Template:RavenCoven/May 2015

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Hey guys. After 1 month of sickness, I'm back for another coven! We celebrate the end of Spring and the coming of Summer by analyzing....
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THE RAIN WOMAN!!! Because fuck the seasons and the weather, am I right?

Juvia's one of the main supporting female characters of the series, along with Mirajane or Cana, although her importance is more like Levy-level or Lisanna-level. But we'll talk about that later.

So Juvia's this series' yandere stalker-ish lovesick ex-villain girl turned good by a male main character.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/087f30354f1647f85049bb171e62cdc9/tumblr_ne41pv6X701rfduvxo1_500.gif

Oh, how original!

Her powers revolve around water which is cool(pun intended maybe), she has blue hair and an interesting sense of fashion. Alright, now that the summary is over, let's move to the interesting stuff!

DESIGN
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I'd say Mashima-sensei is at his most creative when it comes to Juvia's design. She is of medium build(certainly not over the breast area though), has black eyes(deep blue in anime) and blue hair. Over the series, she's had many hairstyles and attires, and we've had some pretty interesting combinations of those. She prefers cool colors, particularly blue, so that it matches with her powers (and initial personality). Overall I love how she looks and the color diversity she offers in the series, with Lucy's light colors and Natsu's warm colors, so I'd rate her appearance pretty high, if there was not THAT ONE CHANGE.

I'M TALKING ABOUT THE EYE CHANGE!

Juvia's eyes were unique. She was this slanted-eyed beauty, unique to the cast, and ended up with boring generic eyes like all the other girls in the series. Don't remember? Check for yourself!





I get it, she became good so some things had to change, but why would that involve her awesome eyes too? Does having round eyes make you more of a hero? I honestly don't know.

6/10 BRING BACK THE EYES

PERSONALITY

https://31.media.tumblr.com/665fd2b0ffebdfe51f71d07ec7fe7cef/tumblr_ni4cawgaxh1qazlk1o1_250.gif https://33.media.tumblr.com/0e1a1bc9a4a6e70a56266423c96f82cf/tumblr_ni4cawgaxh1qazlk1o4_250.gif Here lies what could have been for Juvia's personality

Juvia is a moving Japanese anime trope. She's a villain, then she meets a guy that she feels a connection to, she becomes good for said guy, is jealous of other females near him(occasionally going yandere), is obsessed with guy and whole personality=love for said guy. We've seen that many times in many animanga. There's nothing really standing out here.

But then I noticed it. Mashima uses Juvia to satirize and make fun of said trope. Characters like Hinata from Naruto are essentially the same as Juvia, only their obsession is seen as romantic and cute and true wuv as opposed to extreme and unhealthy, which is Juvia's case :P Though admittedly Juvia is more extreme, but it is a technique used by many, when you want to make fun of something, just push it to the extremes.

That's how it started out, anyway. Now Juvia's is seen as romantic as well, and this bugs me. I cheered when Gray rejected Juvia after the Grand Magic Games, telling her to back off, and thought that this would make her realize how possessive and clingy she can be, and act more normal. However, it only got worse and suddenly the feelings start to become mutual? WTF?

I get it, I get it. She has childhood trauma because no one wanted to approach her when she was a child and "Gray showed her the light". However, if you squint your eyes you'll notice that her character can be incosistent. After she joined, Gray never really gave a fuck for Juvia while others actively tried to approach her(i.e. Lucy) but she dissed them to go back to Gray stalking which realistically someone who was devoid of love all their life would never do. That only makes you look like an ungrateful jerk, not a complex character(which probably was not Mashima's intention anyway). However, I still appreciate all Juvia-related content because it's usually funny as hell(like, most recently, her considering Frosch a love rival).

That's why I love Juvia whenever she has nothing to do with Gray. In ToH, we saw a friendship beginning to develop between her and Lucy. In Fighting Festival arc, it was awesome seeing her sacrificing herself to save Cana. It may be one of my favorite FT moments ever. Then in the S-Class Trial, she formed bonds with Lisanna, Erza, and particularly Meredy. After the timeskip and a brief Juvia-Meredy moment though, Juvia 2.0, as she likes to call herself, has been all about Gray. Her dilemma in Tartarus arc was a bit compelling, but again it had to be about Gray, but the good thing is she actually fought a serious fight herself, something she last did before the timeskip.

She is still plenty of fun, bubbly, easygoing(when she's with Gray), but usually more of a caricature rather than a complex character.

Whenever she shows up with characters who are not Gray:

https://33.media.tumblr.com/dbf1c3e64af2069ff5994613348aa7b2/tumblr_nldcoklDai1tlcevno2_500.gif

Whenever she shows up with Gray:

https://38.media.tumblr.com/af3cc7d848df413ab9bfb917c9586bbd/tumblr_nolr6xhYpW1spakvwo1_500.gif

4/10 Good for laughs only

ABILITIES

Again, I have my issues here, and it's hard to do this section from the personality one, because her abilities stem from exactly that.

Juvia is a water woman, presumably being naturally born with Magic. Whenever she's sad, it rains around her, and the sadder she gets, the more it rains. However, it probably has to do with every negative emotion and not sadness only, because when she's mad:







...Of course, that happens like, once every 200 chapters or less. Usually, Juvia is a pushover in a fight, no matter how high the stakes are (as seen during early S-Class Trial, or the GMG or the Dragon invasion). She only gets mad and lets her true strength show when it is about Gray, as noted by Erza during her fight with Meredy. That makes both her character and her fights suffer greatly, and we get crap like this:



Her Magic is really fluid though(once again pun intended). Not only does she control the water at will, but she can also turn her body to water. She is practically invulnerable except from some rare cases, but when plot demands it, she suddenly forgets all about it. Finally, she can destroy things from the inside, like she did to Keith. How BADASS is this? That's why I'm mad that she rarely uses her awesome skills in a fight. She could be an awesome water warrior lady but is reduced to a joke instead.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/da4bb4cac29e9fbfa2a55bf41cb5f430/tumblr_n93x4gC4FB1rfduvxo1_500.gif

5/10 USE THIS WOMAN MORE

SIGNIFICANCE TO PLOT

Well...she is not a Dragon Slayer, has no known affiliation to Zeref or Acnologia, and is mainly involved in Gray's storyline. One could argue that she could be the driving force preventing Gray from going full Sasuke when he learns that Natsu is E.N.D.,but I don't really see her doing much other than that and other than being a regular Fairy Tail member.

2/10 Lol nope

ROLE IN THE MANGA

I've already said what I wanted to say more or less. She's this series' yandere stalker previously villain now in love with a main character girl. She offers a lot of humor, romance(for some) and fanservice to the plot, and sometimes she has her badass moments as well. She'll probably be used at one point to increase Gray's angst. Maybe she is hurt by E.N.D. or Acno or Zeref for that. Anyway, her role is pretty important, but not anything Lucy or other females couldn't provide, I think. However, the unique humor she brings to the table definitely makes her a pretty likeable and interesting character for me.

6/10 Not much of a role, but I guess she's good?

Overall, Juvia's score as a character is... 4.6/10...   making her the all-time lowest rated character so far. Wow, that's even lower than Santa! I'm sorry to all you Juvia fans' disappointment. Of course, that's my own very personal evaluation. Let's see what the rest of the staff has to say about her:

Unless your name starts with "Gray" and ends with "sama" I can't see it happening ;D

Y'all bitches need to learn what 3 words means.

Clothes? :P

It's sad because it's true.

Touche

Huh ( ._.) You're her biggest fan, try to get more creative!

Well, that's it for this month's coven! Also, Happy Birthday to Hiro Mashima-sensei! Let's all wish him health, happiness and more Juvia in his next chapters(Minerva too, pretty please!). Now, as usual, you guys vote on the character you want to see in the next coven. See you next issue! Who should be in June's coven? Gray Fullbuster! Happy! Sting Eucliffe! Carla!