English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “Dark Future”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As Dark Future begins, Gray is about to take on Zeref. Since he can’t kill him, Gray decides that his only choice is to use an Iced Shell spell and seal him in an icy prison for all eternity. The only problem is that this magic is fatal to the user. While Gray is resigned to his fate, Natsu won’t accept it, and refuses to surrender while there’s still fight left in him. Before the fight can escalate, everyone senses a great power descending from the skies. It’s Acnologia, and he’s come to destroy everything they hold dear.

Our Take:

This episode of Fairy Tail was a bit of an improvement over last week’s episode in my mind, but it still wasn’t that entertaining. The beginning of the episode when Gray was battling Zeref was probably the closest it came to being interesting, but it stopped before it could really delve into anything too weighty. Natsu’s fight with Zeref was fine, too, but it was also interrupted by Acnologia’s descent. Basically, it felt like the episode sort of sabotaged itself, and I didn’t like the conclusion of Zeref, Natsu, and Gray’s fight.

One of the things I would’ve liked to see when it came to Gray’s battle against Zeref was his thinking behind choosing to use the Iced Shell magic. Obviously, he’s aware of the consequences for himself; he even seems to welcome them. But I have no idea why he feels this way. Even if this way of thinking has been explored in a previous episode I missed, I think a little more hint of the emotions behind Gray’s actions could’ve gone a long way to making this fight feel more passionate.

When Natsu showed up, things took a turn for the humorous. Natsu is such an over the top guy that his dialogue and raw emotions felt like they leaned almost into parody than a feeling. When he was talking to Gray, wondering if they were friends, I almost lost it when the camera cut away to Zeref, just watching them, looking bored as all get out. The animation looked a bit strange during the fight scene, too, with it looking like Zeref and his opponent were rubbing their wrists together instead of actually struggling to overpower one another.

Acnologia showing up in the latter part just felt odd. He’s hyped up to be so powerful, and then just walks past Erza and Wendy without giving them a second look? He almost seemed oblivious, like a clueless passerby. But then his startling stomping of Irene definitely made me believe in his menace. I’m curious to see how the guild of Fairy Tail can take him on next week.

The dub this week had a few memorable lines, like Gray’s sweet defense of Natsu: “I don’t give a damn what he is, ’cause Natsu’s a true friend.” I thought Zeref’s retort to Natsu’s passionate style was funny: “You’re going to burn fate? Obviously you don’t understand how the world truly works.” Finally, Cana seems to have the right idea here: “All we really want is to live in peace! To spend time with our friends!” Maybe everyone in the show should take a chill pill and work out their issues calmly.

Overall, Dark Future was an alright episode of Fairy Tail that had a few cool moments in it, like Gray’s near-sacrifice and a fight scene with Zeref. But from the time Natsu showed up to Acnologia’s landing, things felt a little flat to me. I guess in a show like this, nothing much happens except for fighting, waiting to fight, and talking about fighting. Maybe it’ll be kind of cool to see how powerful Acnologia is next week? Shrug.