Manga/Fairy Tail

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Hisui also looked like Lucy... that to the point that the only way to tell them apart was when Mashima finally revealed Hisui had green hair and eyes

New chapter is out.

I'm really confused by the Fairy Nail sideplot. Kinda expecting it to be an illusion or something.

So wait, is that actually Juvia? We're sure it's not Juvina still screwing with them?

I assumed she was caught in the massacre back at the guild. Now I gotta go back and check if she was there with them?

There's also the possibility that this is Touka in disguise or something.

I'm banking on Touka in disguise.

Jesus christ Aldoron is huge.

That he is.

So I guess Touka / White Witch wiped everyone's memories.

Well that was a chapter.

Toonami announced Food Wars on July 6th.

Which means, I'm still waiting for that cable run of Fairy Tail that will never happen.

YO, that's actually hilarious; Shokugeki no Soma got on before Fairy Tail. That's so OD

I'm just made that NEW episodes of My Hero Academia moved an entire 4 hours later into the night.

I find it also hilarious that Food Wars has many of the same issues with Fairy Tail!

Edited by kyun on Jun 27th 2019 at 4:58:22 AM

It’s a lose/lose situation for everyone.

It does? I know the last couple of arcs were bad, but I haven't seen it.

Ok, they're not terrible...but its definite drop in quality; so much so that the last couple of arcs managed to completely erode any good will I had towards the series after it being one of my favorite series back 2015-2016

Yeah. It definitely went off the rails.

I'm kinda enjoying 100 year quest though, even though a lot of those issues are still there.

Speaking of which, it looks like the dragon sealing plot and the white wizard plot have finally collided.

Wonder if Touka will get taken out by now, feels kinda early.

So I'm doing my first ever full rewatch of FT. I've only ever gone back to my fave arcs or episodes and I haven't watched the first couple arcs ever since I got into the franchise. It is my experience that most every long runner has shit first arcs anyway. It's all very basic and uninteresting, sort of like the first hour of a JRPG. They just establish the most rudimentary of things that only interest you on a first viewing.

I remember clearly that I was meh on FT until Phantom Lord. It was Phantom Lord that made me love this series. That didn't change in the re-watch.

I do have to say though, having now seen a decent chunk of One Piece and My Hero Academia, I've really come to appreciate how well Fairy Tail handles its female cast. It might lag severely behind those two in a lot of areas but it destroys them in terms of having women who are both interesting and can fight. It has quality and quantity.

I've also come to appreciate the music and dub more than I did before which is saying something. They were always great but I took the dub especially for granted. It really is a masterpiece of localization.

Cana to Aquarius: I bet you settled on the first ugly merman that showed you his trident. It must be rough when you're 20,000 leagues of pure skank.

Tenrou - which I just got done with - was as good as I remembered, maybe better.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 13th 2019 at 10:48:40 AM

Fairy Tail has some good tunes, no doubt. I still love the Three Dragonslayers, Dragonforce, and the regular main theme, as well as the Satan Soul theme and Erza vs Erza.

As for it's treatment of women...it is kinda better in terms of fighting ability, but Mashima also lets his fetishes guide things, and Lucy still gets a pretty raw deal compared to other action girls.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that past a certain point, she has very few one on one fights: most of them have someone beyond her spirits helping her in some capacity because she stands no chance on her own (and that person is usually Natsu, who takes full control of the battle while she—barely—supports). If she is fighting one on one, expect her to be totally outmatched and unable to do anything unless someone comes to save her.

In addition to his obsession with stripping her naked, which he squeezes into near every arc in some way.

I have only gotten up to Tartaros which was a few years ago now. I then just kinda wandered off and forgot about FT. That's one reason I'm doing this total re watch. Even as an FT fan, I felt like Tartaros was a ginormous jump in quality from what had been happening for a while. It might have been the best arc in the series that I had seen. Hence the rewatch is to refresh my memory of the plot and the overall quality of the series.

I bring this up because of the many awesome things in Tartaros we had Lucy and the CSK.

Lucy has been my favorite FT character for as long as I can remember. Having just re-watched the episode where she returns to find her dad had passed away, it still broke my heart just like I remembered. I think the drama of Lucy and her father's relationship is some of the best in the series.

As for her being sexually exploited every fight, that is a problem. The present me is far more informed on feminist criticism of media than I was when I first got into FT. Nevertheless, I can't deny I still find a lot of it charming and fun, especially when it goes hand-in-hand with my Na Lu shipping. I still love Lucy as much as I ever did. B Naked jokes being run into the ground or not, I think she's the best character in the series.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 13th 2019 at 11:47:55 AM

I find myself agreeing with you on a lot of that (except Na-Lu because Natsu must be destroyed...along with Erza).

I just wish he was a little more fair to her: she gets good moments, but he constantly seems to find ways to undermine her too sometimes.

Like why is Cancer a hair dresser? That's an incredibly stupid power for a summons. Why does Aries fight with Wool? It's actually managed to be useful at times, but it's also a stupid power.

Why doesn't she use her sprits a little better? Why does she have more weaknesses than others (like stealing her keys, or early on, running out of magic)? Why is it when she goes up against a super powerful opponent, suddenly Reality Ensues and she gets beat down, when Natsu and Erza just win anyway?

I get she's supposed to be the most normal one of the group, but that doesn't mean she's the designated victim too...which is something that's not needed in my opinion.

I think that I have a weird love hate relationship with this series, which explains why I still read it despite my eternal frustration with a lot of things about it.

Lucy definitely deserved better. The original setup with her and Natsu had potential Mashima never really capitalized on. I'm not a fan of Na Lu, mainly due to my hatred of Natsu and Mashima wanting to have his cake and eat it regarding writing relationships.

Heh, I've always liked Natsu which is peculiar because I hate his type of character in other shounen. I dunno what it is about him that makes him the exception. The fact he's a cocky punk and not just friendship is magic maybe. Without that edginess to him he'd just be Naruto.

Erza is the real strange one, though. When I got into the series back in 2012 or so even the haters said stuff like "Erza is the only reason people still read Fairy Tail" and I got the feeling she was the most popular character. Nowadays she's public complaint #1.

I don't think I really hate anybody in FT... Of course my second favorite character after Lucy is Jellal so yeah. Used to liking people who get shit on a lot.

Natsu is incredibly friendship is magic. The problem with Natsu is that stuff like his selfishness could be used for character moments, but Mashima doesn't seem interested in giving him actual flaws that hinder him or an arc. So there's this disconnect with his friendship speeches and his often incredibly selfish behavior and actions.

Mashima also introduced a bunch of stuff about him later on that could have been incredibly interesting, but he never fleshes it out at all. So at the end of the day, Natsu comes off as this really uninteresting asshole. On top of a lot of his fights being really bad.

Edited by Aquaconda on Jul 13th 2019 at 5:15:55 AM

Natsu being an asshole could have been interesting, but as you said, Mashima refuses to flesh it out.

It doesn't help that he also keeps getting away with shit and is rarely called out.

the guild itself keep getting away with shit and never being called out on it, Craftsdwarf went through that in his tirade