English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “Across 400 Years”

The E.N.D. has come.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Natsu has given all he has to defeat Zeref in an all-out attack so powerful it lights the ground itself on fire. Despite all that, however, Zeref is left standing. Still, Zeref is impressed with Natsu’s power, contemplating that if Natsu were to hit him with one more powerful attack, he would be done for. Before Natsu can do that, however, Zeref shares with him a shocking truth: Zeref is none other than Natsu’s older brother. More accurately, Natsu is a recreation of Zeref’s dead younger brother, an Etherious creation from the “Books of Zeref.” This makes Natsu’s real name “Etherious Natsu Dragneel”, or, “E.N.D.”

Natsu doesn’t buy it, unwilling to believe that he is a demon and the one to be responsible for the end of the world. To prove his point, Zeref shoots a hole in the back which causes Natsu to fall to his knees in pain. Zeref continues to explain how he asked Igneel to raise Natsu before traveling to the future to try and defeat Acnologia, and that he and the four other dragon slayers were also made during this time before being sent 400 years into the future as well.

Natsu flies into a rage and tries to kill Zeref, but Happy grabs him at the last moment, knowing that if Natsu kills Zeref he’ll die himself. Natsu protests, but there’s nothing he can say to stop his friend from saving his life. Disappointed, Zeref orders the attack on Fairy Tail to continue.  Meanwhile, at Hargeon, the Alvarez forces prepare to continue their assault while mages from Lamia Scale and Mermaid Hell set themselves up to stop their advance. They fight well, but members of the Spriggan 12 arrive and turn the tide against the Ishgar forces.

Meanwhile, the Wizard Saints face one of their own, Serena, who has turned traitor and stands to face his former comrades with Jacob Lessio and August the Wizard King by his side. Back at Fairy Tail, Marin has infiltrated Fairy Tail’s dungeon. Just as it seems he’s about to free Brandish, he starts to strangle her instead, taking his chance to end the woman who treats him like a slave.

Our Take:

What a twist! Fairy Tail, this week, takes a turn for the strange with a dramatic twist that completely changes the game completely. Whether or not the episode lives up to that change is a different matter, though. While the episode starts strong, it goes in all sorts of weird directions that leaves the plot feeling a bit scattered. Still, there were some strong emotional moments with Zeref, Happy and Natsu that helped make the episode feel more sincere, but it seems like this season has a serious problem with attention span.

I’m not a long-time viewer of Fairy Tail, so it’s not easy for me to tell just how good of a twist it is that Natsu is “E.N.D.”, but the important part, the emotional reaction of the characters, wasn’t bad. There was quite a bit of explanation that went on before we could really get to that impact, though, which makes me think that maybe this isn’t the kind of twist that would satisfy someone who’s been watching the show for a long time. A good twist is usually planned out far in advance with clues and teases placed along the way that makes the twist feel like it makes perfect sense. The presence of the E.N.D. book has been in the show for quite some time, though, so this might be something long in the making and not just something pulled out at the last minute for cheap.

Trouble is, though, too much of this episode is spent wandering around the battle of Ishgar without going into any real detail about what those fights entail. I like the idea of an epic overview of a battle, but the different locales with all the individual players involved feel isolated from one another without really contributing to the “war” as a whole. And since we don’t spend more than a couple minutes with each fight, its hard to get invested in the battles going on, especially when B-players like Lamia Scale and Mermaid Hell are involved. There just isn’t the kind of narrative flow needed to make a battle like this work. Instead of feeling like something out of Lord of the Rings, this war feels like a LARP happening at the playground.

The episode is enjoyable, but lacking in its more action-oriented parts. Those need a real upgrade to make this war feel like anything more than a backdrop for Natsu and Zeref to duke it out. Still, the emotion of the episode got to me a bit, with Happy especially being the MVP of the episode.