This is Part 2 of my 100 Follower Celebration, Part 1 can be found here if you missed it and Part 3 is here.
And we’re back—my god we’re only a third of the way though this thing—so what is the show actually about? Well it’s about the Fairy Tail guild, a group of adventurers with various magical abilities who take up various jobs and quests around the fictional world of Earth-land.
Pfft, “Earth-land”?! Shut up!
Sorry, go on. There’s various other guilds throughout the land, some are friendly toward Fairy Tail while others are downright hostile and aggressive. The early story arcs such as the ‘Lullaby arc’ which deals with the dark guild Eisenwald that has been banned by the Magic Council and the ‘Phantom Lord arc’ which deals with rival guild are great storylines for the truly massive ensemble cast this show has. These larger event arcs get to showcase the cool powers and entertaining personalities of the side characters, of whom most of my favourite characters belong to.
Well we’ll get to favourite character later. There’s others ‘arcs’ you want to talk about? Yes the ‘Oracion Seis arc’ and the ‘Tenrou Island arc’ also deal with dark guild’s, but the ‘Oracion Seis arc’ in particular brings together a bunch of friendly guilds too to help form an alliance and we get to see even more characters.
Uh-huh. But are the storylines in these arcs any good? You seem to be only talking about the characters here? “It’s the friends we’ve met along the way that help us appreciate the journey”.
Is that a quote from the show? No, but it might as well be, this show puts a massive emphasis on the power of friendship and caring and helping one another. I’m sure it’s nothing new in the world of Shonen anime but it was really heartening to have these kind of messages of warmth and positivity in a show. Even if it did get a little cheesy at times…
How do you mean? Well, I do recall on one occasion at least, somebody’s tears brining a person back from the dead. If that isn’t some top quality cheddar I don’t know what is.
*nods* Wait, you completely evaded my question with a lame inspirational quote. What about the storylines? Some of them are good! Some of them not so much, the point of that quote was trying to get across the point that it’s the characters that make Fairy Tail the kind of show that I love unreservedly even if it’s lacking in other areas.
We’re still not ready to talk about your favourite characters… Damn!
So tell me what arcs you liked, the plots of that is, not just the fact they had a lot of side characters. Sure, I mean the ‘Phantom Lord arc’ certainly upped the stakes with the destruction of their beloved guild hall by the dark guild Phantom Lord. And obviously the Edolas arc was pure fun since we got to see alternate reality/mirror universe versions of a lot of the characters and the genuinely touching moments of Mirajane and Elfman being able to reunite with their sister Lisanna (or a version of her) who had died long ago.
Feels? So many damn feels! Also, also the stuff with Happy and his parents, oh my god, I’m crying all over again. I can’t even with these feels…
*hands over a tissue box* Thank you… *loudly blows nose*
No problem… so uh, any other noteworthy arcs? Yes! Maybe my favourite, strictly from a story-telling perspective was ‘The Tower of Heaven arc’, only 8 episodes but so jam packed full of backstory and action and high stakes drama.
And worst story arcs? Oh… tough one, ‘Galuna Island arc’ was a bit lacking at times, but getting some of Gray’s backstory was super important. ‘Daphne arc’ was kinda lame filler, but it is what it is. I think the one arc where the show began to display some signs that it was tiring out or stretching things out way too long was the ‘Tenrou Island arc’ (what is it about Islands?).
What about it made it feel that way? Well up to this point the show had 3 ways of starting an episode. Either it just continues from where the last episode ended, it has a brief voiceover narrator recap of the previous plot points or it just shows the last 30 seconds to a minute from the previous episode’s ending scene maybe with some stuff cut out.
But I take it it’s different in this arc? It’s the worst. At the start of almost every episode in this arc they just play 2-5 minutes of the previous episode all over again, which might might be okay if I were watching it week-to-week but binge watching it like I did made for a frustrating experience. It’s a 27 episode arc, that could have easily been 20~ episodes had they not opted to pad it out so poorly.
But that’s more of a production problem (i.e. we need this many episodes, fill it out however you can) as opposed a problem with the plot itself. I mean the plot is fine, the main villain is kinda lame and there’s a lot of deus ex machina moments, but it’s just kind of repetitive. Lots of great character moments though, like the stuff with Gildarts and Cana is lovely. Can I talk about Gildarts and Cana yet?
No! We’ve got to pad this thing out to 100 Questions somehow! You could ask me the same questions and I could answer them again!
Heh, very funny. Yeah, I know, I’d never pad out a review.
Exactly, you’re above such cheap tactics. Indeed.
Indeed… Yes…
Ahem… So anyway, I’m looking at my notes here and I notice that Fairy Tail is actually split up into 2 seasons (with a 3rd and final on the way). All these arc’s you’ve been talking about have been from the 1st season. What about the 2nd season? Sure, let’s talk about the second season, it’s uh… kind of a mess. I mean I still love it because the character’s are as great as ever and there’s a lot of development of said characters, but the story is just kind of forgettable, which is obviously the opposite of what they were going for as it’s supposed to be some big deal the whole Tartaros trying to end the world thing.
Ah the ol’ reliable ‘end of the world’ plot. Indeed, it’s fine, it just doesn’t really have that much threat attached. I never once worried it was actually going to happen, sure I worried about the fate of some characters, but never that the world was going to end.
So what good things do you have to say about the 2nd season? Well the characters—
—aside from the characters, we’ll get there soon. Fine! Uh, so even though I watched the 2nd season more recently, I remember less about it. There were two things that stand out in my mind though one is Lucy having to break one of her celestial key’s, thus losing her connection to Aquarius, the celestial spirit she was closest to. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and such a good storyline.
And the second. Wendy! In Episode 243 and 244 she undergoes such growth. Not only defeating a powerful enemy by unleashing her ‘Dragon Force’ but then willing to sacrifice her own young life to stop the ‘face bombs’ from detonating. I cried, I cried a lot.
She… she didn’t die did she? Do I sense concern in your voice?
N-no! I’m just curious is all… Well no. She and Carla are saved by Doranbolt’s teleportation magic at the last second. Which ordinarily I’d say is a bit of a cop out, but Wendy was so brave that I don’t even mind.
Cool, so— Wait! I remembered another plot point, ugh, I feel so stupid that I forgot it. Though it happens in season 1, but I need to talk about it!
Okay, fair enough. Let’s hear about it then. It comes out of the arc I was complaining about earlier, the ‘Tenrou Island arc’, or rather at the end of it and in the ‘X791 arc’. See while a lot of the Fairy Tail guild was on Tenrou Island battling Grimoire Heart, seven years have passed outside the island, even though to those on the island it only felt like a couple of days! As you can imagine for the people left at the guild this is a big deal to find out that their friends and colleagues are still alive after all this time!
That’s is a pretty interesting development. It is, though I think they could have done more with it it’s still a great way of shaking things up. I think I would have preferred if say one of the main characters had stayed behind to make this plot line all the more interesting.
Right well— Can I talk about the characters now! I want to talk about how much I love them!
Alright, fine. But not here, we shall continue the discussion in part 3 of this ridiculous endeavour! Hopefully you’re all not too bored of this!
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Anime QandA 
This reminds me that I really should finish the manga.
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