Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest Chapter 61 & Eden's Zero Chapters 103 and 104 Review

Written by Shiggins

Spikes and speeches.

It's crazy how different the two Mashima projects I'm talking about today are. One is full of action and madness, as near the end of an entire encounter against a massive monster. The other is full of speeches and reveals as we begin a whole new chapter of the adventure. Luckily, we're not going to compare the two since that would be unfair. Especially since one has a bath scene...

God, I have to re-read the Edge Chronicles. (To the 10 people who know that series, how awesome were those sky ships?!)

Fairy Tail

GS-Aldoron activates his trump card, the Thicket of Arms. Unlike the vines I was expecting, or some grabby hands like the name suggests, we instead get a rain of branches that impale and slice everyone they come across. To get away from a Neji-fate, Natsu must somersault around the battle arena. And the same is happening outside, with the giant Gajeel having to use his own body to protect the others.

Gajeel resumes his assault on the giant dragon, but he's suddenly impaled by a giant spike! This is when Brandish reveals time is up and Gajeel shrinks back down, somehow saving his life too. The spike lands and causes a massive crash, but then Aldoron starts to collapse from the fight he had with Gajeel. Unfortunately, the blades aren't stopping.

First Juvia, now Jellal. Maybe blue is the colour of the stalker!

Jellal reunites with Laxus and Erza, making me further convinced that he has a tracker on Erza so he can perfectly stalk her wherever she goes, and everyone is taking injuries from the ToA. Natsu finds himself completely impaled all over by the spikes, and collapses. As GS-Aldoron begins to walk away, Natsu gets back up. Finally, Natsu is going even hotter and is going to burn away everything.

FT Opinion: And nobody died from that?

Come on, we all know that if this was any other series (except One Piece because they are just as bad as Fairy Tail for death fakeouts) then we'd have seen a massacre. And yes, this is a very odd topic to bring up now in the 60th chapter of Fairy Tail's sequel series and I'm aware I'm bringing back a beaten horse for an extra round of abuse, but a giant swarm of spiky branches raining down from the back of a giant dragon? Yeah, Droy should be dead. Or Nab. Does anyone care about Nab? Don't pretend you do.

I'm shocked we haven't had a chapter of this premise yet. And yes, I said "yet".

It's hard to talk about this newest chapter, which I did enjoy, so let's just drag out the last negative so I have more to discuss. How did Giant Gajeel survive being impaled? I saw that thing go through his stomach! Did the wound just disappear when he shrank? Did it close up? Was he not really impaled and it just looked that way? ....I told you I was dragging this out!

Oh. That's good. Why hasn't Natsu ever said that before?

Finally though, Natsu is about to properly kick ass. I want to see this place burned to the ground. I want Natsu to go Ultra Ignite -Sign-! Let's end this and make it explosive! I'm excited for Chapter 62. And since I'm in the right mood for some extra praise, let's remind ourselves how good the art is right now. It's clearly different from Mashima-senpai, but it's not ugly-as-sin like Boruto and carries the spirit of the original Fairy Tail manga, not unlike Toyatorou with Dragon Ball Super. It's a huge relief that I just wanted to bring up right now while I've got the time.

60: 3.5/5

Best Part: The action is heating up!

Worst Part: Nab survives what Neji couldn't? Lies and slander!


Eden's Zero

Shiki and co are in shock as Ziggy ignores their pleas for his humanity (Robotity? Mechanity?) and the new Shining Stars, known as the Dark Stars, all make a quick comment to display their personalities and even give Ziggy a chance to badmouth Valkyrie. Connor is then ordered to destroy Eden's Zero, who is hesitant at first due to them not being a threat. Despite this desire to show mercy, he's convinced by the others to open fire.

A dogfight starts, with Shiki making the choice to fight back. Eden's Zero and Eden's One battle it out, with Zero trying to find an opening to escape, but the pretty boy Dark Star Wizard makes his appearance to show his overwhelming power and take down the Eden's Zero's weapons. The Eden's One charges up it's ultimate attack, and Rebecca tries to desperately activate Cat Leaper.

Wow. How do I keep forgetting that these two are on the ship now too? Clearly, we need them to have a beach episode. That will solve everything.

Then our Deus ex Machina arrives, in the form of the Skull Fairy! Elsie Crimson has joined the party, and it gives the Eden's Zero the time needed to dodge. Ziggy realises that fighting Elsie right now would result in trouble for him, and reveals to the readers that she is one of the Oracion Seis Galactica. (Or did we already know that and I just forgot? There's been a lot going on!). Ziggy retreats, and Elsie tells Shiki she's coming on board to talk.

Our second chapter opens with Elsie, Rebecca and Homura in the bath together. So congrats to Not-Erza for finally getting the bath scene we all knew was coming. Homura decides to challenge Elsie to a duel and, unlike when Rebecca was given the offer, Elsie smugly accepts. Despite Homura swinging her sword, Elsie defeats her without even standing up or using her hands.

Somewhere out there, Tarantino is very happy right now.

After the bath, Shiki makes his appearance to demand answers from Elsie. The Shining Stars have a reunion with Elsie, revealing she used to be on the ship back when she was a refugee from war and Shiki was still a recently-found baby. And when Ziggy and Shiki left for Granbell, Eden's Zero was entrusted to Elsie until she could give it to Shiki one day. Of course, Elsie's lack of understanding about machinery also made her take up piracy, not that she's exactly ashamed of it.

Weisz does raise an interesting question however. If Ziggy took a pod to Granbell, then why couldn't that have been used to get Shiki off the planet when he was ready? Witch theorises that Pino might have been built by Ziggy while on Granbell, and she was the one to take the pod and leave the planet. Then Pino ended up on Norma and ended up trapped 50 years in the past, with damaged memories.

Elsie brings the conversation back to Ziggy, who she met shortly after giving the ship to Shiki. She says he was at his own grave, and a dark ether was emanating from him. Worried, she used a drone to watch Ziggy until today when he woke up again and attacked the gang. And importantly, his first words when he woke up were about seeing Mother. Once Elsie has left to pursue Ziggy, Shiki declares the Eden's Zero will beat him to it! And the first step is going through the Dragonfall!

Whistle while you Weisz.

EZ Opinion: Ok, I like Elsie now.

And no, it's not only because of the bath scene! I'm not alone in seeing Elsie and being immediately worried we had an Erza clone in our midst, especially since we already had Happy make an inexplicable return and Eden's Zero was still figuring out it's rhythm. While Elsie does have some Erza qualities, like being comically overpowered compared to the others, the pirate side of her is a treat. She's smug, confident in her abilities, and doesn't display the same shyness or humility that Erza is known for. And her being a member of the Oracion Seis is hopefully a sign that she has a dark side we'll get to enjoy soon.

Oh no, I'm getting "Mother Box" flashbacks. Yuck.

Ziggy's "dark ether" interests me somewhat. Like I said last time, I feared that Ziggy wasn't really being evil and was faking it, but now I'm wondering if he's been possessed or fused with someone else. Maybe some sort of evil villain named "Father", the Satan to Mother's God? I'm just speculating at this point, since we've got so little information right now. The idea of someone possessing Ziggy would also explain when he meet these loyal Dark Stars, since I doubt they were created on Granbell or while Ziggy was with the Eden's Zero, which means they must have come from before then. Or am I underestimating how much time Ziggy has had between Chapters 1 and 100?

A fun action scene in space, a display from Elsie that reassures me we're not repeating the past, and the crew have added some urgency to their goal. Time will tell if that added motivation makes things better or worse, but this fast pace is doing wonders for every chapter recently and I'm really hoping we can keep this quality going. Next up, let's watch the crew cross the Grand Line!

103: 4/5

104: 3.5/5

Best Part: Elsie Crimson.

Worst Part: Lots of talking in the second half.

I love Homura, but if you were ever going to bring up an Elsie cover, it's now.

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/