Anime Reviews: Fairy Tail Episode 32 - The Spirit King

The second half of the Loke arc starts off with a flashback to Karen, Loke's former owner, mistreating the Ram Spirit, Ares. Ares also happens to be female, so when Loke steps in to protect her from Karen's abuse I could literally feel the fanfiction being written. Also, am I the only one who notices a connection between the Biblical "Lion and the Lamb" and this potential pairing? I would say that there's even some innuendo with the Lion and the Lamb laying together, but the Bible never actually says that. Huh...

I wonder...

Huh. There is no "Lion and Lamb" community on Fanfiction.net. I would have thought that the internet would have taken advantage of the obvious symbolism there. Excuse me...

Somebody already used that name? For Rurouni Kenshin!? Oh come on!

Excuse me for just a little longer...

Jeez. How long does it take for these to load?

What? Oh, right.

Coming soon: A Loke/Ares fanfiction.net community. Because I got sidetracked, and ff.net takes forever to upload anything.

Anyway, Loke tells Karen that he wants her to release him and Ares from her service, if she doesn't he'll stay in the real world, and at her power level she can't summon another spirit while one of hers is already in the real world. She tries to threaten him, bargain with him, but never gives him what he wants, so he remains adamant. So she plans to just let him grow weaker and weaker until he runs out of strength and has to return to the spirit world. Unfortunately for her he's an exceptionally strong spirit and is able to last in the real world longer than any other spirit. Soon he even becomes used to the human world.


Unfortunately he receives the news that Karen took on a job while incapacitated, and ended up dying, unable to defend herself without her spirits. Loke, being a good person, is obviously distressed by this, as Karen's death was not what he wanted at all.


So, Loke explains that he doesn't mind paying the price for his sin. Lucy of course won't hear any of it, and decides to force open the gate to the spirit world so that Loke can survive.


Loke of course doesn't want her risking her life trying to save him, as having another friend die for his sake would make his death even worse. Lucy counters by essentially saying that she doesn't care what he says.


Eventually she uses up so much power that it attracts the attention of the king of the spirits.


Lucy argues with the king that Loke should be allowed back into the spirit world, that caring about friends is not a sin. Eventually her determination and the support of her spirits all convince the king to allow Loke back into the spirit world.


I have to admit, the first part of this episode dragged on for me, but once we reach the point where Lucy tries to force open the gate, and when she manages to summon all her stellar spirits, I got a little chocked up. In the end this entire two parter was great, a good message about the importance of friends and doing anything for those friends, with some great music to set the mood.

Overall I'd have to rate this storyline a 3.5 out of 5. I don't know if I'll bring back any kind of rating system for future reviews, but it just seemed appropriate.

Now, I'm just three episodes short of being caught up. Expect two more reviews tomorrow, possibly, and then one more on Sunday. With that I should be caught up to review each episode as it comes out on Mondays. I know Futurama comes out today, but I won't have time to review it until Saturday morning, so expect that one as well. I just need to make sure I can actually watch it somewhere.

Also: Finally