Fairy Tail Part 3
Title: Fairy Tail Part 3
Original Story: Hiro Mashima
American Publisher: Funimation Entertainment
American Release Date: January 31, 2012
Format: 4 DVD/Blu-Ray combo box set, 13 half hour episodes (300 minutes)
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV14
Overall Personal Rating: A-
Synopsis:
The Kingdom of Fiore is a land of magic and adventure; a fantasy continent where magic guilds made up of wizards that band together who take on all sorts of magical jobs, for fun and profit. Lucy, a young celestial wizard (A kind of magic using spirits summoned from “gate keys”) has joined Natsu, a fire breathing/wielding wizard raised by a dragon and his crazy magic guild of Fairy Tail! Many of the jobs their guild takes can involve things from saving people to stopping magical threats like curses to trying to help out an acting troupe by showing off their magic prowess. Along with friends Happy (a flying, talking blue cat who likes to say “Aye!”), Gray, an ice wizard (with a stripping issue and a rivalry with Natsu), and Erza, a sometimes scary serious armor and weapon using woman who often join them on their adventures, Lucy and her friends as well as many more wizards from Fairy Tail get in all sorts of exciting situations.
The series is a comedy adventure in the same vein as series such as Dragon Ball, and especially One Piece, as the cast of characters quips, fights and explores the crazy magical world. Overall the tone is light hearted, but this box set continues the trend from the previous set of adding more complexity to the world and the people in it, as we learn more of the secret pasts of more Fairy Tail wizards and begin to get inklings of greater threats at work in the land. In this set, the war between the Phantom Lords guild and Fairy Tail comes to an exciting conclusion, as Phantom Lord’s greater fighters, the Element 4 (or what’s left of them) face off against wizards from Fairy Tail in an effort to stop Phantom Lord’s giant magical cannon from firing once more and destroying all of Fairy Tail and the whole town of Magnolia.
There are a couple shorter arcs in the set as well; one dealing with Loke’s (a Fairy Tail wizard who seems oddly afraid of Celestial Wizards in general and Lucy in particular) and a hilarious one off episode where Natsu and the gang somehow end up putting on a play…really really badly. It’s a typical anime cliche, but darn if it wasn’t funny as heck anyway. Who would have figured Erza would get stage fright? It just gets more out of hand from there. The final arc that begins but does not finish in this set is one I’d been looking forward to thanks to the opening credits that show scenes from the next arc instead of the current arc half the time (Way to spoilers in the credits guys). We finally get to see more of young Erza, and the traumatic tale of her life before Fairy Tail. It involves slavery, betrayal, a giant tower that deal in something called the “R-System’ that is so terrible the Wizard’s Council Era wants it destroyed at all costs, and not just an evil demon, but something that may be an evil god. Are Natsu and the others up to facing Erza’s dark past and quite possibly saving the world?
Commentary:
I could start out by saying how much of Fairy Tail is shonen anime paint by number; You get the good hearted, filled with secret power and kookiness lead, the female co-star with a feisty attitude and a cute face, an adorable funny talking animal pal, lots of wild looking characters with over the top personalities; an arrogant pretty boy rival (Grey), a tough but attractive woman (Erza), big fights with lots of crazy magic powers and a world full of foes that give you chances to use them. The morals are big and largely obvious, with friendship and being true to the people you care about figuring prominently among them. Fairy Tail blazes no new ground, but it does what it does with such charm and panache it’s hard not to get caught up in it. No show that entertained me this much could possibly be bad; If this is wrong, I don’t want to be right, etc.
I could go into more detail on the powers the foes they fight in each arc have, and the odd foes that rise up to challenge them, like a guy with an owl head who uses a magical jet pack and claims to be “fighting for justice”, or the cat girl who just loooves kitties and how Natsu gets a giant cat costume head stuck on while fighting her, to hilarious results. But it’s really the little things like that which make Fairy Tail what it is; that moment when Natsu bursts from the ground, ready to protect Lucy from the metal Dragonslayer; when Makorov gets to show his stuff in an explosive confrontation straight out of DBZ. What makes this combination of comedy and adventure, the tone and general absurdity of which remind me of One Piece in a good way, unique, and better than some series of its ilk is the pacing. In this set I have a complete mini arc, a done in one and at least half of two other arcs. I’ve yet to see an arc over around six to eight episodes, and a single fight over an episode and that’s fantastic. Sometimes, it leads to odd anti-climaxes as a villain in this set who is built up for half an episode literally goes down in one hit, other times it allows for shorter, funnier battles as Grey fights a woman who has a crush on him (And then hilariously stalks him for the rest of the DVD set). This is a shonen anime that’s as wacky and fun as a DragonBall or a One Piece, and while it blazes no particularly new ground, it does what it does skillfully and efficiently. And that’s one heck of a lot more than the big three have ever done.
The usual crew of voice actors turns in nice performances; Natsu is great and the catgirl is quite funny and anytime Chris Sabat (Elfman) opens his mouth I still go “Yay, it’s Chris Sabat!”. Although I do feel the voice of young Erza is a little odd, as well as some of the other kids. Kid voices just do not dub quite right. One final note; I bought a blu ray player just so I could watch the blu ray copy so nicely included in my set (Ok not really just for the Fairy Tail) and yes, there is a visible difference. It’s not earth shattering, but the blu ray version is nicely smoother and I like the effect, so I’m sure videophiles will just love it since I usually don’t notice that kind of thing.
Overall Grade: A-
People who have seen one two many Shonen anime with plucky heroes fighting impossible odds in zany situations may look at Fairy Tail and say “Oh, not that again,” but the humor and fun make it stand out from similar series. If nothing else, the fact that the pacing of the show quite clearly has entertainment in mind more than keeping schedule with a manga source material, and the lack of unnecessary elements really shows, making Fairy Tail often a smoother viewing experience than the series it cribs from.
“In the Radius”:
Law of Ueki (wacky powers and fighting), One Piece (practically its inspiration), YuYu Hakusho (although Yu Yu has more strategy), Dragon Ball (Moreso than Z), Mar: Marchen Awakens Romance (another brisk paced, funny fantasy)
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Categories: Anime E-H, Anime Reviews
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