Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Fairy Tail Chapters 480 & 481 Review - The Northern Gravestone & Historia of Corpses

Written by Shiggins

A dark turn I welcome.

Chapter 480:

Once upon a time, in the land of Fiore, the main characters are relieved to have defeated Jason Statham and his assassin ways. Natsu Dragneel, flamer of the series, is thanking Brandish for her ability to coincidentally help him out a while back with that magical tumour nonsense, and Brandish is now aware of how truly amazing her opponents are. However, she knows they will lose because it is time... for August!

Yes... All of us live in fear of August... the month we go back to school.
Back to the other members who are currently having to rebuild the guild hall wall right now thanks to Makarov's attack last time. However, the truly interesting part is downstairs, which is not a euphemism, as Mavis has brought Cana with her to where her frozen body is. Apparently, Mavis' plan involves Cana using Fairy Glitter to destroy Mavis' fake body and that should destroy the lacrima guarding Mavis' real body because they are connected... because of reasons.

I'd like to take this time to point out that I've not yet been disproved about my theory that Mavis is going to strip. And if anything, this page further proves me correct.
Up in the North, Team Gajeel have arrived in the snowy land. (Which makes me realise, what the hell is this land's climate? Because it took one day to travel to snowy plains...) As the enemy approaches, the group are horrified to see that the enemy have crucified Team Blue Tooth! Yes, Sting and Rogue and Jenny and the Trimen and more are all on wooden planks and being shown off like trophies...

I have no joke to make here. This image is one of the most graphic and disturbing things Fairy Tail has ever shown, and it's a perfect example of how horrible this war can be. And more importantly, how it should be. If the war was this painful and we saw more of the Spriggan 12 being this vicious, as opposed to being taken down in fast but short battles, I feel like there would be less complaints from the fandom as a whole.
Our next visit is to the South where people are voting for... oh sorry, wrong South. This South is still covered in fighting. Team Jellal have arrived on the large ship, but are suddenly put into total darkness. To their surprise, they are actually facing the first Fairy Tail death of the series... Simon! From the Tower of Heaven arc? The one Jellal killed? Kagura's brother? Yeah, that dude! He's here!

Oh no... Please don't tell me she's going to start acting out-of-character and irrational just because Jellal needs to look like a badass here... Oh no, oh no, oh no!
Except, no he's not. He's actually an illusion created by a very fancy ponce known as Neinhart and man, I was picturing someone far... gruffer when I first heard that name.

This resemblance honestly scares me.

Chapter 481: 

So as Neinhart begins to tell us about his power to look into hearts and make any emotion reality through actual dead people, Simon disappears and Kagura really doesn't act like the badass we're used to. As Neinhart goes to kill Kagura with an attack, Jellal of course needs to jump in and ends up getting hit so hard he goes through the ship and into the ocean with her, leaving only Erza by herself on the deck.

Erza: Why did you bother protecting her if it'd only result in both of you falling down anyway?
Suddenly, an old face appears in the form of Neinhart's "Historia". The swordswoman Ikaruga, with whom Erza fought in the Tower of Heaven arc. Yes, it turns out she actually died during that arc! I guess she only survived in the anime... Ah well, she's here. She's dead. Get used to it. And underwater, Jellal SOMEHOW got pinned under an anchor, and Kagura is considering leaving him behind because Jellal killed Simon.

Kagura: ...How did he manage to get an anchor on top of him?
Just as Ikaruga mocks Erza, the former Grimoire Heart antagonist Azuma also appears and begins to attack as well. After a few pages of action, Erza is thrown down and she is now face-to-face with her toughest foe yet... Kyouka from Tartarus! And thankfully, Neinhart's attack doesn't stop at Erza. It extends to the battlefield and we see many faces!

Neinhart: ...Erza, why is a half-naked lesbian one of the images in your mind?
Gray and Lyon are now facing their old master Ur, Meredy is confronted by her ally Zancrow, Juvia is creeped up on by Keyes/Ki-Su/Skeleton Dude, Wendy is attacked by Ezel, and even Laxus is now stuck having to face Precht/Hades! And back at Erza's location, Kagura has saved Jellal because the plot demands it. And yes, she gives him CPR which is literally causing fangirls to create love triangles. Ew.

Shiggins: Mashima-senpai, why must you make me endure this?
Opinion: Edo Tensei!

Oh come on! I had to make that joke! It was too obvious... but yeah, resurrection of enemies. Every manga has at least one, so it's unfair to compare it to Naruto. Also, I don't think we should compare them as I'm not entirely sure if this is resurrection or not. If it is just memories of former friends and foes, why are none of them living people? Is Neinhart just preferring to use the dead, since it's more effective? Do they have the same memories as their real counterparts? I'm hoping this will be quite a big focus over the next two or three chapters.

Isn't this like the 3rd time Precht has come back into the story after his death in some way?!
The upcoming interactions between the characters could be a lot of fun, depending on whether or not they possess the real memories of when they were alive. Maybe we'll find out what happened to Yuriy and how he "died". Or we'll get some Ur confronting Lyon about Galuna Island. Maybe Jackal can return and never leave me ever again... *sniff*

As I said earlier, Kagura is not acting like Kagura. It's really cringe-worthy to see a usually strong character (social moments notwithstanding) turn into such an accidental mess just because Jellal needs to look good for the audience/Erza and Kagura needs to look like "the wrong one" in this scenario. As I've said before, her claims aren't even properly justified because we know Jellal was possessed/manipulated during that time, so all his guilt and all her anger could be sorted out in 12 seconds if Erza would do something right and tell them both that this is the case! It's infuriating, and not just because I am biased against Jellal. I swear!

This is to all fangirls out there who ship Jellal x Kagura because of CPR! (And no! It's not the same as Levy and Gajeel so don't start with me!)
This war is definitely kicking up a notch, and that's what we needed most of all. After these past few chapters of feeling like things are too easy, we need foes that can basically destroy everything and cause real suffering. And if crucifixion isn't enough for that, I don't know what is!

Manga Rating:

480: 4/5

481: 3.5/5

Predictions: Vigor... I'm guessing Jellal is going to be awake now, and he's now going to be facing some demons of his own. Maybe some tormenting from Simon, or the countless individuals he supposedly caused the deaths of. If so, I might just copy and paste the problem of it not being his fault from this review because I'm getting redundant.

Best Part: The horrifying image of Blue Tooth's defeat, showing the horror of war.

Worst Part: Kagura acting out-of-character to make Jellal look better.

I know you're expecting me to discuss Lisanna here but all I want to point out is this: IS THAT BIRD'S HAIR A JOJO REFERENCE TO CELEBRATE THE NEW SEASON?!

Shiggins:[Admin]   .
Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment