User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Episde 225: The Lightning Man, Review/@comment-24277053-20150322213936

Say what you want about the long time without main manga canon material, one thing it does improve on from the manga for me that is, is Minerva's return.

When she appeared in the Sun Village arc, my reaction was she is back already? She wasn't MIA for that long. But now here in the anime, it does feel like a long time ago since she last appeared at the end of finals of the Grand Magic Games. So yes her return well have more of a impact, and feel like it's been awhile.