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    Fairy Ranmaru is Really Stupid, Kind of Offensive, and a Total Joy to Watch

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    Bishounen-centric fanservice anime have been around for almost as long as their T&A-fueled counterparts, and even the “magical boy” angle has been done several times before. So what is a new anime in this esteemed genre to do if it wants to stand out amongst its sparkly brethren? Well, Fairy Ranmaru: Anata no Kororo Otasuke Shimasu’s solution is to crank every dial it has up to 11 so it can be the loudest, sexiest, and most absurd pretty boy anime ever made. Here are our impressions of the first few episodes of this... inspired piece of work the Spring 2021 season has bestowed unto us.

    A Rainbow Vomit Pile of Confused Fanservice

    Studio Comet already explored the basic magical boy concept with Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, so naturally they’d go toward the more extreme end of the spectrum with its spiritual successor. The gist of the story is that the fairy queen has summoned five strapping young men from the elemental tribes of the fairy kingdom to gather “attachment” energy from human women for some mysterious purpose, and the warriors must do so while disguised as private school students/host club waiters. Sounds simple enough, but why are the guys naked in their meeting with the queen? Why does said queen carry an ice cream slurping sloth on her lap and employ a butler specifically to hold a parasol over her head indoors? Why does the school’s long-winded alma mater play every time we have a scene there? And how does nobody notice that the boys are fairies when they have pointy ears and talk openly about how confusing humans are? Things only get weirder during the monster battles, which take place in pocket dimensions that look like witch barriers from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but with just enough elements changed so the teacher doesn’t realize they copied their homework. One questionably consensual kiss from the female victim of the week is all it takes for each warrior to transform into a drag-inspired stripper superhero and save the day with the power of... love? Music? Sex? We honestly have no idea, but at least it’s a spectacle to watch each time.

    Somehow Loops Back Around to Being Hilarious

    As incomprehensible as this anime is, we still find ourselves excited to see what the Fairy Ranmaru gang gets up to every week. The janky pacing and out-of-place acts of violence (like Uruu killing both the monster and the girl in one episode because they were both insufferable) keep us on our toes, and the casual disses against and overt fetishization of gay culture are too over-the-top to actually be offensive. After all, it’s hard to be mad at an anime that “tortures” its heroes with borderline tentacle hentai and features lovingly hand-painted artwork of them tied up with bondage rope in the ED. With its repetitive trippy stock footage and the possibility of darker mystery elements later on, it reminds us a bit of Kunihiko Ikuhara’s work (particularly the more sexually charged ones like Yuri Kuma Arashi and Sarazanmai)—even though we doubt that it actually has any deep meaning behind the theatrics like those anime do, we’ll still stick around to see what happens.


    Final Thoughts

    Have you been watching Fairy Ranmaru this season? Are you enjoying it as a legitimately good time, a hate-watch, or somewhere in between? Let us know in the comments, and thanks so much for reading!

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