English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “Hearts Connected”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Picking up where the show left off last week, we open with Acnologia’s physical form fast approaching the port of Hageon, where all the ships have just been destroyed. Luckily, Gray uses Maker Magic to quickly replace them with his own new ship made from ice. As Acnologia’s physical form descends upon the town, his spiritual form is still battling Natsu and the other Dragon Slayers in the time rift. They aren’t getting anywhere, so they all send their power to Natsu and pin their hopes on him. Likewise, in Hageon, they manage to get the dragon on the boat, but their power isn’t magical enough until they harness the shared magic of everyone in Ishgar. The episode ends with the dragon trapped – for now.

Our Take:

Hearts Connected did not connect to my heart, I’ll tell you that straight off. While there have been many episodes where the pace lagged or the exposition was too heavy in the past, there has not been an episode that I can remember than has just been as plain boring as this one. Almost nothing interesting happens. Basically, the episode spends 1/3 of the time recapping what we already know, then 1/3 new stuff, and then the final 1/3 recapping the new stuff. It feels like this episode could’ve been compressed into five minutes of the actual content that would have replaced the last five minutes of the previous episode nicely. I know, so-called ‘filler’ episodes are necessary, but this isn’t even a filler episode. It’s as if they took a few minutes of action and then built an entire episode around those sparse key scenes.

One new thing we do get is a bit of insight into Acnologia’s past. Back when dragons and humans lived in harmony, there was a major event that caused the dragons to start attacking and torching the humans’ world. In fact, they straight up burn everything: buildings, crops, and people. The Acnologia we know today used to be a doctor who healed dragons. But after seeing all this carnage, something switched in his head and he now harbors an intense hatred for the entire species. It’s a bit under-explained and glossed over, at least for me. We don’t know anything about what he lost in the destruction, or what he was like before, really. All we know is BOOM dragons destroyed stuff and suddenly he dedicates his entire life to slaying them all because he hates them. (Sounds a lot like how Erin started off in Attack on Titan now that I write it, although he becomes a much more rounded character as that show goes on.)

One of my big problems with the episode itself was how much-repeated dialogue there was. Repeated isn’t exactly the right word; let me explain. One character will say something, and then it will cut to seven or eight other characters who each say another variation of that same thing. It’s starting to happen more now that everyone is congregated in a few places to fight Acnologia, and it’s only getting more annoying the more they do it. Like, when the boats get destroyed by Acnologia, one guy will be like, ‘oh no, the boats!’ then another guy will say ‘they’re all gone!’ then another guy will say ‘how can this be?’ and one final guy will get his two cents in with ‘this is impossible!’. Exhausting to read and watch. It makes the sequence so bland and predictable, too.

The dub this week was okay for the most part, although the stuff in the paragraph above bugged me. That’s less of a reflection on the dub, though, and more on the original dialogue, I believe. For the dub itself, a few of the dragon’s voices sounded really awkward, like skinny dudes pretending to be mighty dragons. Which, granted, is what they are, but still, a good dub should fully immerse you. “What did we do to anger the dragons this much?” I don’t know, either, Doc. And the show doesn’t show us. “I have the ability to stop their bleeding, but now above all else, what I want is the power to make them bleed.” Yikes, Doc. “As long as you’re alive, there’ll still be one dragon left.” Natsu’s line confused me. So the Doctor was human, but then the dragon slayer magic made him into a dragon, too?

This episode was just bad. And it’d be one thing if there were plot developments I disagreed with or a new character I found too annoying. But no, it’s just that nothing. Even. Happens. It’s hard to get engaged with a show when the show is clearly bored itself. Here’s hoping that Fairy Tail can tell a better tale next week.