Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Season 2

Episode 18

It's true – ghosts aren't scary. They're sad. Or at least, all of the best ghost stories acknowledge that there's an undercurrent of tragedy inherent in the genre. Sugar Apple Fairy Tale seems to understand that, even as it still struggles a bit with its use of slavery as a thematic element: the reveal of the fairy Noah as the “ghost” haunting Holly Leaf Castle is all tied up in his devotion to his former master, Lord Herbert Chamber. When Herbert left for what he seemed to have understood is a doomed war, he told Noah to stay behind, even returning his wing to him. Noah interpreted this as a test of loyalty and possibly even a punishment, but it's clear that what Herbert actually intended was to save Noah's life. And as it turns out, the castle is haunted: by Noah and the spirit of the late Herbert Chamber.

The real tragedy is that Herbert can't seem to communicate with Noah. Canny viewers will have noticed that two voices were “haunting” Anne in the previous episode, or at least that Noah's voice doesn't match the one Anne heard addressing her as a Silver Sugar Master. Given Challe's emphatic denial that there's a ghost present, it seems like Anne is the only person Herbert can reach, and that appears tied up in her equal treatment of fairies. We don't know when Herbert gave Noah back his wing, which may turn out to be more significant than a parting gift as he left for war; the brief glimpses he shares with Anne of their past make it look like they had a very equal relationship. That Noah says that he was Herbert's page is also significant because, unlike a servant, a page can be an apprentice, which implies that he will eventually move out of his subservient role. (Pages were, traditionally, boys.) Noah's a fairy, so he doesn't “grow up” and will always look like a pre-teen, but the choice of “page” as a descriptor still implies that Herbert saw him in a more equal light. And Noah's faithfulness to Herbert speaks not of duty, but of love – he may say that he's protecting Holly Leaf Castle, but if you read between the lines, what he's really doing is waiting for someone he loves to return. Herbert sharing visions of his past with Anne is the last hope his spirit has to save the fairy he love because as Mithril Lid Pod repeatedly (and tactlessly) says, Herbert's not coming back the way Noah wants.

As usual with this show, Herbert and Noah's relationship isn't one that's comfortable for an audience from anywhere with slavery in its history. It still embraces the tropes of the Antebellum (American) South in depicting the relationship between the two, and knowing that original author Miri Mikawa is trying isn't quite enough. (I'll be very interested to know how the novel handles it; as of this writing it hasn't been released in English and the show has been softening some of the hard edges.) Noah's actions frankly remind me a bit more of a loyal pet, and that's not a particularly comfortable impression here.

But this episode is all about the uncomfortable moments. Bridget's new “companion” fairy (who seems to be spending as little time as he can with her) is definitely up to no good, and seeing him creep on Anne is skin-crawlingly icky – for both us and Challe. He's also very possibly Challe's brother, or something close to it: he knows far too much about the place where Challe was born, and in memories of the bejeweled sword, Challe's obsidian isn't the only gem there. If Gladus isn't the fairy who attacked Elliot, all three of them may be brothers born from the same object's decorations, which could make things tricky for Anne and Challe both. And then there's the realization that the church may have set the Paige Workshop up to fail by housing them in Holly Leaf Castle – the building had been abandoned for fifteen years; they had to know it wouldn't have maintained a whole lot of structural integrity, right? At this point there are more people that I don't trust than those that I do, so it's a good thing that it looks like Anne's going to be getting help from one of the few trustworthy characters next week.

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Sugar Apple Fairy Tale is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.