User blog comment:Wrath022/Episode 276: Challenger, Review/@comment-7418318-20160319084824

A nice episode.

I initially cringed at the octopus showing up, but seeing the poor thing carried off all beaten up after Lucy was through with it, was quite funny. ^^

I also appreciate how the anime for a change showed us Lucy's dedication and hard-working nature instead of depicting her as lazy like they so often do... even though they slightly undermined it with her not finding the really big press-pass in her own freaking bag.

I really liked all the emotion that the episode brought over. It really showed how much Lucy tried to convince herself that she was happy and content with her life, but how much she truly hurt on the inside.

I just hope once the anime continues, it'll expand a bit on that inner conflict, since the manga only hinted at this on occasion and then dropped the issue. But in the end Lucy never really worked though her emotions... all the troubles were just forgotten.

Is it odd that I noticed and appreciated the animation team drawing Lucy's shoulder-blades when her bare back was shown right before the ending?

Speaking of the ending: I LOVE what they did with the ending. Taking those chapter or volume coveres drawn by Hiro Mashima and using them for the credits was a great idea! They should do that more often.