User blog:Mangetsu20/Sick but still able to rant (FT - 453)

DRBAWL Review Corner

The Review
What is this? you may say. Where is the skits and jokes? you may ask. Well, to tell you the truth, I've been pretty sick as of recently. Only now did I start recovering and when I heard the Chapter came out EARLY did I feel myself cringe. Instead of doing a huge montage of page-clips from the Chapter, I'll do bare minimum to cover whole slices of the installment. Less work for me and less work for you, as you may say. At least you'll see what opinion I've had. Cause that's the REAL reason people follow my Reviews right? -weakly chuckles-

Without futher ado, let's dive in!

Fight to Survive
This...this right here already made me incredibly cross. Not for the obvious reason that Mayuri tied me up, experimented on me, and then took over my show! No-No-No-No-No-No! Not like that repressed set of horrific memories were brought back to the forefront when the biggest unexplained Magic is again NOT EXPLAINED in the following Chapter. Either Hiro will NEVER, I repeat, NEVER reveal the specifics of this Chapter or will only do so when it fits his own construed plot writing "needs it".

To cover this section...this was Hiro's attempt to instill FEAR for the characters. Yeah, actual Fairy Tail Members are going to DIE! Ooooh, wouldn't that be scar-no. It's...it's not going to happen. When the amount of dead people on the good side has stacked up to...I dunno, less than ten, it doesn't instill in me a very high amount of confidence with our dear beloved author backing that up. Why may you ask? The very foundation of his Archaic Founder Character, Mavis, the CRUX to this very SERIES with a power so ludicrous and highly questionable methods of how it even CAME into being (try explaining that, Precht!) her own history was steeped in bloodshed and war. See, this works out in Fairy Tail Zero cause it's practically a different series in how it operates. But in Fairy Tail? They have far-off screen shots of the battle with ONE close-up with a captioned, "Second Generic War," with people we've never seen or care for fighting. THAT was his extent of warfare. No conflict seen, not the Dragons, not any Dark Guild, not "Evil Guy" they've fought as ever came close to invoking a "War Scale" battle. The biggest we've ever gotten was a THROWAWAY conflict in the Avatar Arc and we ALL KNOW how bad that one went. So yeah, this war is going to SUCK DRAGON BALLS!

Also, Natsu's an audacious asshole. Who would've thunk?!

Other than some nice touching dialogue from the REAL main character of this series, it's ruined by Mr. Plagiarized Main Character with cat vomit for hair and his sardonic sidekick. Yeah, I'm sick of them. If I could only kill ONE character in this series and it NOT be Natsu, I'm killing that fuckin' cat! Teaches him for surviving a town-annihilating blast and somehow no worse for wear!

The Morale of Others
A slightly less bleak part of the Chapter, we get to see how everyone else is holding up. From another UNNECESSARY BATH SEQUENCE by Erza and Wendy (seriously, do I need to add a Wow Count while I'm sick? No? Okay then I'll just tac it onto the next Review). Yeah, again, totally objectifying your female characters doesn't make us feel "close" to your heroines, Hiro. There isn't any intimacy when Wendy hugs Erza and she in turn smothers her in her breasts. It just makes an awkward, weird feeling that makes my skin crawl. Unlike Mavis who has a legitimate fictional excuse regardless of possible objectification being involved (despite me never seeing ONE booty shot or naked shot of the girl so exactly how anyone drew to that conclusion must have the paranoid mind of a Hyper-Sensitive-Fanboy). But I digress, it wasn't necessary.

All in all, the ONLY scene that made me kind of want to smile was Gray and Juvia's scene. Quite frankly, with all the suggestive themes and dialogue, why HAVEN'T they hooked up by now? I mean, there's no reason to do it. They could be a couple and many other pairings would either be strengthened with hope their ships will keep sailing or show that you actually care about their relationships. Naw, this is all bait. Making Gray finally say, "I'll give you an answer after a battle I MAY die in," isn't saying a lot about Gray's character choices. Then again, this is Fairy Tail. Not many of them MAKE good character choices.

The Battle Commences
I think I had a case of Deja Vu. I remembered the last time I thought a battle was too rushed and the series was going to come to an end. But then it really did end up being the longest Arc in the series' runtime. Yeah -looks at BLEACH- it's still gooooooing...

Ahem, as I was Saiyan.

Yeah, the Invasion is happening now! I know what you all may be thinking. 'A Highly Advanced Poorly Explained Civilization Can't Mobilize In A Few Days Time? Surely you jest' No. No this is unbelievable. Even with BLEACH, the Wandenreich invasion was planned for hundreds of years, nay, prophesied! Naruto's Fourth Ninja War, despite working together, took MONTHS to prepare, in addition for the same amount of preparation for Tobi and Kabuto's side. This...this is madness. No one simply gets in a bunch of warships on the flip of a dime and just charges across the ocean, over OPEN LAND OF ENEMY TERRITORY and air raids a land-locked nation!

And no, doing that didn't make them "unpedictable" Hiro. It was...by far the most predictable thing you could have done. How many times have flying warships or flying enemies been used to combat our heroes? FAR MORE TIMES THAN I'D CARE TO COUNT! On the same token, the heroes used Airships quite frequently too. Hell, they probably got the idea from Blue Pegasus just dive bombing in with Laxus on its stern to take back their Guild Mates.

Also, we try to get more "touchy feely" bullshit from Makarov and Mavis. I liked you Mavis, then I realized you were the stem of the whole problem. Makarov, you preached more than Natsu ever has. So, both of you, can just die in the coming raid. Can't do that? Writhing in pain works just as fine!

Final Analsysis
This Chapter was just...blah

Nothing happened other than the Monologuing Sandman showing up with the "highly unexpected" fleet of hastily prepared Warships. I guess the Word of Zeref means moving at lightspeed when it means getting what you want. The emotional dialogue would've been more effective if I hadn't seen this situation one dozen times over with no consequences issued out. Like, none. The closest I ever had that feeling was when people were literally dying in the 7 Dragons Arc until THAT was reversed through time travel. NO IMPORTANT CHARACTER ON THE GOOD SIDE HAS DIED, PERIOD!

This war is shaping up to the be one of Hiro's biggest debacles. He's so high on his own popularity and the rabid Japanese Fanbase or the weird Very Protective American Fanbase still following the series as it is with NO objections to how HORRIBLE it is now. Guys, I don't know about you, but I don't want to compliment laziness and objectification. I want improvement, advancement and new things for me to say, "yeah, that hasn't been done AND it was done well," so I don't have to cry at being a fan in the past.

I'm seeing this series to the end, make no mistake. I don't leave things half empty, it's my Completionist Principle or whatever in effect (go watch MatPat's theory on that, you may like it). But other than that, I don't have ANY hopes for this series. I may comment on how I find some things aesthetically pleasing, but I'll continue to throw dirt at things that are otherwise crap. Cause I'd rather smell SOIL than SHIT!

I'm Demod of DRBAWL, sick but on the road to recovery. Put a comment down below to pitch what you'd believe would be the best way to handle a Fairy Tail War (since it clearly isn't being done well by Hiro). On another note, let me know which series of Manga had the best description of warfare in Shounen. Until next time guys, I'll see you Dirt Balls Later~