English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “Avatar”

Natsu: The Last Firebender

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Natsu and the gang are on the hunt to find Fairy Tail’s resident gloomy Gus, Juvia. They find her in a deserted village, naturally engrossed in a perpetual rain. Upon seeing her old friends, Juvia passes out, and the others take her inside to recover. When she awakes, Juvia shares her tale. She used to live in this village with Gray until one day Gray took off without warning after getting a strange black rash on his body. Hearing her sorrowful tale, Natsu and the others are uncertain what to do. But Natsu thinks its time to pay Sabertooth a visit. Meanwhile, the Avatar Black Magic Cult, dedicated to serving Zeref’s will, has a new member. It’s none other than Gray, who is under some kind of evil influence.

Natsu arrives at Sabertooth with Lucy, looking for information. They run into Sting, who’s exactly the same except for being morbidly obese. Natsu asks about Rogue’s whereabouts, and after learning that he’s about to leave the city, chases him down. Once he gets his arms around poor Rogue, the two have a secret chat, while Lucy and Minerva catch up. The two share a moment of bonding as Minerva apologizes for her violent behavior in the games last year.

Natsu grabs the flyer for the job Rogue was planning to go on to destroy Avatar. Remembering the warning about Gray killing Frosch from future Rogue, Natsu tells Rogue to stay here and protect Frosch while he runs off to deal with Avatar. Natsu explains what he’s learned to Lucy, and how Gray is most likely their enemy right now and has been possessed by some sort of demon.

Back at Avatar, the dark council of the cult believes there’s a spy in their midst. Naturally, they think Gray is the spy, but he confesses his dark intent to them, and how intent he is on killing E.N.D. The council is convinced. Things come to a close with Natsu discovering the Avatar hideout, along with Gajeel, who is now a member of the Custody Enforcement Unit, ready to arrest the entire cult.

Our Take:

Now, this is an episode head and shoulders above the somewhat dismal opening we’ve had to this season of Fairy Tail so far. While the last couple of episodes got stuck in the mud, feeling more like side fillers than anything too important, this episode finally gets into the meat of the story.

The immediacy of the doomed prophecy Natsu receives is brought front and center through the unfortunate possession of Gray Fullbuster, who looks to be the upcoming big bad of this arc. This is a great way to get things rolling because after Fairy Tail got broken up, there has been a lack of direction to bring everything together and keep the story focused. Furthermore, the cast of reuniting Fairy Tail members is growing bigger and bigger, which can only help the story. This is a show that has always been remembered for its extensive and energetic cast. Only having Natsu and Lucy to work with made the show feel like a puzzle that was missing a few pieces.

This episode really demonstrates how a shounen doesn’t necessarily need lots of fighting in an episode for it be interesting. We got a lot of really great moments here. I particularly enjoyed Lucy and Minerva’s small, but a meaningful moment, where after all the pain Fairy Tail has been through, they let old hatreds die. There’s a sadness to this story which begins with Juvia’s pain and follows the cast throughout the episode. That very real sadness of coping with the tragedies of the past while still striving for a brighter future brings a pathos to the story that grabs the viewer’s emotions and keeps them invested in what’s going on.

We’re well on our way to what appears to be an exciting and enthralling arc of Fairy Tail. Though I’ve never been much of a fan of the original series, (I was much too busy with One Piece to keep up with two insanely long shounen) I’m starting to realize why Fairy Tail has been able to have the following that it has. It’s simple, but it’s sincere, and I feel that’s captured splendidly here.