Template:TMITA/February 2016

 



Well, this month's first episode is basically gonna be filler. The gang arrives at a forest and while planning to camp, Warrod and Yuri have a fight and go off. Totally a smart choice, lol. Setting up a fire, Precht tells Mavis the story of when the three of them went off looking for a valuable plant of some kind and the events that they encountered.

The story basically involves them going into a cave, narrowly avoiding closing doors, getting chased down by a minecart, fighting a monster that turns out to have been the plant which they were after. Of course, the cave collapsed in on them after they fought the monster and got the plant, but we never see how they escaped.

Mavis and Precht talk a bit and both are pretty normal about it. Yuri and Warrod show up suddenly though, having caught a big ass fish. They've forgot about their argument too, since they were more into fishing. The guys talk about their time together as Treasure Hunters (though they never mention what they did with that plant) and their interest in the Tenrou Jade. Suddenly though, Zera disappears and Mavis goes looking for her.

Mavis finds her by the water. Since they both randomly switched to their swimsuits for no reason, this is apparently the right place to be. Zera regrets her past and asks Mavis to teach her Magic as the two laugh and talk.

Zera suddenly tumbles into the water though (#WorstAnimeTumbleEver) and Mavis joins her. The two embrace in that same pose from the manga, not mirrored, but the two are not naked and have their swimsuits on. I'm fine with this, frankly. I didn't care for nudity in the manga or the illusion that nudity is necessary for intimacy.

The next day, the gang arrives at Magnolia Town and talk about Cardia Cathedral. So what should they see but the Cathedral with a giant dragon skeleton over it. Damn that looked cool =D

Overall, not the worst of episodes, but not really that good either.

Verdict: 6 / 10



Now that the gang has arrived in Magnolia Town, we get a story about how Blue Skull took over the once-thriving town and basically everything went to hell. It's not an original story by any means, but it works well enough here to establish Blue Skull as a real threat that the heroes have to work towards defeating rather than just plowing through them the first chance they get.

A fair bit of filler is in this episode, dedicated to a mother and daughter whose family patriarch was killed by Blue Skull, along with many other people. It's a good motivational factor for our characters to hate Blue Skull, though the scenes with the widow and her daughter aren't exactly sad enough. Granted, that's just my opinion, but still.

The gang does try to take on Blue Skull and handles a few of their Mages until their reinforcements arrive and Mavis' illusions are called out as such by Blue Skull's master. With that, the gang has to tuck tail and run or be taken down and damn is Warrod strong if he's holding two grown men while running.

Overall, a pretty good episode.

Verdict: 7.5/ 10



After escaping Blue Skull, the gang hides out in a forest, where Mavis finds Zeref while she tries to get water. The dude is completely naked but I guess when you spend most of you life alone, you don't tend to care much about that stuff. I mean, how many of us have been naked or without clothes on when we were alone? Right, so anyways, Mavis talks to him and realizes what he is but now who he is and asks him to teach the gang magic.

The teaches them about the basics of Magic and Ethernano, which builds a basis for the Second Origin reveal we got before the Grand Magic Game. The first step is meditating and releasing yourself so you can absorb Ethernano, in an "Inner Peace" kind of way a-la Kung-Fu Panda 2. Precht picks it up pretty fast but Yuri has more difficulty. Makes sense since he's such a rambunctious guy and functions better in action than in stasis, so he gathers Ethernano via movement. Warrod's got his Magic seemingly set so for the next few days, the gang trains for the upcoming confrontation.

I have to say, I really like this. We should be seeing a lot more training like this in Fairy Tail as a whole. Fighting takes skill as well as preparation. Victory is (ideally) for those who work the hardest. You've gotta actually do something for success, not just have friends show up and offer you random power-ups when you're down on your luck (talking about you-know-what). Do I wish it were longer? Maybe, but given what I know they're working with, and the limits around it, I'm alright with it.

There's nice character growth for Warrod here too, since he feels he's holding back Precht and Yuri since they're further ahead in his training. Thus, he talks to Zeref who shows him the Tree Magic he'll eventually being using so proficiently. I admit, it was weird at first since I thought of Warrod as the most level-headed of the group (Precht being a little too closed-off to be fully reasonable, imo) and thus I thought if anything he was the glue for the gang, but this is actually what we see later on. After all, he carried the gang away from Blue Skull. The other guys acknowledge his strength and see him as someone to be respected.

Eventually, the gang is prepared for their battle against Blue Skull but Zeref (who never revealed his identity) has disappeared. Of course, the battle would be too one-sided if he were there and he wouldn't have joined even if asked. I do like his words as he walks off into the distance though (though he informed nobody that he was leaving, I guess he thought their training was done).

Anyways, this is probably the best episode of Fairy Tail Zero so far. It had exactly what I look for in an episode and wasn't a bore to get through- I never looked at the timer on the video player.

Overall, a really good episode that I personally enjoyed a lot.

Verdict: 8.5 / 10



The time has come for the gang to take back Magnolia from Blue Skull. To do this, they visit the filler characters (whom the writers surprisingly did not forgot, so kudos) from two episodes ago and ask them for help in gathering the townsfolk. On that front, the townspeople are gonna go and complain to Blue Skull in a large gang.

Up in the mountains, Geoffrey the guild master is hunting when Warrod attacks him and retreats, taunting him about what they're doing to the town. He sees it on fire and goes back where Mavis confronts him. He thinks for a moment she's actually burning the townspeople but he sees that it's an illusion and dispels it. Evidently though, he underestimated the strength of her illusion and he had in fact not even left the forest, which allows him to be captured in a giant...cage.

Ok, I'm gonna assume it's made of Magnanium or whatever that magic-resistant metal they made the Eclipse Gate out of was. As Yuri and Precht are kicking the crap out of the Blue Skull members, Geoffrey tells Mavis that the Tenrou Jade which they were after should not be physically touched. The fairy tactician doesn't think to question whether or not he's lying though and rushes back to tell the guys.

Precht believes what she's saying but Yuri, who's already holding it, thinks she's gonna trick them and refuses to let go. The Jade activates and animates the Dragon skeleton on the cathedral, with Yuri inside it having gone nuts and rampaging. He won't stop and nearly kills Mavis, but she's still intent on saving him.

Overall, this episode isn't really as good as the last episode for me. I also feel Geoffrey was captured a bit too easily since the plan felt a bit thin. Still, it's a decently-handled episode so I'm good with it for the most part.

Verdict: 7/ 10

Overall Score for This Month in the Anime : 7/10

Verdict : A good follow-up to last months episodes that really show us why the main series is not as well-written by comparison.

I hope you guys enjoyed this issue of "This Month In The Anime". If you guys are interested in writing the article from next month onwards, contact Rai.

Till then, this has been Ultraprime2!