English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “To the God-Forsaken Land”

Escape from Alvarez!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Natsu and the others have managed to rescue Makarov from the clutches of Zeref, who is also the ruler of the Alvarez Empire. Makarov shares an emotional moment with his “children”, who are eager to return him home to the safety of Fairy Tail. However, their reunion is interrupted when Ajeel, a powerful Alvarez mage who wields sand magic arrives. Erza gets behind the wheel of their magic vehicle, and the A team speeds away with an enormous sand monster made by Ajeel in hot pursuit. Gray and Lucy transform and launch attacks at Ajeel’s monster, but the sand mage is able to trap their vehicle in an enormous sinkhole.

The sinkhole envelops the A team, but Natsu uses his magic to make the sand evaporate. Their battle continues with Makarov taking the lead. Still, Ajeel is too much for them, but surprisingly, Laxus, Gajeel, Lily, Laveel, and the other members of the Fairy Tail “B” Team arrive on a flying ship to save the day. The A team teleports to the ship and sails back home to Ishgar.

Makarov is moved to tears at the sight of his family again, and the guild soon sails back to the guild hall. Back at the hall, everyone celebrates Makarov’s return and his restoration to the title of Master. Everyone shares a moment of joy with each other, but the party comes to an end when Makarov explains just how dire their situation is. Yet, Natsu stands tall and delivers an inspirational speech to the guild and how they mustn’t give up. The guild follows in Natsu’s footsteps, each declaring their own intent to fight the good fight.

The episode comes to a close as Makarov prepares to explain the story of the Fairy Heart to the guild, but is interrupted by the image of none other than the first master, Mavis Vermillion, who needs to share the story of her past with Zeref with everyone.

Our Take:

Fairy Tail keeps on bringing us “mixed bags” of episodes lately. It seems like there’s a lot one can really enjoy if they’re invested in these characters, since they’re still likable and sincere, but the weekly plot keeps falling short. Fairy Tail hasn’t delivered on a good battle or action sequence since this season started, which is really disappointing. It’s like for each time the story starts to get good, it ends up shooting itself in the foot for the sake of time and just moves on to the next thing. As a result, none of the major conflicts we’ve had so far have felt like they amounted to much. Things feel rather small, and in an epic adventure series that’s a pretty big problem.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still the charm and character the series to enjoy that has always served it so well. Once everyone reunited in Fairy Tail, Lucy becomes the emotional heart of the episode and expresses just how deeply she wants to enjoy the peaceful times with her friends, even if they’re fleeting. That sort of emotional characterization is a great way to endear us to the conflict, and make us worried for the future of our favorite characters. It’s a great setup that is followed by a moment of confident resolve from the guild, building up our hype further to see how they take on their greatest foes yet.

However, the sequence getting everyone to the Fairy Tail guild hall is a total mess. Ajeel is too underdeveloped to be really threatening, and the arrival of the B team is nothing more than a deus ex machina. They come completely out of nowhere, in a way that feels as if the writers just needed a way to get Makarov and the others to safety without too much fuss. Not to mention, the animation has been pretty lackluster when it comes to combat. There isn’t the same level of motion that anime like “One Piece” use to make the fights exciting, nor is there a distinctive visual style to make the fights exclusively Fairy Tail. There’s a weak sort of logic that dictates who wins the fight, but its hard to tell who’s strong and who’s weak because it always feels like victory comes arbitrarily. Ajeel is strong, but there’s nothing he does that makes him fearsome. Yet, for some reason, our cast is weaker than him even though we know the incredible feats of strength they’re capable of.

Fairy Tail is strong in emotion, but weak in tension. It’s got a lot of heart, but its not bringing the proverbial skills to pay the proverbial bills. I want the series to take itself more seriously and devote to more time to developing its conflicts out further, but I’m not sure this show is going to be able to break its current bad habits.