Template:TMITA/August 2014

 



Well, picking up where we left off, the Dragons are wreaking havoc on Crocus and Future Rogue is flying atop Motherglare as he spots Natsu, who was saved by Ultear and Meredy. For once, Natsu doesn't dominate the fight and Future Rogue kicks his ass pretty easily for the most part. Even Motherglare is giving him a hard time by flailing around a bit and crashing into stuff to throw him off balance. Too bad Future Rogue doesn't truly take advantage of this. It's actually a well-done scene in terms of animation as well.

Anyways, Fairy Tail's got pretty much no chance against the Dragon they're fighting; Atlas Flame. Gray and Juvia's combo attack does nothing to him, which isn't really surprising cause he's A) a Dragon and B) I think Juvia's lame. Granted, that last one isn't a legitimate reason, but it's my opinion. Anyways, even Freed's seemingly "absolute" Runes can't shield them from Atlas Flame's attach cause he's so overwhelmingly strong. However, Makarov steps in and punches the flaming Dragon (pun not intended) but even that isn't able to do anything. Damn, they're pretty much screwed. Makarov's hand even gets burned.

Someplace else, Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel and Blue Pegasus are teaming up to fight a Dragon but pretty much nothing they do is useful, especially seeing that Millianna is the only one attacking. Now, as much as I like neko girls and girls who wear revealing clothes, this is not one of those times where they need to be getting focus, people. Lyon tries to join with Jura and Kagura on his Ice-Make animals to start a triple-attack on the Dragon but even this does absolutely nothing and the three of them get their asses thrown back. Man, I'm sure Mega must have been pissed.

Sting and Rogue reveal that they didn't really kill their Dragons either, so far as they just helped them as both wished for death for different reasons. So, we do end up finding out that Future Rogue is controlling all the Dragons via some Magic he invented. He wants them to take down Acnologia, who rules the world in the future and who is immune to this Magic, apparently cause he was once a human. I guess thinking about the Dragons and stuff had gotten Natsu thinking for once so he attacks Motherglare and actually damages his/her adamant body and shouts to everyone that Dragon Slaying Magic can defeat the Dragons and that their numbers are even. Yes, indeed, they truly are even. Jellal's favor from a while ago has been granted by Lahar and Doranbolt, and they've brought Cobra to the battlefield. I think some guy's eardrum exploded somewhere due to a fangirl squeal.

Anyways, this episode was alright. To be honest, a lot were alright. I'm not even that interested in commenting on its plot because we all knew what was coming since we read the manga. All that could really be said here was that it was an alright episode in terms of technical stuff but it still could have been better. The filler was...weird. Orga and Rufus fighting. The Jura/Lyon/Kagura team-up? Looked awkwardly done to be, like someone just wanted these guys together and shoved them in rather than having real reasons for things to go along. Anyways, that's all for episode 193.



So, this episode is something a lot of people were wondering about in terms of how the animators would handle it. The manga featured a deal of nudity and, though with relatively obscure angles and foreign objects as always, is still something Mashima felt the need to warn us about. After all, we "did" need to know about the "legends of the flying naked people".

Anyways, the episode begins with the fights against the Dragons continuing and the Mages aren't exactly having an easy time, to say the least. However, given Natsu's message in the last episode, who should show up to help Fairy Tail but Laxus. He steps in to fight Atlas Flame while Gajeel goes off to help a guild that doesn't have a Dragon Slayer. There's even a nice little scene of Levy wanting to go with him but Gajeel not letting her.

Elsewhere, Blue Pegasus is getting the short end of the stick because rather than a Dragon Slayer, they have Jenny and Ichiya. Alright, granted, Jenny is hot, and most men would want her, but still, it's all about the situation you're in. She actually goes to the extent of donning her bikini to try and seduce the Dragon. Now, I'm not one for bestiality, but I couldn't stop thinking about how hilarious it would be if the Dragon had actually commented on her in some way. On the other hand, Ichiya decides to try his armpit perfume on the Dragon which has no nose. Still, you've gotta wonder what would've happened if the Dragon did have a nose. Would he be forced to go away cause he couldn't stand the smell? I mean, Blue Pegasus couldn't stand the smell and all of them were on the floor gagging and flailing about as a result. Lucky for them though, Cobra comes in to save their asses.

Back at the castle, Zirconis confirms his identity as a creation of Hiro Mashima by utilizing his Magic, one which strips people of their clothes. Because apparently, Dragons and humans have the same understandings and standards of morality and customs. Damn, this thing should just be called the perv Dragon. Is it just me or did the army men in the anime not look as pathetic as those in the manga? Either way, those guys (and old man Darton) run off, leaving the girls alone. Lucy's the next to have her clothes removed but luckily for her, she's already covering herself tightly even while she still had the clothes, allowing for zero exposure of you-know-what. As we all know what happens next, Zirconis tries to take her and eat her but there's even brief filler of her feeling cold as he takes her high into the sky, which is completely understandable, since who wouldn't freeze their ass off when naked in the sky in the middle of the night? As she's about to be eaten, Wendy's attack on Zirconis results in Lucy being flung far away as the Sky Dragon Slayer teams up with Mirajane to fight.

Meanwhile, Motherglare has released countless hatchlings and the Mages have dispersed to fight them while the Dragon Slayers take on the Dragons. There's even a cute filler girl named Ginger from Twilight Ogre who fights some Hatchlings. She seems to have an ego but isn't a douche like the other members seem to be.

Far off, in a scene that disappointed many a fangirl, Jellal appears to save an injured Erza with zero epic flash or anything that would really differentiate him from any other savior, which I'd expect for someone who's as close to Erza as him. Well, Millianna has spotted them, so maybe the anime will do that nicely. We all know what's coming, right?

In a scene that looks more cartoonish than anything, the naked Lucy knocks herself into Natsu, kicking around enough dust in the clean air so that there's no exposure, once again, while Future Rogue just looks at them with an expression that's just short of sweatdropping. The two land in some giant bell and end up messing around inadvertently while trying to get out of there. Of course, a ton of it has to happen off-screen. And yes, the famous boob-grab happens in a way that we can't see it either. So, the two basically just talk for a while and when Lucy mentions that she nearly got eaten, this gives Natsu an idea. He flies off as Lucy finds the diary of her future self, cause they coincidentally landed in the same area that she was in several dozen chapters ago where a guardsman saw her lurking.

So, this episode was something that really had people divided. On the one hand, some people were unhappy that there was a lot of censorship of the famous nudity scenes, but on the other hand, some people didn't care either because the nudity wasn't necessary, the censorship wasn't obvious, the story was still kept to the point or some combination of the three.

Overall, I don't think it's a bad episode by any means, but it's just got nothing particularly noteworthy about it.



Coming off the last episode, Fairy Tail is still in a pinch against Atlas Flame, who burns through all their Magic. Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe attempt to fight it given that Laxus is a Dragon Slayer, but with his element mis-matched against the flame Dragon, even he can't do anything. Too bad for him, Mashima didn't go with the original idea of making Wendy the Water Dragon Slayer. Of course, we do have a Fire Dragon Slayer as the main character, cause fire is probably the most overused element of them all when it comes to mains, or at least leaders.

Anyways, having heard that Lucy was nearly eaten by a Dragon, Natsu comes up with the plan to eat the Flame Dragon and surprisingly, it actually seems to work for a bit as the Dragon is clearly freaking out like a kid. To be honest, I didn't mind that they extended that stuff, since I found it funny to see Atlas go nuts, but I'll digress. One way or another, Atlas Flame realizes Natsu is the son of Igneel, the king of fire dragons who also happens to be an old friend of his. Sadly, the famous "dragon rape" scene in anime is nowhere near as good as the manga version. Not really a surprise though.

Elsewhere, Lucy has found her future self's diary and confirms its contents to Virgo. While elsewhere, the Dragon Slayers battle the Dragons, Atlas Flame does come to accept Natsu after learning he's Igneel's son and the two of them go off to battle against Future Rogue and his Dragon, with Natsu even calling Atlas "Uncle". Seeing this, King Toma freaks out even worse than Atlas and borders on BSOD (shortest one ever, I swear) as he thinks the whole world is basically screwed. Meanwhile, other Mages are trying to fight the Dragons as well, like Gray trying to get Rufus to fight, for example. I guess the Magic he uses from his memory isn't really the original but his imitation of the original. Makes sense in a way or he'd be the most over-powered character in the series.

As the Dragons are being fought against, with Sting even going Dragon Force on his (anime-only, of course), Rogue is on his knees as the Dragon he's fighting, Revire, tells him he's behind everything, and that he'll be the king in the future, basically. Rogue doesn't want anything, and gets down on the ground, and as all the fangirls stare at his abs, Ultear looks at him from above. She contemplated killing Rogue to save the world from his future self but Natsu told her not to since the present Rogue hadn't done anything wrong. Did anyone else get a "Terminator 2" vibe from this? Anyways, the episode ends with Ultear deciding that she actually should kill Rogue so as to save the future.

For one thing, I actually found this episode's pacing to be the best of the month. Nothing hangs around so long that it becomes unwanted and we get enough of what we do want and that stuff that isn't completely vital is short enough just to fill in those gaps between important stuff. I don't know about everyone else but the animation did seem off at times to me, like lips not moving right. I dunno if that was cause I watched a stream of it at like 11:30pm after coming home from work, but anyways, the eye color issues remained, as they always have for the last little while. Anyways, a solid episode still that gets you interested in the next one.



Now this episode opens with a very brief intro into what's been going on with Erza and Jellal, who were found by Millianna. It opens very nicely into the opening theme, which I just realized I have yet to actually comment on. Basically, I like it. It can feel weak since it follows something more entertaining like Masayume Chasing, but if it had come after something abysmally bad like Rock City Boy, I would've appreciated this song quite a bit more. Anyways, they're arguing with one another when suddenly Ultear appears and basically tells Millianna that she's responsible for everything bad Jellal did. She walks off thinking about how she's a terrible person and all that stuff while the other three contemplate how much the world sucks. Behind a building, the eavesdropping Kagura sheathes her sword, cause the anime decided that she should stop fighting the Dragons and hide behind a building like some coward.

I'll just admit I found this episode pretty boring. It's a lot of exposition and nothing truly happens until the end. Sting and Rogue end up teaming up against both Dragons, the Mages are being pushed back and a lot of them are having trouble, foreshadowing the impending "deaths" of people whom we already know from having read the manga. One of whom is Gray, who dies to a hatchling to save Juvia, who was standing around being stupid, as usual. Ultear is still sulking around and decides that she is the one who deserves to die because she contemplated killing someone. END OF EPISODE.

And thankfully so. That was just boring to watch. Sorry for whomever liked it but I couldn't wait for it to end. All that really excited me was Gray taking the shot, which ended up going through his body rather than his head, sadly. Well, I guess something is better than nothing, but still.



Honestly, when I first saw the title for this episode, the first thing I thought of was this song.

♪It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right, I hope you had the time of your life.♪

Yes, I used to listen to Green Day. Moving on, we basically see everyone crying about the ones they've lost so far. Droy is dead cause he couldn't move his fat ass out of the way fast enough. Macao is dying but we don't see that vicious scene of the hatchlings tearing into his ass as Romeo watches. We see everyone crying as Gray's evidently been shot in the head and there's no healer to help him, so he's screwed.

Meanwhile, Natsu and Atlas Flame are fighting Future Rogue and Motherglare, who sounds like a man for some reason. As this happens, even the Dragon slayers apparently have to get close to death so that what Ultear does becomes more meaningful. Laxus is apparently going to be killed by Zirconis the perv Dragon, and Sting by his Dragon.

Ultear's contemplating her life, what she's done, whom she has met, those who've suffered due to her actions and stuff. It's all this that's apparently driven her to use this spell she learned from reading a book which was probably Hiro Mashima's previous and superior series Rave Master. It's called "Last Ages" and it'll reverse time at the cost of her life. Deciding that it's for the best, she goes ahead and uses the spell but is burned like crazy as a result and finds out that the world has gone back only one minute. Yeah, her life was worth only one minute, apparently. But evidently, everyone who was near death or had died had all done so within one minute of each other, and so what Ultear did saves pretty much everyone.

Everyone has a deja-vu as they return to the present. Pantherlily wonders if Carla did it but she confirms that it wasn't and Happy confirms that it wasn't him. As if we didn't already know that he couldn't do something like that cause he's so fuckin' worthless. Fuck you, Happy. Anyways, This vision of the future does allow the Mages to fight back and is pretty much the beginning of their counter-attack.

Meanwhile, Lucy tells everyone that her future self found out that destroying the Eclipse Gate will solve everything cause Rogue no longer has a way to come to the present if it doesn't exist in the future. There are so many problems with this idea, the least of which would be how to destroy the huge-ass gate. Oh dear lord.... ( =_=).

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii629/Marineforce/Happyuseless_zpse5cc5907.png We know that, you useless pussy.

So, overall, I would this was a satisfactory (at best) month in terms of anime. It's far from the best, but it could've been a lot worse than it was given the manga content it was dealing with. At least it's trying to make the best of what it's got. There're assloads of errors but neither anime company (Satelight or Bridge) has a monopoly on being perfect. At least it was relatively watchable for the most part. The filler, unlike a lot of other cases, didn't even feel that dragged out and actually added some decent context into the scenes, which, for anime-only viewers, would make it better and possibly even for some manga readers.

And so... Such is the end of this month's This Month in the Anime article. I hope I was able to do a satisfactory job for you guys. I believe next month we will have a new writer for this article as I was just a last-minute replacement so we would have something actually more substantial to put in the magazine when compared to last month. Anyways, let me know what you think and I do hope you guys keep reading the magazine.

That's all, folks!