Manga/Fairy Tail

Natsu seems no more myopic than Goku, Naruto, Luffy or even Ichigo. Shounen heroes are defined by a selfish desire to do whatever they want for themselves or their friends.

World-changing consequences be damned, we have to save Ace or Rukia or whatever because we like them and nothing else matters.

Shounen heroes are not a tepid, rule-following lot. They get away with shit all the time. That's kinda the whole point. You should follow your heart and fuck up anyone or anything that tries to stop you. "It's my way or the highway" defines each and every one of them.

Natsu is just entertaining when he does it because Mashima makes it pretty violent and spectacular, like when he busts into Sabertooth's base for Yukino's sake.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 13th 2019 at 10:40:45 AM

seriously, you should watch Fairy Tail: an Overly Long Analytical Tirade by Craftsdwarf, it's incredibly well made

I've seen it, or at least some of it. It was linked in here years ago and I glanced at it then.

I have my own criticisms of FT already and part of the motivation for my marathon re-watch is to look over the series from start to finish and make my own conclusions.

New chapter:

As already explained, Touka protected Juvia from the White Witch's control, and allowed her to warn them. Touka can also transmit what the White Witch says and does to Juvia, letting them know her plans. Also, Wendy can cancel out her controlling magic, so they're gonna beat up the other members and break the control while they are unconscious.

This looks like a good time for Lucy to use Gemini to copy Wendy, so they have two magic cancellers, but we'll see if Mashima thinks of that, or doesn't just have her forget that to keep up drama.

One criticism I have of Mashima is he seems to...get bored. That's the best way I've heard it phrased as somebody told me first time I watched Grand Magic Games.That arc has so many subuplots running through it and a lot of great build. And then...Laxus demolishes Raven Tail, Natsu solo's Sting and Rogue despite them having Dragon Force at w ill, and maybe even Pandemonium itself was intended to be a real competition before he just had Erza solo it.

This is all speculation but it would explain how badly rushed all this was to the severe detriment of subplots and character credibility.

Natsu storming the Sabertooth base and demanding their master follow the same one loss and you're out rule that he forced on Yukino is still the best, though. He would have kicked that shithead's teeth in.

But I'm getting ahead of myself

When I first watched FT I completely skipped the Key of the Starry Sky arc. Naruto and Bleach had conditioned me that filler arcs are the worst of the worst. However I decided to give it a try this time around and I'm glad I did.

First off Lucy is my favorite character in all of FT and the episode where she returns to find her father had passed away has to be one of the most powerful moments in the series. As such, following up on that with an arc about Lucy and her family makes a lot of sense and isn't as intrusive as many filler arcs. So conceptually it flows very well.

But it isn't just good in concept, I thought it was executed quite well, too. A lot of minor characters get their moment to shine. The Legion Platoon were much better than their Edolas counterparts. Much like Edolas there's this big dilemma about doing what's right vs. doing your duty but truth be told I found it more convincing here because Faust was such a poor and obviously evil villain. The addition of Dan was really appreciated too as I found him very amusing. That being said, I thought the fights with the platoon generally sucked.

In terms of action I found the Neo Oracion Seis battles much more enjoyable. To be frank, I had forgotten Kinana existed until I watched this.

Of course at the end of the day Lucy and Michelle are the stars of the arc and I cried like a baby at the reveal of "who" Michelle really was. ]

What's extra cool is that this appears to be somewhat canon. Yukino mentions the "Zentopia Incident" in the manga and the Oracion Seis' new powers and appearances are from this arc.

EDIT

Ya know, Fairy Tail is a battle shounen just like Naruto and Bleach and all the rest of them. Which means they share tropes and themes and are meant for a young male audience. But there's remarkably little profanity and blood, at least in the anime. I notice every time Natsu says he'll kick butt instead of kick ass. In fact I can't recall him ever saying he'll kick ass. Cana said it once during the GMG arc.

I remember in Bleach Ichigo always was swearing and bleeding because I made fun of it as he always seemed to bleed from the same spot, around his temple/side of his eye. There's also Oda's problem in OP with letting beautiful women get hurt. Women get the shit kicked out of them just like men in FT but, again, no blood or broken bones or anything for any of them.

I dunno if this lack of swearing and bloody violence is a dub and anime thing or not. Maybe it's different in the manga? Or maybe FT is meant for a slightly younger audience than Naruto, Bleach and OP?

And I can't remember if there's a lot of that in MHA. It's something that never even dawned on me after all these years of watching FT until now, let alone for the one time I watched MHA.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 16th 2019 at 1:11:40 AM

So Fairy Tail the manga is over, right? So what were you reporting on ? I think I've heard of the other manga but I'm worried about spoilers for both it and the main series. I'm just at them heading for Alvarez and meeting Brandish.

I have to wonder if Mashima just doesn't like writing dark stuff. There was some serious and intriguing build to Evil Gray and all the drama that would entail but it was a giant swerve. He just wanted to have the gang back together and go on silly adventures.

It's Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest. a Spin-Off / Sequel that picks up where the original series left off...literally.

The last chapter of the main series leads right into it. Despite my criticisms of the main series, I'm still checking out 100 year quest. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.

Oddly enough, despite still having some very valid criticisms, I think I actually like this one too. I cannot for the life of me quit Fairy Tail.

Interesting, thank you. I wonder if it will get an anime?

And I know exactly how you feel. I was writing about this elsewhere while doing my recaps of the series and its arcs.

There are other shounen I consider better on a technical level than FT. One Piece is one of them. It's a masterfully written and deceptively complex story. However I can't deny the simple fact that Fairy Tail holds a special, irreplaceable spot in my heart. I don't have the overwhelming love for the Strawhats that I do for Fairy Tail.

Somebody on YT described the magic of the video game Persona 4 as making it feel like these fictional characters truly were your friends. That is how I feel about Fairy Tail. (and P4, awesome game) I can criticize just about every single one of them but I hate none of them.

I've been wondering lately about its lasting influence and popularity. I was once a massive Naruto and Bleach fan but I've pretty much completely left them behind. Other mildly popular shounen of yesteryear like Soul Eater I don't even think about at all anymore. But Fairy Tail, for all its flaws, is probably going to stay with me for the foreseeable future. Even when I didn't watch a single ep for years I never stopped loving this series. Coming back to it like this has only made me more certain than ever that Fairy Tail is #1. It will stay with me just like Inuyasha has.

So I can't see that well which means that criticizing animation is usually not something I ever do. People talked shit about the animation quality at the end of the first Fairy Tail anime for example but I saw nothing bad about it at all.

But now, in the final season, even I could tell something is off about the new anime 's animation. People on r/fairytail can express it better than I can. There are so many freeze frames and everything just feels effortless and cheap. I don't know what is going on here. Is it actually them putting in as little money as possible to do this? Is it a sign of FT's popularity waning so they are skimping on the budget? Then again even Naruto Shippuden had some notoriously bad animation...

I feel like Mashima really doesn't want to do "dark" stuff. Maybe I'm projecting but I view the ending of a story as the "this is what it's all about" moment of a series. It is what everything has been building to and encapsulates the most crucial themes and ideas. In which case Mashima values comedy, friendship and sex more than pure drama. There's tension here no doubt about it but not nearly as much as with Eclipse or Tartaros. Then again, those arcs stand out so vividly precisely because of their bleakness. They weren't just tense, they were...intense if you understand me. It's hard to put it into words. Perhaps those arcs were Mashima testing something new and different and he found it not to his liking. Alvarez is going "back to form" but maybe to an excessive degree. At least in the anime. Maybe it's not as bad in the manga.

That all being said, I appreciate the fact he is trying to tie everything together. Maybe he had all this planned after all. I'm very glad he didn't just write off the magic time travel gate because....it's a fucking magic time travel gate and should be treated with more weight. Zeref's backstory and the revelation about the dragons does that so I approve. Similarly, Hades having an artificial "Grimoire Heart" that supplies him with magic and keeps him alive fit very neatly with the origin of Fairy Heart. Of course he learned to make such a thing after all his time attempting to revive Mavis. I feel like this is probably a later plot addition and Mavis was supposed to be buried on Tenrou but whatever.

Natsu having a magic tumor and Brandish's backstory and all that is....ugh. Maybe with a bit more time spent on it but it's so goddam rushed.

Man this is so fucking infuriating. I wanted to see the Four Emperors vs. God Serena. I saw a Power Point show. I watch anime instead of reading manga for a few different reasons but one of those reasons is because action in anime always trumps action in manga. Except here, I guess. Maybe. This is also our only real showing of the other two Emperors... So Acnologia >>>>>>>>>>>>>>S Serena >>>>>>> Jura, Warrod and the other two. One of these days for kicks I'm gonna have to sit down and do Fairy Tail power Levels.

And that's whee I'm stopping for tonight. Laxus is fighting Wahl.

EDIT:

Also I didn't even think about Natsu and Gajeel being unable to get through Freed's age enchantment back in Fighting Festival until somebody reminded me. Mash ima has had all this shit p lanned out since then.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 20th 2019 at 9:21:59 AM

That was one of the only things Mashima had planned out.

Alvarez is as bad in the manga. It pissed away any good will Mashima gained back with Tartarus and them some. This is supposed to be a war but because Mashima didn't want to commit with keeping Tartarus' tone it ended up being a tonal mess. God Serena was wasted as a character and antagonistic force. I was so pissed when I read it. Brandish had a cool introduction then proceeded to be one of the worst characters he introduced. Though if I had to say some good things about this arc the Ajeel fight was pretty good and Wahl was a fairly unique villain whose potential was not realized at all.

Edited by Aquaconda on Jul 20th 2019 at 11:39:58 AM

....huh...never considered that.

Compared to Team Natsu(minus Erza, even Natsu is more sensible in comparison to her, must be an S class thing really) the non team Natsu FT S tiers get some of the weirdest fights. Mira's stamina is a joke compared to everyone else in FT, Laxus needs to be nerfed in fights because he's just so good apparently (freaking Wahl fight), Makarov forgets that he's strong after fighting Hades, Gildarts just punches harder and sends Team Rocket flying again.

Mira deserved better even if her fight against Seilah was crap. She was dealt a shitty hand by Alvarez.

Laxus is a particularly egregious example of the godawful powerscaling. He's just arbitrarily more powerful than everyone else even though he shouldn't. As a result his later fights are incredibly lame. It doesn't help that he just ceased to be a character after Tenrou.

Gildarts is basically just there to be the super strong guy and not much else.

On another note, City Heroes did a thing.◊

That's great.

Compared to the fights with Kyoka and Minerva, I saw nothing absurd abut Erza vs. Ajeel. S he was fucking dead until he got attacked by the Jupiter Cannon.

I don't know if she has any more fights after that, please no spoilers. A s I said I 'm only on Laxus vs. Wahl.

As for Ntsu, I summed him up after Avatar:

I know a lot of people complain about the timeskips but I think maybe Mashima wrote himself into a hole. He made Acnologia too strong and for Natsu and the rest to reach that level they'd need a year of training. This arc seems more or less to exist solely to show us that Natsu is approximately ten bajillion times stronger than he used to be.

Erza's not done Erzaing it up yet

Why wasn't his majesty's child not loved?◊

Here it comes.

Have you ever gotten as blue-balled as you did with his majesty’s child?

Damn, I never noticed until now that the meme uses "wasn't" and "not" in the same sentence. Is cancelling out the point of the question part of the meme?

Eeyup. Its exactly the point of the meme

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Jul 21st 2019 at 3:39:53 PM

Gawd the Spriggan were such a wasted concept

You could have easily made reasonably foils to the Fairy Tail guild members but Nope the only one Mashima cares about is Brandish... cause she walks around in her underwear all the time and is lazy quirky

Mashima needs to learn to stop writing with his erection

I have no idea what you all are talking about but I'm guessing it's spoilers so skipping.

What happened to Minerva's horns? And I guess her eye was also gone since she had it covered after her demon transformation.