User blog:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Episode 168: Laxus vs. Alexei, Review

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Well, I've been up for about 30 hours now so straight to the point. Summary/Commentary And finally, with Pandemonium over, we enter the battle part of the third day. The first match is between Millianna and Semmes. Surprisingly enough, this battle was extended. And it wasn't bad. Semmes attacks with his Wild Spin, using his giant body and arms (or is it just his costume..?) to his advantage. Despite initial struggle, Millianna manages to bound her enemy, winning the match.

Next, we have Rufus against Eve. And again, to our surprise well not really anymore, the battle gets extended. Eve employs his snow magic to attack, though Rufus manipulates the memories to defend himself and... and... materializes Eve's memory of Ichiya in bath. Yep. ... Let's just move along, Eve attempts to attack but Rufus just owns him with Karma of the Burning Fields. Meanwhile, the Bunny seems to be a secret weapon of Blue Pegasus.

So finally, we get to what is supposed to be the main thing of this episode according to its title. Laxus is called to face Alexei of Team Raven Tail. The rest of the Fairy Tail turns this series into a detective story. And Mavis seems to enjoy detective stories. ;P Meanwhile, Bickslow still ships Evergreen x Elfman. Anyway, the match starts (about damn time). Surprisingly, Laxus takes a hit from Alexei and everyone goes /omgwtfaweseomLaxuswasattacked. This is the time when you wish this series didn't have so many characters.. Everyone's O_O faces took some time to be showed. As Laxus is getting beaten, it is revealed that this is actually an Alexei's illusion. Apparently, he can manipuate it to his liking, as the illusion of Laxus starts to fight back, but to no avail. Anyway, Alexei is revealed to be Ivan, not like the opening didn't spoil this already..., and wishes to know the location of Lumen Histoire. Whole Team Raven Tail stands before Laxus as he prepares for the battle. Final Verdict Well, color me surprised. First of all, the animation has REALLY improved. I did notice several weird things and what not, but other than that, the things were really nicely drawn and animated. I hope it's not just because of my lack of sleep..

Furthermore, the extension. When I saw Mega editing the episode's page with just one chapter being adapted, I was thinking, oh god, that doesn't look good. More recaps..? However, I was proved wrong. The expansions of all three fights were nicely done. The music was awesome. I expected something else when it came to Karma of the Burning Fields. Nonetheless, I was watching with open mouth I wasn't yawning as Rufus released magma stuff from underground, with everything else turning red.

I'm still wondering what they're planning to do. While this took only one chapter, they're still progressing with quite the speed. Almost at the end of the third day... Will the anime able to catch up with manga no sooner than the GMG arc is finished in manga? And what then? Fillers? Pause? I'm really curious. 9/10.    Random Stuff
 * So Semmes is basically a reversed Chouji?
 * The animators seem to really like Rufus. All his techniques have been done quite well so far. Too bad the same can't be said abour Orga...
 * Nice portable TV, Ultear.
 * So uh.. how is it that Eve, who was seemingly hit by a few hot rocks has been shown to be injured more than Erza who was being thrown around by 100 monsters?
 * Epic Laxus, incoming.

So share your opinion! Thank you.