English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “The Winter Wizard”

Ice against ice, can’t we just play nice?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Gildarts, the legendary mage of Fairy Tail, has shown up to aid his comrades in their war against Alvarez. His presence rallies the mages of Fairy Tail and breathes new life into their efforts. Opposed to Gildarts is God Serena, the powerful mage who can use a multitude of Dragon Slayer abilities but was cut down before he could face Fairy Tail proper. However, his historia is just as strong as he was, making him an adequate match for Gildarts.

Their fight begins while the other members of the Spriggan 12 make their moves on the Fairy Tail mages. Ajeel uses a sandstorm to enshroud the battlefield, but Elfman rushes in to stop him. He nearly gets sucked into the ground by a sandtrap, but Lisanna saves him. Mirajane goes up against Jacob Lessio, while Bloodman and Wall charge into the fray. Rogue and Minerva show up to fight as well, even though Sting is auspiciously missing. The Fairy Tail forces clash with the combined power of Alvarez, but Gildarts is able to strike a powerful blow by knocking out God Serena. Following his lead, Fairy Tail’s mages rush in after him at full speed.

Meanwhile, Irene has Mavis captured and is trying to separate her from the Fairy Heart’s power. She receives word from Neinhart that Erza is alive, though her affiliation with Erza is left something of a mystery. Neinhart complains to Irene that his historias are getting defeated, but she tells him to go fight Fairy Tail himself.

Back on the battlefield, the fight continues in Fairy Tail’s favor, but strange ice overcomes the landscape and freezes everyone except Gray into frozen statues. Invel, Alvarez’s right hand, reveals himself and begins to fight with Gray, though his wintery power is far stronger than Gray’s ability to manipulate ice. Gray has a surprise, however. He taps into his Ice Devil ability to deal a powerful slashing blow to Invel, but his attack is ineffective the second time. Invel responds by summoning an enormous blizzard to the battlefield which freezes most everything in sight. Invel then offers Gray a deal to come to join up with Alvarez, but just then Natsu sets him and his allies free with his fire magic.

Lucy and the others offer to help Gray, but Brandish emerges from the blizzard and takes Lucy and Natsu in hand, leaving Gray and Juvia to deal with Invel. Invel then locks an ice collar around Juvia and Gray which controls their minds and makes them his puppets. He then orders Juvia and Gray to fight to the death.

Our Take:

Fairy Tail just doesn’t know how to shoot straight in keeping a large-scale battle going. Each episode offers different hooks and ideas to start an exciting battle but then tosses them away in favor of moving on with the plot. A steady pace is one thing, but if the show isn’t going to bother with following through on its setups and character conflicts, then what’s the point? This “war” they’re fighting, as always, has no consistency to it. Characters come and go as they please without any real winners or losers in any of their one on one battles. As soon as the story wants to move on, we just forget about what happened and move on to the next setpiece. No time for fun, this show just wants to get on with the story as quick as humanly possible.

There is no better example of this failing than in the return of Gildarts. Gildarts is a fan favorite who’s exciting to see if only because he’s both extraordinarily strong and quite elusive. He’s a wanderer, so when he shows up it’s supposed to be a big deal; it elevates the conflict to a higher level. However, in this episode, Gildarts is gone as soon as he shows up when a better show could have at least a few episodes of fighting between him and a worthy opponent. This would be a great time to orchestrate an epic battle, something that defines this stage of the war and would be extraordinarily memorable to the viewer. The best shounens are the ones that can capture these powerful moments after weeks of episode buildup, but Fairy Tail doesn’t even bother to swing at these fastballs, it just lets the pitch fly by.

The rest of the episode is watchable but not that compelling. I like Invel as a villain, and his Ice Lock magic that he uses to force Juvia and Gray to fight each other makes for some compelling storytelling, but something tells me that fight will be over with pretty soon. Wide as an ocean, but deep as a puddle. Don’t expect anything more from this plot other than some cheap twists to keep things interesting. At this rate, I think we’re going to reach the end of Fairy Tail without a single exciting moment in this war, and that is extremely disappointing.