English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “Gray and Juvia”

You’re as cold as ice! You’re willing to sacrifice our love!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Invel tells the chained Gray and Juvia (wow, like the title!) that they will be forced to fight each other until one of them dies. Gray is hesitant and Juvia is resistant, but Invel’s plan is more sinister: force Gray to kill one of his friends and it should unlock the inner demon inside of him, which should be powerful enough to kill E.N.D.

Juvia can’t bear to harm her beloved and plans to kill herself to avoid causing Gray further pain, but doesn’t expect Gray to do the same thing. Invel’s plan is thwarted, meaning he’ll have to finish E.N.D. himself, but the Ice Lock is undone. Though surprisingly, Gray awakens and realizes that Juvia has been transfusing her blood into him so that he will survive. Gray sheds tears over his fallen friend, remembering multiple key moments in their relationship as comrades (including some that don’t really add anything to what’s going on and are clearly just to fill time).

He promises to take her feelings more seriously if she survives and then goes to fight Invel. This catches him by surprise, but he then uses Absolute Ice Shroud to deal with Gray, as it freezes anything it touches to its core. Gray breaks through it nonetheless and defeats Invel in Juvia’s name. In his injured state, he reveals that E.N.D. is actually Natsu, meaning Gray will have to fight him in the end. And it looks like Juvia didn’t die after all, since Wendy came along and healed her!

Meanwhile, Brandish drops Lucy, Natsu, and Happy and shrinks to regular size. She plans to help kill all of Fairy Tail and its allies, but wants to protect the three of them as fighting her allies looks all but pointless. As they talk, Neinhart arrives to kill them with an extra boost, but Natsu still knocks him out with a flaming fist. On the battlefield, Lisanna, Mirajane, Elfman, Erza and the rest fight off the Spriggan Twelve and their forces.

OUR TAKE

Well, that was sure a COOL episode, huh?

…okay, before you click away in disgust, let me tell you what I thought of the episode. I haven’t caught up with Fairy Tail in a long time, so naturally there was a lot of summary to take in before I could understand what was going on here. But of the stuff I DID watch, I am quite familiar with Gray, Juvia, and their…relationship? Interesting that, if the flashbacks this episode are anything to go by, that it doesn’t seem to have changed all that much. Then again, I’ve never been much of a fan of how this story treats its romantic development. Natsu and Lucy seem alright, Erza and Jellal have a cute history and tragedy to theirs, but then there’s Gajeel and Levy who are kind of messed up in how they met compared to how they end up.

Gray and Juvia is kind of a mix. It always sort of bugged me that Juvia was SO OVER THE TOP WITH HER AFFECTIONS which were almost always met with Gray ignoring or rejecting them, which doesn’t seem like a healthy progression of a romantic relationship to me. Still, they have fought by each others’ side all this time, so it’s not like it’s coming from nowhere. As for how it’s utilized in this episode, I don’t really think it felt like a situation that was best for highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in their bond, as that scenario of being forced to fight a loved one but killing yourself could have probably been applied to every other couple in this show and felt just as fitting. And a bit more disappointing is that neither of them died, so it feels almost pointless. Then again, I shouldn’t really be surprised at this point, considering Fairy Tail has pulled this fake-out death crap since the beginning. Old habits die hard, even if none of the main characters will.

But that’s one more enemy down at least, along with Gray’s revelation that he will have to kill Natsu when this is all over in order to end the conflict once and for all. Certainly a moral conundrum that I see ending pretty much the exact same way as this episode did. Also Brandish is hot as hell and I want her to step on me. Don’t judge me, you’d want that too and you know it.