Fairy Tail Chapter 465 Review - 400 Years

Written by Shiggins

Exposition overload!

After my brief complaint about how chapter 463 was too much fighting, and 464 was the perfect amount of both combat and conversation, 465 seems to be taking the exact opposite route and creating a perfect balance by just bombarding poor Natsu with information about his past and who he is. To put it simply, Natsu's life is going down.

Obvious reference is obvious.

After Natsu's supremely powerful attack from last week, Zeref is wounded but loving it. Although exhausted, Natsu claims he just needs one more chance to take the villain down. Zeref then decides to begin talking, claiming that Natsu right now might actually be able to kill him with the strength he has. Due to this, Zeref decides to tell him a few wee drops of information.

"OW! A tickle would have proven your point, damn it!"

What follows is nothing but harsh and fast talking, filled with dialogue that we've spent years wanting the answers to. Zeref reveals he is Natsu's brother, their parents and Natsu died 400 years ago by a dragon, Zeref resurrected him in the form of E.N.D, Igneel's love was why Igneel never killed E.N.D, Igneel and Zeref were pals, Igneel and other dragons went inside the 5 Dragon Slayers then went into the future so they could go to a place with enough magic/ether to defeat Acnologia, Zeref agreed because he wanted Natsu to gain enough power to kill the dark mage, Eclipse was how they travelled forward with help from a Celestial Wizard named Anna, and I'm assuming there was a message preserved for 400 years in Anna's clan because the 7th of July in the year X777 was when Layla Heartfilia opened the door to let the young Dragon Slayers enter today's world and... that's it. Nothing too major.

Wait... How did Acnologia manage over 400 years of hiding away? Is he a ninja dragon?

Finally, Natsu interrupts Zeref and proceeds to attack. However, just before he can strike, Zeref decides to drop the little fact that since Natsu is a "Book of Zeref", the two of them will die together. Just as Natsu seems prepared to throw his life away, Happy stops Natsu and begs his friend not to go away and just die. Unable to disagree or fight against Happy's words, Natsu lets himself get carried away. And Zeref watches, prepared to continue his war.

Opinion: Not much info there, huh?

You'll be surprised to hear that I wasn't entirely happy with this chapter actually. It's not the content itself I disliked, but more the manner of which it was told. This was a lot of information and almost all of it came with extra questions we needed to know about, but since so much was told so fast, we didn't get a full explanation of each piece. More importantly, Natsu didn't get to properly react to anything until the very end.

Natsu is Zeref's brother. Huge bombshell but Natsu didn't get to speak. Nor did he speak when he found out Lucy's mother was involved, or when some woman named Anna was mentioned, or when he found out he once died. These all deserved at least a short pause and a breath of shock, but Zeref never gave it. Future chapters should hopefully give us more emotion for Natsu, but right now, it's a bit disappointing to see him do nothing but scream before getting taken away.

Dragon Slayer Babies, we make dreams come true...

With all that being said, there was some great things to find out. First of all, we saw toddler Gajeel. That is important. He is adorable.

Secondly, we now know one of Lucy's ancestors; Anna. A Celestial Spirit mage that must have been some sort of ally to Zeref, and someone whom I can't help but wonder might make an official appearance one day. Hell, maybe we saw our first glimpse of this series' version of Yhwach or Kaguya, but with far more foreshadowing. Say what you like about her unexciting name, but an evil time-travelling Celestial Spirit mage could be great.

So NaLu won't be incest? Oh thank god!

Natsu knows that Zeref is his brother and he is E.N.D. Not only is this probably going to create some sort of existential crisis, but now he's literally going back to a Guild that want him dead. Hell, his own best friend/rival/gay-companion-on-that-road-trip-we-never-discuss-but-secretly-wish-we-could-and-in-no-way-should-you-believe-I-can-relate-readers has vowed vengeance on him. A huge part of me actually hopes Natsu doesn't tell Gray, because Gray discovering this fact on his own and feeling betrayed could be amazing drama one day. Hell, it might even play a part in this "Frosch death" we keep wondering about.

Acnologia is still not on my good side. As a villain, I still struggle to find interest in him. Sure, his human form looks really sexy and he has certainly done some damage, but I just struggle to see what makes him so terrifying. I understand we're meant to see him as more of a beast or a force of nature, but that's actually kinda boring! In a series that's so devoted to character and interactions amongst them all, Acnologia just feels like a pest. He's like the Ronan the Accuser to Natsu's Star-Lord. The comparison doesn't help.

There's probably a lot more to talk about, but I'll leave that for the comments section. I finish this review, a bit exhausted but mostly satisfied. And you can add that to the wikiquote about me you've obviously created in my honour, ladies and gentlemen.

Manga Rating: 3.5/5

Character of the Week: Happy for extending the plot and the war, most likely causing the deaths of thousands of people and probably beloved characters... wait, why is this a good thing again?

Predictions: Next week is "Assassin", and I suppose we could go quite a few ways with that one. If we're lucky, this means we're moving onto either Team Blue Tooth or Team Mermaid Scale and the assassin might be a new member of the Spriggan 12. I've been wrong before, of course. And we should probably see Natsu freaking out too.

Best Part: Happy saves Natsu using the power of friendship, but in a way we can all approve of.

Worst Part: Great content rapidly fired out with little explanation for each.

Tell you what, Mashima-senpai. If Minerva properly returns and I do actually find her nice personality as cute as the face she's making now, I might begin to forgive her difficult 180 from Tartarus Arc.

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/