Review of Taisho Otome Fairy Tale
I'm not sure why the top featured review is a rant about female authors and calling this show an incel show but it's clearly just a romance anime. in short, nothing new or revolutionary. but it's also not the worst out there. people aren't only liking this show because of who the author is. i have not read the manga and most of the time, i watch anime without even knowing who wrote it. that has nothing to do with it. but let's be real - if a man was the author of a manga with the premise of a young girl being sold as abride to pay off debts, the content of the show would likely be a lot different. if we're generalising anyway, i'm sure you know what i mean. this anime is free of excessive fanservice and does not use overly-sexual humor as a crutch for romantic or sexual tension.
the content of the show itself is very wholesome. the main character has no trace of incel behaviour whatsoever. we meet him when he is depressed after a devastating injury, and, having grown up in a loveless and cruel family, he is taught not to value his life. his father is ableist and writes his son off as a human simply due to his disability. while i've never experienced clinical depression, Tamahiko's thought process at the start of the show felt like a very realistic portrayal of someone feeling despair.
with the introduction of Yuzuki into his life, Tamahoko experiences a kindness he's never known before. he learns to think of someone other than himself and finds happiness and self-assurance through the power of love and friendship. it wasn't that he was selfish before he met Yuzuki, as we see him give her his robe and tell her not to catch a cold as soon as she steps through his front door. rather, the family he was raised in extended no kindness or compassion to him, so internally he felt he was all alone and had to fend for himself. by the end of the show, we get to see him transformed into quite a selfless and generous person who helps those in need freely, even if they were rude to him in the past.
sure, you can say the extreme-optimism of Yuzuki is an overused trope and is unrealistic, but the show isn't necessarily going for realistic but rather wholesome. it's fiction anyway so i don't see the problem with it. people often look for escapism in fiction, and romance isn't always about realism but about the characters and their story. which in this case was a nice one. i love it when we get to see a character evolve throughout the show and we definitely see that in Tamahiko.
honestly if you are looking for a 12 episode romance, and are tired of all the fanservice-laden shounen ones, i think this one is a good fit. despite it centering Tamahiko over Yuzuki, i found it to be cute and wholesome and rather charming. i also enjoyed the 20s historical set, with glances of 1920s western fashion among the traditional Japanese kimono in some of the Tokyo crowds.
the opening and ending theme songs aren't great but they aren't the worst. the soundtrack is nice and soothing and fits the scenes very well. i actually wish the songs within the episodes were used as the op and ed instead haha, they are very nice songs and the lyrics were meaningful to the characters and their internal experiences. the rest of the cast are fleshed out nicely and added to the plot as well.
the animation is fine - not crazy amazing but not bad at all. it's not super stiff or anything and the color palette is cohesive and nice to look at. the character design is also fine.