Review for Fairy Tail: Part 2

Introduction

Last time I was making some noise about the worst kept secret in the anime industry, the rumoured release of Dragonball Z in the UK. Well since then, rumours have solidified into reality, and the first of nine boxsets will be released in July. Fans of vintage anime, fans who love nostalgia, and have a warm place in their hearts for one of the most popular anime franchises of yesteryear have a lot to smile about. But what about fans who want something a little more up to date with their long running anime shows. You can't get much more up to date than Fairy Tail, the second instalment of which I'm reviewing now. It's still being made for broadcast in Japan, has gotten as far as episode 130, and may prove to be the next big thing, just as popular. Of course, I'll be a lot less edgy about this show if Funimation would hurry up and announce that they've licensed the next batch of episodes, as at the time of writing they still only have the first 48. This second volume will take us to the halfway point of that batch. I hope Fairy Tail will pan out for all concerned. After the most recent instalment of Bleach, I need something like Fairy Tail to restore my faith in long running anime franchises.


The Kingdom of Fiore is a rather special place, a nation of some 17 million where magic exists, is commonplace, and is a commodity to be bought and sold. Those who become proficient in magic are the wizards, and together they form guilds to serve the community, or serve themselves. The most famous, and indeed the most infamous guild of them all is Fairy Tail. 17-year-old Lucy Heartfilia is a wizard, or rather she wants to be a wizard. She's already skilled in a Celestial magic, able to summon spirits to do her bidding using Gatekeys. Her dream is to be in Fairy Tail, and when she meets a travelsick young wizard named Natsu, and his talking cat companion Happy, it seems like destiny has brought them together. Now Lucy has joined the Fairy Tail Guild, and with its unique roster of wizards, including Natsu, the ice wizard Gray Fullbuster, and the armour wizard Erza Scarlet, and the flying cat Happy, they undertake the toughest, the most challenging, and the weirdest of missions.


Manga Entertainment release the next twelve episodes of Fairy Tail across two discs. Over the episodes, the adventure on Galuna Island concludes, bringing Gray Fullbuster face to face with his past, an ancient piece of magic causes an identity crisis for the members of Fairy Tail, Mirajane recounts the story of how Natsu and Happy got acquainted, and then Fairy Tail's archrival guild, Phantom Lord tries to kidnap Lucy, and in the process sparks a veritable war between the two groups of wizards.


Disc 1
13. Natsu vs. Yuka The Wave User
14. Just Do Whatever!!
15. Eternal Magic
16. The Final Showdown on Galuna Island
17. Burst
18. Reach The Sky Above

Disc 2
19. Changeling
20. Natsu and the Dragon Egg
21. The Phantom Lord
22. Lucy Heartfilia
23. 15 Minutes
24. To Keep From Seeing Those Tears

Picture

Fairy Tail gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which courtesy of Australia's Madman Entertainment is a native PAL conversion, with the 4% speedup that implies. The image is clear and sharp throughout, free of any obvious compression signs, and generally very pleasant too watch. It's a bright, lively anime, and given that it's a long running series, the character designs are understandably simplistic, the world design not overly complex. It's full of primary colours, and the animation itself is energetic, especially through the various spell sequences. As each of the spells has a special move, and the characters calling out the name of each one, you can expect a fair bit of repetition of the expensive, CG enhanced spell, summoning, and transformation sequences, but it hasn't yet gotten tiresome in these twelve episodes.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 5.1 Surround English, and DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. I sampled the English dub, and found it to be a typical anime comedy dub, high pitched female voices, and loudness and manic intensity substituting for humour. My preference as always was for the Japanese audio track with the subtitles. It too is adequate, although one slight point of annoyance for some may be the lead character of Lucy played by Aya Hirano, who simply supplies another variation of her stock Haruhi Suzumiya tsundere voice. Otherwise it's a fairly run of the mill audio track, playing the show for laughs, with little yet to stretch the characters. More impressive is the show's music, which with a pop Celtic theme supplements the show's magical themes very well, although it is boosted by a wholesale plundering of the classical music archives. The subtitles are clear, well timed, and free of error throughout.

Extras

The discs get static menus with the show's music playing in the background.

The first disc gets just one audio commentary to accompany episode 15. In it, ADR Director Tyler Walker and voice of Gray Fullbuster, Newton Pitman get together to chat about the show, and the character and plot development. I think this is the first audio commentary I have ever heard that features a live music performance as well.

Disc 2's audio commentary accompanies episode 19, and Monica Rial (writer and voice of Mirajane), Tia Ballard (Happy), and Colleen Clinkenbeard (Erza), join Tyler Walker to talk about the bodyswap episode, and the fun, and difficulty in assuming each other's characters for the duration.

Disc 2 also has the textless credits.

Conclusion

I've experienced both passion and loathing for the same thing in the space of a few days. That something is shonen anime, anime that is made for the young male demographic, with lots of battles, levelling up, action and excitement. Just a few days ago, I watched the nadir of the genre, the eighth season of Bleach, a dry, self-important, and po-faced example, where the story has devolved into episode after episode of humourless running around with swords, with the levelling up of character abilities now reaching absurd levels, and where the story is stretched so tenuously, that beneath its transparency, you can see the owners of the franchise trying to squeeze every last penny out of it. I watched that and lost the will to live, hoping never to see another shonen anime as long ever again. That hope died instantly, as next up in the review pile was another shonen anime, Fairy Tail. Yet it is Fairy Tail Part 2 that has restored my faith in the genre. It's got the same ingredients, the battles, the levelling up, the succeeding through superior willpower, but it's got a whole lot more besides. Yet it doesn't stretch interminably, it actually remembers the story it's trying to tell, and gets it out in short order, without getting lost in the mechanics of it. Most importantly it has a sense of humour, a tongue in cheek approach to its storytelling that has long been lacking in the UK DVD output of the genre.


The first instalment of Fairy Tail spent its time setting the scene, introducing the characters, and having some short and sweet adventures that gave us some idea of the tone of the series, and acted as an entertaining, and light way to ease us into the show. With the final story of that collection, the Curse at Galuna Island, the emphasis shifted to longer running and more intricate storylines, and they also began to explore the characters more, develop their back-stories. The Galuna Island storyline which concludes over the first six episodes of this collection takes us into Gray Fullbusters's past, and we learn just why it is he strips off to his underwear at the slightest provocation. More importantly, we find out why he became a Wizard, and the dark past that has haunted him ever since.


The first episode of the second disc is that which fans of Naruto and Bleach have long since come to dread, filler. Filler in this context is animated material which is created fresh, not adapted from the manga, but in Fairy Tail, it's an absolutely hilarious body swap episode, which sees some bizarre character transformations. It's short, sweet, and more importantly it works in terms of character and in terms of the universe. It's a brief interlude between two longer running storylines, and makes for a nice breather. The next episode too is a single episode story that looks at Natsu and Happy's shared history, another light episode, but it also introduces a character in Lisanna, Mirajane and Elfman's kid sister, who plays a part in the next stretch of episodes.


The final four episodes of this collection kick off another story arc, when the rival guild Phantom Lord appears to kidnap Lucy. We begin to see something of Lucy's past, but also things get a tad more serious, as a state of war is declared between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord (Phantom Lord are just using the Lucy mission as an excuse to open up on their rivals), and both sides start flinging big balls of magic at each other. Lucy's left feeling guilty at being the cause of all the strife, guild leader Makarov is taken out of the action early on in proceedings, and the Fairy Tail mages are left outclassed. It calls on them to sacrifice more, and the comedy is toned down as a result. That is comparatively speaking, as even during the most intense action sequences, the animators and the writers still find room to add in a few sight gags and one-liners.


Way off in the distant background, as all of this unfolds, there's still intrigue in the Magic Council, as Siegrain plots and schemes. No doubt it will all be revealed in later episodes. Fairy Tail also demonstrates the ability to turn on a dime. It's utterly entertaining, proceeding along on its comedy and action mission, then all of a sudden it delivers a jolt of heartbreak, as it reveals the shared past of the siblings Mirajane, Elfman and Lisanna. It ends on a whopping great cliff-hanger, with your heart plummeting towards your boots (in a good way), and you are left begging for more.


Fairy Tail is the best shonen property that Manga Entertainment is releasing right now, what with Naruto, and especially Bleach beginning to look tired. I'm enjoying this as much as I did Soul Eater last year, and the world will be a slightly better place as soon as Funimation announce that they have licensed another batch of episodes. I doubt very much that just 48 episodes will be enough of this very promising show.