User blog:LastationLover5000/Fairy Tail 400 - In Which This Review Will Not Be Civilized (Wings of Hope)



"Live, Natsu."

- Igneel to Natsu

Welcome to the Chapter Review Corner



Every time I walk through that door...it feels like the first time. To those new to the blog, welcome, to my continued readership, all I have to say is thanks. SARA, how's it looking?



All systems are up and running TOM; are you ready?

So, I'd like to apologize for not reviewing the latest chapter, especially after how excited I was to see the balls of the series riding in on the wings of death and despair, but I wound up being busier last week than I really intended to be. I wanted to finish a one-shot I had been writing — to anyone who likes Neptunia, why not go and check it out, Roselia, I'm lookin' at you mate — as well as I just wound up with more, irksome things to do at work, and my driving test was this week. Mercifully, I passed, but all of these kept me busy and tired, so I sadly missed out on that chapter review.

But, what matters is I am here now...and this chapter was utter shit.

No, I'm serious. I know there are a bunch of you — hell, maybe my entire audience besides Mangy, Fi-Fi, Blanky, and Bounty — who will disagree with me. And if so, and you don't want to proceed, then please familiarize yourself with the left-hand evacuation procedure because I am about to bitch worse than a tsundere girlfriend.

The chapter starts out, innocently enough, with the personification of darkness and despair, listed in the Dragon High School Year Book as "Most Likely To Fuck Bitches", Acnologia. The yearbook is a real thing, I swear.

And there's the series' nuts. flying in on black wings heralding only death

And at this point, I was still excited. Acnologia has to be my favorite thing about this series that doesn't have blue hair, so it was pretty damned awesome to see him arrive and start fucking shit up. And what's even better is everyone gives him the fearful respect he deserves. The panic is widespread, even the villains are legitimately terrified (well, for Mard Geer, terrified qualifies as saying "he has no idea what will happen"), and the set up is LITERALLY perfect. All the Dragon Slayers, when Acnologia arrives, start to collapse in I'd assume fear; they're literally immobilized and clutching their hearts. Acnologia, however, is targeting something else: E.N.D.

Acnologia is so tired of this arc, he's targeting the Big Bad himself

Up to this point, this chapter is perfect. I don't like to use that word, but the atmosphere was fantastic, Acnologia was brilliant, but someone up in the land of glorious Nippon told Hiro to stop being awesome because he did what Hiro usually does to screw up a chapter: he continued writing it. Igneel returns. What? How can that be a bad thing you say? I won't even mince words, let me show you:

Igneel: Watch, my son; this is how you jump the shark!



It was about this point where I hung my head in utter shame for even thinking Hiro had been awesome. The manga actually expects us to believe this. The dragons were sealed inside their foster children this whole time...and for what? TWhat was the purpose of this? This wouldn't be bad, if this was Naruto. But it isn't, so besides ripping off Naruto — and I'm damn sure this isn't the only time Hiro has nicked from a superior manga — what purpose did this serve? This is entirely out of place here. This makes Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel's quests for their parents was utterly pointless; in fact, it was a MAJOR dick move by these three dragons, as it makes the quest entirely pointless.

Also, Dragon parents are a dick to their kids.

I'd go on about how Igneel rushes Acnologia and says only Natsu can beat him...but at this point, do we care anymore? This entire chapter entirely negated the awesome factor the previous chapter had. I'm...ugh, someone bring me the scoreboard.

Score
Hiro's art style is always good, and while I may loathe the revelation scene, Igneel did look badass. ✓+. The story...I don't feel showing Igneel here added onto the story in ANY decent manner; this revelation involving the dragons is fear from beneficial, it was layered with no foreshadowing, nothing; this was an asspull of the highest order and thus, ✓−. There wasn't really a fight. Overall, this chapter earns a ✓−.



Fairy Tail is all done for today, but the main series should be back this week with Fairy Tail 401 - Acnologia vs Igneel. You can bet I'll be right here to bring everyone the details as they come on in!