Märchen Mädchen, also known as Fairy Tale Girls, is the adaptation of the seinen fantasy light novel series of the same name. The premise is of a highschool girl, Hazuki Kagimura, who encounters a fantasy world where girls are chosen by magical books to become magicians.
The story starts with Hazuki telling the audience about herself and how she has no friends whatsoever, in fact she really doesn't say much at all, not even attempting to answer a question the teacher asks her. Her being so shy is a good setup, but expect it to be dropped by the end of the episode. Well, since she doesn't talk the teachers are concerned about her future, and she gets called into their office once per week, which her stepsister confronts her about, which causes Haruki to run away. We learn that she doesn't really get along with her new family, but her sister wasn't trying to be mean, she was just worried. They could show this plot point a little better then they do.
Haruki says that she always runs away and goes to read a book when something uncomfortable happens to her, this time see runs out of school and all the way to the book school to purchase several books. She reads a little on the side of the building, a person passing by sees her and pities her. This is a nice touch, but like I said, she isn't going to act very shy later on. She gets about halfway and, after a talk with her mom, she sees finds a book in her bag that she didn't purchase, when she tries to open it the whole world goes white making itself out to be magic, but it doesn't open ... instead she sees a person in a cloak, Shizuka Tsuchimikado, that she identifies as a mage and this peaks her interest, she follows her all the way to the library. As she enters this building it is apparent that this is the same scene at very beginning of the episode but with different audio. They recycle animation often, between this scene, the opening repeating scenes from the episodes, including this one, and scene later on, this happens a bit too often.
After seeing Shizuka go into a portal, she tries to do so herself and succeeds with the help of the book. After being forced into the portal and finding herself face first on the ground on the other side, this is cute, except not. She heads to a castle which actually turns out to be a school, and encounters another girl, Yumilia Qazan, who she assumes to be a bad person and runs away yet again.
This time she finds herself at a house, she is greeted by the principal of the school that she was just at, no that she knows that or this woman tries to explain this to her, and she is offered a bath in the hot springs, afterwards though, Hazuki somehow still knows that the principal is talking about her book despite them not even being able to see one another. Then she is attacked in the bath by Yumilia and it becomes ever so obvious how this is simply intended as fanservice with Hazuki of course having her clothes stolen by the principal. She is then chased naked throughout the complex until the book causes a door to open that leads back to the castle so every student there can see her naked body as well. After Yumilia makes it back, she tells her that the book she is holding is called a Original and that she is a Mädchen who can use the book. She also says the book can give her a new outfit, which she demostrates by changing her own but whatever.
The first episode establishes the show as a comedy, it does offer a few emotional moments, but it doesn't seem like it'll take itself very seriously beyond that. This show has a heavy amount of fanservice, and it seems like there is going to be a lot of yuri as well, if the ending is anything to go by. I thought that this would be a good adventure series, but it hasn't convince me of that and have little reason it will reach my expectations. Thank you very much for reading, look forward to my look at Violet Evergarden, Death March and Koi wa Ameagari no You ni. Please have yourself a wonderful day.