「怒涛の対決! ナツ vs. ラクサス」 (Dotou no Taiketsu! Natsu vs. Rakusasu)
“Raging Battle! Natsu vs. Laxus”

Colorful, colorful, shooby doo bop!

It looks like I was wrong last week. That “rod” was not a key. Last week, some of you said that it looked like a clock hand, and that was actually correct! But I’m still not sure what this clock hand does, I think it involves some form of chaos.

Leaving that and moving on with the main events of the episode – I must say, this episode felt pretty random and unplanned. It was amusing to watch, but things were all over the place. I have nothing against a good battle between Natsu and Laxus, but Wendy suggesting a showdown for it seemed pretty random. Throwing a festival for the battle seemed pretty random too.

Unfortunately, the battle ended within a few seconds. I expected Natsu to put up a fight, so I must say that I’m quite surprised he lost so quickly. In his first battle with Laxus, nearly 80 episodes ago, he put up a real fight. I expected him to lose, but not like this. Oh well, it was fun to watch so I can’t really complain. Something worth mentioning about this battle is the background music. I don’t recognize the track at all and I’ve listened through all three volumes of the soundtrack. I’m assuming a fourth volume is on its way but I haven’t found any information about it.

Another very random and odd thing in this episode was Erza and Gray’s mission. The mission seemed very out place, but I’m not expecting very much from this filler season so I’m easily amused. While this mission was odd, it did bring justice to Juvia’s character – jealous Juvia is so funny!

While there was a lot of randomness going on in this episode, there was also a lot of story progress. As I mentioned in the first paragraph – we now know what that rod is. We also have three characters from the opening section introduced, although, I wouldn’t call this an introduction because it turns out – we’ve seen them before! I didn’t notice that these characters weren’t new when I saw the opening – but they’re actually from the Edolas arc – an arc that unfortunately lacks coverage on Random Curiosity. Based on what I’ve seen in the preview, we can assume that our three returning characters – Hughes, Sugarboy, and Coco are here to find Lucy.

I can’t say for sure if they are evil or not. They might be the Earth Land versions, and if they are, then whatever I said about them not being new, is wrong. But if they’re from Edolas, they might not be evil. If I recall correctly, Coco was one of the nice guys during the Edolas arc, but you can never be too sure!

With that being said, I can round things up by saying that this was a weak and random episode, but definitely amusing. I’m looking forward to some story progress next week.

Full-length shots: 7, 20, 21, 27, 28, 30, 36

Note: Please, use the spoiler tags!

 

Preview

19 Comments

  1. but Wendy suggesting a showdown for it seemed pretty random

    Wendy says later that the reason she suggested it was in hopes Natsu would back/cool down and not pull through with the fight xD It didn’t work, as expected.

    I must say that I’m quite surprised he lost so quickly

    Same, but I guess there was no reason for Natsu to go all out for a win, anyways xD It was hilarious seeing Gajeel sweating profusely when he realized what he was up against, and then ran away! Quite surprised you don’t have that shot XD

    Overall, entertaining episode though I do still feel cockblocked about the ‘fight’.

    Beedle
  2. They are new kinda they are the earth land versions of Coco, A female instend of male Hughes and Sugarboy. and from the opening i’m guessing their powers are complete opposites, Sugarboy was slippery and earthland sugerboy is sticky.

    TK
  3. I think in this episode it’s state at some pt that when Laxus was still in Fairy Tail he was PROBABLY(base on their impression) only 2nd to Gildart. But since Gildart rarely appear(fight and so on) I will be convince when i saw both of them – full potential.
    In anime we rarely see the strongest hero fight apart at the end. Overall good episode.

    I wanted to know – Has Bluenote disappeared at the same time as the tendo island?

    zxenon
    1. Bluenote controls gravity, so he’ll probably have had some chance to fly away or something alike. He also has a funny monkey face, but that has nothing to do with your question.

      Crook
    1. I actually like the new design. Same goes for all characters, I always liked Hiro’s designing as, unlike many other shows, Hiro’s characters often change looks. (Except for Natsu, Gajeel and Erza though)

      Crook
    2. I always wonder what characters are listening to when they have headphones on as a fashion accessory. When Laxus was a teenager it showed his headphones actually connected to something that looks like an mp3 player. xD

      Fallenrock
  4. You know what I think? I think this episode was a satire of the whole “filler episode where two characters who have already fought once are going to fight again” idea.

    I mean, the first fight between Natsu/Gajeel and Laxus already happened over 80 episodes like you said, and it was amazing. So it’s natural fans would want more. Then comes the preview to this episode where we learn there’s gonna be this fight between them, so naturally, people would get pumped. That’s probably where the writers got the idea for the whole guild to hold a festival for this one match. But there’s one thing people tend to forget: Natsu never wins fights where he tries to prove his own superiority to others. It’s only when he knows the lives of others are at stake that he is able to show his true potential. So what people were simply craving for was simply a lost cause, and this episode demonstrated that with a single punch. And for that, I really appreciate this episode to remind us that it’s best not to have high hopes for “filler rematches”. (The “Natsu vs. Gray” thing that happened in the last filler arc over 50 episodes ago doesn’t count because they’d never outright battled each other before; they only bickered. So an outright battle was like new territory. There’s also the return of those Grimoire Heart lackeys fighting the others while Natsu and co. took on Hades, but they were fighting entirely different people, so it really was interesting to see, not to mention totally unexpected.)

    And of course these are Earthland characters. I mean, Hughes has boobs. How can you think it’s the same person? I wonder who’s gonna play “her”. It’d be funny if they got the original actor (who played that Velveno guy a few episodes back, as I understand it). And because their powers seem similar yet different from the Edolas guys, I think it wouldn’t hurt to have some expectation. It also seems the villain of this arc is Earth!Byro, who was originally the short guy with the speech impediment who turned into a giant octopus. Seems he now owns a giant octopus.

    immblueversion
    1. I agree with you, Natsu shows his true potential when others’ lives are at stake. I was hoping for a longer fight, or rather expecting one because this was the episode title. But I understand your point and it makes sense!

      As for the Earth Land characters, I assumed there was a possibility that they might be the same characters we saw in Edolas, because their bodies might’ve undergone some physical change – due to the difference in magic, like Pantherlily did, although, he is an Exceed… I’m probably wrong about this, my assumptions are usually wrong. :]

      Stereoman
  5. Guess you had little to comment in that Gray/Erza mission. Those guys were Natsu’s enemies way way back in the first episodes(ep4 or 5?). And they were easily dispatched as well back then so yeah.
    Decent episode.

  6. As Gajeel pointed out he helped Natsu beat Laxus and they still were pretty beaten up. (Added on Laxus wasted most of his power using a spell that did nothing.) Everyother time Natsu and Laxus fought that was not important or Natsu did not have help he would get one shoted by him.

    Clinton
  7. Natsu and Gajeel didn’t train before the duel because they must know it was pointless. It’s either they were really confident or just bakas with challenging Laxus. They won’t be doing that again any time soon. But seeing Gajeel sing again was great. Seeing him sweat even more so. That image of Laxus’ side smile will be missed. I wonder why Gramps made such a reaction and then had nothing to say to Laxus. https://randomc.net/image/FAIRY%20TAIL/FAIRY%20TAIL%20-%20129%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    I didn’t feel any chemistry between Erza and Gray. That scene of them together was to get Juvia into frenzy mode. That fight was the first I saw of Gray using those dual ice swords.
    I thought it was obvious that it wasn’t a key; first of all it’s too big to be used as one.

    random viewer
  8. It was all pretty random indeed. Natsu going down so easily and Gajeel running away was a huge let down for me, no matter what. I can’t really accept those characters to be put into such situations even if it’s just a filler.

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