Template:TMITA/September 2015

 



So with Lucy still reeling over Aquarius disappearing from her life forever and Jackal being subjected to terrible filler torment, the CSK vs. Mard Geer begins, and oh my money, it was glorious. They fight tooth and nail in a beautifully animated sequence. We also get allusions to the Eclipse Spirit arc, which I honestly figured they would do. The only real purpose it served in the long term was to elongate this episode by a few minutes with references, but whatever. As Mard Geer tells the CSK that he has a major flaw, Lucy is attacked by Jackal, but is protected by Aquarius' water in the form of Water Barrier. She then changes clothes, again, and manages to with some increased Magic Power, cast Urano Metria and defeat Jackal in one fell swoop. With that, Jackal is apparently dead/not dead/no one really knows, and the CSK's fight with Mard Geer comes to a close, as the CSK is losing power due to Lucy collapsing. With one last burst of energy, he tricks Mard Geer with his casting of Galaxia Blade, which dispels Alegria and petrifies Mard Geer. With Alegria dispelled, Erza and Minerva can continue their battle, which apparently brings her ridiculously close to climax, and at the same time, Torafuzar finds Lucy on the ground and prepares to kill her, but she is saved by Gajeel. Keyes then attacks Gajeel, but Juvia arrives to save him, and then Silver tries to freeze her, but Gray cancels his ice out, and then when Tempester arrives and tries to fry everyone with fire breath, Natsu shows up, I'm guessing from some time-space warp because everyone is showing up at the same time, and eats the fire. There is then an epic stare-down between four of the strongest and arguably coolest Fairy Tail mages vs. the more lackluster members of the Nine Demon Gates!

That week's score: 8/10. Wonderful animation, good adaptation of a very hyped part of the arc.



This episode picks right up where the last one left off, where Gray apparently recognizes Silver, and Natsu tells him that Silver was the one who froze the Sun Village. Gajeel then mentions that Silver and Gray smell very similar to one another, which prompts Silver to grab Gray and warp him somewhere. The mages and the devils then begin their little bout, which showcases, at least temporarily, how superior the abilities of the Nine Demon Gates are.

Enter filler galore, as Panther Lily's adventure through the rekt Cube is expanded (he finds some iron balls, which are important later; excellent foreshadowing from the anime team), until he finds Happy with a...mushroom on his head. Cue drop-dead hilarious scenes of Pantherlily trying to remove the mushroom from Happy's head, until it is revealed to be Franmalth, who survived Hell's Core's explosion and used his Curse to keep himself alive by merging with Happy. At the same time, Makarov makes his way to the guild's basement, remembering Hades' words about "releasing the light". After this, we get Wendy waking up and having a heartfelt moment with Carla, where she also learns that Doranbolt saved them both, but he adds that their fight isn't over. The girls fly into the air and spot numerous Face bombs, which Doranbolt remarks numbers over 2,000, all as Mard Geer breaks free from his petrification. Wendy then cuts her hair short, cuz asymmetry. Minor spoiler-not spoiler, this means nothing later on. >_>

Cut to Erza vs. Minerva, where Minerva is seemingly overwhelming Erza by tactically using her magic the way it should've been used, but this is not enough, as Titania just dodges all of her attacks and punches her in the mouth. Love how Minerva's power boost is apparently not enough, but at least it is justified, as the anime adds filler to Minerva's past, better expanding on her abuse at the hands of her father and giving us a better grasp of her giant inferiority complex and inability to properly combat Erza. She gets punched again and is told that her fist is crying from this battle...

...

https://41.media.tumblr.com/08f0f057c1b5d205b8d7c9cc9c65a947/tumblr_mwr4780PIl1r1gyewo1_540.jpg

...anyway, Minerva begs Erza to kill her because she just doesn't want to live anymore, but Erza refuses, citing that Minerva has people that still care for her. At that moment, Mard Geer the Pimp arrives and tries to kill Minerva, but in the knick of time, she is saved...by Sting and Rogue, who have arrived to bring Minerva back to Saber! You guys have new outfits and Rogue, you look especially fine, desu~ http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu307/lanejae89/onion-chan/ycs058.gif But, Minerva remembers Erza's just prior words about having people that care for her and begins to cry.

This episode was better than its manga counterpart chapter(s). Despite Erza's flame pants-reking, people-giving corny speeches shit starting to become completely commonplace, 20 page limits seemed to be the death of Mashima. Good thing the anime carried him, otherwise this episode would've been absolutely terrible. The rest of this arc is amazing, except for one, arguably two parts to come, so enjoy this while you can. '-'

Score: 7.5/10 (It was 6.5, but Rogue gave it a +1 ;o)



This episode was flat out, all-around gud. To start, we get a little bit of a filler expansion on why Sting and Rogue were late: Erza's handwriting is money awful; and the Exceeds just freaking slam dunk her (this was canon), but x10 (the extra dunking was the filler :'D). Anyway, expanding on Wendy and Pedobolt's discovery last episode, the Twin Dragons reveal that they passed a literal fuck ton of Faces on the way to Magnolia, and Mard Geer reveals that the devices all number over 3,000 as opposed to 2,000 and that they will blow in an hour and destroy magic across the continent. Meanwhile, Team Awesome FT Members (yes, even Natsu, just cuz he wasn't a buzzkill during this part) is still getting their butts handed to them by the 3 Demon Gates left there, and, er, I guess Tempester can create sinkholes. I mean it makes sense; they are a real natural, dangerous phenomenon, but m'kay. >_>

Anywho, Mard Sexy tells them that Crawford is controlling the bombs after Minerva calls him out on his shit regarding the detonation, claiming that his corpse is being manipulated by their necromancer, Keyes. With that, the Twin Dragons make their Exceed partners go with Erza and Minerva to the control room while they combat Mard Geer, which I have to say was pretty epic (animation slightly derpy but idc). They then, in a fit of fucking epicness, when Mard Geer tells them that they he hates it when humans imitate real Dragon Slaying Mages (apparently, based on the translation, it's easier to understand that Dragon Slayer Magic is cleary just magic, not a curse or something else. He literally thought they weren't real Slayers and that they were just calling out "_____ Dragon's _____" for lulz. This was actually a big topic of debate back when the chapter was first released, hence why I'm mentioning it). Sting and Rogue immediately retort that they really hate it when people beat the shit out of their friends, referencing their treatment of Minerva.

Cut to Silver and Gray, where we finally get the reveal that Silver is indeed Gray's father (like nobody fucking figured it out. Gray is just a less lustery version of the color silver...), which makes Gray angrier faster than a girl gets turned on from finding her fun button, as his dad died right in front of him. Gray's every attempt to hurt Silver is repelled, and he cryptically states that he is indeed Gray's father, Silver Fullbuster, but that things are more complicated than that and that their destinies are entwined much deeper.

Now cut back to the fights! FT is still getting rekt by the 9DG, and Sting and Rogue are literally having their asses handed to them by Mard Swageer, who finally gets why Kyoka was so fascinated with human beings: they have no sense of their own impending doom; something which he finds absolutely fascinating.

Cue filler Minerva and Erza bickering about Minerva still demanding to die scenes, which was also nice, as in the manga, it looked she had about 3 180's in the course of a month. >_> More filler Exceed stuff inserts aside, Minerva walks up to Happy and notices the mushroom, rips it off of his head and explains that it's Franmalth, the Nine Demon Gate, and that he can lead them to the control room amidst the wreckage of Cube.

Back to Silver and Gray! They continue to fight but Gray just can't match him; Silver steadily reveals more information about himself: the body he's using is just a vessel he happened across, as being in a demonic form all the while is quite conspicuous. Reiterating that Tartaros, and by extension the 9DG, are all demons (hahahaha... hahaha... ...haha...( _ _)), Silver uses this as an explanation as to why he is in human form. Cue suspense building, as Silver says that he originally thought that using Silver's body was just a coincidence, but is now beginning to think that it is part of a greater fate. Suspense beginning to climax now, Gray wonders why Silver is telling him all this stuff, as he has no reason to actually hate him and desire so much to fight unlike him, who is angry at the desecration of his father's corpse. Silver immediately corrects Gray: he does know him; in fact, he was there when Ur sealed him in ice ten years ago. Yup, that's right, just like how Gray's eyes widened, so did ours as Silver reveals, incredulously, that he is the demon Deliora, and maliciously asks Gray if he truly has forgotten him. Gray can't believe this and asks all the questions for us, wondering how he survived after Iced Shell. The answer, ladies and gents, is Hell's Core: the regeneration facility! Gray still can't believe it, like us, but then Silver pushes him (and still us XD) over the deep end by asking Gray if he really wants to see the true form of the demon that killed his family.

Now we cut to Keyes, who seems to know more than he is letting on, and he tells Juvia that Gray's (the "young boy" in the title of the episode) story, which began on the day his family was slaughtered, is coming to a close, ending with the idea that Gray is going to choose the same fate as Ur.

Erm, yup. Powerful episode. Way more powerful than the manga equivalent chapters. Kudos to Bridge for keeping Rogue's new hair length consistent (Mashima couldn't do it for shit) and the very, very above-par animation. Double kudos to the voice acting team for making this so epic and suspenseful, and triple kudos to the OST. :D

Score: 9/10



Lastly, we arrive at this month's conclusion, and what a cliffhanger it brings us! But we'll get to that in a second. On with da article~

Gray is still rippin' pissed and tries to hurt Silver, but it's an epic backfire, as Silviora merely eats his ice per his Slayer Magic, which he states he learned solely to defeat Ur's disciples, who only know Ice Magic. At the same time, we get some context from Keyes as to why a wizard was allowed into a curse-filled guild of demons: Mard Geer willed it and it was so. Whether or not it was because he was powerful (Silver is actually, per Mashima's little volume 46 cards, the strongest member of the Nine Demon Gates) or because his magic was a deterrent to the other members of Tartaros. No on cares, really, cuz both are hold extreme merit and he's in there anyway.

Cue to snippet of Natsu getting owned by Tempester and his filler shit, which is nice, cuz I don't think we've seen Natsu struggle in a battle like this in awhile. Weird though, because Tempester is actually the overall wimp of the Demon Gates. Shows you that strength isn't really everything, huh? Anyway, Gajeel is still struggling against Torafuzar and his mad tough skin (gotta love the anime's foreshadowing. Again, I redirect you to the possible 20 page limit dragging Mashima down. Anyway, Lucy realizes that Tempester took down Laxus and the Raijins, and Juvia is mysteriously questioned by Keyes as to how she would react if Gray died, hated her, and something else I can't give a fig about, but either way, she says none of those things will happen, which interests Keyes greatly.

Back to Gray and Silver, Gray is getting his ass handed to him hardcore, with his ice being eaten again and used against him in the form of the Devil Slayer breath attack. Gray, however, wants to defeat Silver with his own hands and on the spot, crafts up a plan to get past Silver's ice immunity: use Ice-Make Cannon to fire Cube rubble at him, which works until Silver freezes the area and turns the rubble to ice. This doesn't deter our awkward tsundere hero, as he does the same thing he did to Doriate to Silver! Silver can't eat his own ice, so you'd think this would work, right?

Well...no. It doesn't work. Silver is immune to all ice, apparently, and although he was damaged it didn't have the effect Gray wished, even though he is apparently a demon. Then, insert filler Frosch trying to eat Franmalth shit, which was as adorable as it was funny, and we move to Wendy coming up with the idea to get Warren to use his Telepathy to contact all the guilds across the continent to help and destroy Face! Good idea in retrospect, Wendy. +1

The episode begins to wind down as we go back to Silver vs. Gray, where we get some awesome filler of Silver beating everything but the literal shit out of Gray, but Gray's immutable resolve kicks in (we see Silver crack a weak smile and his gaze soften here. It was very important, and we'll get to that momentarily), and he tells Gray that his words mean absolutely nothing to him. Gray then resolves to cast Iced Shell, and prepares to do so, which scares Silver in more ways than one (also getting to it), and he tries to stop Gray by freezing him, but Gray creates an afterimage and switches places with it (so Silver freezes existing ice, I guess), and then thinks to all of his comrades, especially Juvia, I noticed (Gruvia is strong in the anime; stronger than the manga until recently, anyway .-.) and he casts it, and here is where the anime makes it clear. In the manga, it appeared that Gray created a semi-sentient clone that cast the spell, but here we see that Gray cast a half-ass version that Silver managed to negate and redirect back at Gray, BUT he hits another ice clone! The real Gray shows up behind Silver with an iron ball (cue Pantherlily's discovery) that he fished out of the melted part of the ruins, which melted when he redirected the ice, and creates a vambrace with his Ice-Make. With the vambrace, he shoots that iron ball at Silver and it goes right through his chest. As Silver falls, he...cracks a smile. And then Gray tells Silver that his act was pretty terrible, and wondered if he thought he'd never figure it out. Yup, you got it right. Silver actually is Silver: Gray's supposedly dead father is alive!

Okay, gonna address some things now. In the manga, this reveal came out of nowhere, supposedly. In the anime, more things are making sense, and after watching this episode what I thought was stupid all of a sudden isn't stupid anymore, but I'll talk about that next month. Basically, what I can talk about without spoiling is Silver's soft smile to Gray about words not moving him. Lies. It was clearly a smile of pride; he was proud that his son had the resolve to face his fears. And the freaking out over Iced Shell? He didn't want his son to die, so he tried to freeze him, both with his ice and his son's redirected stuff. I loved this episode from start to finish. I don't know about others, but it wasn't as bad as the manga at all. It was amazing and I have come to love this part of Tartaros now (this was the possible 1 of 2 bad parts left in the Tartaros arc. Rip when we get to the actual, indisputable, terribad nonsense).

Score: 9.5/10

Well guys, that's it! The overall score for This Month in the Anime is a solid 8.5 ! I put my all into the article this month to make up for the now-4 months since I've done this. I hope you enjoyed, and obviously my ratings are my own opinions. I would love to hear what you guys have to say down in the comments. See you next month~