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The folklore surrounding fairies is as widespread as it is complicated. While many people may agree on roughly what qualifies a fairy as fitting the classic archetype, fairies in anime are not so easily pinned down, sometimes sharing nothing more than the title with their storybook inspirations. Whether anime fairies are delicate and winged or look like grouchy cats, they draw audiences further into their stories, if only to learn more about the unusual creatures. Here are some of the best fairies anime has to offer.
10 Puck (Re:Zero)
Created by Echidna the Witch of Greed and formerly contracted with Emilia, Puck is the Great Spirit of Fire, also known as the Beast of the End. Those are some serious titles for an adorable cat fairy, but Puck lives up to all of them and then some.
Though adorable and sometimes even goofy, Puck shows himself to be single-mindedly dangerous where losing Emilia is concerned. For his fluffy appearance, cute demeanor, and plot-shaking decisions, Puck ranks amongst the best characters in Re:Zeroas well as one of the best anime fairies around.
9 Post-Apocalyptic Fairies (Humanity Has Declined)
By the usual standards of post-apocalyptic anime, Humanity Has Declined is strange. Its zany pastel world is inhabited by fairies, which is exactly who the human race turns to when threatened by resource depletion and in sudden need of sustenance.
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The show’s protagonist serves as an emissary between the humans and fairies, and the narrative takes every opportunity to wring humor and drama out of that position. Between their advanced technology, obsession with sweets, and utter disregard for human safety, the post-apocalyptic fairies from Humanity Has Declined don’t look much like classic fairies. If anything that helps them set themselves apart.
8 Mary Bell (Floral Magician Mary Bell)
It’s a common trope in anime for characters not to look their age, and impossibly old magical creatures masquerading as little human girls is probably the most common version of this phenomenon. Mary Bell from Floral Magician Mary Bell is one such character, a 500,000-year-old fairy disguised as a human girl with a wand and giant pink bow.
As a floral magician from the Fairy Magic World, Mary Bell isn’t a fairy in the conventional sense, but then not much about Mary Bell is conventional anyway. A lighthearted and brightly colored children’s anime character, Mary Bell isn’t a mean-spirited prankster at all, instead helping those that need it.
7 Sugar (A Little Snow Fairy Sugar)
It’s hard to get much more precious than Sugar, the hero of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar. Everything about her is designed to be adorable, after all. Even her goal to use her piccolo to summon snow as soft as the snow her mother used to conjure is almost unbearably sweet, which is fitting for a character named Sugar, after all.
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Sugar loves waffles (which she mispronounces “waffos” to the point of it being her catchphrase), and she is clumsy, stubborn, and easily distracted, all of which make her exceedingly childlike. Her saucer eyes and delicate dress help convey her nature as a childish spirit all the more.
6 Titania (The Ancient Magus Bride)
In many ways the aesthetic and thematic opposite of a fairy like Sugar from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Titania from The Ancient Magus Bride is tall, dark, and mysterious.
Directly inspired by the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania is accompanied by an entourage of eclectic characters, including Spriggan the soldier, a mule with a flower on its head, and a pack of wolves. She’s interesting for a variety of reasons, but one of the strongest is also the most superficial: Titania just looks undeniably cool.
5 Lilith (Rosario + Vampire)
An artifact spirit fairy with not one but two sets of wings, Lilith from Rosario + Vampire has a unique look to compliment her special role in the anime. She is capable of returning monsters to their true form using Lilith’s Mirror.
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Lilith is crueler than her sweet appearance would suggest. While this is just one of many contrasts that Rosario + Vampire plays with in its worldbuilding and character development, it certainly goes a long way towards making Lilith feel distinct amongst a cast of equally varied and interesting characters.
4 Yui (Sword Art Online)
Yui, short for Yui-MHCP001 (Mental Health Counseling Program 001), is a top-down artificial intelligence program developed by ARGUS for the purpose of addressing player mental health concerns in Sword Art Online. Yui appears in both Sword Art Online and ALfheim Online, taking the role of Navigation Pixie in the latter game, a feature that grants her access to the project’s database.
Given her varied functions in the digital worlds she occupies, as well as her role as the foster child of Kirito and Asuna, it’s safe to say that Yui is one of the most complicated fairies in anime as well as one of the best.
3 Nico (Earl And Fairy)
It’s strange that in many ways Nico, a persnickety gray cat, stays truer to the image of a classic fairy than many others from anime. He is, amongst other things, picky, fixating on the state of his fur and whiskers as well as his wardrobe, which typically consists of a neck ribbon.
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Between his love of liquor and tea, his cowardice, and his usefulness to Lydia when she needs a guide or someone to gather information from the fairies, Nico has a lot going on, which is great. Here’s a well-rounded, dynamic character with much for audiences to like, even if he does annoy some of the other characters.
2 Mipple And Mepple (Pretty Cure)
Mipple, the Princess of Hope from the Garden of Light, loves Mepple, her chosen protector, and the same holds true in reverse. It cannot be stressed enough how adorable the two of them are. Both are capable of transforming into Card Combines to disguise themselves while at the Garden of Rainbows, allowing them to store the energy they would otherwise burn as a result of the unusual atmosphere.
Honestly, Mipple and Mepple would be some of the best anime fairies on the basis of their names and appearances alone, so the fact that they’re actually useful to the magical girls around them just cements their status.
1 King (Seven Deadly Sins)
As a member of the Seven Deadly Sins from the anime of the same name, King represents Sloth. He’s lazy (not surprising, given what he represents) but he’s powerful as well: his ability, Disaster, grants him command over life and death and marks him as king of the Fairy Forest.
The Spirit Spear Chastiefol, his weapon, possesses multiple forms with various abilities. Seven Deadly Sins is a deep anime with a great deal going on, and fascinating characters like King are part of what makes it so compelling. Whether he’s called Fairy King Harlequin, Grizzly’s Sin of Sloth, or Harlequin the Traitor, King is one of the best fairies around.
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