Template:TMITA/June 2015

 



So last week, the Tartaros arc started with a bang, damn, I'm so good at puns, and this episode pretty much continues to deliver in a similar manner. What we have here is Laxus standing against Tempester, after the latter mops the floor with the Thunder God Tribe and Yajima. And so, Laxus graciously returns the favor and mops the floor with the Demon. Yay? Well, to be honest, I hoped that the anime would work more with this fight. It was already short in the manga, however, in the anime, it felt like it ended in a flash. Punssss No, really, it was so fast, that for a good minute, I was under the impression that the anime actually cut some parts out. However, it was still animated rather well, albeit a bit too static at times.

Is this the end of "Tempester the Immortal"? One could argue that blowing himself up sealed the deal, however, Tartaros has some good hacks to keep the game going. Honestly, at this point, I was really worried that it was gonna turn into a friggin' Great Ninja World War with everyone and their grandma getting Edo Tensei'd.



So wait, why exactly did Tempester blow himself up? That's quite simple! Laxus2OP so Mashima had to remove him from the arc somehow. And what's better than being out during the whole main fight thanks to a poison of sorts? Probably only Gildarts making more Canas while being out of the story as well.

Moving on, Fairy Tail finds out what happened just as PorlywhateverIcanNeverSpellYourName reveals the conditions of Laxus and co. I have to say, the scene with Makarov lying to Freed about the town being safe was pretty well done, starting with the pacing, everyone's reactions and ending with the soundtrack. Anyways, now that they know that Tartaros is after the former council members as well, Fairy Tail decides to send teams to protect the remaining ones. But before that, shippers shall rejoice as we get some Elfman x Evergreen or Mirajane x Laxus. I mean, two characters appeared in the same episode, must be a shipping moment, right?! Well, back to the topic, Natsu, Lucy, Wendy and their Exceed arrive to Michello's place. While Wendy is probably imagining what exactly happened between Loke and Michelia, Jackal's explosive arrival (huehue) interrupts the party and Natsu challenges the Demon in order to protect everyone else.

Well, what can I say. I'm probably gonna repeat myself a lot with this line, but I'm glad to see the overall quality being upped since the start of the Tartaros arc. This episode was a pretty nice setup for the upcoming events while having its action, as well as emotional moments. It gets 8/10 from me!



The Magic Council explodes! And wow, they fixed the sound.

* continues watching*

R.I.P. Lahar and Org. :c

* skips the opening*

Oh no! Laxus!

* moar watching*

Lucy and the narrator speaking at the same time is quite ann- wait a goddamn second!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It took exactly 6 minutes and 58 seconds to get through the recap, opening included. I mean, I get why they're doing this, but holy shit, 7 minutes? When we add the outro and the preview at the end, that's 9 minutes out of 24 that go lolwhatever in terms of actual content.

Thankfully, those 13 minutes of -actual content- really do make up for all the wasted time. For the first time after a while, an entire episode focuses on a single thing - the fight between Jackal and Natsu's group. The animation of the fight was pretty nice. They even put some blood in! As many actually hoped for, they also extended the short confrontation between Lucy/Wendy and Jackal. That was nice as well.

Overall, another pretty well done episode. The recap... well, what else can they do? Some filler? Who needs more Dolphin man or Mattan Ginger. Adapt one more chapter? One of the options, but a rather dangerous one, I suppose. Anyways, the animation and art quality have been pretty solid and the suspense is also being delivered thanks to the soundtracks, which are always quite epic. This episode gets 8/10, again.



So if you thought that last episode was a special, think again and enjoy another 7 minutes long recap.



Enough about that, though. Having gotten used to Jackal's explosions - in spite of the anime trying to make it understandable, it's still quite the mystery as to what Natsu actually does... - Natsu continues attacking. However, Jackal is not done yet and unleashes his Etherious form. Boy, does it look epic in the anime! I loved the transformation, the change of his voice, the looks, the color scheme, everything! Alas... it doesn't last long, as the Lightning Flame Dragon Natsu deals with Jackal quite fast. But wait! Jackal just turns himself into a bomb, wanting to destroy the entire town along with the Fairy Tail mages. I mean, when you have an Edo Tensei hack, why not?

What comes next is probably everyone's favorite moment of the series. Happy saves the day! Happy, the Nekomander! Happy, the one that stopped Hades! Ha... No, seriously, I think the anime has, once again, handled this pretty well. The scene was quite emotional and the delay actually made it seem like Happy had a real chance to escape. Which is, of course, what he did.

Not everyone is as lucky as Michello though, actually, every other former council member is found dead. Seilah makes her appearance at Yuri's place, confronting Elfman and Lisanna. Making use of her Macro, Seilah causes Elfman to choke his sister. Man, I really like Seilah's voice actor, it fits so well. Anyways, we also have a bomb dropped my puns are unstoppable in the form of Face's reveal, being a magic pulse bomb that, upon use, gets rid of all the magic on the continent. Knowing that it's been sealed by 3 other former members, Erza and Mirajane are sent to protect the former chairman, as well as to obtain the necessary information.

Hype hype hype! Whoever doesn't find Mirajane and Erza teamming up as one of the most exciting moments doesn't probably care at all. -_- Other than that, the episode was, once again, pretty nice. The animation continues to deliver, so no complaints there. 8/10... once again!



And that's it for the Prologue. With this episode, the real deal apparently starts and we have Erza and Mirajane using their questionable form of transport to reach the chairman's house. Before that happens though, Mirajane points out Jellal being in danger. I like how Erza thinks, knowing that he can protect himself, so instead of panicking, she focuses on her mission. Anyways! After Erza and Mirajane arrive, their conversation with Crawford can be summed up as 'Lel, I know nothing, but I remember Natsu cosplaying as Erza'. Thankfully, what comes next is... absolutely epic! Too bad it was so short though. ;_; Seeing Erza and Mirajane own those random soldier, as well as their threat about protecting Crawford #epicpose was so great.

Meanwhile, Oración Seis are released from the prison in exchange for Doranbolt receiving information about Tartaros and Face. However, he's not gonna let them go just like that, here come Jellal and Meredy to face the six! I mean five, because Brain gets Cobra'd. At the same time, Natsu apparently becomes the most intelligent character of the series, because he figures out the chairman's adress, the fact that he's a traitor and Erza and Mira being in danger. Good going? Well, he's right as Crawford takes Erza and Mira to the Tartaros HQ, with the former being tortured by Kyôka for information about Jellal's whereabouts. Because, apparently, his death will mean that the seal on Face is undone.

The aforementioned, everyone's favorite blue-haired Mage continues fighting Oración Seis seemingly for no reason. Hopefully we will find out the purpose soon! Oh, and Natsu storms into his enemy's base. Sorry I've called you intelligent. :'D

Well then! I'd say that this episode had its ups and downs. As I already mentioned, Erza and Mirajane teamming up was really epic and I loved how the scene was done. However, it seemed like the art quality had dropped in some parts of the episode, namely the Oración Seis and Jellal scenes. I guess I had higher expectations for these parts, to the point that I felt that some shots - Seis' and Jellal's appearances were kinda ruined. And of course, probably the most discussed issue - Erza wearing clothes during the torture, is there as well. However, if anyone actually thought it wouldn't get censored at all, they were pretty delusional and in the end, I don't even mind this change as the overall point is still kept there. So, this episode gets a 7/10 from me.



I'm sorry, I'm out of steam. Way too lazy at this point q.q

Well, here comes another rather solid episode! This time, they even adapted more than two chapters, so there was no need for 7 minutes of a recap. Thank god. In any case, as per the tradition of X vs. Y titles, the fight in question takes only like 1 minutes of the episode. :'D And I gotta say, I'm still not feeling it. While the art quality overall has gone up since the start of the Sun Village arc, it looks like Bridge has yet to adapt to the looks of Oración Seis, as they didn't really look good, save for Cobra, who has always been drawn really well, especially in this arc.

A lot of other things happened in the episode, starting with Natsu's short fight against Franmalth, and Silver instantly owning him afterwards. I gotta say, the soundtrack of Silver (I assume that's what it is) is quite epic. Anyways, as we already knew thanks to the preview from previous week, Natsu and Lisanna, now imprisoned, aren't losing all of their clothes, which, apparently, pisses off a lot of fans. Oh well. At least some people got to enjoy a shirtless Natsu. We've also gotten a few filler scenes with Happy escaping from Tartaros HQ, as well as Natsu's numerous attempts to break from their cell.

We continue with little changes as, even though some kind of lesbian relationship between Seilah and Kyôka is still implied, the scene of Seilah lying in bed - which, in my opinion, is another implication of what happened between the two - is changed as well. I know, what I'm just pointing out is really minor stuff, but these little things are what make the character and too many alterations may change those.

So in spite of my nitpicking, I pretty much enjoyed the episode. I'm really looking forward to the next one, so I hope it's done well! This one gets a 7.5/10.

I believe I won't exaggerate if I say that this was probably the strongest month of anime since it restarted back in 2014. So many solid episodes, one after another, are not something we were used to! Can we get used to it, though? We shall see! This month gets a nice 8/10 from me.

P.S. Many of you have probably noticed, but in case someone hasn't, a new PV for the Tartaros arc has been released and it can be watched here. Just beware of spoilers, anime-only fans.

Misk's out~