User blog:Ash9876/Ashy's Reviews - Fairy Tail 481: Historia of Corpses

Ohai everyone, Ash here. I know I've been very on-and-off about this whole review business, but I'm really only doing chapters that I'm interested in unless the primary reviewer decides to stop reviewing and needs a replacement.

Just a quick disclaimer. While in my reviews normally I mix the summary with my opinions, but given the vast amount of information this chapter presents to us, I'm keeping my overall opinions to a bit later. That way this review isn't super clunky.

As always, let's get this show on the road.

"I can gaze into people's hearts. There are a myriad of emotions and sentiments to be found in the heart. And with my Magic, you see...I can materialize those emotions into reality. The creation of life...that is the beauty of Historia."

-.

"Now then...it's about time I whip the two of you into shape."

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"So, it's you...the one with Yuri's blood flowing through his veins."

-.



The chapter starts us off with a nice cover showing us the Strauss siblings taking a vacation near a body of river...and a really odd seagull in the foreground?

We immediately begin where we continued off last chapter. The fabulous Neinhart sitting on the mast of the ship explains exactly what Jellal, Erza and Kagura (aka the angst trio) are seeing: their Historia, the Magician within their hearts. Like all classical Shonen villains, Neinhart goes on to explain the nature of his powers. He summarizes that his Magic enables him to gaze at the heart and its myriad of emotions, before materializing them into reality: in short, the creation of life. The scene shifts back to Simon, where his body seems to be exerting some sort of electrical discharge. Kagura responds and begins rushing to him. Unable to complete his sentence, his body is enveloped in a large amount of smoke, leading to this scene occurring:

Ultimatum
Time for my personal opinion on some things.

Firstly, I'd like to comment on the premise of this overall battle. Clearly, Neinhart is on a level above Dimaria and Wahl. He's not a simple battler. His Magic, Historia of Corpses, requires barely any effort on his part to maintain, even though he is using it across an entire harbor and summoning individuals of considerable power. The way Hiro has organized this battle, while reflective of similar situations such as the Fourth Shinobi World War in Naruto, is fundamentally different and, in my honest opinion, well-executed. From what I can garner from Neinhart's character so far, primarily from his childish smiles and lengthy monologues that expose his position, the man has no care for winning this battle. His primary ambition is to be entertained by the Historia of battle that circulates among Hargeon. Of course, the secondary effect of this is what you can see happening right now: further development of relationships and potential characterizations that you wouldn't see otherwise. Overall, in my honest opinion, while other "Revive the Dead" Arcs are done primarily from a need for military power or interesting factors in a war, Hiro has seemingly done this on the basis that it will allow for small, but sure development through interactions that otherwise wouldn't happen.

Likewise, I'd also like to comment upon the incredible characterization Hiro is dedicating to Kagura. While we all like to nag Hiro about how much fanservice he dumps onto us, the fact that he can create a compelling female character like Kagura, with distinct traits, flaws and everything else that constitutes a human, is commendable for someone who writes in the Shonen genre. The internal conflict clearly visible in Kagura's expressions, from her tears all the way to the tilting of her head in the last page and her blank eyes, are all reflective of a considerable amount of effort going into resolving her issues while at the same time providing further light to characters like Jellal and Erza.

Overall, I thought that this was one of the far better chapters of the Alvarez arc. There was a clear build up here leading to a potentially prolonged set of battles that could even end up as a mini-arc on its own.

In any case, Fairy Tail 482 is entitled Vigor and hopefully promises on continual development on the build-up provided in this chapter.

Thanks for reading, everyone!