User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Episode 189: Gloria, Review/@comment-7418318-20140705133859

Nice review.

The Laxus vs. Jura fight started out quite well, but the end sucked.

I mean, why cut away to another location if all that'll happen later is that single finishing attack anyway? I got pumped for all the nice additions and then was left hanging in mid-air with a "was that all?" feeling. And it was slightly annoying that the second Raijinshu cheering scene was an exact copy/past of the first.

I'm also disappointed in Erza's final attack. I mean we didn't even see the actual attack. We got screen full of stars, then Erza swings her weapon and the next thing we see is Minerva after she was already hit by whatever Erza did. At least show Minerva disapparing in a blinding light for a moment and emerge hurt and beaten if you can't come up with a proper attack.

And they REALLY fucked up the preview again. It's bad enough that they showed F-Rogue's face, but I could live with that, but showing what will happen to F-Lucy? That's the worst spoiler in the history of anime previews.

I too liked the opening, but the ending... not so much. Especially that they already took "Upon Golden Plains" pretty much entirely away. It was such a surprising and heartwarming moment in the manga, but now that it's already shown so extensively in the closing, that moment is almost asuredly ruined in the anime. I'm sure even anime-only viewers can easily figue out what those scenes mean.

Depsite those grievances I still liked the episode overall, though I'd only give it a 7/10. For once they managed not to fuck up the pacing, except for the Laxus vs. Jura fight being broken up before the final attack.

I was also quite surprised by the heat distortions around Natsu's fire. While it wasn't particularly great, it's still a nice touch. I can't remember any other anime that even tried to draw heat-distortions over fire.