User blog:Derax-Pagani/Fairy Tail Anime Review: Episode 269 Dances with Blades

S'up all, so Misky's busy with University work, and Wrath's doing... whatever it is Wrath does when not wiki'ing. So, you poor buggers get to deal with my review of the new episode. Until N decides to do a review himself Without further ado, let's get on with it:

To start the episode off we get a bit of filler regarding Warrod's aptitude, and Yuri's ineptitude with tying knots and how Mavis doesn't know a damn thing about ships. When last episode she was constantly pestering Yuri to change the angle of the sails because of what she'd read about ships on Tenrou Island... Hooray for consistency ( ._.)

Opening credits, good shit, good shit. Then Mavis goes investigating every last damn thing the port area has to offer. Have to say though, I like the subtle hints about Zera's true nature. Without wishing to spoil it for anime only viewers, that's all I'll say on that matter, but it was cool how they kinda had Zera avoiding social interaction.

Just gonna glaze over the bit that followed straight after and get to my main criticism of this episode, and that is; all the filler with regards to Precht, and the so called "bar fight". Ever since the new studio has been making episodes, they've been putting needless filler in, and Precht's social awkwardness was just that; awkward. The thing with the tree was just baffling, and I suspect unless you understand interactions between plants and insects when one is rotting, it makes no sense until much later. By which point you're still trying to get your head around it and miss the bits in between it happening and the actual explanation. So in my view that was poorly done. All the unimportant characters that Precht, want for a better word, interviewed, were so horrendously animated. Honestly I suspect my best friend, who's doing a media degree that's geared up to music production, could have done a better job.

Eventually we get given a cock and bull explanation that leads to Precht and Mavis going to the dodgy bar in the arse end of town. Again, poorly animated/drawn characters doing not much except chatting shit. Precht doing the generic question asking and Mavis being the brains of the operation by noticing the bar owners slip of the tongue. Aaaaaaaand then we get to my second critique; the fight.

The main criticism that pretty much everyone used to have with the old animation studio was that the fights were full of still shots and not much in the way of actual movement of the characters. This is now becoming a common trend with the current animation studio though too. Not even that, we're supposed to be in awe of Precht's capability with his chain blade. I can't be in awe of something that's supposed to be fluid when it's totally rigid and as flexible as a cinder block.

Moving on, animation studio derps and shows the barman's Blue Skull tattoo before he's even meant to show it off. Great quality control there guys, well done, enviable even. And we also get the cliche bad guy is too dumb to do a quality control of his own, and wasn't it just pretty bloody convenient that the trap he'd set just happened to be where Precht and Mavis were stood at that point? Anyway, we may as well move to the thing I found great about this ep: That one image. That's kinda underwhelming to be honest... Not the actual image itself, but the fact it was the only decent shot. Oh well, and go on and ridicule the horrendous abomination that was the Zeref look-a-like but I suspect everyone's had enough of me slagging off the episode. Anyway, feel free to leave a comment about the episode, be it generic, supporting or antagonising.