Tale of Fairy Tail: Ice Trail Chapter 1 Review - The Young Boy's Name

Written by: Shiggins

*sigh* Let's get this one over with.

I hope you people appreciate what I do for you! This is my third review in one day! I don't get paid for this and I rarely get engaging conversation over these chapters or articles but whatever! Nobody cares about me, right?! I bet you just think "Oh, he probably likes doing reviews." Well, I do like it but that's not the point! And now I'm stuck here reviewing what I honestly consider the biggest waste of time that Fairy Tail could have given us! So chances are I won't review the next "Ice Trail" chapter because honestly, I found this one bloody boring! 

Although I will admit, I did like this cover.

Alright, I've calmed down now and I'm going to properly begin reviewing this. To put it simply, it's another prequel but this time it is based on Gray during his adventures before he entered Fairy Tail but after his parents were killed by Deliora. He's travelling the world for adventure and I think it's important to tell you that the artwork and story are not done by Hiro Mashima and was instead created by someone named Shirato Yuusuke. 

This is the spin-off I wanted, damnit!

We see young Gray walking about and lost, hungry in the cold. Next, we see a group of generic goons cornering a young girl at the edge of a cliff and telling her she has to go back with them. Suddenly, the edge of the cliff she's standing on is revealed to be nothing but snow so the girl falls and of course, just happens to meet Gray who has now stripped down to his trousers. The girl apologises to Gray and is about to run but suddenly, generic goons return and take the girl, then knock out Gray before he can fight back.

*sigh* Really? You lost because you were hungry? I thought that was how Luffy loses his fights!

When Gray awakens, he sees he is inside a prison cell with the girl. Upon finally getting some food after three days without it, Gray asks the girl where they are. The girl reveals they are in the Guild "Chrono Noise", and after realising that the girl isn't a member since she's in a prison cell, Gray asks her why they captured her. The girl "brilliantly" changes the subject before answering and asks why Gray was there in the first place. Gray tells her that he was looking for a train in town so he can travel around the world and become stronger. 

Confession 2: I like the name of this Guild.

Gray then shows off his magic by creating a rose made of ice, and tells her his magic is the "magic of freedom". (I cringed while typing that). The girl wishes she had that type of magic instead of the one she has so Gray gives her the rose and we finally hear her name; Nano Leaf. Wow, I'm just going to assume the translation made a mistake there or something. Generic goon then appears and takes the girl to do some sort of task. This is when we are introduced to Chrono Noise's Guildmaster, Nez Booms.

This is Nez Booms, the master of WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!

After blowing up the generic goon's head because he was 6 seconds late, and no I'm not joking about that, we see Gray has escaped his cell and finds Nano in front of a huge black ball. Nano uses her magic "egg knock" and a beam of light falls from the sky which causes the black ball to grow spikes and such. Gray is grabbed by another generic goon but uses his ice magic to escape. As Gray repels all the goons who charge at him, Booms tells Gray that Nano is using her magic to hatch the "Devil's Egg", which he is using Nano to make hatch today, instead of waiting 10 years. 

Okay, but can you tell me what it does? No? Okay...

With all the goons frozen to the ground, Nano tells Gray that her magic speeds up the flow of time inside an egg... Wait, what?! How does that make sense?! What type of stupid magic is that? Am I supposed to believe that a girl was born with the power to make eggs hatch faster because I don't! I think that's ridiculous and one of the most plot-convenient twists I've ever heard in my entire life! I really hope that this means that she can alter time in other ways too, because if not... I might stop reading this entire ridiculous manga spin-off. 

My reaction at this panel. (And yes, I am Godzilla now).

Anyway, with Gray declaring to bring back her happiness and freedom, Gray insults Booms and calls him a "runt", then Gray gives a big speech about how he will never back down from a challenge because Ur wouldn't want him to do that and it's all very generic and cliche to the point of boring! And yes, the chapter ends with Gray charging up to fight Nez Booms. 

Those two words aren't mutually exclusive...

Opinion: Boring! I'm sorry if you liked it but this was just not fun for me to read at all. Filled to the brim with cliches that make the main Fairy Tail scenes look butch, a pointless plot that will not affect the main story in any way whatsoever, and some artwork and designs that I'm just not fond of, this was a disappointment for me. We didn't even find out what "Devil's Egg" is!

The only thing I can call "good" was that you can feel Shirato Yuusuke is trying his best and he is not a bad manga artist. His designs fit well for a first chapter of Fairy Tail, but the ridiculousness of Nez Booms looks like it would belong in One Piece more than Fairy Tail. 

As for Nano Leaf, she is going to die. I'm sorry but it's true. They need to remove her from the plot and that means we have to prepare for a big emotional death scene so that way the Gray from Fairy Tail will never visit her again. If not, she's going to leave the story somehow and this is why I'm not emotionally invested in her. She isn't going to influence Gray in any way we can see or know about, and her existence in this series is to keep the spin-off going and nothing more. It's unlikely Hiro Mashima will have Nano appear in the main story but until she does, and in a clever way too, I'm not going to care about her. Sorry.

Rating: 1.5/5

Character of the Week: Gray for making a rose made of ice, like Iceman did in the first X-Men film. (Lazy reason I know but nobody did anything I liked!)

Predictions: Nez Boom will be defeated easily and Nano will join Gray as he travels the world. Chances are, I won't be reviewing it.

Best Part: We saw a man's head explode.

Worst Part: The bombardment of cliches in that last speech.

Two spin-offs down... Two to go.

Shiggins:[Admin]
  .

Shiggins enjoys many strange forms of communication, especially those including cosplayers or presents or videos. However, until that wonderful day comes when people care enough to give him things for being him, you can contact him on his Skype; shigginsishere. He can also respond to you if you contact him through GMails at shigginsishere@gmail.com, and you can find out about him or ask him stuff on ask.fm/shigginsishere.