Written by Shiggins
2016! New year, new me FT!
For those who can't remember, 2015 ended with Natsu and Happy having a hug, Zeref going to act out a gay shopping montage for new clothes, and Brandish about to die from her weasel sidekick Marin Hollow. And our reward for waiting so long and begging Mashima-senpai is a chapter providing answers... although is the reveal as good as it could have been?
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| Me: *childish giggle due to out-of-contest quote* |
We start off this week with Mermaid Scale, who are fighting like the usual badasses they are. Speaking of badass, Wahl locks on to targets and starts bringing down missiles to destroy which causes Kagura to take the initiative and slice them out of the sky because that's how swords work. Then Dimaria appears with her own unique blade, and attacks. Despite not even moving, Dimaria's magic is able to intimidate Kagura, and before there is even a proper movement, Kagura's shirt bursts apart.
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| Aaah... It's not a Fairy Tail chapter without some sideboob, am I right? |
The focus moves to Brandish, who was waking up in bed surrounded by Lucy, Cana and Porlysucia. It turns out she went unconscious and Lucy and Cana beat the crap out of Marin in what I'm sure was an exciting match, and he's now in jail... instead of Cana's card where I would have put him. As Brandish questions their reasoning and Lucy says they still need information, and that she doesn't think Brandish is a bad person.
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| I KNEW IT! I told you people that baths are relevant to character development! |
Finally, Brandish is going to talk on the conditions that she is left alone with Lucy and without her handcuffs! Seems reasonable... So Lucy agrees and we sit down for our big reveal. Ready, ladies? Here we go... Brandish's mum was a servant of Layla's that was given the Aquarius key and the reason Brandish is angry is because Layla killed Brandish's mother so she could get the key back to give to Lucy one day.
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| Don't worry, I checked. You're not meant to remember who Spetto is. |
As Lucy starts to protest, Brandish attacks and knocks over the jug of water. Looking inappropriate due to her choice for clothing, Brandish starts to choke Lucy to avenge her mother while also claiming she holds nothing against Lucy but has to kill her anyway. All of a sudden, and I swear to god I have no idea how either, Aquarius pops up out of the jug's water!
Opinion: Hmm... What to tackle first? (fishing pun)
Let's deal with Brandish's reveal since that's probably the most important moment here. It's a bit disappointing, or at least it could be. The cynic in me is worried we're now going to go down a 100% predictable path, with a happy perfect ending for everyone. You see, I've noticed recently just how much of a fucking Mary Sue that Lucy's mother is. She's one of those "radiates goodness out of vagina" types, and that's fine when a character is dead, but not when they're clearly important to the story. If this goes the route I'm thinking, it's just going to further cement how much of a perfect angel Layla is.
The path I think? Oh you know it too. Don't pretend that you don't. Aquarius is going to reveal to Brandish that Brandish's mother sacrificed herself for a convenient reason, hence why Layla took back the key. Basically, a way to make Brandish wrong about her revenge and make sure Layla has never done anything wrong in her entire life, except piss gold instead of diamonds. I'm not against this kind of story, but I have seen it before and it's disappointing to see us most likely retreading the path of "perfect dead parent". Look at it this way. Who are the best fathers in anime? Bardock, the selfish asshole. Dragon, the pirate who ditched his son. Minato, the guy who fucked up as Hokage despite his best efforts. Characters that fail and have flaws. Brandish's story is too likely to paint Layla as a messiah again, and that's the problem I have with it.
On the other hand, it's nice to see Brandish get really pissed off and upset. I think her chance of turning into a good person are hugely high now. Hell, Lucy even showed I was right by pointing out the bath! I told you guys that it would make her good! Ha! I am omnipotence in it's sexiest form!
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| Uh huh, sure... Then she went and committed a Uchiha Clan massacre. |
Dimaria's magic is... stripping? No, obviously not. What is it though? Most likely, she can destroy anything in her path, so long as it isn't organic. Somewhat like Midnight's abilities that were also unable to touch Erza so he used her clothing to strangle her. And speaking of Erza, I'm sure that we can see where her fight with Dimaria is going. Erza takes out armour, Dimaria destroys it, then Erza takes out another and another and another. And Dimaria destroys them one-by-one. Should be fun to see though, even if predictable.
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| If only Nisekoi could take such a direct route with their ships. |
And lastly, Aquarius is back! ...How? I mean, cool that she's back because she had a nice friendship with Lucy and was fairly awesome at battling opponents but that's not going to make me worry about how the hell she came back. I need explanation! Does the broken key still work? Does Brandish have her own replacement key? Or is this just some sort of heart/friendship bullshit? Again, need more to know before I can decide if I like this or not.
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| I know this is a serious moment but... Wouldn't it be hilarious if Aquarius had appeared in Brandish's tears instead? |
The funny thing about this review is that all my problems with it are future ones. Brandish's reveal could turn out great, or awful. Aquarius' return could be really clever, or pulled from a sweaty arse. Dimaria's magic could be hugely simplistic, or so damn near the level of genius that even my benevolent brain would be threatened! In short, I need to read more before I am fully satisfied. And considering the fact that this is a weekly series, I think Fairy Tail wins a gold star for doing it right.
Manga Rating: 3.5/5
Character of the Week: Brandish, for finally giving some information out.
Predictions: Lucy vs Brandish, but most of it will be Aquarius talking and being the usual bitch she is. If we're lucky, we'll see at least one other team too. I would prefer to see Blue Tooth right now, since I think the Saints need to be amazing enough to possibly overshadow other fights afterwards. Also, Yukino vs the Reaper. That could be awesome.
Best Part: Brandish starts talking.
Worst Part: The reveal wasn't as shocking as some of the theories I've heard so far.
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| So... Carla doesn't love them? |
Bonus:
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| Damn, I love me some Village People... No homo. |
Shiggins:[Admin]
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Born under the stars of the Dark Gods, Shiggins owns the power of the Great Eye and is utterly magnificent in his omniscience. If you dare to discover more about someone as great as him, then go ahead. And to all my friends and family members, YOU are wrong and I should be disappointed! Not the other way round!,. You can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere or go to his tumblr page http://otakugajeel.tumblr.com/
not gonna lie. i'm pretty disappointed about the reveal about brandish myself. I really feel like there's a bit of a pattern to avoid deaths at any cost from hiro which may take away certain impacts of the story in this kind of arc. not saying it's necessary but avoiding it too much can be just as bad as having too many too soon or too many too late or even just sudden deaths.
ReplyDeletewhile brandish will likely become an ally I feel they're taking away something that could've worked better in avoiding what you said about Layla being this perfect woman.
Hiro is definitely not a killer of his characters, which is fine I suppose since a lot of his characters are great and he loves writing them. I'm not someone who wishes for tons of death, but I'm not against one or two tragedies in a story like this either.
DeleteTrue but like I said, we just have to wait. All my problems were problems for potential futures. For all we know, there could be a really good twist or well-delivered moments that stem from this. Right now, we're in Schroedinger's Manga.
Like a fair amount of people I too am a bit disappointed by this chapter due to the seemingly cliched nature of where Brandish's story seems to be heading. Indeed the story may go that way, but then again to Hiro's credit, while he has proven to me that he is likely to stick to the cliches in this instance, he's also taken his story in directions I never even considered they could possibly go. For instance we might actually see Layla doing as Brandish said and killing her mother, but the interpretation of why she did it may be what is wrong. Or maybe instead of the possibility that she will be reformed when we finally learn the truth about what went on between Layla and her mom she reaches some closure... but she still fights against Fairy Tail just because. Hell she's cooky enough that I could totally see her doing that, and she even expressed enough loyalty to Zeref that even though she hated fighting she would still participate and follow his orders. As for Aquarius I admit I feel like we're seeing her a little to early even though I knew we'd see her again at some point. Like you said though the story is too up in the air to decide how this will turn out.
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