Forest Fairy Five

In their insatiable hunger for new content, CrunchyRoll will occasionally license series that seem to have no business being seen outside of whatever dark corner of Japan they came from. Forest Fairy Five (FFF) is the latest of those shows, an attempt at a CGI children's show that, on first appearances, is a confused mess of ugly visuals, bad sound quality & no clear sense of what it's meant to be about or who it's for. First, some back story. In 2011 Sōta Sugahara's & studio Bouncy's GDGD Fairies first aired, a CGI show about fairy idols that looked like a kids show, butwas actually a surreal mixture of character breaking improv comedy & weird animation. It was apparently popular enough to get a second season & a film in 2014. Said film was produced with help from another studio, Rokujigen (6D), who have now gone on to make their own CGI show about fairy idols that looks like a surreal mixture of character breaking improv comedy & weird animation, but is actually a kids show. To further confuse matters, the first three minutes of FFF are effectively two separate introductions that contradict each other. The first introduces a “beautiful & prosperous since ancient times” Japan where anime has become real & we're off to the place where you can meet “anime-chan's.” But straight after that is another introduction that presents the show as occurring in the mushroom fairy kingdom where the main characters are trying to protect the real world from the evil poison mushroom army. Neither really has much to do with the show itself, but it means that the first three minutes of every episode contribute nothing. Not that you'll probably bother. The first episodes of FFF are a mess, a show that looks & sounds terrible & doesn't seem to know what it is. Ostensibly based on a children's illustration book, FFF stars a quintet of mushroom fairies who spend their days hanging about & sometimes checking in on the real world through a fairy circle. They're supposed to be eight years old, but given that the voice actresses don't put on voices, they certainly don't sound like it. It makes the exchanges with narrator JoJo feel odd & condescending, as an adult man talks to the fairies like they're children, only for them to talk back like teenagers. Nor is it clear quite what FFF wants to be. Its mix of scripted interactions & improv don't seem connected & it almost feels like the VAs aren't quite sure what to do. The first couple episodes introduce the fairies to sites in Harajuku in such a way that it's almost like they're addressing foreign tourists. After a couple of episodes a new segment about some bird looking characters is introduced who seem to have nothing to do with the fairies. In all the opening episodes give the impression that the producers aren't sure exactly what they're trying to do with their show. These problems are only exacerbated by the presentation problems. The CGI looks like captured footage from a Chinese fantasy MMO, with glitchy animation loops & a virtual camera that doesn't know where it's going. There is also an excessive amount of Bloom, to the point that the fairies often resemble the sheep from TES IV: Oblivion. It makes for an ugly introduction to the series, not helped by the problems with the voice actresses microphones. Despite the improv skits, it never feels like they were recorded in the same room & the sound quality varies from fine to not fit for Youtube. The only thing that doesn't seem to have problems is the music, which sounds like it might have been licensed from a jRPG music library rather than commissioned for the show. It's hard to imagine how the series could have made a worst first impression. But having said all that, as the series progresses it starts to pull itself together. The technical issues don't go away, but the sound & visual problems start being cleaned up & the camera is brought back under control. Episodes start sticking to a single theme, for instance one character forgetting how to say “ka” & all the problems that causes. The fairy portal is also re-purposed so that it now contains a recurring woman who introduces the fairies to various professions. Oh & there's a guest lady in one episode who's high on schrooms. Drug references in children's TV shows are always welcome. This change over it's runtime means that the overall impression of FFF is of a series where the production team were having to learn on the fly. There are lots of things, major & minor, that suggest it's a show that had very little pre-production time to set up & learn the production tools & develop a concrete concept for the series. By the end, it has ironed out a lot of the creases, to the point that it now is a decent enough short show for young children. But the issues at the start leave this first season of FFF feeling like one of those well-intended but misguided no-budget animations for kids you find on Amazon Prime. I recommend Bubble Bubble Meows. It'll change your life.

I have no well constructed opinions to write here because frankly I simply just don't care about this show enough to. This is the only piece of media EVER to make me actually, literally, physically vomit from the absolutely HORRENDOUS visuals and audio. And honey baby, I don't mean something like puking a little in my mouth, no. I mean feeling it coming, having to quickly get the hell up, hold it in with my cheeks, and rush to the toilet to blow fricking chunks. Anyways the story is non existent, the characters are terrible, the art and sound literally make me sick. Thereis absolutely nothing to enjoy about this show. I watched gdgdFairies because hey atleast it's fun to laugh out from how poor quality it is, and there is actually some real enjoyable and hilarity in it. But this is awful. Please anyone who reads this, know this. I don't need to be remembered, I don't need to accomplish anything big in my life, I don't even need to ever achieve my perception of true happiness before I die. All I need, is to be able to convince you not to watch this show. Please, DON'T. It's not worth it, I'm a changed man and my life hasn't been the same. ~fin~ seriously though this is the worst thing I've ever seen haha

This anime is absolute trash. I don't even think it should be an anime. But... boy is it funny! I watched this entire thing through with a friend, laughing along the way with the horrible graphics, animation, and missed things. I'm never gonna watch this again, but it was a hilarious romp the second time. I honestly wish that they had made more of it. If you are going to watch it, watch it with a friend. Also, you should only watch it if you are the type of person that loves Its so bad its good type of things.

Forest Fairy Five is a special kind of bad one that physically hurts to look at if you have light sensitive eyes (seriously, it will hurt.) Story: 1/10 Yeah, there’s no real plot in this show. They do form a dance team, but that doesn’t really go anywhere. Sometimes two of the fairies just stand around playing a word game. Sound: 1/10 Outside of the OP, which is actually not too bad, the rest of the show sounds awful most of the time, and the actresses just sound like they are having boring casual conversations. Animation: 1/10 The show is so bright that it can be very difficultto even see what the characters are doing. When you can see the characters, you’ll most likely witness their arms going through their bodies. I honestly wouldn’t recommend this anime even to people who like to watch bad anime, as it’s not even fun bad but more so boring bad.

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