©真島ヒロ・上田敦夫・講談社／FT100YQ製作委員会・テレビ東京
With the pace this series is going, I think it's gotten through most of the battles it went through last time in a week, but it looks like all of that will probably continue for a while longer. Before we get into that, we have a couple of things to talk about since we somehow managed to squeeze two pairs of shorts in. The first involves Juvia telling Erza that she should probably practice kissing in case she ever does it with Jellal. In typical Erza fashion, she pretends to be over the idea but decides to try it just in time for Jellal to see her leaning against the window and wonder what's wrong with her. The rest is about Levy worrying about all the extra work Gajeel is taking on since he'll be back with more injuries. While teasing her in his usual way, he makes it clear that he's doing all of this so he can be ready to take care of their child and make sure they can live as a family. Both shorts are pretty charming, but like the last time we got one, it feels a little odd to have these at the beginning of the episode rather than the end. Surprisingly, the general ideas from these shorts actually come back up in some of the big fights this week, and the results are both touching and hilarious.
Since most of this week's events can be summed up as fights, I might as well start with Gray and Lucy, since they probably had the least to do out of the group. In Gray's fight, he handles Laxus' crew with ease, since they're hardly a match for him at this point. Even when Freed tries to use his spell to stop Gray from using his Ice Creation magic, Gray instead switches to his Demon Slayer magic and hits them even harder. It's not a very exciting fight (and probably the worst of what we got this week), but I wasn't really expecting it, so I don't have any complaints about it. The same can't be said for Lucy's fight, as she uses her new Star Dress powers and takes out Lisanna…but only Lisanna, because of Elfman and Mirajane, survives her massive attack. At this point, I should be glad that Lucy is still there and not taken out a second time, which isn't a good thing, but the contrast between her fight and Gray's really makes me see how bad she's been treated in that department. Since the fight isn't over yet, I suppose there's still some hope that she'll figure out some way to defeat Elfman and Mirajane on her own, but for now, I'm preparing for the worst.
In the big battles, first we continue Naruto's fight with Gajeel, which turns out to be a tough battle as Gajeel refuses to back down. Eventually, Levy steps in to defend him, and while Natsu is happy to fight her too, he stops short when he remembers that she's about to have a baby, which distracts him long enough for her to use her magic to jump onto a carriage and drag Natsu off the battlefield. Somehow this still counts as a win for Naruto, which is pointless since he didn't actually free either of them from their brainwashing, and also because anyone with eyes can tell that Levy is the real winner here. Semantics aside, though, it was sweet to see Gajeel and Levy trying their best to protect each other and think about their future with their child, which is definitely a big step up from their bickering earlier this season. I hope we see more of this instead. I also really liked how well this thread tied into the earlier short of the episode and it was nice to see them have a bit more purpose beyond just being funny.
There's nothing wrong with being funny, though, as the lack of romance we saw from Erza in her short time with her returns when she finds herself fighting Jellal. Since Erza's attempt to fight Jellal in the Tower of Heaven was interrupted by Naruto, it's easy to imagine a version of this rematch being played seriously, but that's not the version we get. Instead, it's played purely for laughs as the White Mage's brainwashing seems to have freed Jellal of all his inhibitions and he starts stripping and talking about how much he wants to throw himself at her. Erza is quite flustered by this but recalls that for all his previous hot-headedness, Jellal has very little experience with women, so she attempts to “seduce” him with some of her more revealing armor. Normally these are the types of fan humor that don't work for me because they tend to feel weird or out of place, but this one works because it shows that even a serious character like Jellal can't help but be at least a little silly. It also helps that Erza's performance here really just serves to highlight how romantic the two of them are, and seeing the two of them awkwardly flinch about it probably made me hope things would work out for them more than any of their more dramatic moments so far.
While these battles make up the bulk of what we get this week, things pick up a bit elsewhere as the Dragon Eaters from Diablos show up, looking to seal the Dragon Forest so they can eat him. Of course, Kiria decides to go after Erza, while Natsu and Wendy are attacked by a couple of new dragon eaters in the form of a creepy spider guy and a literal ghost. The latter of these two battles seems like it'll be the more interesting, as while this series revolves around magic and fantasy, we haven't really had any notable instances of ghosts. I'm curious to see how they work in this universe. Hopefully these battles don't drag on too long, but I'm at least having a pretty good time with what we have here, so if we have to go through these for a while, I hope it at least won't kill the rest of the show's momentum.
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Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
