Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Fairy Tail Chapter 452 Review - The Prelude to the Final Battle

Written by Shiggins

Finally, back to the main story!

Our newest chapter begins with Marin Hollow still alive and tiny. (Son of a bitch, I knew it!). As Marin has no other choice but to paint Brandish's toenails at this size, Dimaria Yesta enters the room and we can already see that Brandish doesn't exactly care for Yesta. Yesta asks about how and why Brandish let the Fairy Tail team escape, to which she sees she just didn't want to put in the effort.

My personal hell: Giant feet.
Yesta tells Brandish how they have to go since the Spriggan 12 have been summoned and they need Marin at full size since his magic is useful. Whether or not she does that today is unknown as he is not seen again for the rest of the chapter, and instead we go to Fairy Tail where Natsu is getting smacked about for not telling anybody what's under his bandage.

Wait, how do you know that? Did you use it once and lose half your life or something?
With only Natsu and Happy knowing what it is, the others just have to trust him when he sees that it's a trump card that he can only use once, and it's to take down Zeref. Thanks to Natsu, morale has increased and everybody feels ready to fight. It's here that Makarov gives us a nice summary of the situation so far.

"Last time, on AMCs Fairy Tail..."
Half of this is stuff we already know. Zeref is Emperor Spriggan and he has the Spriggan 12, which includes God Serena. Makarov has only met 6 of the members, and he goes on to describe each of them. And we also get some visual aid, since Zeref's meeting has begun but only 7 members have appeared. (Wow. The other 5 must be dicks.)

Aww... I just wanna hug the bitch! (I really hope she becomes a good girl later).
We start off with the "Winter General" Invel, Zeref's consult and an ice-user. (Oh gee, I wonder who he will fight...). Next is "Desert King" Ajeel Lamur, who is always wanting to pick a fight. After him is "Nation Demolisher" Brandish, who clearly devoted to obeying Zeref. After that is" "War Princess" Dimaria Yesta, whom we know nothing about except that she has survived many battles. After that is the... odd... God Serena, most powerful of the Wizard Saints. And finally, the last member Makarov knows about is "Magic King" August, who Makarov is weirdly considering the most powerful member.

I am so going to do this at every opportunity from now.
"Hey. Was the new chapter bad?"
"It.... WASN'T!"
Finally, Makarov ends his talk by saying he knows the names of three other members; Bloodman, Neinhart and... This next name is a slight problem actually because I've seen two sources give me completely different names. One side says this new character's name is "Badd Man", which sounds really damn stupid. And the other side says his name is "Wahru Ihyto". Also, his title is a bit debatable too since I'm seeing "Judge" or "Adjudicator". Chances are, the latter one is correct but I just wanted to point this out. Once the Crunchyroll translation comes out, I'll probably have my official answer.

This is exactly how I reacted to the new guy. I'm not even joking.
Anyway, sorry about that diversion and now back to the story. Zeref proclaims once again that he wants humanity's destruction, which I'm now realising puts the Spriggan 12 into deep question here but I'll deal with that in the Opinion section. Mavis and Zeref have small speeches to their own sides, declaring they'll go all-out and it's going to be such a big battle. Of course, this would have been a pretty good place to end but just for fun, Mashima-senpai gives us a shot of gloriously sexy Acnologia, as he stands up and declares he'll go to the Dragon King Festival and be the King of Dragons!

Opinion: Freaks! Everywhere! Freaks in this direction! Freaks in that direction! FREAKS!

Finally, we're heading off to the main battle that this entire arc has been preparing us for. In fact, the entire second half of this series might have been trying to get us pumped up for it. Personally, I'm still a bit unsure of who is going where and what's actually meant to be happening, so the worry of "army vs army" is making me be a bit cautious. I'm still excited but I think I'll be able to get really into the drama after a few more chapters.

August? Shouldn't his name be September now? *crickets chirp*
The Spriggan 12 are really starting to show a bit more of their diversity, which I love. What's Brandish like? She's a big brat. What's Yesta like? She's really cool. What's Invel like? He's very stoic. What's Ajeel like? He's very aggressive. What's August like? He's very old and powerful. What's God Serena like? He's very dramatic and flamboyant. And what... what the hell is the new guy?! Oh god, he's some sort of hideous fish-faced... THING! It's creepy! I don't like it! Throw it away, along with last night's salmon and a bucket of sulfuric acid!

Ewwww! Even his first words are the creepiest things you could ever say out of context!
The series isn't exactly known for subtlety but I think we all figured out who was fighting who during this chapter, or at least some of them. Gray reacted when Invel was mentioned, and he uses the power of ice. Natsu reacted when Ajeel was mentioned, and we know Ajeel loves to rush in and pick a fight. Erza reacted to both Brandish and Yesta, and we know Yesta is a fierce warrior so I'm quite sure Erza is going to have trouble with Yesta. Brandish is debatable.

"The heart, Ajeel! First, you start with the heart!"
In fact, the one that got my attention during the reactions was that Lucy reacted when August was mentioned, so I'm making my own prediction right here and now. I think Lucy and August will battle it out, and she's going to use the power of Fairy Heart to summon literally every single one of her Celestial Spirits at the same time. If what Makarov said was true, August is going to need a hell of a big force to be stopped and this sounds exactly like the best way to do it.

God Serena is... weird. I can't honestly think of any other way to say that. I thought he'd be a stoic badass and all scary and growling, but instead he's super-dramatic and it almost feels like I'm watching an actor. Maybe that's the point though and his flare is just to hide how dark and angry he truly is. What I do know though is that finding out who he really is and what he really wants is possibly my biggest goal to read this series right now.

I apologise for not going into detail, but honestly I've just seen so many speeches in Fairy Tail that I barely register half of them anymore. I'm hoping another one will come up soon that'll really blow me away, or at least have something going on during it like the Tartaros Arc speeches.
Natsu's arm will have to wait but honestly, I'm not disappointed. I never expected it to be revealed anyway, once I thought about it, and I like the idea of waiting a bit longer for mysteries. That said, only one chance to use it? How does he know that? I must discover this!

The chapter didn't contain much development, unfortunately. It was mostly showing us what we already knew but with one or two new facts. We all knew Marin was still alive and small, just like we all knew these members of the Spriggan 12. (Not including the new guy). Of course, we now know Serena is weird and Invel uses ice, but these were things we'd have found out anyway. So really, that's the only problem I had. Hopefully, next week will be a lot more forward with it's intentions. (Giggity).

Manga Rating: 2.5/5

Character of the Week: God Serena, for making me wonder about him more and more.

Predictions: "The Role of a Parent". I'm pretty much 100% sure that this is a Makarov chapter again. Probably just telling Mavis what his role is, and she'll agree and call him a better Guildmaster than she could ever be. I'm personally hoping to see Neinheart (I just realised how funny that name is) and Bloodman next week too, but I won't get too excited.

Best Part: More facts about the Spriggan 12.

Worst Part: Nothing really happened when you think about it.

Not gonna lie, I want Mavis wearing different and more clothes from now on. The same white dress is getting stale. Get with the times, girl!

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/

4 comments:

  1. Well, if you apply the "Serena is Yuriy" theory, then Serena's personality makes pretty good sense. Although I thought he'd be a little more grimdark, but like I said it's a theory.
    And the official names are "Bradman", "Neinhart", and "Wall". Those... Are seriously weird, with the exception of Neinhart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All will be revealed in due time. We must be patient!

      Bradman and Wall?! Okay, I get why you might get "Blood" and "Brad" mixed up but how do you get Badd and "Wahru"?! Sigh... But yes, I checked and it appears you are correct. His name is Wall Eehto. Thank you, Hanzo-san.

      Delete
  2. So... you commented on the other five members of the Spriggan 12 being "dicks," so I thought I'd just point out that Neinheart seems to be even more of a dick than the other four. In the Manga Stream translation, we hear from Yajeel that unlike the other four, who at least were scattered about the continent, Neinheart is actually at the palace. He just didn't feel like going.

    Also, I definitely agree with you about God Serena, but I think we should also be keeping an extremely close eye on August. He more than any of the twelve we've seen so far seems to have Zeref pegged. When Zeref announces his plans to annihilate humanity, August says something along the lines of "we are merely pawns," which is exactly what the Spriggan 12 are to Zeref. He literally cannot form emotional connections with any of the 12, as his magic would kill them, and he himself tells Mavis that the war-mongering is a sort of game to him. August seems to have insight that the others don't, and when you combine that with his short conversation with Azir (Ajeel) about losing comrades, he becomes arguably the most interesting member of the Spriggan 12 as of yet.

    Ahh, I love villains, and I love that we get so many this arc that all seem to have their own personalities! I'm looking forward to seeing how this will play out in upcoming chapters!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So Neinheart is either a lazy bugger or an antisocial type? I'm already liking this one. I hope he has a great design too.

      That's a really good point actually. I was somewhat interested in him since he had the backstory about his "comrades" and what Makarov said about him, but you do raise some excellent notable moments. I think I'm going to have to pay attention to this August far more in the upcoming chapters. Thank you for that!

      Don't we all? It's so refreshing when we get such a large group of villains at once, all with distinct personalities that separate them from each other. I've not had this rush since the Tartarus Arc and it's a joy to behold.

      Delete