Episode 8 – Fairy Tail: 100 12 months Quest

When final week’s episode ended with the cliffhanger of Erza encountering a lookalike of hers, I simply assumed the present would use it for one thing severe. In any case, this is not the primary time the present has handled lookalikes of the Fairy tail crew. We truly had an entire storyline that revolved round that concept with all of the Edolas stuff, so even when this wasn’t instantly associated, I used to be anticipating some loopy left-field twist in the entire deal. As a substitute, this bizarre coincidence is used to speak about, of all issues: romance. Whereas romance is a hot-button matter inside any present, Fairy tail is in a singular place in that division, as Mashima’s tendency to rely closely on character-specific jokes and sustaining a sure stage of establishment with its leads implies that the standard of romantic relationships on this collection is a little bit of a blended bag. The outcomes fluctuate wildly. It is one thing that is sure to have pissed off followers of this collection at one level or one other, so now that the subject is out on the desk, I feel it is solely honest that I let my very own opinion on the matter slip.

If we comply with the similarity with Erza’s doppelganger, we discover out that she and the Fairy tail guild to which she belongs are literally all actors’ guilds – they usually all, not surprisingly, bear some resemblance to the Fairy tail members. As on this collection, this results in a number of jokes mentioning how in a different way or unusually identically every of their lookalikes behave (shoutout to Elfman’s as a make-up artist of all issues) – with the largest distinction being that Natsu’s lookalike is a narcissistic actor, whereas Lucy’s is his supervisor who has to cope with all of his verbal abuse. However when Lucy decides to inform Natsu’s lookalike off for being a jerk, she by chance catches them doing the soiled factor – as a result of they are a couple and that is simply their method of displaying affection. It is an odd joke on the floor, however possibly much less so as soon as you’ve got seen a few of the surprisingly spicy artwork of Natsu and Lucy that Mashima does on his Twitter account after the collection’ first ending (and given a few of the parallels between these lookalikes’ dynamics and mentioned artwork, you’ll be able to’t persuade me Mashima did not use that as inspiration for this joke). As humorous as that is, it does level to simply how slowly issues are transferring between the actual Natsu and Lucy, as essentially the most we get with the 2 of them here’s a fast joke about Natsu by chance setting Lucy’s garments on fireplace when he was making an attempt to cease some guys from hitting on her – which, oddly sufficient, is someway progress on his half. It is slightly irritating to see issues nonetheless transferring so slowly between them in any case this time, however apart from his factor with Lisanna coming again to the forefront (which I am nonetheless slightly irritated was dropped the second she was revived) or him in any other case getting dragged into rising up a bit, that is the character of the very best at this level, and I’ve come to just accept it.

Regardless of all the things I mentioned about Natsu and Lucy, the actual romantic focus of this episode is no matter occurs with Grey and Juvia. When Grey runs right into a Juvia lookalike who decides to tease him by taking him out on a date, he begins to undertaking all of his emotions for Juvia onto her and we get a clearer image of the place he stands. He is fallen in love with Juvia, however he is not prepared for an actual relationship along with her as a result of he nonetheless feels responsible concerning the damage she suffered due to him. His present purpose is to develop into robust sufficient to guard her. It is a cute scene for Grey in isolation, however I’ve by no means actually been an enormous fan of Grey and Juvia as an precise merchandise. Juvia’s one-sided obsession with Grey was at the least humorous at first, however that by no means stopped being her default character setting, even when it actively went in opposition to a few of her character growth in different areas. (She nonetheless harbors hostility towards Lucy over a mistaken curiosity in Grey, and it feels prefer it’s getting in the way in which of their friendship at this level.) Though her antics are typically innocent, it is nonetheless slightly odd that an actual romance has developed between them with out Juvia making at the least a noticeable change in her conduct.

Fortunately, there’s extra than simply the will-they-won’t-they shenanigans, because the gang encounters the actual Juvia on their technique to the Wooden Dragon God. Nonetheless, one thing appears off about her (the largest signal being that she’s not always fawning over Grey). Whereas she provides all of them a cryptic warning concerning the White Mage, all that’s put to relaxation when the gang learns that the town they’re presently in is sitting on the Wooden Dragon God’s hand. The dragon is so large that it has a number of cities over its physique, Xenoblade Chronicles fashion. It is a fairly cool idea, particularly since this type of coexistence between the dragon and the locals implies that it is one other state of affairs the place Natsu and the gang cannot simply remedy the issue by beating him up – however that is not the largest shocker of the episode. The actual bombshell comes when one of many locals takes the gang to a close-by church, the place they uncover that all the members are devotees of the White Mage, and that the devotees in query are all from the opposite Fairy tail members.

I’ll admit that I hoped the thriller of what occurred to the opposite guild members can be left up within the air for a bit longer, however actually, it is a fairly stable twist. The others are possessed by Touka and we don’t understand how or why. Even understanding that this can all possible be reversed quickly, it’s a powerful sufficient hook that I need to see the place the story goes. The actual shock right here is {that a} twist of this magnitude was dropped into an episode that was in any other case stuffed with jokes and teases about romantic development. I loved this episode and the ending undoubtedly held my consideration, so whereas this wasn’t the present’s strongest outing this season, it at the least managed to keep away from killing its momentum.

Judgement:

Fairy Tail: 100 12 months Quest presently streaming on
Crispy bread.