English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “For Whom the Parfum Flows”

Parfum is power.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Ajeel has been defeated, but the battle for Magnolia is far from over. Cana and Lucy still have Brandish to fight, but Cana makes that a non-problem by sucker punching Brandish when she’s distracted by the pollinated air of Magnolia. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Gray and his squad face off against Wall, who can use his Weakness magic to generate soldiers that take advantage of their opponent’s weaknesses. His soldiers are more than a match for Gray’s squadron, and Wall flies away to go deal with Fried.

Upon his arrival to the cathedral Fried is holed up in, Wall proceeds to wreak havoc on the mages stationed there. Though they try to fight back against Wall, he reveals that he is a Machias, a mechanical being that can use magic. His fight against Fried and friends is interrupted by Ichiya, who is so deeply flawed that Wall is unable to come up with an appropriate countermeasure against the Blue Pegasus guild leader. However, Wall uses his brute force to beat the crap out of Ichiya. Ichiya counters with lightning parfum, thinking that it will be powerful against a machine, however Wall reveals that he can sbord electricity and use it to deliver more powerful attacks.

Laxus communicates through telepathy to Fried and says that he’ll head over to help them, but Fried insists that Laxus stay behind so they can protect the guild. At the same time, Gray uses the telepathy link to explain to Fried and the others that they just need to switch up who is fighting which weakness robot so they can take advantage of those robot’s weaknesses in turn. Natsu then explains that the air forces are defeated, so Fried doesn’t need to keep up the shield anymore. Once that’s done, the four of them turn the tables immediately and rout Wall and his soldiers with ease.

Ichiya starts ranting about how the Fairy Tail mages have been making use of his ships and equipment, but then the removed head of Wall begins to laugh and delivers a massive explosion. However, the Thunder Legion mages protect Ichiya with their bodies, sacrificing themselves for their former guild member.

Meanwhile, in far off waters, the body of the real Wall stands on a ship with Dimaria, another member of the Spriggan 12. Laughing, he fires an enormous energy beam across the ocean towards the Fairy Tail guild hall. It looks dire, but Ichiya flies the Christina in front of the blast to block the blow, delivering a rallying cry to the mages of Fiore to help defend Magnolia.

Our Take:

Oh, Fairy Tail, what are we to do with you? While you’ve never been a shounen of the same caliber of the Big Three, you’ve always had a unique offering of quirky characters and magical battles that has managed to create a fun, if not a bit shallow, action adventure series. Yet, here we are, witnessing the final season of this series, and I can’t help but feel that it would be better if Fairy Tail had simply ended, so we wouldn’t have to endure this embarrassingly bad arc.

I can’t just chock it up to growing pains anymore, when the chips are down, Fairy Tail is simply incapable of telling a good story in its twilight episodes. It’s not as if some of the elements at play are not interesting or heartfelt, but their execution is sorely lacking. I like the idea of Ichiya finding a stronger connection to the mages of Fairy Tail and the noble sacrifice of the Thunder Legion to that effect, however, that moment is about as rushed as you could possibly make it. There’s so much that’s just awkward and weird about how all of it plays out. Whether it’s the sheer absurdity of how quickly the Thunder Legion is able to defeat Wall once they figure out his obvious weakness, or Ichiya somehow bringing in the Christina at the last moment without being on the ship itself, there are countless bizarre moments that break the rules of reality or just make you scratch your head and squint your eyes in confused boredom.

Not to mention, the animation problems are especially apparent in these action sequences that are only going to become even more important as this arc continues. More and more, these fights are becoming less animation and more slideshows, as it seems the show doesn’t even have the budget for the most basic of special attacks to be given motion. If the show isn’t even animated, then how can I be expected to take these moments of tension seriously.

There’s so much wrong here, it’s sad. I’ve never been a huge fan of this show, but I always was able to enjoy it for its fun characters and its commitment to heart. But that enjoyment is quickly evaporating when every episode feels like a slog of missed moments and awkward interactions. At this point, I simply don’t care.