under attack, but she is talking to and interacting with things no one but her can see. Over time though, Saga makes room for life to happen and doesn't cling so tightly to her schedule. Both Saga and Sugar experience trials, both individually and together and both grow a little bit from each hardship they face. It's kind of like fruits basket in that it's a sweet story on the surface, but it has a hidden depth to it, it's not as deep or intricate as fruits basket but it does have that double layer of surprising substance even though the characters are so cute.