Manga/Fairy Tail

by his own admission, Kishimoto's bad t romance, but the Last at least, tries. The Boruto anime also portrays them as a particularly sweet couple at times, so I'm fine with it.

Choji/Karui is the only real "WTF" one that comes out of nowhere.

Karui means light (in weight) so it's supposed to be ironic. It's another fat joke basically.

One thing I did like about the Chouji/Karui pairing is how ninjas from countries that were once at each others' throats can now marry each other without too much scandal. Now, this doesn't apply to the Chouji/Karui pairing specifically, but it was something I personally liked about the pairing.

Huh now that's actually a pretty good reason to like that pairing especially since its a marriage between villagers of the Lighting & Leaf village who has a lot of issues between each other.

I mean as random as it is & even if the basis is just a fat joke it happened during a decade long time-skip so anything can happen. Love is not that complex in some cases really.

Shonen are notoriously bad at writing romantic arcs outside of the basic "Girl likes boy, but the boy doesn't notice". There are honestly only a handful that are actually decent when the series isn't a romantic genre already.

I will say, actually, that Choji being such a sweet dad and he and Karui having a totally loving and functional relationship in the future is rather nice. Ino and Sai as well.

...Back to Fairy Tail:

Elfman X Evergreen also started with opposition given that Elfman got turned to stone in the Fighting Festival Arc.

Actually given how little romance has to do with anything compared to NAKAMA B*&^CHES and action, I'd say that's one of Mashima's stronger suits...I mean, as long as he doesn't believe the hype too much.

Na Lu worked great (I saw Natsu as innocent enough to do lots of romantic things just to be nice though), then Mashima believed it and started overplaying it.

Jerza was amazing, then it was overexposed and turned into Wangst.

Mavix X Zeref was consistently good, Wendy x Chelia is excellent too, if you see it that way. Loke x Ares

Only Gruvia doesn't seem groovy.

Ino/Sai also had Shikamarus novel to show how he came to like her I think. I mean they did adapt them for the anime and there was an arc where he got brainwashed and Ino saved him. He became attracted to her because of her personality since he always thought she was ugly and he called her the opposite of that after reading a book that told him not to insult a girl and say the opposite.

I wouldn't mind Gray/Luvia if he legit showed some attraction/romantic feeling for her.

He flat-out turns her down in Ch. 338, and she's still going after him.

That is so not a romance then.

Hell if the genders were reversed we would most definitly get a horror story.

Yeah, as Gray is my favorite, I in good conscience can't support Gruvia.

...

Does the YMMV have Relationship Writing Fumble? Sounding like it needs to go there.

edited 22nd Jun '17 6:35:00 AM by erazor0707

I fell off of Gruvia when I realized how unhealthy it was and that Maha wasn't going to make Juvia anything more than a one-note character.

Relationship Writing Fumble is when two characters receive a lot of subtext even though Word of God claims that they don't have any romance.

Mashima is pretty upfront about which people he's putting together, which is up to your interpretation whether this is good or bad.

aka Soul Eater, Relationship Writing Fumble the manga.

In my head, they just had a one night stand and Sasuke Genjutsu'd her into think they got married so she could feel like they're together without actually being together. Or maybe Salad was made in-vitro.

He Izanagi'd her into Sakura's womb.

Low quality 541 translation.

edited 23rd Jun '17 10:00:49 AM by KOman

I love how Acnologia is just becoming a goofy stereotypical shounen villain. Why is he a braggart all of a sudden? Why isn't he immediately murderizing the dragon slayers?

Plot, that's why. Badly done plot, but still.

So they plan to use Fairy Sphere to trap him then? I dislike how he still has the Motion Sickness weakness, but I love Lucy taking charge, so I'm all right with this. I'd prefer it if she just summoned the Celestial Spirit King, then used a Star Dress of him but that's expecting far too much from Mashima.

Just end already Fairy Tail. You're too slow.

edited 23rd Jun '17 10:25:10 AM by HandsomeRob

It's weird how Chapter 436 was implying that Acny had more complex motives when this is what we're getting.

It looks like an Ending Fatigue to me.

Yeah at this point we all just want it to end.

Ignoring how half the chapter was devoted to Lucy's group boy is this fight lame. Acno is just so far above them that this isn't fun, this can barely be called a fight as the good guys were hardly given anything to do.

Seriously where did Acno's pragmatism go? Where was that cold no-nonsense personality he had against God Serena?

Either Mashima's contradicting himself or this is what he thinks complex motives are.

edited 23rd Jun '17 11:06:51 AM by slimcoder

He's really going down the Kishimoto tube, then again I think he's been down that path for years.

God, if Mashima wasn't going to give Acny any depth, he could have least made him consistent. And no being a "classic villain" does not excuse this.

edited 23rd Jun '17 12:17:13 PM by Aquaconda