Taisho Otome Fairy Tale (Japanese: 大正処女御伽話, Hepburn: Taishō Otome Otogibanashi) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sana Kirioka. It was serialized in Shueisha's Jump Square from July 2015 to September 2017, with its chapters collected in five tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation by SynergySP aired from October to December 2021.
It is late 1921, the 10th year of the Taishō era. Tamahiko Shima, second son of the wealthy Shima family, has his life turned upside-down after his right arm is paralyzed in a car accident that also claims the life of his mother. Now seen as worthless to his calculating father's long-term plans for his business empire, his family treats him as "dead". But since it would bring shame to the family were they to disown him outright, he instead finds himself shunted off to a villa in the mountains of Chiba, out of public view. Though he quickly resigns himself to the idea that he will die alone and forgotten, one snowy December night a girl appears at his doorstep and announces that she is there to be his live-in caretaker, and when she is old enough, his bride. The girl, named Yuzuki Tachibana, or "Yuzu" for short, was purchased from her impoverished home by Tamahiko's father, and while she too finds herself uprooted from her home and family, she throws herself into her new role with gusto.
Tamahiko is initially extremely cynical and depressed due to his exile, and Yuzuki's irrepressibly sunny disposition grates on his nerves at first, but her presence gradually helps brighten his mood. In time, Tamahiko and Yuzuki fall in love. In 1922, Tamahiko's younger sister, Tamako, visits the couple, and, though initially cold, warms up to Yuzuki. They also meet Ryō Atsumi, the older sister and caretaker of a number of younger siblings, who teases, picks on and steals from Tamahiko. However, she grows close to him and Yuzuki, and Tamahiko helps her younger siblings with school.
In 1923, Yuzuki and one of Ryō's brothers, Ryotaro, leave for Tokyo - the former to see her friend from school, and the latter to pursue an apprenticeship. However, they are caught up in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, leading Tamahiko and Ryō to walk to Tokyo, with Tamahiko leaving his house open as a temporary shelter for the affected population in his town. Tamahiko finds Yuzuki, bringing her to a temporary hospital run by his estranged uncle. After the earthquake, the famous singer Kotori Shiratori visits Chiba and plays a show with Yuzuki and Ryō attending. Later on, Tamahiko returns to school, passing the entrance exams and making friends with Kotori's twin brother, Hakaru. Kotori visits Yuzuki and Tamahiko and asks them about love to support her songwriting.
Yuzuki suddenly leaves one day, and Tamahiko falls back into his depressed state. It is revealed that the heir to the Shima family, Tamaki, has died, and Tamahiko, despite being previously ostracized, is invited back into the family to serve as heir. As a result, Yuzuki is assigned to become the wife of Tamahiko's brother Tamao. Tamahiko goes back to Tokyo, gets Yuzuki back, and cuts ties with his father, with Tamako and Tamao following him, leaving only the oldest sister, Tamayo, to succeed the Shima family. In preparation for their wedding, Tamahiko and Yuzuki visit Yuzuki's family in Iwate. Eventually, Tamahiko takes Yuzuki's last name, Tachibana, and becomes a teacher. Tamao and Tamako are adopted by their uncle.
Taisho Otome Fairy Tale, written and illustrated by Sana Kirioka, ran in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine from July 4, 2015, to September 4, 2017.[13][14] Shueisha collected its chapters in five tankōbon volumes, released from February 4, 2016, to October 4, 2017.[15][16]
A sequel, titled Shōwa Otome Fairy Tale (昭和オトメ御伽話, Shōwa Otome Otogibanashi), was serialized on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ online magazine from August 21, 2018, to May 12, 2020.[17][18] Shueisha collected its chapters in five tankōbon volumes, released from January 4, 2019, to July 3, 2020.[19][20]
A spin-off series, titled Taishō Otome Otogibanashi: Pessimist no Shokutaku (大正処女御伽話―厭世家ノ食卓―, Taishō Otome Otogibanashi: Peshimisuto no Shokutaku, "Taisho Otome Fairy Tale: A Pessimist's Dining Table"), was serialized on Shōnen Jump+ from July 3 to December 31, 2021.[21][22][23] Shueisha collected its chapters in two volumes, released on October 4, 2021,[24] and March 4, 2022.[25]
On December 20, 2020, at the Jump Festa '21 online event, it was announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation by SynergySP. It is directed by Jun Hatori, with scripts written by Hiroko Fukuda and Mayu Watanabe designing the characters. Yasuharu Takanashi is composing the series' music.[3] It aired from October 9 to December 25, 2021, on TV Tokyo, TVO, BS11, and AT-X.[a] Garnidelia performed the opening theme Otome no Kokoroe (オトメの心得, 'A Maiden's Experience'), while Shun'ichi Toki performed the ending theme Magokoro ni Kanade (真心に奏, 'Playing Music Sincerely').[33] Ayasa Itō performed the ending theme Koi no Uta (戀ノ歌, 'A Song of Love') of episode 12. Funimation streamed the series while Muse Communication licensed it in Southeast Asia.[34]
In 2017, the manga was ranked seventh at the third Next Manga Awards in the print category.[38]
The anime adaptation's first episode garnered mixed reviews from Anime News Network's staff during the Fall 2021 season previews. Richard Eisenbeis critiqued that a familiarity with the Taisho era is needed to enjoy the show and that Yuzuki's characteristics made her more of a plot device for Tamahiko's story, calling it "a perfectly watchable anime" that he had little reason to continue watching it. Nicholas Dupree understood the fluffy approach the show was going for but felt it lacked bite to explore its given topics and make its couple more romantically engaging beyond trite sentiment, concluding that: "Overall this is a perfectly pleasant experience, but one I'm not interested in repeating." James Beckett observed that while the show had "a decent period setting and a couple of chuckle-worthy jokes", he criticized the main couple for lacking chemistry with each other and the marriage angle for overusing an arc that's bereft of mature storytelling, saying that audiences who prefer "a perfectly nice, unambitious take" on historical romance will enjoy it. Rebecca Silverman wrote that: "While this isn't treading any new ground, there's a sort of wholesome charm to it. That goes a long way to making up for hackneyed plots or lines and the simple, at times lackluster artwork. At its heart this is a familiar story about two people coming to care for each other and overcome the obstacles life has seen fit to throw in their way. As long as it keeps that heart warm and beating, this could be a quiet charmer of a show."[39]
Fellow ANN editor Caitlin Moore reviewed the complete anime series in 2022 and gave it a B− grade.[40] She praised the "pleasant and cheerful" narrative, the exploration of damaged people navigating the world and finding solace in one's community and its depiction of Tamahiko's disability, but was critical of Yuzuki's "one-dimensional[ly] cheery" demeanor lacking interiority during her situation and the "lackluster visual direction" failing to further elevate the story, concluding that: "Overall, Taisho Otome Fairy Tale is a nice enough series, but it's held back by a hesitation to venture into anything beyond nice ... As it is, it's good as a relaxing watch if you're tired of the "cute girls doing cute things" rigmarole, or if you're looking for something with well-handled disability representation."[40] Allen Moody, writing for THEM Anime Reviews, found the series to be "trite and mawkish" with its "lazy storytelling", generic charicatures and unbelivable romance between its two main leads, calling it "a lowest-common-denominator, crowd-pleasing tearjerker" that will attract its audience.[41]