Fairies once lived free alongside humanity until humans discovered that stripping a wing from a fairy means literally holding their life in your hands. Now, fairies are enslaved to humans.
Ann is a young girl aspiring to become a Silver Sugar Master like her late mother was. To further this goal, she sets out to the royal capital, and on this dangerous journey she purchases a warrior fairy named Challe Fen Challe to protect her.
As Ann believes in the freedom and equality of faeries, she buys him and offers to give his wing back when she reaches her destination. However, as they travel, their bond together grows.
This series evokes not just fairy tale vibes, but general older school shoujo anime vibes with the benefit of nice new animation technology. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, head on down below.
Anime Like Sugar Apple Fairy Tale
For Fans of Humans and Faeries
The Ancient Magus’ Bride
After being abandoned by her family, Chise Hatori is a 16-year-old teenager without hope.
In order to not have to worry about herself, she sells herself to slavers, only to be purchased by Magus Elias Ainsworth.
There, she is told she will become his apprentice and, in the future, his bride. Together they work to build a relationship and work to control her own magus powers that will eventually result in her early death.
Both series take place in a world where both humans and faerie creatures exist. However, while Sugar Apple Fairy Tale features fairies enslaved to human, The Ancient Magus’ Bride features more of a separation. There is the faerie world of magic, mages, and fae creatures, and then there is the human world that exists separate and often unaware of the creatures.
Both series follow young girls who are entwined with the faerie world as either a mage of a silver sugar artisan with a fairy creature by their side that they become increasingly closer with.
Both series also embrace a sort of whimsical fairy tale beauty to them, though The Ancient Magus’ Bride is often much darker.
Earl and Fairy
In Scotland, Lydia Carlton makes her living as a fairy doctor. Though no one believes her, she insists that she can see and communicate with fairy creatures.
However, Edgar believes in her powers, and after rescuing her, becomes her employer hoping that she can help him deal with the many mysteries that follow him.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale and Earl and Fairy both follow women who play a special role to fairy creatures. In Earl and Fairy, she is a fairy doctor that sees, communicates, and helps fairies despite everyone else thinking she is crazy.
While Sugar Apple Fairy Tale has Ann traveling and becoming closer with Challe, Earl and Fairy has Lydia traveling with a noble man who is also a bit of a charming, but difficult man.
What Sugar Apple Fairy Tale and Earl and Fairy have most in common is their male leads are the type that keep a distance, but are often both charming, seductive, and protective. They are both real old school shoujo romance-type male leads.
Somali and the Forest Guardian
With humanity all but extinct after severe prosecution, the world is ruled over by spirits and all manner of strange creatures.
One day, a golem that serves as guardian of the forest meets a young human girl.
She has no memory of her parents, but the golem decides to at least seek out other humans to return her.
While Somali and the Forest Guardian lacks the same element of romance that Sugar Apple Fairy Tale has, both anime follow a journey through a fantasy land.
While humans are still the majority in Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, they are very near extinction in Somali and the Forest Guardian. Regardless, both supernatural companions act as a protector to their ward.
While they have different dynamics, both series, because they are journeys, explore their worlds well and have the characters often caught up in the stories of others.
For Fans of Confection Makers
Yumeiro Patissiere
Ichigo Amano is clumsy and not good at anything, but one day she has a chance encounter with a master pastry chef.
When he discovers her amazing palate, this famous pastry maker offers her a chance to attend the prestigious St. Marie Academy, a cooking school that specializes in desserts.
Both anime series follow the lives and struggles of what are essentially confectionery makers. However, while Sugar Apple Fairy Tale has its distinctly fantasy twist with whimsical fairy tale romance, Yumeiro Patissiere is more your straight-forward food anime.
Both series follow cute, hard-working girls who want to make confections and drive towards that dream. This intersects them with handsome men who they slowly grow closer with as well.
The big difference to keep in mind is that, while it feels like it could become one with time, Yumeiro Patissiere isn’t a romance series like Sugar Apple Fairy Tale occasionally is.
Deaimon
It has been ten years since Nagomu Irino left home to pursue his dream of music. While his dream is failing, he receives a letter hearing saying father has been hospitalized, so he returns home to help run his family’s traditional Kyoto sweets shop.
Once there, he finds his father is fine, but they have picked up an abandoned 10-year-old girl named Itsuka Yukihira, and his father has chosen her as successor.
It isn’t long before Nagomu bonds with Itsuka, viewing himself as a father-like figure to her.
Both Sugar Apple Fairy Tale and Deaimon follow confection makers. While Sugar Apple Fairy Tale has her exploring a fictional confectionery craft, the philosophy and even the art of crafting the silver sugar is remarkably similar to the traditional Japanese confectionery making that is shown in Deaimon.
Both series emphasis that making these sweets look nice is just as important as how they taste, and they also should be crafted for the individual as well.
That similarity aside, Deaimon is more a found family anime where a guy is playing father to an abandoned girl his parents had taken in. However, it does have a romantic element between him and his ex-girlfriend that just so happened to move to Kyoto right after him.
For Fans of Forbidden Romance
Kamisama Kiss
Homeless and in debt, high schooler Nanami Momozono thinks things are looking up when she rescues a man and he offers to let her stay at his home. She soon discovers that his home is a rundown shrine.
Trying to leave, she is mistaken for the man she saved – the man that is also the land god of the shrine, Mikage.
Finding out she was tricked into being a god and not wanting to be homeless, Nanami tries to embrace her new divine duties, but has to deal with a hot-headed fox familiar to keep things running smoothly.
While they follow different types of plots, both Sugar Apple Fairy Tale and Kamisama Kiss are supernatural shoujo romance anime between a girl and her supernatural, powerful, and protective companion.
In both anime, the supernatural companions both dislike the main character at first, but eventually warm up to her. Even longer after that, they realize the feelings they have are love.
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale often explores Ann’s dream rather than focusing on solely romance. In Kamisama Kiss, it does things more the older shoujo romance way of Nanami getting into trouble, and her supernatural companion having to save her.
Yona of the Dawn
After having her luxurious life shattered by the betrayal of her cousin, Princess Yona is forced to escape with her childhood friend Son Hak.
However, leaving her palace forces her to see the poverty and strife that really makes up her beloved kingdom.
Now she must journey to not only regain her rightful throne, but to return her kingdom to its former glory.
Both anime follow a girl with a mission and her bodyguards. However, while Sugar Apple Fairy Tale is about her journey towards a profession, Yona of the Dawn is about her journey to reclaim the throne. This means Yona is more frequently in peril.
Both anime are also romances, but rather slow going ones. You watch their primary bodyguard protect them and develop feelings, but it takes quite awhile for anyone to acknowledged their feelings.
Snow White with the Red Hair
Shirayuki is an herbalist that lives a normal life in the country of Tanbarun. However, when her beautiful red hair is noticed by the Prince Raji, he tries to make her his concubine.
She then decides to cut her hair and flees into the forest. It is there she is rescued by the second Prince of neighboring country, Wistalia, named Zen.
In order to repay her life debt to him, she sets her hopes on becoming the court herbalist in the capital of Clarines.
Snow White With The Red Hair and Sugar Apple Fairy Tale are both built upon the foundation of evoking fairy tales without being a recreation of a specific one. They are both whimsical and romantic while also being interesting stories in their own right.
Aside from that, both series also follow female main characters that have a passion they are pursuing. Ann wants to become a Silver Sugar Master and Shiraiyuki wants to become a court herbalist. They just both also happen to fall in love while also still pursing that dream.
The Tale of Outcasts
Wisteria is an orphan who is forced to beg on the street for her orphanage in order to be fed. Her days are bleak, but her nights have a small ray of hope in the form of Marbas. This apathetic immortal demon comes to her window and they enjoy chats, despite him being hounded by hunters wherever he goes.
One day, Wisteria finds her freedom from her situation through Marbas, binding the two of them together with a promise to see the world. However, their pact did not come without a cost.
If you enjoy rather original fantasy stories that are kind of hard to grasp and sometimes hard to predict, both Sugar Apple Fairy Tale and The Tale of Outcasts are that.
They both feature female main characters that seem sort of frail, but often prove themselves to be pretty capable. That said, they are both constantly looked over by a stoic supernatural bodyguard that finds them more endearing by the day.
Both series are often following this pair of characters as they travel towards some new goal and bond further. However, Tale of Outcasts is prone more action, and it is generally much more flashy.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Sugar Apple Fairy Tale? Let fans know in the comments section below.
