English Dub Review: Fairy Tail “Underground Clash”

Never underestimate the power of goat-based torture.

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Natsu and Lucy, along with Lucy’s summoned ally, Virgo, have infiltrated the underground base of the dark cult, Avatar. Once inside, they run into Abel, a weird child wielding the cursed doll that Grimoire Heart once had. It looks like our heroes are in for a tough fight, but Natsu knocks the boy wizard out with one fiery strike to the dome. Following this, a strange burly wizard obsessed with tea named Gomon attacks Natsu with a barrage of torture devices. Even though Gomon manages to trap Natsu inside an iron maiden, Natsu breaks out by melting the metal with his flames. This is followed by another newcomer, a robot named D-6, who gets his shit kicked in as well. With the lesser mages defeated, Gray is the last to arrive and try to stop Natsu’s advance.

The two go at it with the bitter intensity only two rivals can muster. Natsu tries to convince Gray to come back to Fairy Tail with him, but Gray, influenced by his demonic possession, denies his friendship with Natsu and Lucy. Lucy’s heart is broken at the sight of this, but just as she’s beginning to scold Gray, Lucy keels over in pain. The three of them are ambushed by the rest of the Avatar mages, along with one named Mary who is the source of Lucy’s pain. With Natsu and the others pinned by the mages of Avatar, things don’t look good for our heroes.

Meanwhile, Gajeel, Pantherlily, and the rest of the agents sent by the Mage Council affirm what they’ve come here to do, even if that means taking down Gray, their old friend. Back in the dungeon, Natsu, Lily, and Happy have been captured. While they’re behind bars, they learn about Avatar’s “Purification Plan” to revive Zeref by killing a large number of innocents from Gomon. After explaining their plan, Gomon is about to torture Lucy with a foot-licking goat when, out of nowhere, Gray freezes Gomon in place and saves Lucy. As it turns out, Gray was working undercover. He hands Natsu a magical phone connected to none other than Erza, who informs Natsu that he just blew Gray’s operation.

Our Take:

Once again, Fairy Tail keeps the magic coming, delivering on an exciting episode that’s sure to please most viewers. After a weak start on the first couple of episodes, this season has really started to pick up, exponentially increasing in quality as the cast of the original series starts to return little by little. While this isn’t the kind of major episode that will stay with a viewer and validate their viewing experience, it is a solid time overall that bridges things along quite nicely while the story of Fairy Tail continues to unfold.

Fans who have been awaiting the return of Gray and the other major members of Fairy Tail don’t need to wait for much longer, as with Gajeel and Erza added to the mix, things are feeling much more complete than they were before. With Gray, what originally seemed like a pretty convincing “fall from grace” story reveals itself to be a spicy little twist that I didn’t see coming. I was convinced that Gray and the mages of Avatar were going to be the big villains of this season, but the last minute reveals of Gray’s true intentions really spun that on its head. And yet, this twist doesn’t feel unearned or unsatisfying; it gives way only to excitement, the excitement of seeing what cloak-and-dagger operations Gray and Erza are up to.

The comedy here in Fairy Tail is as zany as ever, with the main comedic focus being Gomon, who’s obsessive tea puns are just that, obsessive. Strangely, though, his bit, while initially rather shallow, grows on you after a while, and I think it’s because of how thoroughly the episode commits Gomon’s character to this tea-related nonsense. It’s hit-and-miss comedy, but it doesn’t aggravate like other bad anime comedy so often does.

I think you’ll like this episode, and I think you’ll find a lot to like in the episodes to come as well. In a world where the big shounens right now consist of “One Piece”, “Dragon Ball Super” and, sadly, “Black Clover”, it good to see something a little bit different kept on the shounen scene. Fairy Tail, of course, has always been something of a lower tier show, since it came out around in the wake of “Bleach” and “Naruto”, which dominated the adventure anime scene, but its earnest commitment to telling its story is much appreciated in the current anime environment. Keep it up, Fairy Tail.