is a Japanese anime series developed by J.C.Staff. It premiered in Japan on TBS on October 2, 2001, and ran for 24 episodes until its conclusion March 26, 2002. A two-episode OVA was also released for the series. The series was licensed for North America by Geneon Entertainment, but after the closure of Geneon, its DVD releases went out of print and later in 2009, Sentai Filmworks had acquired the license.
A related manga series written and illustrated by Botan Hanayashiki under the name "BH Snow+Clinic" was also released. Originally serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Dragon Junior, the individual chapters were published in three volumes by Kadokawa Shoten.
Plot The story is based around 11-year-old Saga Bergman, a young girl in a small German town called Muhlenberg (based on real town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber). Saga lives with her grandmother Regina and works in a coffee shop when not in school. Saga is extremely structured and plans her life down to the minute. One day, she notices a tiny creature in a fluffy outfit that appears to be starving. She offers it a waffle, which helps revive the tiny creature. Saga learns that this tiny creature is Sugar, an apprentice season fairy. Sugar explains that season fairies alter the weather by playing a magical musical instrument, and her specialty is snow, which she creates by playing the piccolo. Sugar is joined by two more apprentice season fairies, Salt, an outgoing male fairy who plays the trumpet to make the sun shine more brightly, and Pepper, a quiet and caring female fairy who plays the harp to make the wind blow.
All three apprentices are shocked at the realization that Saga can see them, since humans are not supposed to be able to see season fairies. Pepper speculates that exceptional humans might be able to see them, which is the best possible explanation. Sugar tells Saga that the three have been sent to Earth to train as full-fledged season fairies, and to do that, they must find 'Twinkles'.
Sugar moves into Saga's bedroom and sets up residence, much to the consternation of the super-structured Saga. Saga is a well-meaning, intelligent and highly organized girl who feels compelled to look after the childish, loud and irresponsible Sugar, who is incapable of looking after herself. The story is complicated further with the arrival of three adult season fairies—Turmeric, a cloud fairy; Ginger, a rain fairy; and the Elder, the leader of the season fairies—and two more apprentices—Cinnamon, a hail fairy, and Basil, a thunder fairy.
With the highly disruptive presence of Sugar, Saga's life goes haywire. Her friends Norma and Anne think that she is losing her mind, and her teacher, Miss Hanna, is worried that her best student is acting strangely. Not at all concerned with her strange behavior is Greta, an egotistical rich girl who considers Saga to be her rival, and Phil, a goofy inventor who keeps trying to persuade Saga to help him with his experiments, if he is not already busy building and trying out his latest device.
Characters
; Rona Aguilar (Tagalog) Sugar is a female snow fairy apprentice working to learn how to be a full-fledged fairy. She comes to the human world for the final part of her training which requires her to find a so-called "Twinkle". Sugar acts much like a toddler with a clumsy nature who often tries her best at things but messes up because she doesn't always think things through. She loves to kiss anyone she is fond of when happy. After Saga first feeds her a waffle, she comes to love them, though she mispronounces their name as "waffo". In the manga adaptation, she was familiar with the word before eating one.
; Hazel Hernan (Tagalog) Age: 11. Saga Bergman is the main protagonist of the series. Her mother died in an accident, so she lives with her grandmother. Saga is somewhat obsessed with planning, scheduling her day nearly to the minute and is frustrated when her plans go off schedule. She can be quick to lose her temper when she deals with Sugar, however, she is actually very kind and quite mature for her age. Saga works in a coffee shop and regularly stops at the local music store to play her mother's piano.
; Rowena Benavidez–Lazaro (Tagalog) Salt is a male apprentice sun fairy and another of Sugar's friends who come to the human world with her to find a "Twinkle". Salt initially wishes to be a sun fairy like his father, but after meeting Turmeric, he decides he wants to be a cloud fairy.
; Grace Cornel (Tagalog) Pepper is a female apprentice wind fairy and one of Sugar's friends who also comes to the human world to find a "Twinkle". She lives in the house of a veterinarian who has a newborn baby, who she tries to care for and plays lullabies to on her harp. Calm, gentle, and polite, she is humble about her abilities and is capable of talking to animals.
; Grace Cornel (Tagalog) Greta is Saga's self-proclaimed rival. The spoiled daughter of a rich family, she can be arrogant and boastful, though at times shows that she does have a good heart. She often sets up impromptu contests between herself and Saga.
; Rowena Benavidez–Lazaro (Tagalog) One of Saga's two best friends, Anne is a tall and gentle girl with a caring, humble personality and creative intelligence. Anne is a budding playwright, as seen in the OAV, wherein she authors the play, "The Princess and the Fairy" for her class to produce.
; Rowena Raganit (Tagalog) Norma is the other of Saga's best friends. She is flighty and somewhat forgetful, comically late when meeting up with Saga and Anne. She ends up being cast as the titular fairy in Anne's play in the OAV.
; Bon Reyes (Tagalog) Cinnamon is a male apprentice and an ice fairy who is best friends with Basil. He appears calm until he uses his cymbals, which make him go crazy. He also loves to cause mischief and play pranks on humans.
; Louie Paraboles (Tagalog) Basil is a male apprentice and a thunder fairy who is best friends with Cinnamon. His instrument is the drum. He loves to cause mischief and play pranks.
; Rowena Raganit (Tagalog) Regina is Saga's grandmother who like many others cannot see the season fairies. She is very caring towards Saga and thinks there is something wrong with her because she sees her talking to apparently thin air.
; Montreal Repuyan (Tagalog) Phil is Saga's classmate and an aspiring inventor who often tries to enlist Saga, Anne, and Norma's help with his latest project. and Alan Jan ; Bon Reyes (Tagalog) Alan ; Rowena Raganit (Tagalog) Jan and Alan are two friends of Phil who help him in his inventing.
(1-4), Hope Grandflower (ep. 5-24), Grace Cornel (Tagalog) Ginger is an adult rain fairy who is dedicated to her job. She can be brutally honest at times but means well and keeps an eye on the apprentice fairies. She has romantic but unrequited feelings for Turmeric.
; Louie Paraboles (Tagalog) Turmeric is an adult cloud fairy who plays the cello. Turmeric is a kind, thoughtful, and subdued fairy who constantly strives to perfect his clouds, and is therefore oblivious to Ginger's romantic attention towards him.
; Montreal Repuyan (Tagalog) The Elder is the leader of the season fairies and capable of creating any kind of weather. Though extremely wise, he often appears foolish, particularly in his dedicated pursuit of Ginger.
The star actor of the Hammond Theater Group and a talented piano player who idolizes Saga's late mother. Although sometimes careless with his off-hand remarks, he is really a gentle and kind young man. It is revealed that he once had his own encounter with a season fairy; although he no longer sees them in their true form, he (as does Saga after Sugar's departure) can still spot the glitter trail the fairies leave when they fly about.
Saga's school teacher, a caring woman who is concerned about Saga's domestic situation.
A staff worker of the music store Crescendo, where the piano of Saga's late mother is kept. He lets Saga inside whenever the store's stern owner has left, in order to allow her to play (while the store owner actually listens to the music whilst having coffee at Luchino's café).
The easy-going owner of the café Little Me, where Saga is working after school. He is usually seen contendly munching a cookie.
A ticket seller at Muhlenburg's central tower, the town's most popular vantage point. He regularly has some coffee delivered by Saga, who in place of a tip enjoys the view from the tower.
A thieving crow who often appears as an antagonist to the fairies, particularly whenever they mess with his collection of shiny trinkets which they assume to be "twinkles".
Saga's late mother and a famous pianist. She was killed in a very tragic accident while riding her bike back home after buying a small toy piano for Saga from the toy store; Ingrid's death left a significant impact on her daughter. It can be assumed that she was married, but her husband's whereabouts remain unknown after she died.
Production The initial concept for A Little Snow Fairy Sugar began with the producers at TBS deciding that they wanted to have a series about a little fairy. Haruka Aoi took this idea and came up with the concept of a fantasy town where Season Faries lived and traveled the world to control the weather. Together Aoi, Yasunori Yamada who was responsible for the series structure, a representative from Kadokawa Shoten, and series director Shinichiro Kimura the final framework for the series was hammered out. Kimura focused on telling a story that focuses on the relationship between Sugar and Saga, while not fully explaining some things to viewers. In particular, he notes that the series never really explains what the "Twinkles" are that they faeries are searching for because he felt viewers should draw their own conclusions and that the show's purpose to show how friendships are formed and how they result in people growing as human beings.
The character of Sugar started as with the basic idea that the main character of the series would be a snow fairy. When trying to think of a name, Yamada associated snow with white, which he said reminded him of "sugar", giving the snow fairy its name. With that name decided, he decided that all of the other fairies would also have the names of condiments. Initially, the story was going to be set in the fairy world, with no humans at all, however, as they worked on fleshing out the story, the character of Saga was introduced. Aoi originally envisioned her as a quiet and calm girl, but she was eventually changed into the more assertive and organization obsessed character seen in the final version. Yamada notes that Kimura was responsible for turning the story into a more positive and cheerful one than the original concept might have resulted in. Yamada felt the character of Greta was a key character, particularly towards the series. He notes that he and other staff members adored her as they felt she was a "good girl and a lovable character". Aoi was initially surprised to find that Sugar ended up being more tomboyish than he had originally planned, but after watching the completed series, he decided that it made her cute. He felt the completed series was a "great mixture of scenario, characters, music, background and voice acting."