Hakushaku to Yousei
Earl and Fairy
伯爵と妖精
In the nineteenth century, we find Lydia Carlton living in Scotland, making a living as a fairy doctor. She is one of those rare humans who can see and communicate with fairies. But no one believes her. However, Edgar is in need of someone with a vast knowledge of fairy lore, and Lydia is just that person. After rescuing her, he becomes her employer, but there are many secrets and emotions that seem to follow Edgar, who claims to be the Blue Knight's Earl.
Сюжет
In the nineteenth century, we find Lydia Carlton living in Scotland, making a living as a fairy doctor. She is one of those rare humans who can see and communicate with fairies. But no one believes her. However, Edgar is in need of someone with a vast knowledge of fairy lore, and Lydia is just that person. After rescuing her, he becomes her employer, but there are many secrets and emotions that seem to follow Edgar, who claims to be the Blue Knight's Earl.
Персонажи
Главный
Главный
Главный
Главный
Второстепенный
Второстепенный
Второстепенный
Второстепенный
Второстепенный
Второстепенный
Второстепенный
Трейлер
Рекомендации
Отзывы(20)
Archaeon
January 6, 2009
The one thing that always impresses me about anime and manga is the attention to detail that the japanese creators of individual stories have, especially when they utilise culture, history, folklore, etc, from other parts of the world as integral parts of their tales. Hakushaku to Yousei (or Earl and Fairy in english), began life as a series of light novels written by Tani Mizue, which were serialised in Cobalt magazine. The novels proved to be popular given the japanese love of western folklore and mythology, allowing the novels to be adapted for two drama CDs and a manga which is currently serialised in TheMargaret magazine. Before I go any further, I should point out that the story is most definitely unfinished, so expect a second, and maybe a third season at some point. That said, this initial series was rather well done on the whole. The story is set in Victorian England and follow the adventures of 17 year old Lydia Carlton, a "Fairy Doctor". She has the ability to see and communicate with supernatural creatures like fairies, pixies, brownies, and other members of the Seelie Court, and for this reason she is chosen to help one Edgar J. C. Ashenbert in his quest to become the legendary Blue Knight Earl, the human ruler of the fairy nation. He is accompanied by his servant, a boy of around Lydia's age simply known as Raven, whilst Lydia is accompanied by a talking cat called Nico. The story doesn't follow a straightforward path though, as Edgar's quest is borne from a desire for vengeance, and he has some extremely deadly enemies to contend with, as well as dealing with fey creatures who can twist the meaning of words and promises to suit their needs. It's for this reason that he desperately requires Lydia's help, especially as he can neither see nor talk to fairies. The art and animation for this series is very well done, especially if you like bishies. The animation is generally very smooth, however my one gripe with the character designs was that Victorian England had a lot more plain looking people than the anime portrays (it would have been nice to see this, but it doesn't really affect the story). The characters that are in the show are all well designed though, especially Tomkins, whose features hint at his ancestry as one of the Merrow (merfolk). The fairy creatures are also well designed on the whole, and the members of the Unseelie Court all possess a suitably ominous appearance. The music throughout the series is actually rather well done, and generally matches the time period. However, there are moments when the music definitely spoils the mood of the scene, especially with the more tension filled moments where a more ominous piece of something classical would have served better than the J-rock/pop track from the OP. The VAs are generally very good, however there is sometimes a slightly one dimesnional note to the main characters because of a lack of emotion being projected through the voice. On the whole the characters were fairly solid. I found Lydia to be quite likeable, although this may be because she reminded me of Kou Shuurei from Saiunkoku Monogatari. Edgar was also quite likeable, however I found the supposed lack of emotion to be odd, especially given his feelings for Lydia. This is something that, unfortunately, carries over to many of the other characters, especially the males. For some reason they all seem to be protrayed as cool, icy, bishounens, when it would have served the story better if they let loose once in a while. It could be argued that this is in keeping with the Victorian setting, but it's more likely to be because this is most definitely a shoujo anime. I found this to be surprisingly enjoyable though, especially given it's flaws. I think that my enjoyment though, mainly comes from the fact that folklore is a hobby of mine, and I found that the numerous fey creatures and references were more closely related to what is in folklore than most people would believe (in other words, the old fairy tales where there's lots of blood, as opposed to the more modern version - the bedtime story). It shows that Tani Mizue actually referenced a fair amount of material during the writing of the light novels, and has used the information to good effect. This isn't really a series that will appeal to everyone. It's not complete enough to be a true shoujo anime, however it does highlight the fact that fey creatures aren't nice on the whole. It won't appeal to action or sports junkies, and probabaly won't be liked by mecha and combat fans. Horror buffs may like it for it's portrayal of fairies and the like, but the ones who will probably enjoy watching it the most are fans of Angelique, Saiunkoku Monogatari, Gakuen Alice, etc, especially given the romance aspect between Edgar and Lydia. If you do happen to like this because of the fairies though, then you may want to check out the following books: "Faerie Tale" by Raymond E Feist "Lords & Ladies" and "The Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett.
