User blog comment:Omega natsu2/Episode 176: The Dragon King, Review./@comment-24467372-20140405104900

It was good,yet the expectations were so high that I felt an initial disappointment. And if we take a look at the preview of the next episode,we see that the animation drops significantly :( All of the scenes from the PV were from the first episode,so it's more than likely that they used up the budget on making the premier episode this good just to promote the series.

As for individual character designs....Gajeel,Gray,Erza,Sting,Rufus and Minerva seem amazingly well done. Jellal,Lucy,Natsu and Wendy.....not so much. Jellal's first appearance seemed weird. His cloak was supposed to be black just like Meredy and Ultears. Lucy looks weird and chubbier and her hair is longer than before...

As for story-telling.....It was superb. The Dragon Civil War was told with master animations and Zirconis's voice really gets you hyped up. But Mira and Elfman telling everyone's magic just so new viewers don't get lost was....."meh"

It was a very good episode although it wasn't as perfect as I imagined it would be. That's probably because of the PV being so good. My worst fear is that the animation quality dropping over the next few episodes.

I watched it in 1080p and it was good and bad at some points. When the quality is that good,better drawn scenes looks like a masterpiece while poorly drawn scenes like Jellal's first appearance look crappy.