User blog:Ninja-Sensei/Episode 204: Stake My Life on Hospitality, Review

Episode 204: "Stake My Life on Hospitality" Review

This episode marks the introduction of Eclipse CS arc, which I am going to call Rebellion arc. The new intro Mysterious Magic has started, and I like it. It features portraits of our main characters and the Celestial Spirits.

The episode starts off with Yukino, Lucy, Natsu, and Happy heading up to Hill of the Stars. Lucy is going to grant wishes for all the spirits since they were so helpful and destroyed the Eclipse Portal.

Spirits

The spirits came out, one by one as they usually do. Lucy is granting them all a wish.

Aries is up first. Aries is apologetic as usual, but Lucy tells her she is inviting her instead of asking her. Aries is hesitant to say it, but she bursts out "I want a sun tan!" Natsu takes the duty upon himself to just roast her in fire, which puts her in a wool bikini with darker skin. Hawt. Lucy just sits there in disbelief of what happened.

Taurus is up next. Lucy says what everyone is thinking, it is obviously going to get awkward. He comes out, makes moo puns, and then comments on Yukino's body. Then leaves. Wtf (.____. )

Virgo decides to come from the ground without a summon, rumor about Lucy's gifts have spread around the Spirit World. Virgo states her request; take an ultimate punishment with in kawaii mode. Happy offers the whip, but Lucy just flicks her... "Thank you for that blissful moment". Hilarious segment.

Cancer comes out and gives Happy some afro hair. Yeah. Happy hates it so much.

Capricorn is summoned next. Capricorn meets his gentleman appearance, and reads a sleep inducing poem. He reads with grace and comments how it was made for lucy-sama. Daww.

Scorpion is shown from a far viewpoint and is basically skipped.

Sagittarius comes out and is SUPER excited to fufill his wish. This was predictable, shoot an apple off the head. Specifically, Happy's afro head. natsu says it was worth the trip, and the arrow flies through Happy's new hair. Misses the apple entirely. So much for being a great shot ( -____-). Happy's new hair looks even sillier.

Gemini basically wishes for the approval to take on Lucy in a bath robe. Lucy gets SUPER embarrassed. Gemini are so happy and satisfied, and Lucy is in a fit of rage xD Lucy sends them back quickly.

Yukino brings out Libra for her wish to give Lucy a break. Libra quickly decides to just put all the characters under extreme gravity, which satisfies her in whatever way. Starting to seem obvious that they just want to show off the characters abilities and obvious assumptions (.___. )

I take back that statement. Pisces is next. Pisces just gets straight to it, swallowing Happy. Couldn't help but laugh. Yukino apologies to Happy, but Happy's dignity has been crushed. Natsu tries to cheer him up, but Happy is legitimately pissed.

Lucy summons Loke next. Loke decides to start flirting with Yukino and wants to arrange a date. Lucy is angry because he obviously is here for a wish, not a DESIRE to have a date. Natsu interrupts saying Loke should hang out at the guild more, and Loke wrecks him. Twice. Lucy sends him off cockblocked.

Out of all these, my favorites were probably Virgo and Aries. I'm pretty annoyed that Scorpion was just left out for some reason over the others. The bits with Happy could have been shortened to fit him in. Also, sloppy job with a few of them. Stereotyping them could have been better, but sending in Libra to do one nonsensical thing was ridiculous.

Aquarius and Lucy

Lucy is feeling stressed physically and mentally, and guess who is last? Lucy summons Aquarius at the edge of a waterfall, so Aquarius brings them down there. What is the first thing Lucy does? "Is your relationship at risk?" LOL. Aquarius says she isn't in a good mood, which is practically always, but whatevs! \( .___.)/

Aquarius says she wants to laugh, which is typical and lazy writing. The cynical ones always want laughing. To do so Lucy and Yukino do a dumb skit, they look like dumbasses. So Aquarius sends them off with water. Lucy is pushed off a cliff and is catched by a branch all dazed. Aquarius finds this funny, and so do I a little. And now...

ENTER FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELS

So the sun is setting and Aquarius sets Lucy down safely. Aquarius comments on how she enjoys having Lucy as a master, and we enter a flashback. Cute little lucy is spalshing Aquarius wanting to play, and Aquarius is annoyed because she does this EVERY time they take a bath. Cut to a few years grown up Lucy, and Lucy summons her in the goldfish bowl all the time to talk to her. Aquarius says she should get some human friends, but Lucy says she gets lonely because she doesn't have any. Even now, Lucy appreciates Aquarius. This creates some foreshadowing, the events we have been waiting for are next time (previews.)

Overall: 7 (Average)

The animation in this episode was pretty good. Scenes with Virgo and Aquarius looked nice, Sagittarius was also pretty neat. The bond between Lucy and Aquarius is different than any other Spirit. I'm glad they are building this relationship up for what's to come. Unfortunately the cheap comedy and stereotypes with the CS were ridiculous and the episode could have been so much better. Yukino was also pretty useless. They could have just removed the majority of the spirit's appearances and things would have still been good enough.


 * + Solid bridge between arcs
 * + Lucy & Aquarius
 * + CS spirits being clueless
 * + Animation


 * - Dumb interaction with a few spirits
 * - laziness
 * - The dumb play
 * - Too much Happy filler