Taishou Otome Fairytale returned this week for episode 4 with a pleasant enough episode with the standard scenario of main girl gets sick and then the nursing and recovery complete with fever talking and embarrassing moments.
Taishou Otome Fairytale makes it hard to tell if the characters are moving forward or just moving in a really slow circle.
Tamahiko struggles this week as he realises that despite his new-found kind of contentment brought about Yuzuki’s presence over the last six months he’s still the same boy who lost the use of his hand and was deemed worthless by his family. That he has to remind himself to be pessimistic is a little annoying given if he’s already starting to feel more positive clearly it is time for him to move forward and he’s just deliberately holding himself back.
Though, that isn’t to say he doesn’t have some real struggles this week in Taishou Otome Fairytale. His attempts at assisting in Yuzuki’s nursing are either dismissed by Tamako or ineffective (such as his attempt to bring in water to cool her head – and can we point out there were several obvious solutions to his problem such as using a different container).
He’s further run-down when the doctor gives him an unprofessional and opinionated serve that more or less makes a whole bunch of assumptions about Tamahiko’s family (which may be grounded in reality) but also about Tamahiko and Yuzuki.
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That Tamahiko doesn’t put the doctor straight irritates Tamako who actually gives Tamahiko a bit of a pep-talk showing that she at least is moving forward in Taishou Otome Fairytale. That forward movement is further clarified by her announcement at the end of the episode.
But let’s talk about Yuzuki.
The girl has literally worked herself to exhaustion and honestly this is the definite down-side of her ‘super-happy I can do it mode’ that seems to be her standard. It would be great if she learned from this experience and dialled it down a notch but somehow I doubt she will.
Let’s be honest: Tamahiko hasn’t asked much of Yuzuki. That she cooks and cleans diligently is lovely but no-one is stopping her from taking it easy. That the doctor assumes Tamahiko is taking advantage of her and working her to the bone is not only wrong, it is just cruel to Tamahiko who didn’t ask for Yuzuki to be dragged from her family to become a future bride and hasn’t asked Yuzuki to work herself so hard. When he’s already feeling bad about Yuzuki being with him this was just kicking him while he was down.
More importantly, it doesn’t address the problem of Yuzuki herself not actually looking after herself.
Even if Tamahiko told her to rest she probably wouldn’t. It is definitely something Yuzuki is going to have to address or she’ll definitely end up right back in bed exhausted again.
Not only did the doctor talk down to the wrong character if his goal was to protect Yuzuki, nobody actually told Yuzuki straight to take it easier. Not Tamahiko nor Tamako and certainly not the doctor.
It leaves the smiling resolution of this episode of Taishou Otome Fairytale a little sour because honestly it doesn’t feel like anyone actually addressed the central problem here.
However, at the start of the episode we do get to the see the super adorable Yuzuki with her hair in pigtails instead of braids and that in and of itself makes the episode worth watching.
I am enjoying this anime as Taishou Otome Fairytale is continuing to move through the day to day of these characters and the various roadblocks they encounter. It isn’t super thrilling but it is very watchable and it will be interesting to see where these characters end up.
Images from: Taishou Otome Fairytale. Dir. J Hatori. SynergySP. 2021
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Karandi James
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