Fairy Tail part 5 @ Amazon
Part 5 of Fairy Tail means episodes 49 to 60. It’s an important section of the Fairy Tail mythos too. In the previous 50 or so episodes we’ve met Natsu, Lucy and then the Fairy Tail guild. We’ve gone on missions with Erza and Gray, encountered the Tower of Heaven and really serious Guild politics.
Fairy Tail is fast and fun. Until part 5 you could view Fairy Tail as a series of standalone adventures. The plot thickens at this point. I hesitate the use the word “clever” to describe Fairy Tail (and I say that as a fan) but the long term story arc certainly looks clever at this point. You’re dealing with super powerful wizards; what could possibly threaten them (or their bosses)?
Action in part 5 picks up when the council decides action must be taken against the Dark Guilds of wizards. These Dark Guilds seem to be run like terrorist cells. There are four powerful Guilds who control subsidiary guilds. Taking on any one would result in a strike by many against the Light Guild who tried. The solution? A collation of Light Guilds.
Sure enough it’s Gray, Erza, Lucy and Natsu who represent Fairy Tail. We meet wizards from three other Guilds – including some faces from the past, a Saint Wizard (one of the ruling council) and a new character called Wendy, who enjoys plenty of time in the credits, and who has a winged cat called Charlie. Expect plenty of fun scenes between Happy and Charlie.
There’s a problem. The Dark Guild they’re going up against are really, really strong. There’s only six of them but each one is a powerhouse.
The alliance gets tanked early on. The rest of part five deals with the individual members of the collation trying to recover from the very poor start and make progress. It’s not easy. This Dark Guild is incredibly strong.
I really like Fairy Tail and I like the direction part 5 takes things in. My main concern is that of jeopardy. I’m not saying that Fairy Tail needs to do a Game of Thrones and start killing characters. We’ve had character death, of sorts, but despite the strength of these Dark Wizards I struggled to suspend my disbelief.
Normally I can cope with my fragile ability to suspend disbelief by turning the question around. It’s not a matter of how Natsu, Lucy, Erza and Gray can defeat the Dark Wizard threat – it should become “How do Fairy Tail defeat the Dark Wizards?”.
There’s a struggle there. It’s easy to conclude that Natsu will do a Dragon Slayer move and defeat the big bad after a struggle. I shouldn’t poke fun at the genre, that is the genre and perhaps I’m holding Fairy Tail to higher expectations but perhaps we’re also dealing with the implicit promises the plot is making. I didn’t expect complications for the good guys before part 5. I expect them now.
Despite my concerns over jeopardy and whether the outcome is a foregone conclusion – I really enjoyed this collection of Fairy Tail episodes. This anime manages to mix humour and action perfectly; the doses of pretty people and plot twists are just the icing on the cake. Tasty icing, mind you.
If you’re not yet watching the series and want some high colour fun; add Fairy Tail to your list.
My copy of Fairy Tail part 5 was provided for review. The series was released in the UK on the 2nd of December, 2013 by Manga UK.
