Bottle Fairy

I Binzume Yōsei 瓶詰妖精(Bottle Fairy)

Genre: Seinen, Comedy
TV anime
Directed by: Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Studio: Studio Orphee
Network: TV Kanagawa
Original run: 3 October 2003 – 26 December 2003
No. of episodes: 13

Synopsis
Bottle Fairy is a comedy series. The humour is created from word-play and randomness as the Bottle Fairies misinterpret the culture in which they are learning to live. The fairies learn about customary Japanese tradition and modern Japanese practice for each month, with each episode taking place in a different month. Bottle Fairy is often cited as being a good anime to view to help westerners understand what is happening during certain festivals in anime, manga and real life Japan.

Bottle Fairies
The Bottle Fairies are often identified by the colours of their eyes and each is a fairy of a particular season. They sleep in appropriately coloured jars.

Kururu

is the blue Bottle Fairy; she has pink hair. She is associated with the season of summer. Kururu plays the part of the hyperactive character, and what she imagines is often very extreme. Kururu seems to take the lead of the group, and is considered to be the main character.

Sarara

is the red Bottle Fairy; she has grey hair. She is associated with the season of winter. She is the tomboy of the group, so what she imagines tends to be fighting and sports related, or concerned with samurai or ninjas.

Hororo

is the green Bottle Fairy; she has black hair. She is associated with the season of autumn. She is a somewhat distant character, with a slow, rambling personality. Hororo is always thinking about food and changing words into words of food that sound like them. She is frequently compared to Azumanga Daioh’s Osaka. Several jokes suggest Hororo is extremely fond of Kururu (this is possibly a parody of Tomoyo Daidouji's affection toward Sakura Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura).

Chiriri

is the yellow Bottle Fairy; she has yellow hair. She is associated with the season of spring. She is friendly and slightly reserved. Despite her prim and ladylike personality, her imagination is very surreal, and she seems to be a little unstable.

Other characters

Oboro

is a small feline toy with wings that was enchanted by the Bottle Fairies. Oboro is white. It floats gently up and down when it is not being held or played with (usually it plays with Hororo). He is a silent character, and has only one facial expression, the one that it was made with (generally suggested to be bored or exacerbated).

Sensei

who is never given a real name, looks after the bottle fairies. He is represented by the colours brown and green. It is given that his character teaches them things about the world, but he doesn't really appear much in the series at all. Kururu also develops a crush on him by the end of the series.

Tama

is the (approximately 8 year old) next door neighbour of the Bottle Fairies and Sensei-san. She is represented by the colour purple and wears crayons in her hair. She is happy to help the Bottle Fairies, who trust her (usually misleading) advice since she seems so self-assured.

Hanana

is a plant that appeared in only one episode, and was cared for by the Bottle Fairies. It was enchanted to be immortal and stay in bloom forever, but they removed the spell when they realised Hanana would want to have children and spread around other flowers. Hanana does not have a colour.

Kusachiho
Kusachiho, the combined human form of all four Bottle Fairies is called Onee-chan by some fans and Uni-chan by others. Her name is a contraction of the fairies' names by using the first Japanese character of each. She is predictably schizophrenic, and has the personality traits of all the Bottle Fairies. Which fairy is in control is indicated by the colour of her eyes and her voice. Her colour is orange.