The Spring 2014 Anime Preview Guide

Fairy Tail Series 2

Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)

Review:

The final battle of the Grand Magic Games is about to commence, but first Gajeel has to report back to his guildies about what he found when he was knocked under the stadium – a huge dragon graveyard. Luckily Wendy has learned a spell that allows her to communicate with the souls of departed dragons, and when one answers the summons, the gang learns about the wars 400 years ago, as well as the truth behind both dragon slayers and Acnologia. So yes, basically this is exactly where we are in the English translation of the manga, and if you've never watched the Fairy Tail anime but are caught up in the manga, you can jump in right here.

This episode is bookended by Carla's terrifying visions of the future, which works better than I would have supposed. At both the very start and the very end of the episode, we see Lucy and Natsu battling in the ruins of a destroyed city as dragons attempt to finish the job, which makes for some very striking imagery. It also whets one's appetite for what is to come, as well as building suspense for how exactly we're going to get there, to say nothing about making us worry about the rest of the characters, especially since an early scene in this episode shows the merciless killing of someone who has been around for most of the Grand Magic Games arc. Generally speaking, this is a very dark episode, but the show does a good job of throwing in some lighter moments to balance it out, particularly the summoned dragon's reasons for deigning to talk to the group. Parts of the past gave me serious Slayers Next flashbacks, but the joy of getting some answers balanced that out nicely. For those in search of the romantic subplot (such as it is), there's a definite Lucy/Natsu push at the two ends of the episode and in the ending theme; that last one feels a little out of place, to be honest.

If you've been enjoying Fairy Tail right along, this new season does not look like it will disappoint. It is high energy, brightly animated, and combines serious material with more light-hearted moments. This episode was a lot of fun, and it's setting up for major excitement to come.

Fairy Tail Series 2 is available on Crunchyroll.