User blog comment:Miskos3/Chapter 478: Stealth, Review/@comment-25572451-20160321022929/@comment-1776824-20160321023332

The anime has been nearly nothing but canon since episode 227, and it was because they had a contract and a certain number of episodes to fill, so to make it as far apart from the manga as possible before another hiatus, they had the Eclipse Spirits and some omake adaptations. And Ice Trail's canon is ambiguous anyway. For all intents and purposes it's not canon, but Hiro has said that if people want to believe that it really happened, then he doesn't mind. But the fact of the matter is that unless it comes from Hiro Mashima himself they won't adapt it.