User blog:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Episode 174: Four Dragons, Review

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Well, that was something! Summary/Commentary Oh my, what a surprise! I expected the anime to repeat whole fight from the start, it's just two minutes anyway.. but I was proven wrong. Minor recap aside, both teams stare at each other and the-... Wait... Where did Sting's White Drive go? Why is Rogue the only one glowing? I mean shadowing? Whatever...

Sting attacks, punching Natsu who, however, withstands it until he is subsequently hit again. Gajeel is worried about him. How cute! Even though he has his own load of trouble.. Rouge keeps quickly moving in his shadow form, with Gajeel unable to attack him. Both Natsu and Gajeel are then thrown each other which annoys them. Anyone else finds Sting and Rogue's double MUHAHAHA laugh hilarious? Anyway, Natsu and Gajeel keep being pushed back. Mavis is a smartass once again and claims that it's a magic amplification techinque.

HAHAHA. Someone stole the giant screen from the infirmary? Well, they found their way to waste some time. Omg! The crowd is cheering different way! Omg! It changed again! Omg! It's so quiet.. lol..

At the arena, the battle continues. Sting attempts to use White Dragon's Claw, marking Natsu with a stigmata thanks to which he is unable to move. Sting then claims that he will now surpass Natsu. Well, think again. Similarly to how "the prey" captures its "hunter" while Levy does weird things to Pantherliliy, Natsu burns off the stigmata and punches Sting. I liked the way that was animated, with Natsu hitting him out of sudden. So now Sting and Rogue are the one being pushed back. And Levy chokes Pantherlily.

Sting praises Natsu and Gajeel and then unleashes his ultimate move - Holy Nova. To no avail, because Natsu blocks it bare-handed. ... Wellll, what a development. Rogue doesn't even attempt to use any "awesome" spell as he's just owned like that. As Yajima claims that they belong to differen league, a somewhat ruined shot of Natsu and Gajeel is shown. I wonder why anime tones it down when it comes to muscles. Right, Gray?

We get a brief flashback of little Sting and Lector as the former gets up, and along with Rogue, they unleashe Dragon Force. Everyone is surprised, although Mavis not as much as in manga, heh. Surprisingly, Sting then moves forward, telling Rogue that he can take care of them on his own. And so, Natsu and Gajeel begin to get owned! All of their attempts to attack Sting are in vain while Sting manages to hit them several times. He then unleashes his Holy Breath, breaking the floor of the arena and shocking everyone. The battle then moves underground, with Natsu using Fire Dragon's Sword Horn and Gajeel unleashing his Iron Dragon's Roar. However, Sting is unfazed and casts Holy Ray, severely damaging both Natsu and Gajeel. They exchange a few more blows until...

A flashback. Little Lector is seen crying, he complains that people don't trust his words about Sting beating a dragon. Well, no wonder. Young Sting then promises that he will prove it by defeating Salamander. Back to the present, Sting is standing above seemingly defeated Natsu and Gajeel, claiming that he has kept his promise. Rogue arrives after doing absolutely nothing, what was the point of him releasing Dragon Force anyway, and comments about Dragon Slayer generations. Such a nice scene that could've been quite the surprising ending of this battle, but no. After Fairy Tail's encouragmenet - thank God they didn't pull the Fairy Tail Goodbye sign *stares at the opening sequence* - Natsu and Gajeel stand up and after random conflict, Gajeel is sent away on a cart. Natsu then challenge Sting and Rogue, alone and so the episode ends..-

No, it doesn't! Everyone, don't miss the hilarious omake that's right after the ending sequence.

Final Verdict Well, I surely typed a lot this time! This episode, no doubt, deserves it tho. It's been a while since we had a completely action-based episode. While I could complain about the way certain scenes were drawn or certain moves animated, I must say that overall animation was nice. Looking at the upcoming (and supposedly last) episode, it will only get better. Story-wise, I will not complain about the fact that Gajeel was sent away and Natsu will get his time to shine even more as if he didn't have enough already, but most of us have been through that in the chapters that this episode adapted. Anyway, I think the anime has done nice job with this fight so far, even if I surely can find some flaws. But again, looking at the quality of some episodes in this arc, I should be happy with what we got here. 9/10. No random stuff as most of the 'random' issues have been incorporated into the Summary or Final Verdict.

So what do you think about this episode? Share with us!