Sugar Bunnies
Fleur
Number of episodes: 27
Production Studio: Toei Animation
Fansub Release Viewed: ExtycZ
Likelihood of US Release: Low
The Sugar Bunnies are sent from Bunnies Field to the human world, befriend a girl named Sophia, and help in the creation of delicious pastries.
Episode Summary
In Bunnies Field, the Miracle Flower scattered its seeds throughout the world of humans, growing beautiful flowers all over the world. It’s this story that all the Sugar Bunnies are enjoying before they start their work in the bakery. They are preparing a feast for the Queen Bunnies, who are set to arrive later on. The Queens spirit themselves into the bakery and enjoy a lovely feast, and congratulate the bunnies on their home in the bakery, but sadly they must leave before the humans get home.
Meanwhile, at school, Sophia and her friends meet the new science teacher, Ms. Monnet, who takes care of the flowers. She invites the children to help her water the plants, and tells them that plants can understand the things people say to them. Ms. Monnet tells them of Mr. Veyu’s garden, through the forest. The children are scared to go through the dark woods, but the only thing they find there are the Sugar Bunnies, and eventually the garden they’re looking for.
The episode ends with a short segment of fortune telling using the sweets the bunnies make in a little competition.
Thoughts
With an 11 minute episode that’s really only about 8 minutes of story content at best, it’s difficult to say anything concrete about the show at all. It obviously deals in one major currency — sickening cuteness — and has all the depth of a paper bag. Pick your favorite Sugar Bunny, and then buy all the related merch, kids!
No really. What do I say about a show that’s just there to look cute? It’s like some trinket a person would put on their shelf. It’s no objet d’art that would serve to start a conversation, it’s just there as a place-filler. I’m literally sitting here, staring at the final frame of the show in my video player, and staring at the characters lined up in a row gives me nothing but a very blank feeling towards them.
So I suppose connecting to the show is a problem for me. I’m certainly not going to make the mistake of complaining about a lack of compelling action or character motivation in this series, because that would really miss the point. But what I will say is that there are plenty of shows that are cutesy while still having characters that the viewer can enjoy as characters, rather than as a picture on a screen. Chi’s Sweet Home is a good example of this, where the show is meant to be cute and funny, but there is some time spent developing the character and why we should care one way or the other about whether they exist. These Sugar Bunnies, on the other hand, are dead to me.
If you’re looking for your daily dose of cute, there are much better series out there, including the aforementioned Chi’s Sweet Home. The Sugar Bunnies, on the other hand, just come across as Sanrio’s corporate shills, out to sell merchandise (hopefully no vibrating “back massagers”) to the Japanese public. Blah.
Pros
- If you like to look at cute things, there are cute things here
Cons
- The characters may be cute, but they’re not endearing
