User blog:LastationLover5000/Fairy Tail 346 - The Law of Retrogression

"Actually it's three women. A red-head, blue-hair, and a blondie."

- Flare Corona



Welcome to the Chapter Review Corner



The chapter has been released, and that means it's time to blog. To those new to my blog, welcome. To my continued readership, all I have to say is, thanks. SARA, start the broadcast.



Are you ready to begin?

Wow. It's been too months since I've done an actual Fairy Tail review. That, my friends is a long time. I apologise for my extended absence, but due to the fiasco we call the Grand Magic Games, my interest in Fairy Tail dropped quicker than my interest in Naruto, and my lovely Hana picked up the slack. However, now, I'm back in the pilots seat and raring to go.

Ever read through the canon series and felt like the mangaka has actually been nicking ideas from your fanon series without your knowledge? Yeah, that's how I felt while reading this chapter, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Erza, still a child due to whatever made her so cute and loli last chapter, finds that she is having difficulty focusing her magic, more magic is used when she tries...and her feet are cold. That. Is. Adorable. I also noticed that Mangastream is back to calling "Requipping" "Ex-quipping".



...Somehow I totally forgot about her.

Then Minerva shows up. I will say this. Whenever a Fairy Tail woman drops the lipstick, they suddenly start looking a hell of a lot better. Minerva is no exception. Now that she's at the very least dropped the lipstick, she's looking like a hooker...is what I would say, if she were not wearing what she was wearing. She decides that she and Erza will continue their battle here, despite the fact that Erza has obviously been weakened. On the plus side, maybe we'll get some clothing damage. Meanwhile, her comrade takes his chance to attack Natsu, who can't do anything to really retaliate.

Oh this is comedic.

I always love seeing Natsu at a disadvantage. So, at first, I was thinking that being shrunk to this age had weakened them (that'd be a touchy subject for me), but, thankfully, this dude who needs a name says that the appearance is just a supplementary effect, Retrogression's magic main purpose is a debuffer, it lowers the abilities of humans. In other words (and since Natsu even said he was able to do magic as a kid better than his poor showing a second ago), the age with this magic isn't what hampers them, so much as the magic itself. I breathed easily again. Of course, this also means Erza is shafted. Natsu then makes this man fall for the oldest trick in the book, as in "LOOK OVER THERE!" and then he bails.

....why is it when people remove their masks I get so disappointed?

He really should have left that mask on. However, that is why this chapter pleases me. Hiro has used two concepts similar to what Per and I ourselves employ in Dawn. Regression Magic (though mine is used by Dragons), and "non-humans" (Per and I are implementing those quite a bit). Not that this is the first time non-humans have appeared in Fairy Tail (Ernie the Giant Chicken from the Tenrou Island arc), but it's the first time it's really been addressed. We then cut back to the treasure hunters being idiots and jackasses, to which point Wendy kindly tells them what she thinks of them.



She did it kindly though, because she didn't kill their asses

That's my one problem with these treasure hunters. I do not mind badass normals at all, in fact, I welcome them. The problem is Hiro cannot seem to decide whether these guys are a serious threat, or goofy dumbasses. I am aware that Beware The Silly Ones is in full effect here, but I'm not often fond of that with villains. With heroes, I don't mind it, but with villains, even casual villains, I want to be able to know they are a threat the majority of the time. If they spend more of their time acting like idiots than being a threat, I will call bullshit when they suddenly start trying to act serious. Honestly, the only reason Wendy and Lucy are even having trouble with these guys is because:
 * 1) Lucy is, for some reason, not summoning Aquarius. With her temper and tendecy to just flood the place, she could take out the trash and be on their way.
 * 2) Wendy refuses to really use her magic for killing; despite her wind based abilities being ideal for that very thing. However, since being gentle is part of her character, nothing we can do there.
 * 3) There's a fucking sniper hiding in the trees. If he was facing them on the ground, this would be over in about 5 seconds because they'd have clear targets.

All I see are tits.

Now, without further do, let's bring up the scoreboard.

Score
Fairy Tail always has excellent art. 10/10. The story was pretty good, we're moving, albeit slowly, towards whatever Hiro has planned. Non-humans, Minerva's own intentions, and even Flare showing up. I liked this chapter, I think Hiro has fully gotten back into the swing of thing and just wanted the Grand Magic Games over as badly as we did. The fight, there wan't much to speak of, so, 3/10. Overall, a Good chapter.



Fairy Tail is all done for today, but it'll be back next week with Fairy Tail 347 - Red, Blue, and Blonde Hair Fight. I look forward to all of your comments, but try to behave, we don't want to have to play mediator.