User blog comment:Omega natsu2/Fairy Tail Episode 217: Celestial Spirit Beast, Review./@comment-7418318-20150124112219

Looking at the comments I see I wasn't the only one who the Celestial Spirit Beast reminded of Mononoke-hime.

To my utter surprise I liked most of the epiosde oO  who'd have thought.

I could have done without the long-winded motivational speech, without the 2:30 or so of scenes from the previous episode before the opening and with better pacing in general, but it's a massive step up from where this arc was so far.

I liked how Natsu and Happy were finally able to beat Ophiuchus in the end. It's nice to see an enemy defeated somewhat smartly instead of just whacking it into submission.

When the first mages were turned into constellations I got the feeling that Lucy and Yukino would summon them as Celestial Spirits to keep fighting, but with Natsu heading inside that's probably not what's going to happen (not to mention that Yukino was also caught).

It's good to see this overall terrible arc end on a somewhat good note.