Fairy Musketeer Akazukin

Information of Anime

Suzukaze Souta is a young boy that loves fairy tales.  His mother told him a story where a man, who achieved the powers of magic & science, was split into two due to angering God.  As result, two worlds were form: one with science & one with magic.  He later learns that the story is true when monsters called Nightmareans are chasing after him & a girl named Akazukin & a wolf named Val save him.  He learns that an evil witch named Cendrillon is after him as he is Elde's Key.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Together with Shirayuki-hime & Ibara-hime, Akazukin & them are the Three Fairy Musketeers.  They come from another world to protect Souta from Cendrillon.  With his friend, Ringo Kinoshita, Souta becomes interested about the other world & Elde's Key.  Also, the incomplete fairy tale that his mother told him.  When they discover that King Fernando is captured by Cendrillon in the other world, the group go to the other world to save him.  On their journey, Souta learns a lot of other fairy tales in this world & more about the incomplete fairy tale.  As we progress further in the story, we learn that the fairy tale of the two worlds is centered around a girl named Marlene who fell in love with a boy from Elde.  However, it turns out that Marlene is actually Cendrillon before she became possessed with dark magic.

As the show progresses, Souta's character manages to change some hearts on Cendrillon's members although they have different view of Cendrillon later on.  He manages to change Randagio in leaving Cendrillon & have Gretel join them.  As the Fairy Musketeers come closer to Cendrillon's castle, more of her allies slowly switch sides.  However, Cendrillon would later capture Souta as she see that his key powers are starting to activate.  To get him to release the key's true powers, she uses Trude to release it by killing his mother in front of him as the power is released based on strong emotions.  However, Souta attacks Trude who happens to be his mother as he tries to protect his "mother" who was trapped in a mirror.  Souta's mother is actually one of the Seven Sages that sealed Cendrillon a thousand years ago.  Actions to prevent Souta from releasing the key's powers fail as Cendrillion kills his mother in front of his eyes.  Releasing the powers from his anger, Elde's Key forcefully activates Fernando's Key inside of King Fernando & the story of the two worlds is revealed with Cendrillion trying to invade Elde.

Cendrillion continues to devour the power of the two keys as the Three Fairy Musketeers & friends try their best to stop Cendrillion.  Seeing & hearing how hard they are fighting, Souta controls his powers & together with King Fernando, they combine their powers to stop her even if it kills them.  However, they manage to free themselves from her body & everyone seals Cendrillion the same way she was sealed one thousand years ago.

With Cendrillion sealed, everyone takes time off in Elde as the Three Fairy Musketeers trying to earn some money to take Ringo & Souta to the hot springs as a gift for giving them a place to stay.  However, it's more of a farewell gift to them as they are required to return to Fernando.  Although it saddens Ringo & Souta, Souta thinks this is the right choice as the two worlds can't coexist with each other.  But Souta believes the two worlds will coexist in the future & they all hope to meet each other again the future.  The story ends with all the characters in Fernando doing their thing & Souta writing his version of the story of two worlds.

My Personal Review

Fairy Musketeer Akazukin is a bit different from the OVA that was released in the past.  They both follow the same idea, but the telling of it is a bit different.  The show is a bit cute & childish, but it's enjoyable for all ages really.

Animation

The character designs are on the cute side.  Characters with big eyes & chubby faces.  One thing to mention about it is that they are pretty much on the loli size despite their ages. Even the most of the adults are drawn pretty short.  In terms of the clothing, it's not too stylish.  It's pretty cute & plain.  Even Akazukin's weapons look to be on the cute side.  I was laughing a bit to see that she uses a ladle & a frying pan as weapons as she "cooks" up an attack.

The backgrounds are okay.  Not a lot of details, but it doesn't make the show look very kiddish even with cute characters.

The colours are surprising dull.  I was expecting bright colours since it's got some cute characters.  The colours are bold, but doesn't give the impression of watching a kid's show.

In terms of the animation movement, it's a mixture.  Sometimes the movements are realistic & sometimes the movements are not normal.  But they are quite smooth with hardly choppy frames found.  But the movements seem to be on the slow side.

Sound

The sound effects are really on the silly side.  Probably because to make the show cute.  Azazukin makes these popping sounds every time she makes a step.  The sounds were crisp & cued on the mark. 

The seiyuus here aren't too bad.  They really get their characters life & match their personalities well.  In fact, if you have seen the OVA, they are the same cast members.  But the seiyuu for Souta changes starting on episode 25.  I don't know why the seiyuu was changed here.  The original seiyuu was the same one from the OVA.  The new one matches the original voice of Souta well, but it's a bit deeper & a little more mature.

The music really helps create the mood well.  It's quite catchy as it has an upbeat pop feel to it.  Some of the songs actually stick to my head for some reason.

Story

The show uses a lot of elements from many fairy tales such as kissing a prince toad to break a curse, & the gingerbread house of Hansel & Gretel.  Also, some of the characters uses names from those fairy tales.  Despite being a cute show, the storyline is surprisingly good.  Souta's trip to the mirror world in meeting Marlene's past is well done to describe the split of the two worlds & the origin of the fairy tale.  But, the story is too predictable for an older audience.  After seeing the second story of Marlene's past, you pretty much know who that person is & where she is now.  But, the story is kind of deep for a kids show.

Aside from the main story, the character development isn't that great.  The characters are still what they were before, even though they get a bit stronger.  The most development comes from the enemy side, such as Hansel & Gretel.  Despite the poor development, the traits of the characters are funny enough to make you laugh even though they are just silly kid jokes.

The ending is quite good & ends very well despite the extra episode in the end that looks like fan service almost.  It ties pretty much the loose ends in the show.

Overall Conclusion

Fairy Musketeer Akazukin is an interesting show despite it being so kiddish & girly.  An older person would probably feel embarrassed watching this, even though there are a lot of collectables for the mature collector.  I would suggest watching this as it does have some interesting fairy tale elements that may have you recall all those childhood story memories.

Fairy Musketeer Akazukin gets an 8.5/10.  The story is quite good for a cute show & the ending is well done.  Although it's pretty predictable for a lot of older people, the show is basically eye candy in selling Konomi's creation.  However, it's still a good show to watch.

Last updated on January 9, 2008