I have to say, I am absolutely flabbergasted. In my previous review I said that I had high hopes for this filler, but in the back of my mind I knew, absolutely knew that there was no possible way filler could be any good. Well not only is this episode not stupid, it's actually pretty good. Insofar that I wasn't bored out of my mind, which is high praise for filler.
Again, there's no guarantee that the next episode won't be gorram retarded, but so far we're two for two. So let's see why this episode was so good, and if we can't find any hints as to whether the next episode will be any good.
The thing about this episode is that several of my questions from the last episode were answered, while more questions were raised. That's the sign of a story that is doing its job. Sure it can't compare to anything from the manga, but I'm interested to not only find out what happens next, but there are several hints that something more is going on than we at first knew.
The first thing that the episode addresses is that Gray is in fact not a fake - well there goes my first theory - because the moment that Happy brings up the fact that Gray is still wearing his clothes, Gray starts stripping. Daphne claims that not only is he the real thing, but that he isn't being controlled either. Now while this may turn out not to be true, I give kudos to this arc for throwing me for a loop there. In retrospect though it probably should have been obvious that they were playing the "not stripping" part up too obvious.
I don't know what Gray's reasons for betraying Fairy Tail are, but I'm definitely interested. The only thing I'm worried about is that the resolution to this will be stupid. Because we all know that there's know way he actually becomes a traitor, since he's in the next arc in the manga! Again, a problem of filler. Something like this is awesome, but it doesn't work properly in filler because everyone watching knows it won't have an impact on the rest of the story.
Gray and Natsu fight, and, well...it's a fight. Not much to say there really. It's pretty well animated, and goes on for most of the episode, so methinks we'll focus on the actual plot.
Erza and Lucy show up, after deciding to go looking for Natsu and Wendy, but can't find the inn because it is an illusion. They are attacked by the same guy who attacked Erza in the previous episode. He turns out to be some kind of lizard-man, and while he fights Erza, another one shows up and starts copying the abilities of Lucy's spirits.
Natsu is captured by Daphne, and thrown into a hole where he starts seeing memories he'd forgotten from the past. Most importantly, a city without sound. What exactly this is, I do not know, but it's one of the parts of the episode I want to know more about.
Lucy and Erza manage to beat their opponents; Erza by exchanging weapons faster, and Lucy by bringing out Plue to force the lizard-man to dance himself to exhaustion. Guess it pays to have such a feeble spirit around. It's interesting to note that they go back to the stock animation of Lucy summoning her spirits, but actually bothered to reanimate it.
Daphne then reveals her artificial Dragon, Dragonoid, which she is powering by absorbing Natsu's life force.
Bet you wish you'd brought more people now, huh Erza?
Not a perfect episode, but it rises in my esteem because of how surprisingly good it is. Whoever writes the filler for this show deserves more recognition. They have done what so many anime writers, who do nothing but adapt from the manga, cannot do. Make a story that does not suck complete balls.
However this arc ends, I doubt it will be very long, it has at least been interesting up to now. And if the setup is this good, chances are the conclusion will be just as good. But I could always be wrong, I'm not making any definite statements until I see the end of this filler arc.
If you liked my review, Watch the Episode Here!
0 comments:
Post a Comment