Saga Bergman

"Well, do you know about Season Fairies? Do you know who they are? Believe me, I do. They're the little fairies who create all the wonderful weather. They make it rain, stir up the wind, and conjure up the beautiful clouds." — Saga, OVA Special Part 1

Saga Bergman
Name	Saga Bergman
Age	11 (During series), 15 (In OVA)
Family	Ingrid Bergman (mother), Regina (grandmother), unknown father
Home	Muhlenberg
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
First appearance	Episode 1; Chapter 1
Last appearance	OVA Special Part 2 (episode 26); Chapter 14
Voiced by	Masumi Asano (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)

Saga Bergman (サガ・ベルイマン) is the main human protagonist. She is very prompt and organized, however, she is also a workaholic and finds it hard to adapt to plans gone awry. Saga lives with her grandmother, Regina, since the death of her mother three years previous to the show.

When she's not in school, Saga works part-time at the local coffee shop, Little Me, for Mr. Luchino.

It is hinted that she might have feelings for Phil.

Personality

Saga is a mature, intelligent 11 year old. She is also very organized and loves to plan things, from an outing with friends to a plain ordinary day.

However, Saga is a workaholic and doesn't know how to relax or to adapt and improvise when plans have gone awry, which often results in her getting frustrated.

Saga loves to play the piano and hopes to one day be as good as her mother, Ingrid Bergman, a famous pianist. Saga often goes to the local music shop Crescendo to play her mother's white grand piano, which was moved there shortly after the death of Saga's mother.

Saga is also a very caring girl and is often the one to get Sugar out of trouble. It is noted that she is very motherly. In "The Tiny Guest" (episode 15) when she and her grandmother are babysitting Kanon (her grandmother's best friend's daughter), Saga takes on the responsibility of caring for her, taking on the role of a mother rather than a sister or babysitter.

Appearance

Saga wears a white and blue long-sleeved v-neck t-shirt along side a short dark red pleated skirt. On her right hand she has a plain black metal bracelet. In her hair she wears two golden barrettes with a dark red "X" weaved into it. She also wears the same design as a necklace. She also wears a yellow top and pink capris for pajamas, and occasionally a green hoodie with a pink skirt for casual wear around the house. In the manga adaption, she often has a more varied wardrobe.

Saga is ready for the Muhlenberg Festival.

Muhlenburg Festival

Saga learns of when her mother was in a play.

During The Muhlenberg Festival, she wears a purple top with a white chest, collar, and a burgundy skirt with a white stripe on the side of the skirt.

The School Play

In the OVA, Saga wears a beautiful pink dress as a costume for a school play. It was a dress that originally was worn by her mother when she was her age. She and her grandmother fixed it up with other accessories to make it more fitting for a princess role.

Role In Plot

Saga is cast as the "heroine" of the story, the main character aside from Sugar herself and the main human character in the series. Her mature personality helps to balance out the childish antics of Sugar and her friends. Her story brings the concept of dealing with death and loss to the series.

Story

Warning: Spoilers and plot details are below. Read at your own risk.

The Years Before Sugar

Saga asks her mother to play a musical score for her while she was working.

Saga watches her mother play the piano with joy.

Saga grew up with a close relationship with her mother, Ingrid Bergman. Ingrid was often busy with her work as a pianist. Saga absolutely loved her mother's music; she was always filled with wonder by watching and listening to her play. "Mommy, your hands are like magic, aren't they?", she would say. Sometimes Saga would beg her mother to play music for her. Ingrid would try to politely tell her that she was busy with work, but sometimes let it slide to play for her just for a little while whenever Saga ran to her with the sheet music. From a young age, Ingrid saw how much Saga loved the piano and began teaching her to play while she was still very young. Saga and Ingrid cherished many special moments together during these early days that still live on in Saga's mind to this day. Saga was the greatest gift Ingrid could ever have.

Ingrid rushes to hold Saga after her fall.

Another photograph of Saga and her mother, kept in a photo album.

From a young age, Saga seemed to be able to see Season Fairies before she was aware. When Saga was just four years old, one winter's day, they moved to Muhlenberg into their house. While her mother was busy with a crew that was helping lift her piano into the house (which would later be Saga's room), Saga got bored and crawled up onto the piano under the cover to play. Unaware she was there, the crew began lifting the piano. Saga cried out, terrifying Ingrid and the crew as they tried to save her. Unable to hold on, she fell. However, her fall was mysteriously softened until she landed gently in fresh snowfall. Saga was in awe and in a daze of what had just happened, noticing an adult female Snow Fairy hovering above her as Ingrid ran over to her to hold her and the crew checked on her. Saga was confused and kept looking around for the mysterious creature, which had a very kind and gentle appearance. When Ingrid asked her if she was all right, Saga broke down in tears telling her how she just wanted to play with the piano and wailed in her mother's arms. This would become a very important memory throughout the series as certain details kept being revealed about it little by little as Saga recalled it until the final episode. The snow was soft and oddly warm, hinting that this was Sugar's beloved mother, whose snow she described the same way. This was Saga's most cherished memory of snow. Saga and her mother continued to enjoy their lives in the house.

Saga's pink toy piano at the accident scene.

Saga and Regina mourn with others at Ingrid's funeral.

Four years later, when Saga was just eight years old, one rainy day, Ingrid was in a bicycle accident. Ambulances wailed in the town, but the accident was fatal. Ingrid was returning home with a small toy piano in a gift bag, which was flung to the side in the pouring rain at the scene of the accident near the destroyed bike. This was the last gift Saga would receive of her mother, yet sadly, Ingrid never got the chance to give it to her herself. The pink toy piano would be placed by the window in Saga's room. Saga was at home, blissfully unaware and practicing playing her mother's piano at the time the doorbell was rung by an officer to tell deliver the news of the tragedy. Saga was devastated. After Ingrid's death, her grand piano was moved to Crescendo, the music store in town. After Saga's mother died, her maternal grandmother, Regina, began raising her. Since then, the two have lived together. The impact her mother's death had on Saga had lasting effect. Saga missed her terribly.

A special photograph of Saga and Ingrid sitting next to the white grand piano. Saga keeps it on her desk, and the photo remains an important keepsake throughout the series.

At some point in time, Saga began working a part time job apart from school at the local coffee shop, Little Me, for Mr. Luchino. She also began going to the music store at 4 o'clock each afternoon to play it, being allowed by Paul, an employee at the store, to play it whenever the manager wasn't around. Saga grew into a workaholic who constantly planned every detail of her life down to the hour and minute, and she became a very busy girl constantly on the move with little time for rest, keeping a sharp schedule. She helped her grandmother around the house, and grew to be very mature for her young age. At times, she noticed noticed strange things from Season Fairies, but didn't pay much attention to it, being too busy with her life to really notice. Saga also kept a photograph of her and her mother on her desk, which became an important keepsake.

Sweet Mischief (Eps 1-4)

After a busy Sunday working at the coffee shop, outing with her friends, and playing piano, Saga was caught off-guard by rainy weather, when she noticed a small creature. Seeing it appear to collapse from starvation, Saga fed it an extra waffle she had bought from earlier. Though unsure of what it was, Saga watched in surprise, but with a smile, seeing the creature revive to happily scarf the treat down. Though, after eating it too quickly, the creature fell and Saga scrambled to catch it, bringing it home. Intending to show it to her grandmother, but unable to find it in her skirt pockets, she assumed it must've just been her imagination, until she saw her flying around. The tiny girl continued to frustrate and perplex Saga, realizing her grandmother couldn't see it. She continued to ignore it as a persistent figment of her imagination, until it used a piccolo to summon snow and introduced herself as a Snow Fairy named Sugar. The morning after, Saga awoke, believing it was a dream. until Sugar woke up and she plunged back in bed, hoping she was still asleep. Screaming after Sugar kissed her, she grew dismayed in disbelief because a Snow Fairy was not "in her plan".

Demanding answers as to what, exactly, Sugar was, and why she could see her, Sugar explained to Saga about the Season Fairies' job of governing the seasons through music, that she was an apprentice Snow Fairy, and about her mission in the human world to become full-fledged and a great Snow Fairy like her mother. The conversation was cut short when Saga realized she was late for the first day of the school week. Sugar, fascinated by the fact that humans also had school, invited herself along, in spite Saga's attempts to thwart it by stuffing her in a barricade of books. She followed, and, grew hungry again. Saga felt bad and got her another waffle, making her late. At the school, after Sugar snatched a ring off of Greta's hand, Saga learned of Sugar's need for finding a "Twinkle", but that she also had no idea what it was. Sugar begged Saga if she knew, annoying Saga. Throughout the day, she grew increasingly stressed out by Sugar, and further realized no one else could see her, nor believe when Saga told about her. After the room blew up in smoke from the combination of Phil showing off his latest rain-making invention and Sugar's magic, Saga finally snapped, yelling at her in front of the class. In spite having planned a day out with her friends, she was kept behind by Miss Hana in concern over her outburst and well-being. A frustrated Saga irritably ignored Sugar's attempts to apologize, deciding to part ways with her in the town. Before she could finish, Salt and Pepper found Sugar and the three fairies reunited, Saga utterly incredulous and disdained. Sugar introduced them, though they didn't believe Saga could see them at first. Here, Pepper mentioned the fact she learned in a book that in rare cases, certain "gifted" humans could see them. Saga insisted that it wasn't as if she could see them because she wanted to.

Gallery

Saga Bergman/Gallery

Trivia

• Saga was originally planned to be younger, but the creators decided to make her a little older and give her a more mature personality to balance the antics of the younger fairies in the series.
• According to a special page on the Japanese official website, it is mentioned that Yasunori Yamada (Series Compostion, Script) said that Saga's unusual name was taken from the 1985 comedy-drama movie "My Life as A Dog".
• Saga seems to struggle with stage fright, as shown during the Bear Pianist story arc, and during her school play.