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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Fairy Gone

Fairies possess and reside within animals, granting them special powers. By surgically removing and transplanting the organs of a possessed animal into a human, humans can partially summon the fairy and use it as a weapon. Eventually, such individuals were used for war, and were called “Fairy Soldiers.” After a long war, these soldiers lost their purpose, and had to reintegrate into society. Nine years after the end of the war, Maria is a fresh recruit of “Dorothea,” an organization dedicated to the investigation and suppression of fairy-related crimes and incidents. Even in peacetime, the government is still unstable after the war. Many criminals still have lingering wounds from the previous conflict, and there are terrorist groups bent on revenge. ANN

Streaming: Funimation and Hulu

Episodes: 24

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Several years ago, Marlya Noel witnessed the destruction of her home village and was one of only two survivors of the carnage. Nowadays she works as security, hoping to meet back up with Veronica, her fellow escapee. Backstage at an auction house, Marlya marvels at the fairy-related artifacts being bid-upon, though her distracting curiosity draws the ire of Free, the man running the security operation. As bidding commences on a page from a coveted underground tome, the action is interrupted by violence from the hand and heart of a beautiful blond woman. Marlya, as she defends the patrons, is shocked to discover that the woman is, in fact, Veronica.

There is no touching reunion, as Veronica seems uninterested in reminders of her former life. In the struggle, both Veronica and Free reveal their own powerful nature, battling one-another via their terrifying fairy avatars. What Marlya discovers is that, as a survivor of her village, she has this ability as well; she inadvertently joins with a fairy primordial when a fairy bottle breaks. As the violence dies down, Marlya learns that her very existence is illegal under the current government, but Free offers her an out; as an operative of “Dorothea,” he helps hunt down and regulate the use of this forbidden magic. Marlya chooses his outstretched hand – for the time being.

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – Midnight Occult Civil Servants

Arata Miyako is a new government worker assigned to the Shinjuku Ward Office’s “Nighttime Regional Relations” department. Each of Tokyo’s 23 wards has one such department, which were established to solve paranormal and occult-related events. Arata can understand non-human speech that no one else understands, and he encounters a yōkai (supernatural entity) at Shinjuku Gyoen park that calls him Abe no Seimei — the name of a historical Japanese occultist and diviner. ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Arata Miyako begins his job without a clear image of what it might entail, but he soon realizes that he wasn’t hired to perform typical government work; the Office of Nighttime Relations is focused on maintaining the order of Tokyo’s many residents – including those of the supernatural variety. Arata begins his evening unaware of fairies and tengu, but soon realizes that the nighttime world is filled with those supernatural creatures, and many others.

The team has been summoned to the park in order to research some odd disturbances, and what they discover is that the tengu and angels are at odds over something. Arata happens to find out the source of the conflict – an angel and tengu have fallen in love, and neither of their families is happy about it. Arata learns this because he seems to have the rare ability to understand non-human language, though it takes some convincing for his colleagues to believe it. Arata is able to help the two groups reach a truce, though no sooner have they flown off into the night sky then he’s approached by an old tengu who calls him by an unfamiliar name.