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Oh Fairy Tail, how you taunt me with your cliffhangers. At the end of the last volume Fairy Tail's guild headquarters was under siege, their most powerful wizard was down and out and the remainder were battling impossible odds… and we had to wait two months to find out what happens next! With the remaining Fairy Tail wizards fighting a desperate last stand to defend
their headquarters and Phantom Lord's Element Four wizards hunting down Lucy
things look extremely bleak for our heroes. Guild leader Makarov's still
down for the count and the guild's most powerful S Class wizards Mystogan and
Laxus have snubbed Mirajane's call for help, but there's still some hope whilst
Natsu, Grey and Elfman remain inside the enemy fortress battling to stop Phantom
Lord in its tracks. Their main aim is to stop the completion of the
forbidden spell Abyss Break which will wipe the city of Magnolia off the map,
but to do so they have to overcome the powerful Element 4 wizards and the
vicious dragon slayer Gajeel, not to mention Phantom Lord's guild master Jose,
one of the most dangerous wizards in the world. However, they are not
alone - Erza may be weakened but she is still able to fight and rushes into the
Phantom Lord fortress to back them up. The fight against destruction is
not all they face either. Loke seems to be steering clear of Lucy despite
his womanising ways, and appears to be fighting a losing battle against the
consequences of his past decisions, whilst Erza faces some very real demons from
her past that threaten the safety of the entire planet. Both Loke and Erza
will have to make some big decisions in personally incredibly difficult
circumstances, but first they have to survive against Phantom Lord's full scale
assault. Outnumbered and outgunned, can Fairy Tail fight the enemies of
the present whilst exorcising the ghosts of the past? |
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As you would expect this volume throws us immediately back into the action, with all of the main Fairy Tail wizards engaged in battles of one kind or another. There's a good sense of tension as Natsu faces down the dangerous Gajeel and Elfman, Erza and Gray battle against Phantom Lord's strongest wizards in the form of the Element Four, each of them being forced to push the limits of their power to even stand a chance. As with the last volume the pace is pretty much unrelenting as they fight against Phantom Lord, but there's also a welcome |
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break in the action as we are given the chance to learn more about the pasts of several of the characters. In the last volume the episodes covering tragedies of Gray and Elfman's pasts were the undoubted highlight, and thankfully there's more of the same this time as we get to see the events that led to Lucy deciding to join Fairy Tail, the tragic decision that has caused Loke's decline and the Erza's traumatic childhood at the hands of a dark magic cult. The series is at its best when it balances the action with
drama and really tries to get under the skin of the characters, and as such in
many ways this is the best volume so far. There are several episodes this
time which focus on individual characters, with the spotlight on their pasts
serving to shed further light on their struggles of the present. The
series does a great job of balancing introspection with action and comedy, and
some of the new characters introduced - for example Gajeel, who in many ways is
an evil version of Natsu with a similar past and magical ability, and Juvia, an
Element 4 water wizard who develops an infatuation with Gray - really add to
these aspects. However, it's Loke's story that stands out, partly as it's
the only one fully contained in this volume, but mainly because it explains more
about celestial magic and also gets across how skilled Lucy actually is.
So far she's almost been the everyman character dumped in a room full of
geniuses whose only ability is using a type of magic the others don't, but in
this story she proves herself to be worthy of being in their company. In
comparison Erza's story is probably the least developed by the end of the
volume, with many unanswered questions about her past that we'll have to wait
another two months to find out the answer to. |
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It's this sense of being left up in the air which is the series' main drawback . Three volumes in and we've been left in the middle of a story in each one, and each time it's been at a pretty critical juncture. I know that cliffhangers are supposed to leave you guessing and tempt you to watch the next part, but volume 4 is not out till September. That's a long time to wait. There's also the problem that the start of this volume is again too fast paced, with so many battles going on there's little time for character development until the pace drops off after the |
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battle reaches its climax. There's also a few comedy episodes which sometimes fall a bit flat, such as one where the Fairy Tail wizards are hired to save a theatre by acting in a play, which is a plot that Slayers did over a decade ago. The comedy in the series works best when it subtly blended into the normal dramatic storylines, like Juvia's attempts to upstage Lucy based on her mistaken belief that she is a rival for Gray's affections. An entire episode with a daft comedy premise feels a little out of place, particularly when it follows so many action-packed episodes. Fairy Tail Part 3 managed to address some of the issues I had with the series by fleshing out several characters who had been a little two-dimensional so far. Although it does have the drawbacks of yet another cliffhanger ending and a few missteps on the comedy front, it slows the pace after a hectic beginning and balances the drama and action far more successfully than the previous volumes. For the first time the series is really starting to get under the skin of its characters, and its great to see some time devoted to more peripheral characters like Loke. This volume carries the same emotional impact in places as the Lisanna story did from volume 2, and sets up a few interesting mysteries for the future around the disappearance of the dragons, forbidden spells and the powers the wizard council is able to wield. This was possibly the best volume of the series so far, it's just a shame that it ends with the story and characters up in the air once again. Extras Textless opening and closing sequences and commentaries for episodes 26 and 32. Pretty good stuff. Ratings Feature:
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