Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 302 [Review]

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Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 302 [Review]

This season of Fairy Tail has a consistent issue where it tries to introduce too many plot threads in a single episode. I can see why it'd want to try that approach – there's a ton of characters all doing a lot of things, all of which are important and happening concurrently. Giving each its own episode would not only potentially raise the number of episodes needed to cover the material, but also feel like the show was choosing sides, so to speak, in terms of which were the most important. The unfortunate downside is that you get episodes like this one, where maybe one major thing is allowed to happen and everything else is in various stages of happening, with none of the plots getting quite enough development.

The winners of this week's plot lottery are Levy and Gajeel, and now that I've written that, I admit to qualms about my word choice. The two of them are engaged in the fight against Bloodman, a wizard made entirely of Bane Particles, which are deadly to wizards. Gajeel's all right because of his particular skill (iron lungs make for difficult Bane absorption), but Bloodman's not going to concentrate his attack on only one person. That means that everyone fighting with Gajeel, including Levy, is in danger of dying, and that's not something Gajeel can stand. What he doesn't realize (or want to acknowledge) is that Levy can't stand for that either, and she's not just going to sit on the sidelines and watch him fight, or worse yet, leave him alone to fight himself. They may have had a questionable start to their relationship (which Gajeel seems to acknowledge this week and definitely feels guilty about), but they're one of the few officially committed couples in the show at this point. Either would sacrifice their lives for the other.

That's a vaguely selfish way of thinking, of course. It leaves one half of the couple alive knowing that they're only that way because the other died. As of the end of this episode, it looks like Gajeel's going to be the one left alone, and I don't see him handling that well. Of course, Levy didn't only save him with her actions; her magic protected a lot of other people as well. But Gajeel is likely to see it as entirely his fault if she dies, and while that might motivate him to kick major ass, it could also cause him to lose his way.

While all of that is going on, there are other plots simmering. The least acknowledged is Mavis trying to get Cana to free her real body from the lacrima that imprisons it, but we also have Saber Tooth and Blue Pegasus regrouping and getting their feet back under them after Sting suffered an emotional setback. Probably the most fun this week, though, is Brandish solving Natsu's travel problem by simply growing Happy to an enormous size so that they don't have to walk to meet August. (Or is it so that she can snuggle a giant kitty…?) Mest, who snuck along for the trip, rightly assuming that Natsu is the least suitable person to send on a diplomatic mission, is less impressed with his companions' attitudes and trusts Brandish as far as he can throw Giant Happy, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll be an asset when their discussion with August gets going. He's clearly thrown by August's power level, which Lucy and Natsu seem to be ignoring, which could make him as much of a threat as Natsu himself if he lets his nerves get the best of him.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, along with whether Levy lives or dies and if all of the foreshadowing that's going into Irene's appearances is a red herring or not. This may not be the best-structured episode, but it's still moving things in exciting directions as the story inches closer to its endgame.

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Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 3 [Review]

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Fairy Tail: Final Season - Episode 3 [Review]

Despite the fact that we're moving through the source material at a decent clip, Fairy Tail is still managing to cover all the important bits while maintaining its sense of the characters and lighter moments. That's mostly because the adaptation is good at picking out which pieces of the original manga are the most important to the central storyline, as well as the arc (Avatar) we're on now. Do we need to linger on Juvia's depression or her life with Gray? Not really; we just need to know that it happened. Right now it's more important to devote episode time to a flashback of Future Rogue telling Natsu about Frosch, because that piece of the past directly informs what's going on in the present moment.

And what is going on is that Gray appears to have been taken over by his dark side and joined a Zeref-worshipping cult. That's a major blow for Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, and the cats, because he was one of their closest friends when the guild was still operational. Natsu theorizes that Gray learned Demon Slayer Magic too quickly and wasn't able to properly acclimate to it, but what's more important is that a piece of him has been expecting this moment to come. A year ago, Future Rogue told him that Gray would kill Frosch in, well, a year, and when Natsu hears that Gray has vanished, he immediately thinks that the future might not be as changed as he'd hoped.

More importantly, this episode reminds Natsu that he really did do a pretty awful thing to Lucy, marking one of the few times he's really had to consider his actions and their impact on people rather than buildings he's destroyed. When the gang finds Juvia living alone in a rainy village and she tells them that Gray just up and left without a word, Natsu gets angry at his former friend for doing something so awful to Juvia. Lucy quickly points out that he did the exact same thing to her, and we get a few moments of Natsu just staring at Lucy with a conflicted look on his face. It's as if it's finally hitting him what effect his actions had on her, and it isn't a comfortable moment for him. Perhaps that's in part why he grabs Lucy's hand as he charges off after Gray to stop him from killing Frosch rather than just charging off himself.

None of this is to imply an advancing romantic subplot, although on the whole I'd call Lucy and Natsu's relationship healthier than whatever Juvia and Gray have. It's more a statement on Natsu doing a little thinking and maturing, as well as his devotion to making sure Fairy Tail is more than just the group assembled thus far—and I think that regardless of anything Gray might do to Frosch, Natsu's probably looking forward to having an excuse to beat the crap out of him.

How easy that will be remains to be seen, because Gray looks well and truly evil now, a clear sign of which is his slicked back hair. (I mean, the black marks covering his body. I'm sure the hair is just evil's devotion to style.) The Avatar group he's now a part of is basically a cult rather than a guild, made up of people who worship Zeref as a god. (How you feel about that is likely tied to your thoughts on Fairy Tail Zero.) They look like the series' usual rogues gallery, but I'm going to go on record here as saying that if you ever meet someone who says “smile” without smiling, you probably should run the other way. Fortunately for Natsu and Lucy, there is help en route in the form of Gajeel and Lily, who are now basically enforcers for the new Council – although Gajeel isn't likely to show Gray any kind of mercy.

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