Template:TMITA/June 2014

 



Hmmmmm... So we're back again~ Guess I should start reviewing these things :P

We begin this month in the anime with Rufus of all people, and, to some stirring music, he lies in the library of defeat contemplating how he lost to Gray. Hmmm, interesting. Can't say I didn't like it, but as it's not really relevant in any way, let us move on~

MASAYUME CHASING, CHASING! I shall be sad to see this intro go soon D;

Okay, we open with recaps of the scores YET AGAIN, and I know I should be ticked off, but I'm not this time, and this is because some of my favourite filler was included in this episode and at this point - Mermaid Heel filler. We didn't get to see much of them in the manga, but I am glad the anime decided to incorporate them heavily into this episode, as it makes sense that they would worry about Kagura and Millianna, and be worried that Millianna seems to have disappeared. Kudos anime team~ Nice one ;D

But it's back to the Rescue Team who have just defeated the Garou Knights and are trying to get out of the Abyss Palace. However, as they approach the exit and Natsu tries to bust the door open, it suddenly opens on its own, revealing (finally) the hooded figure who has been seemingly stalking everyone for days. I loved this part of the episode and the music combined perfectly to add to the sense of mystery and suspicion surrounding this character.

We also add to this suspicion of characters by having Darton confront Hisui, with the princess revealing that she is actually undertaking the Eclipse 2 Project, not the Eclipse Project. Whatever the fuck this means is not revealed at this stage, so I'll move on...

...to the GMG, where Chelia has attacked Juvia :D Yay~!

This is seriously the cutest thing ever X3

But screw them, because Erza has also followed Mavis' instructions and heads to some weird kinda roof-top garden thingy (seriously, what is this building used for?) to confront Minerva. An opponent does appear...

...but it's KAGURA!!

Yay! :D Can I just say that the combination of music and straight-into-action made this revelation just amazing. Seriously, it got me pumped. I know the animation was a little off for the most part, but it was fast-paced and seemingly smooth, so I really can't complain. And then, who should appear but Minerva! I thought her appearance animation was a little clunky, but again, the mood set by the episode just overshadows this.

Now, I really don't have much to say about the rest of this fight. From the silence at the start of the battle with that single rock bouncing, to the music starting just as the three clash, to the spells, to the talk, to the end of the clash, I just thought it was amazingly awesome. The pace was good and I liked the added commentary by the different (that's right, different, not the same character over and over) characters.

And finally, just to tie up this pretty package of an episode, we jump back to the palace amidst the tension of the GMG for more of the Princess being cryptic and the revelation of the hooded figure.

Tying everything together beautifully, the hooded figure reveals herself to be Future Lucy!! Dun dun DDUUUUUUNNNNN!!

Wow...seriously, what an episode! Hisui and FLucy in particular are stand outs for good animation... I mean, look at this:



^This is EXACTLY what I mean when I say that static shots should look exactly like their manga counterparts! I can overlook odd animation in moving images, but when the anime chooses to poorly redraw static shots I get really miffed to be honest. So glad that here they showed exactly how it should be done~

Admittedly, in this sense there were some parts of the threesome battle that were off for me, specifically:



...because Kagura always looks a little off in the anime, but hey, I hate Kagura, so who cares XD

All in all an awesome episode, and one I would rewatch for the threesome fight. Minerva's huge-ass spell was well displayed and just the mood and tension created throughout the entire episode was stunning. I mean, there is an obvious (to me anyways) change in the overall tone of an episode when the filler is kept down, the pacing is perfected and the scenes compliment one another, and that is exactly what happened here.

I really have no more to say. What an awesome episode! :D

'Tis a pity they couldn't keep it up for next week >__>



R-Recaps of scores *twitches*

AND NO! NO AMOUNT OF AWESOME MUSIC CAN MAKE ME OVERLOOK THEM!! I AM IMMUNE TO THAT NOW! >:(

We start this ep over at the palace with the recently revealed Future Lucy, and, admittedly, this is probably the best part of the episode. The music combined with the confusion of the characters with Lucy being a little ganged up on as the others all throw curious glances her way was really well done, so I will give credit where it's due~

Then it's to the princess again and I know this scene should be taken so seriously, but thanks to a massive fuck up by the animation guys, any hope of this scene being taken as it should is thrown out the window.

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/s557/LilOrangeCat/CSStuffUp_zps5fcec969.png

Uhhh... ??

Anime Team: http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb439/rikkuster/close_enough.jpg

The only other explanation I can come up with is that the animators were making a huge easter egg referencing the events of the manga at that time, but, if so, it would be just cruel, so either way booooo you anime team!!

Putting this aside though and we jump back to the GMG to continue the threesome between Minerva, Erza and stupidbitchnobodycaresabout Kagura. Kagura tries to attack Minerva, but she shows off her powers and swaps places with Erza, forcing the two to clash in a panel so badly drawn that I don't even want to look at it again if I can help it.



Minerva looks mighty fine though o__O Speaking of her though, take a look at her in the back of the panel in the above images. In the anime she's a statue, and in the manga she has her hair and body swaying as she walks.

Kinda sad that the manga has more movement in it than the anime .-.

Moving on though (heh, see what I did there?) and Minerva tells Erza and Kagura that she'll take on the victor between them and vanishes. Erza tries to set a more calming mood, but Kagura, being the uptight and over the top idiot she is, vows to cut everyone down.

More match ups form around Crocus and we cut to the princess once more and then to Crime Sorciere! YAY! Crime Sorc-

WHAT THE FUCK HAVE THEY DONE TO MY MEREDY'S EYES! >:O

They're pink! What the? Why pink? Seriously... what the heck. Is it really THAT hard to make them the correct colour? Has the person in charge of Meredy just never bothered to look at a coloured version of her before and thought pink would be cute? Bloody hell >__>

And then CrimeS don't even do anything worthwhile! We just head into some weird flashback that is completely out of place where it shows Jellal introducing himself to Erza again (albeit contradicting the earlier version of this scene by the previous team) and giving her her name of Scarlet. I really don't know if they were trying to poorly foreshadow or push the Jellal/Erza/Simon love triangle (or lack thereof) for some reason, but I just don't get it.

And then we see a different version of the freeing of the slaves, but because it's not a full episode like in the ToH arc, it's just a crappy cut of different scenes that look nowhere near as good and still contradict earlier scenes we've seen of this. Then it jumps to when Natsu tries to attack Jellal and then to when CrimeS was first shown and all I'm thinking is:

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/s557/LilOrangeCat/CrimeSMissingPeople_zps0b1fa4ce.png

Like, there was a lot of emphasis on Ultear being the force behind Jellal being bad, and I think this was just what they were trying to stress because they didn't want people to think Kagura's hate was 100% justified... but... I mean, if any normal viewer actually bothered to watch the ToH, Nirvana and preGMG arc, they would already know Jellal is an amazing guy with too much hate on his shoulders, so again, I DO NOT in any way see how this was necessary. It was pointless time wasting filler of the worst kind, and even though it was Jellal and Erza, I hated seeing it >__>

And then just to ruin more moods, before we jump back to Erza and Kagura we get the Rescue Team talking about how FLucy is lighter than currentLucy and that she likely lost weight due to her hardships and therefore had a successful diet and such.

Uhhhh o__O Really? REALLY!? That's bordering on cruel now... so we'll just jump back to the fight...

Arg... why did I say that? >__> This fight was god awful. The animation was so bad, the attacks so poor for those of a sword-fight nature and by God, again, the movement was seen more in the bloody manga!!



There actually appears to be gravity in the manga version, oh, and blood :)



Kudos to the anime for the background, but the characters look so stiff and Erza is bloody facing Kagura and looking at the attack. In the manga it's a complete surprise.

But, worst of all:



I even gave the anime the gif here ( -__-)~ *sighs*

Dialogue is pretty much word for word from the manga, so the two talk about Jellal and Mils for a bit and then Erza reveals, after another poor flashback, that she was responsible for Simon's death because she was weak and failed to act. As such, Kagura draws her sword, characters freeze, blood (YES! BLOOD!) flies and my poor baby Jellal senses that something is wrong with his redhead waifu DX This last shot of Jellal was by far the best animated thing in the episode, literally looked exactly like the manga, so kudos there. Jellal for the most part looked like he was animated by 6 different artists throughout the other parts of this episode, so at least they gave him to the competent artist for this last shot.

I can't really complain about how the episode was ended because the tension really was great (until the preview! Seriously, if you are trying to create even a week of tension for anionly fans, DON'T show Erza being okay in the preview for the next ep! >__>) but I did think this was done better in the manga.

I know I'm being biased here, but I'm a sucker for Mashima's gorgeous panels, so I loved the manga version. I understand the panel couldn't really be transferred to anime, so I can overlook it, but, for you anionlys, here's the amazing panel from the manga for your viewing pleasure:



Gosh, it's just moving on so many levels...

Hopefully the next episode will be more moving than this one was ( -__-) Shouldn't be too hard though, because this episode was very poor in my eyes. The worst of the month by far.



Oh man, there are so many episodes this month o__O Yes, I am typing these all up at the end of the month because my month was insanely busy and I had no time before T^T

Anyways, onto the ep and Kagura slashes Archenemy at Erza...

...but Erza blocks it!! Somehow without getting sliced like she did in the manga, so I dunno where the blood from the last episode was from, but the last episode sucked, so let's move on.



Blood? No? Okay then :<

Yes, Erza blocks the attack and as part of Crocus is blown to pieces she states that she will not just cast aside the life that Simon and Rob gave her. Damn straight! Kagura's an idiot! I could understand her killing Jellal, but by trying to kill Erza she is literally taking the life her brother died to save. What an dumbass ( -__-) At least Erza is thinking straight.

After the opening theme we jump to Mercurius for a bit for more cryptic princess stuff and some filler of the Rescue Team. Seems the Rescue Team is making up most of the filler this month, but I guess I like it more than filler of GMG spectators talking over and over, so I'll take it.

Back with Erza and Kagura (who are animated SO MUCH BETTER in this episode - well, not manga quality all the time, but darn close to it) and the former Requips into her hakama clothing as Kagura charges her, vowing to kill both her and Jellal.

BITCH PLEASE! JELLALERZA LOVE LOVE POWER WILL DEFEAT YOU ANY DAY!!

...and of course, JellalErza love love power is supreme and Kagura falls!!

Haha :3

However! As she lies on the ground a falling bit of rubble threatens to crush her but she is saved by Erza, who unfortunately pushes her out of the way at the expense on her legs being crushed. As Kagura questions the move, Erza reveals that she knew Kagura as a child, and that they met once during the child raid by the Tower of Heaven workers. We then get a cute flashback of Erza and Kagura running together, and Kagura hiding as Erza is found and captured.

Moved to tears (in a VERY nicely animated clip) Kagura recalls Erza helping her, and, now not wanting to fight the redhead SUDDENLY GETS SUPER STRENGTH OR SOME SHIT AND JUST LIFTS THE BLOODY BOULDER CRUSHING ERZA WITH ONE ARM TO DRAG HER OUT...

http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/s557/LilOrangeCat/SuperKagura_zps59194f0c.png

WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT!?!?

Because screw weight and physics... why do they even matter?

I mean, come on... Kagura has Gravity Magic... just show her using that for crying out loud \( o__o)/

Anyways, just as we think we might be getting a sweet moment here, who should reappear but Minerva! AND SHE STABS KAGURA THROUGH THE BACK! \( ^__^)/ What a turn of events~



Bitch is back... bitches >:)

But that's not all! Minerva also dumps Millianna back into the world and the neko-woman is also out for the count, meaning Minerva gets six points for doing basically no work. As Erza checks if Millianna is okay, she sees that Minerva has practically sliced the woman open just for the heck of it, and of course this doesn't sit too well with her.



Awww yeah! Choo dead now!

And, just before we cut to the halfway mark, we see Mermaid Heel running from the Domus Flau to get medical aid for Kagura and Mils. Nice filler there... I really appreciated that.

Back after the little music thingy that always marks the half way mark of the ep and Rogue baits Gajeel so that the Iron Dragon Slayer attacks him. Meanwhile, Laxus and Orga are having a my cock lightning is better than you cock lightning conversation, but, after faffing about finally decide to fight. I dunno, the music in this scene was the really dramatic intense one usually used in moments when the heros are at a loss for what to do, so hearing it here for a battle was just weird imo :/ W/e though.

Whatever indeed, because just as the two start to get into it, who should appear but Jura! Hehehe >:)

But we cut, and, across town, Juvia and Chelia are still continuing their adorable fangirl fight when both Gray and Lyon show up, the latter ignoring Chelia and focussing on Juvia and yelling at Gray whilst the former doesn't seem to want to be anywhere in the immediate vicinity. Well, that's love... uhh... love squares(?) for you~

I would really like to stay and see this fight, but it seems the anime crew have other ideas, because we cut back to Mercurius for the Rescue Team again... and they're lost... again... I think .-.

Anyways, FLucy awakens and there's some stuff said about her future and, really, I know I should care, but with the anime using THE SAME clips yet again to show the bad future I just want to skip because I feel like I've seen it all before. Seriously anime crew, get your act together. Ain't nobody wanna see the same goddamn clips over and over on repeat!! >__>

Well, at least a very nicely animated FLucy and Hisui end the episode for us :)



Okay... *goes to get crackers and dip and returns* Onwards!

...*opens up dip* *dip is definitely off* Oh ffs!! *goes to get Shapes instead*

Okay... can I start now!? Yes? Good!!

Ah stuff it, it's all old clips right now...

Finally, here we go... FLucy explains that on the 7th of July, 10,000 Dragons will swarm the skies and Crocus will be destroyed - that is the future she came to prevent. The others are shocked and a little unnerved to hear that hey die in her future, but FLucy is the most surprised, as she thought none of them would believe her.

As the others ponder, we get another flashforward to FLucy's future, but YET AGAIN the anime team just reuses the old clips from before. I mean, for crying out loud! I can understand maybe using them twice, but I swear this is the fourth time at least that I've seen these clips and I'm just over it >__> *sighs* so, skipping ahead, skipping ahead... Okay, FLucy explains that she just used the Eclipse Gate on instinct and arrived two days ago on July 4th. Of course, this bothers the group, as they note that it was very recent. However, Arcadios is bothered most of all, as he notes that Princess Hisui has been talking to her from-the-future helper for longer than that. He also notes that Hisui has been saying that she has all of these plans to save the world thought up, despite FLucy stating that she has no idea how the Eclipse Gate works at all. Obviously, something is up.

But fuck people being mysterious and people lying, because NaLu moment bitches \( o__o)/



Awwwww :3

But fuck NaLu, because Crime Sorciere!!! \( O__O)/

Ah, my baby Jellal has also caught on and figured out that nothing really adds up, and he's decidi-

OMG!! ULTEAR'S CAUGHT THE PINK-EYE PLAGUE TOO!! >:O No! Really!? First Meredy and now Ultear as well? Ffs!! I hope this doesn't continue to spread or else the next person to get pink-eye will be Jellal T^T And he has the most gorgeous hunter green eyes... don't make him lose them DX *flails*

But, away from pink eye because we go back to Rogue and Gajeel and see how their going. Basically, Rogue can't defeat Gajeel, and, after confessing that he's lost his way and looks up to Gajeel because the man has chosen his own path, the two come to an understanding, with Frosch being dangerously cute the entire time :3

HOWEVER! Suddenly something appears and starts urging Rogue to attack Gajeel. Just who is this mysterious 3rd player? Why, it's Rogue's... sh-shadow? Whaaaat? o__O

Yes, so Rogue's shadow of all things wants him to kill Gajeel and offers him the power to do so, but stuff weird shadow beings, because we cut back to Mercurius (I feel like I repeat this line a lot .-.) to the Rescue Team, who have not only lost Arcadios and Yukino, but also been found by the Imperial Army. As Mira runs off to find Yukino, the others stay and fight, with Carla having bad feelings about everything.

Finally! Back to Rogue, and the man has been seemingly possessed by his shadow, and proceeds to give Gajeel a good beating with some new spells. I have to say, I did really love the way they animated Rogue in his Shadow-possessed form:



However, I feel that some of the spells were a little bland and held-back in their appearance.



See what I mean? Not bad, but Mashima definitely just has a way of showing great detail in a nice way :)

So, as Levy in particular frets over Gajeel's safety and Frosch questions who Rogue is, the two continue to clash and CrimeS with their pink eyes up on the hill over Crocus suddenly feel the presence of the Dark Magic. Meredy and Ultear seem to want to investigate, but Jellal is against it, as he think FLucy won't cause trouble so long as she is with actual Lucy and Natsu.

Speaking of actual Lucy, the anti-Magic squad is called to deal with the Mages (these turn out to be a bunch of guys with long hair who all look the same and are just as weak as their army friends) along with...

Along with...

Along with...



...

...

...

http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/ii630/cardipwn/Gifs/NOPEbutton.gif

M-moving along and back with an actual fight, Rogue has Gajeel in a choke hold. As Frosch makes an adorable little break out of Domus Flau to help its possessed friend, Gajeel is tossed to the ground to be consumed by shadows.

Is Gajeel gunna just take this treatment? Of course not! In a stunning turn of events he decides to pull a Natsu and begins to consume Rogue's shadows, rising as his skin turns to metal and he vows to remind Rogue of just how scary he can be.

Iron Shadow Dragon Mode is here!!



Hell yeah >:D



Ah, more recaps of events. I do love this music, but I am getting kinda sick of it now. I mean, there are so many great FT tracks and they aren't being used. I've seen some people saying that they can't be used due to them belonging to the old studio, but I swear I've heard some of the old ones already in previous episodes, so I dunno :/

Wait... see? The start of this ep after the intro uses one of the old soundtracks! Told you so!

Anyways, the fight of the now both powered-up Dragon Slayers begins and I have to say that as a whole, I was pretty impressed with this battle. The animation for the most part was good and I liked how they did the shadow parts.

However, I think the slow soundtrack combined with the slow animation really made the fight seem.... well, slow at times, and it seemed to end rather quickly without much being done. I think I would have preferred them adding in a bit of filler and speeding the whole thing up.

The fight does end though and Gajeel is victorious and he watches as a creepy black shadow leaves Rogue's body and disappears.

But stuff shadows, because Frosch has just appeared!!



Omg! I LOVE this little Exceed X3 Like the cutest little fucker on the planet!! Frosch begs Gajeel not to harm Rogue, but of course Gajeel would never do that. So Frosch goes to comfort Rogue in the most adorable way possible and for some reason Rogue can't remember any of the fight that just took place. My, my, my... just what was that shadow??

We cut back to the Rescue Team during this break and BY GOD it is so easy to see that a slightly different team has tackled this episode. Not only do the attacks look great, the animation style smoother, but even the other background characters of the army have distinctive faces that aren't just copy/pasted 100 times over. Seriously, they should move some of this team to the others to even things out, because the episode jumps in quality are just FAR too noticeable... and then there's the team on the other end who I swear did Erza vs. Kagura and ep 177 >__>



I mean, far out!

So they're still fighting and then who should reappear but-

No! It's not the fucking dolphin man!!

It's the Garou Knights!

Granted, I wasn't expecting them this soon (this is slight filler anionlys) but I didn't mind what we saw, so I can't really complain. Whilst FT are busy with them yet again, Arcadios is busy getting on his new armour.

Admittedly, well, the armour looked good, but I did like its manga version better. I guess it was just cleaner, as always:



Just looks... fuller in the manga, y'know?

Anyways, screw the armour, because Arcadios is heading towards the princess. He has been thinking long and hard and has come to the conclusion that something is wrong/contradictory between Hisui and FLucy's stories; however, he has also decided that he believes there is no way FLucy could be lying, and, as such, Hisui is the one telling the lies!!

Dun dun DUUUUUUUNNNN!!

Uhhhh... I do have to question why the knights supposedly guarding the hallways, who are meant to ensure the safety of the princess, let an armoured soldier who recently was fired for treason through and even told him where to find the princess when he was obviously livid about something, but I'll let it slide ^__^"

Back to the GMG and we see a small flash of Minerva starting her assault on Erza before we head back to the battle of lovers, where Gray and Lyon are both using their Ice Make to try and down the other. Can I just say that Lyon's Ice Make looked AWESOME here? I've always loved Lyon's version of dynamic Ice Make (far more than Gray's) and I loved seeing it here because it looked so great :)



Yay~ :3

As they fight and Chapati is being a dirty old perv, we cut back yet again to the Rescue Team. I must say I did like the transition here, between the laughing crowd having fun at the GMG and the seriousness of what is concurrently happening in the palace.

More filler spells and fights and holy hell Wendy's hair is looking long here o__O Must admit I did find it funny to see Loke hitting on Cosmos XD XD Hahahaha! On the flip-side, I didn't like all the stuff Kama was throwing at Lily. I mean, like he'd know about his history in the army... it seems the anime team just wanted some reason for Lily to be angry with him :/

But but but!! Finally to the events related to the title of this episode (lol, yep, like 17 minutes in XD) because we go back to Laxus, Orga and Jura in the GMG.

Now, to start with I HATED this fight and everything to do with it in the manga. I am a rather big Orga fan, and Laxus and Jura are both very nice characters in my eyes, so it's not because I hate the characters or anything. As such, I was rather meh about this whole upcoming battle purely because I really didn't want to relive it :<

So, how shocked I was!

Seeing Orga get one-shot here was actually enjoyable :) I dunno if it was the music, or the way the scene was built up, but I genuinely had a smile on my face when Jura stood over Orga and made that comment about finishing battles in one blow. Really, I never expected to enjoy it as much as I did, so kudos to the anime team :D

But of course this now leaves Jura and Laxus, and Laxus has nowhere to run.

Again, the start of this battle was really nicely built up to and the sunset setting just looked amazing~ Also, I adored the drop of info on the 4 Gods. Damn, I can't wait to see more of them :D :D



Yay AGAIN~ X3

Anyways, back to Laxus and Jura and Laxus goes in for the charge, quick as always, and, as always, the ever-calm Jura waits for the perfect moment to strike.

And strike he does, crushing Laxus into the ground as the audience stare on in shock.

But, Laxus is not Orga. Laxus has been floored in battles before and knows how to stand up, so stand up he does. Punching Jura straight in the jaw, Laxus is back on his feet and ready to keep going!



Awwww yeah!!

So, next month it seems we will get more Erza vs. Minerva, more Laxus vs. Jura and more of the foursome battle~ Looking forward to all of them to be honest, because there are aspects of each one that I want to see so badly!! SPOILER!! In particular: Nakagami (please look good! T^T), the GrayJuvia combo attack and how they animate Laxus' spells and the like in his fight SPOILER!!

But, wait I shall, though it seems from the preview that we might be getting all of these things that I want to see next week o__O Wow, the anime sure is flying through, even with its filler content. I really hope they don't take another hiatus so soon, but then again, I don't like filler arcs all that much :/ Guess we'll have to wait and see~

Still, some of these episodes were very well animated, and it would seem the animation team (at least some of them) are starting to make their static shots manga -> anime, so that's nice to see :D I hope they keep it up :3

Well, this about wraps up this longer addition of TMITA! I hope you liked it and I'll see you all next month :)

...OH AND ANIMATE MORE JELLALERZA!!

That is all :3

Carrot out~