FAIRY TAIL / First Impressions

「小さな拳」 (Chiisana Kobushi)
“A Small Fist”

Wendy VS. Chelia is definitely one of my favourite battles now. I praised it last week, and I’ll do it again today. I thought this episode was amazing! Ignoring the short summaries that were randomly distributed all over the episode, I thought everything was great. While the brief recap moments might be a bit redundant, it only makes sense to have them considering how close the anime and manga are to each other. I do wish that the battles would be extended though, or maybe, the characters could do something funny? Oh well, I won’t complain too much because I absolutely loved this episode.

I’m surprised to find myself loving Wendy so much. To me, she has always been the adorable character of FAIRY TAIL, and I never found her particularly interesting compared to the other ones in her team. But like her character development, my love for her has become much greater now. I thought the flashback from when we first saw her was inserted in a great way. It reminded me of how much she has grown. Wendy is everything FAIRY TAIL stands for – she has gone from being a timid girl to a strong and independent one – all thanks to her nakama. Perhaps Wendy is the character who has been growing more than anyone else. Her development is the one that is most visible compared to other people’s. That’s something I really love about her, and it’s also something that shows how great FAIRY TAIL is as a guild, because they’re the reason she managed to come so far. Ah, I love FAIRY TAIL so much, both the series and the guild!

While I was hoping that Wendy would win, the result of the battle does not disappoint me because I find Chelia to be a respectable person who also deserves winning. The battle ended in the sweetest way possible and I really loved seeing two opponents ending up as friends. I’m sure we’ll see more of these two in future arcs.

Leaving that, the second half dived into more seriousness. A cloaked person has showed up, the same one that can be seen in the opening sequence. Zeref’s magic is involved here, and let’s not forget that Arcadios mentioned Zeref when he was planning to do something with Eclipse… The plot thickens! And Zeref is not the only “problem”. Having Jellal’s face exposed is most likely not something good, especially not in a tournament filled with enemies. Can’t Mira use her face changing magic on others? There should be easier ways to hide your identity… Oh well, luckily Jellal got away for now.

We’ve got quite a lot of things going on now – the tournament, Eclipse, Zeref, and also Lumen Histoire. Considering what “lumen” means, I believe Mavis when she says that it’s the light of FAIRY TAIL, and I am wondering what kind of light it is. Is it some sort of magic? Or is it what its name indicates – just a story? Perhaps it is some sort of record that is the foundation of FAIRY TAIL? It would only make sense for the guild’s enemies to go after that to ruin things, if it was a record that is. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s something nice, like Mavis said. And speaking of her, call me evil, but I find the crying Mavis really adorable. I wonder how exactly Makarov and Laxus will cheer her up… Maybe give her something to drink?

Anyway, next week’s episode will focus on another battle. It involves bikinis so it’s an all-girls round. I believe this will be the first time we’ll see Minerva in the tournament. I’m sure it will be a gorgeous an intense battle!

Moete kitazou!

Full-length shots: 1, 13, 15, 16, 17, 24, 26, 27, 33, 35

 

Preview

33 Comments

  4. I really think Chelia should have taken Wendy ut. I still don’t get how she wasn’t able to do it and that’s not to take anything away from Wendy.

    I guess Chelia’s just too soft.

    Still, this is easily the best battle the arc has to offer.

    I mean, if you like brainless badass moments, I guess future encounters will please you…

    EmD
    Reply

    1. She really had the advantage, power-wise, and magic-wise, seeing as she could heal herself up, and God Slayer is actually a tier higher than Dragon Slayer. Well, let’s not think too much about it, that’s not what Fairy Tail was made for.

      Crook
      Reply

    2. I think if there had been no time limit that Cheria would have won without a doubt. This was just about Wendy being incredibly stubborn and determined to stay in it for as long as she could.

      If you want real reasons: Cheria probably wasted magic by missing her big move and Wendy wasn’t going to give her time to eat any more air to charge up. So for the rest of the fight it was more limited to less powerful stuff that didn’t have the ability to one-shot Wendy out of the fight.

      FlareKnight
      Reply

    3. As it was explained in the episode Cheria could heal her own wounds but not restore her own magic power and Wendy was the opposite, restore her own magic power but not heal her own wounds.

      waverat81
      Reply

      1. That’s not really what they said. Cheria can heal her wounds, but not restore her physical strength. Wendy can’t heal her own injuries, but can restore the physical strength of “others.” That’s why Cheria’s attack missed. Wendy didn’t heal her own damage in any respect, she just toughed it out.

        FlareKnight
        Reply

  5. Oh my gosh, they actually changed Lucy’s bikini from what I can see in the preview. I thought they would use the same white bikini with the pink stuff on. But the animators are willing to change the bathing suits for the characters. That’s great. Lucy wore that same white bikini snice the Tower of Heaven arc and it great they are changing it for the tourament. perhaps she’ll use the new bikini design on the upcoming OVA 5.

    Rzerox21xx
    Reply

    1. I don’t see anything wrong with that, Dragon Slayer have natural colour magic while God Slayer have black colour magic to distinguish between the two types of slayer. Black is a reasonable choice of colour to represent Lost Magic.

      Tsukiyo
      Reply

  14. Okay, I’m going rant mode now as I can no longer ignore this when it’s literally stabbing my eyes in the latest episodes.

    Let’s talk about this episode though. Am I the only one who thought that about 80% of this episode’s animation was horribly drawn? Wait, no, even Hiro Mashima himself tweeted something about the animation quality being down:

    Original:

    TVアニメの作画には僕はノータッチなんですが、OADは単行本につくものなので話は別。できる限り原画をチェックさせてもらってます。できるだけ原作に近い絵、又は綺麗な絵になるように制作スタッフには努力してもらってます。感謝。

    Translation:

    I don’t get involved in the TV Anime’s artwork, and the OADs on the Tankobons is a different story. But at least check over the key animations as much as you guys can. To the production staffs, if it’s possible, please do your best on making it as close to the original, or making it as beautiful as possible. Thank you.

    Really, the only thing that looked nice in my opinion was Chelia’s major spell. The other things, such as Wendy refusing to give up, Chelia and Wendy smiling as they become friends, Jellal as he is revealed by Doranbolt, Kagura‘s reaction to Jellal (this one was especially bad). I don’t know if the anime team went “Screw this, it’s just a transition episode” or what. I’m not saying that the anime is meant to copy the manga exactly, it’s not even possible with a lot of series, but when you have someone like Hiro Mashima who provides such awesome drawings, it’s simply shame when the anime steps over his work like this. You may think it’s “just faces”, but this is what made the chapters for me back then when I read them and I was looking forward to seeing these awesome expressions, faces and poses in color. Way to get disappointed, right? Erza, Gray, Makarov, Romeo… Literally everyone suffered in this episode.

    *phew* Sorry for this, I had to get it out of me :P. Long rant about animation aside, I must, as always, praise the soundtracks. They fit so well and make the story even more awesome! As you said, Wendy has gotten probably the greatest amount of character development. The flashback from when we met her for the first time showed that nicely. I’m happy for her :3 Jellal… ah, you know how to get into trouble, eh? Him aside, d’awwww, Mavis! She’s so cute xD The situation was quite awkward too, with Laxus not knowing what to do 😛

    Well, I typed a lot. I’m sorry, once again. I must not forget, your post is, as always, great 😛

    Cheers!

    Misk
    Reply

  16. Wendy really is the perfect example of a Fairy Tail mage. Someone who has a past with some tragedy to it, who was taken in by this family and grew into a much stronger and complete person. Wendy may not be as battle hungry as the other Dragon Slayers, but she cares just as much about this guild and was willing to hang in there for that reason.

    A win would have made this a sweep for Fairy Tail, but I think this was the right way to end it. Wendy has started further behind than anyone else. Having her be able to actually beat a God Slayer this early (for her) might have pushed things. This match proved that she has grown in many ways and still has plenty of room to improve down the road. That she could stand on this stage and fight an opponent especially difficult for Dragon Slayers reflected well on Wendy.

    I’ll say one thing about the Jellal reveal: I want to punch Mest in the face. How is it this guy who has been guilting himself for 7 years about what he did/didn’t do for Fairy Tail decides his first bold action is going to be causing trouble for that guild? Is this guy an idiot? Who the hell cares that this isn’t the real Mystogan? Does a spy like him really have the right to be making a fuss about this? I swear that guy was better off drunk in the bar they found him in during the filler arc.

    FlareKnight
    Reply

  18. I love Wendy so much, and her battle went a lot better than it did in the manga, and seeing a crying Mavis was actually cute too. But back to Wendy, I’m surprised she’s not considered a main character given how much character development she;s had, not to mention the fact she’s appeared in almost every opening with Natsu and the gang since her appearance.

    Jackpot2121
    Reply

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