Fairy Tail
Maggie: All right, I have to confess: I’m rather new to the Fairy Tail fandom. In fact, I’ve only dabbled in the manga series and I’ve barely watched any of the anime show. But I’ve always been curious about the series as a whole, so I finally decided to jump in. Even though I’m late to the game, I have to say that I really enjoy the spirit of Fairy Tail–it’s one of those shows that’s hard not to like. (I mean, dragons and magic is generally an irresistible combination.)
Shows like Fairy Tail are typically geared for a slightly younger audience than what I qualify for. This is the type of show I would have looked forward to after school, along with my lineup of Dragonball Z and other Toonami shows. Oddly enough, Naruto and One Piece have absolutely no appeal to me whatsoever, but Fairy Tail does. It’s able to ride that line between age groups and attract a slightly older audience (think college age) that be satisfied by the nostalgia Fairy Tail provides but is entertained and engaged enough in the show’s plot and characters to actually enjoy watching it.
This ability never gets old.
As far as a first episode goes, this season starts off with a bang, in more than one sense. The opening and ending scenes are focused on a rather scary-looking premonition involving Lucy and Natsu stranded on a destroyed battlefield facing an impossible number of angry-looking dragons. The rest of the episode is dedicated to followup from the last battle of the Grand Magic Day. A rather serious scene plays out in the Sabertooth guild, as a furious Ziemma dishes out punishment and ends up banishing Lecter, which incites Sting to attack Ziemma (uh oh). In the Fairy Tail guild, Gajeel reveals a dragon graveyard to Gray, Lucy, Natsu, and Wendy, who is able to summon one of the dragon spirits named Zirconis. He tells the group about the origin of Dragon Slayers and also warns them that using too much Dragon Slayer magic can turn humans into dragons, which is what happened to Acnologia, the Dragon King.
You’re right, Zirconis, it doesn’t.
For being such a serious and dramatic episode, there’s a balance of emotion and comedic relief that rounds out the intensity and prevents all the action from being too theatrical. It’s the little interruptions of playful scenes like the one between Natsu and Gray that take the series as a whole to the next level and stops it from being a one-trick pony. Still, this first episode doesn’t waste any time getting to business, and its energy builds up a lot of anticipation for what appears to be an exciting and action-packed season.
Love Live S2
Kuuki: Mou ichido? MOU ICHIDO?!
Yes my friends! For better or for worse (rather for the better as far as I’m concerned) Love Live is back! For those who had missed the first season the story goes as such, we follow the school idol group named µ’s as they try to reach the top of idolhood! (Ok the first season was more built around the fact they needed to keep their precious school to close but now it’s getting real! They’re really aiming for the top!)
I am not really sure of what I should say about this, I know I say this everytime I need to do a first impression post of a second season, yet, here I am again trying to find something to write about.
I loved Love Live first edition, I also loved the first episode of this second season. It was somehow interesting to see how they all grew up in the time we didn’t see them.
In truth, the first episode of this season interested me less than the very first one. I can’t really say why. Maybe it is because I already know everything and there is nothing more to discover. You see, after that ending, the only plot I could see them following is exactly that. Now they’re aiming seriously to get into Love Live and win it. Honoka is being tsundere again but in the end she calms down and goes back to her normal self. Nothing surprising at all, predictable from start to finish.
And I don’t like that all that much.
To be fair though, Honoka did surprise me. She might be fit for the center position in an idol group but that’s about it. More is pushing it.
Everything else is just like the previous season, again, exactly as expected. It would have been strange if it wasn’t. I would have been worried about the sanity of the writers (which I am on principle, we’re talking about Sunrise after all).
I have some hopes though! The hopes that quickly we’ll fall back in the delirious and cute antics of µ’s.
I think it’s perfectly watcheable without having watched the first season, even though I think it’s a shame, the first season was awesome. I’m a lot less enthuisiastic about the second but we’ll see. It’ll probably get better soon. Or not. Either way, I’ll watch to find out!
