Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest

Episode 3

So while I wouldn't say I've had an amazing time with this sequel so far, it has been pretty fun for the most part, and there hasn't been too much I'd really complain about. But of course, if there's one thing you can count on with Fairy Tail, and Mashima's writing style, it's getting a few left swerves that can range from awkward to frustrating. It was probably only a matter of time before those habits reared their ugly head again. While those frustrations aren't quite enough to make this episode explicitly bad, they have curbed my enthusiasm enough to remind me just how much of a mixed bag the series can be.

Alright so first let's start with what I did like about this episode. After setting the stage for a fight between Team Natsu and the Dragon Eaters, the Dragon Eaters end up backing off for the time being, giving Natsu and the others the chance to learn a little more about the Water God Dragon, Merchphobia. As it turns out, he has no real hostility towards humans, as while he was happy to munch down on humans in the past, inadvertently saving the life of a girl named Karameel got him to reconsider the value of coexistence, and he's been living in peace with them ever since. The problem is that his power over the tides is too much to control, and the fish people living in town are actually humans who he's transformed with his magic to keep from killing them. If left unchecked, people in the surrounding areas could have the same fate. To make matters worse, he can't do anything about this as his power as the Water God Dragon was sealed away by a powerful wizard called the White Mage who is equal to Zeref in power, who turns out to have been Touka all along.

I'll admit I'm not too thrilled about that particular revelation, as much like with the existence of the God Dragons in general, having other characters out there this powerful only really serves to cheapen the finale of the main series. Still, it is a pretty good hook for setting up where the story could go later on. If the other God Dragons had their power sealed similarly, it would at least make it easier to swallow why none of them were ever regarded as a worldwide threat the same way Acnologia was. I also do like that it seems like not all of the God Dragons will end up being hostile, and might require ways to deal with them other than fighting, so it should at least make any future interactions with the rest of them feel varied enough to keep this whole scenario from feeling too repetitive. It makes me more interested to see what the rest are like.

As for what I didn't like about the episode, part of it stems from the whole B-plot surrounding the mystery of Touka's identity. Jellal's side mostly feels like an excuse to reintroduce some of the characters from other guilds, while Gajeel's side of the investigation feels a bit more annoying as a lot of it ends up centering about gags involving him butting heads with Levy over how trustworthy Touka is or him accidentally ending up in a few compromising positions with Juvia. None of these are particularly unusual gags for the series at this point, but given how much Gajeel and Levy have been through together—and the two of them getting ready to have a kid together—it is frustrating seeing them squabble over stuff this petty, and it would be nice to see the two of them get to act more like an actual couple.

My other major nitpick here is with one of the fights, as the Dragon Eaters eventually come back for round two. As far as the action itself goes, these fights are mostly fine. While Fairy Tail's anime adaptations have never been known for having a high-quality production, they are at least a step up from the last couple of seasons and look solid enough not to be distracting. What is distracting though is what happens midway through Erza's fight with Kiria, where the latter apparently uses her Blade Dragon powers to cut away at Erza's inner strength, causing her to start acting scared and begging for mercy. While there is something funny in seeing Erza of all characters feeling any sense of shame, it mostly feels like a vehicle for some awkward fanservice considering Kiria immediately uses it to make Erza grovel in front of her. A feeling that only got driven home when we got a full-framed smash cut to Kiria's boobs just to throw in a joke about how much bigger they are than Wendy's.

It's certainly not the worst tonal whiplash I've seen from this series, but it definitely took me out of things more than anything else in the episode and reminded me what show I was watching. I know a lot of that probably sounds like I'm coming down on it pretty hard, but for better or worse, these kinds of things are more or less par the course for Fairy Tail at this point, and it certainly isn't anything I'm not used to from it, so while I might be annoyed, I'm certainly not surprised. If anything, these kinds of frustrations are sort of a vital part of the overall Fairy Tail experience, and it'd be weirder if something in the series didn't leave me questioning why I still enjoy it, so in that respect, I can say that Fairy Tail has truly returned.

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Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.