Template:TMITM/April 2016

 



Alright so let's break this down. The first thing I wanted to talk about is Brandish's statement on August. "August is the month of fear". The big question I am left with after reading this is what came first, August the man or August the month of fear. To put it more simply, was August named August because of how frightening he is or was August so powerful and frightening that they declared the month of his namesake to be the month of fear? I think its more interesting if it is the latter but Mashima didnt really specify. But here is my problem now. August continues to be hyped up to insane levels but so far, at least to me, all of the spriggans were a major disappointment aside from Ajeel and maybe Brandish. They were all said to be stronger than any member of FT but they all got their asses handed to them by single people. I greatly fear August is going to be taken down in one hit from Gildarts just like all the others, but we will have to see how it goes.

So next up is Cana and Mavis and I have to say I really enjoyed this scene. Cana's reaction is what it should be. The guild has formed an attachment to Mavis. She is their friend and now she is asking Cana to kill her in a chance that her actual body will be fine. Cana's refusal is the reaction that I would expect of anyone in this situation and it was matched by Mavis' determination. I am truly wondering what Mavis' plan is but knowing Mashima, it will be 100 chapters before we even get a hint.

Moving on, we have the scene in the north. I LOVED this scene. Just the artwork and the imagery of everyone on crosses after being defeated by Bradman. Even Minerva, the strongest person there was taken out. But this again presents the problem of an impossibly strong opponent who will more than likely be taken out in one hit. I am not even joking at this point. The fights are all being reduced to a simple formula now. Good guy fights bad guy for a few pages, good guy counters bad guys move, bad guy powers up, good guy gets deus ex machina power up to beat the bad guy in one hit. Mashima cares much more for advancing the story at this point than creating good, well thought out fights. He doesn't seem to care about the bullshit anymore.

Anyway, final part of the chapter now. I liked the Mashima troll here. Everyone thought Simon would be Neinheart and for an instant we were led to believe it was true. But of course, the real Neinhart was far more disappointing. His silhouette made him look like an android or something but instead we get Freed in rose covered armor. Such a let down. Thats all I have for this chapter. Lets move on.



Ok so the first thing I want to talk about here is Kagura and her reaction to seeing Simon. I see a lot of people complaining that she needs to just get over it already and stop hating Jellal and bla bla bla. Here's the thing though. Her brother was killed by a man she is now having to work with. While she is on her way to moving on now, she finds her brother standing right before her, and now the same man that supposedly killed her brother is now stopping her from running to what she believes is her resurrected brother. How the hell would you react in that situation? Any normal person would act as Kagura did, get angry with Jellal. Its not a lack of character development, this is the reaction that should be expected.

Now we get to see what exactly Neinhart's magic does and its amusing that Erza is already in flame pants as Neinhart summons the three opponents she used them against. However, I don't like the choice of Azuma here. I guess thats the only other opponent Erza fought that has died but Azuma wasn't a significant battle for Erza. Ikaruga was the first opponent that ever pushed her to such limits that she needed to use the flame pants. She couldn't win with her requipping against Ikaruga and needed to focus all of her power on offense. Kyoka was the most dangerous opponent she ever faced. If Kyouka didnt enjoy torturing her so much, she could have killed Erza easy. Azuma was just.... an opponent. I don't think he should be here but someone can correct me if they feel their fight had great importance to Erza.

I also didn't like the fight spreading to the rest of the area. There is no reason to include all the others in this fight. Let Erza conquer her demons. Overall, this chapter was a bit of a let down to me. I felt so much of it was unnecessary. But it was all made up for with the end because Jegura is the best couple ever.



So this was basically a nothing chapter. Im not going to waste much time on it but I had wanted character development from everyone fighting their Historias but it seems we aren't going to get that. The chapter was basically Erza gets her ass handed to her by Kyouka again and then epic stare and they are gone. I guess thats somewhat what I expected but it still feels underwhelming. Erza being stripped again is always nice but again, lack of content to this chapter. The only interesting thing to me here is Jellal getting angry they touched one of his women. Harem master getting angry. I don't really care about whoever this Irene person is though. Im sure its Erza's mom which will just be cliche.



Okay so here we get everyone beating their Historia's with each getting next to no character development from it. What is the point of bringing back everyone's greatest foes if they don't learn and grow from it? I am not sure what Mashima was trying to accomplish here. It seems only Gray got any kind of development and it was very very minor. Pretty disappointing and to top it off, Neinhart got one shot.... I guess I should have expected that. But really, why are all the spriggans so weak? I don't get it. The only good thing to come out of here is Kagura striking down Simon. She is finally getting some good character development and Im happy.

Then we get to meet Irene, who is said to be on August's level. She looks a bit like Erza so they are probably related. Honestly, I just don't care. This arc is pretty ruined for me. At this point Im almost positive Gildarts will return to one shot August. Pretty dumb.

THats it for this month peeps. I know you are all jumping out of your seats to comment now.