User blog:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 403: Erza vs. Kyouka, Review.

Chapter cover featured Gray and Happy. Nothing worth mentioning there.

The chapter began with Kyouka breaking through Erza's Armadura Fairy Armor with ease. Does anyone else feel like that's a bit repetitive? It just seems like that whenever Mashima wants to show us how powerful Erza's opponent is, he makes them destroy one or more of her armors in one strike. It's kinda lost its appeal imo. >_> Anyhow, Kyouka makes the countdown timer speed up, so Erza dons her Black Wing Armor and goes on the offensive. Kyouka declares that she can't be defeated because her Curse allows her power to increase infinitely as time passes. I... don't particularly care for her ability. :/ Her Curse and Etherious form are all kinda boring if I'm being honest. >_> But I digress. Anyhow, Kyouka reiterates her reasons for sacrificing her life to activate FACE, and Erza pretty much tells her they're bullshit. Kyouka, angered, pretty much goes nuclear and causes everyone in the near vicinity unimaginable pain... I take back what I said about her abilities being boring. >:D Kyouka stars torturing Erza much like she did in Tartarus's basement, and takes away all of Erza's senses. Despite this, Erza stands up and punches Kyouka. -____- And guess what kiddies? She's in her non-armor Armor... again.

Okay, this chapter was utter bullshit! I love Erza to death, but this fight was garbage. Firstly, it was so horribly predictable. Mashima has used the same god awful formula over and over again for a lot of Erza's fights. Erza gets her armors destroyed by a powerful opponent, she puts on those raggedy clothes, she gives a "heart warming" speech, and then she dog walks her enemy. It gets old! Secondly, why create a character that uses armors as her main form of offense if you are never going to let her use the armors? I like that Erza can kick ass without them, but her armors are one of the reasons I fell in love with her and it'd be nice to actually fucking see them for more than a second every once in a while. Thirdly, I can forgive Erza standing despite the pain. Its been well established that she has insane endurance and durability, but how the hell is she going to fight without ANY of her senses? That's Nakama Magic at its finest.

I understand that for the sake of moving the plot along Erza couldn't lose this match, but there are so many ways that Mashima could've done this that would've been interesting to watch. Instead, he chose to do it the easy, predictable, and extraordinarily poorly written way. Shame on you Mashima. Shame!