*Disclaimer: At the time of writing, some wikis listed this all as one season, so if I only make it sound like this is all one thing, that's why. Sorry!*
Having got through the goofiness, but crazy amounts of fun, that was Season 1, the hit-anime Fairy Tail finally gets it's stride as we make our way into Season 2. More filler? Perhaps. But definitely more story, more action, and also my favorite arc so far, and by far.
This season, unlike the last, comprises of only two arcs, something that the show would do, or, actually, does in its later seasons as well. They don't necessarily coincide as fluidly as they should and are separated by rather informative filler regarding Gildarts, Lisanna, and Wendy, but are fun nonetheless. Our voice actors haven't changed, nor have the characters, but we do get a couple of new characters that are added to Fairy Tail's strongest team.
The only downside to this season is that it starts off kind of wanky. It takes a couple of episodes to really get going, as there is a lot of exposition regarding their mission before the intense action sets in. This season also introduces, to a lesser extent than next, the typical aspect people will see that repeats in an action-oriented anime, such as Bleach or Dragon Ball Z: the hero gets defeated, then later on after hearing from an ailing friend they get back up and somehow manage to defeat the big bad guy that they just had a showdown with.
Another sour note that the opening arc, the Nirvana arc, has is that I don't really remember many of the characters that tagged along with the Fairy Tail members with the exception of Wendy, Carla, and Lyon, because they were very overlooked and completely underused. Do I remember the Oracion Seis? Heck yeah, because they were pretty darn cool. But the new characters are so underused to the point that they are taken out very early on in the mission.
To me this made the Fairy Tail members seem very overpowered when they were supposed to be of equal, if not possibly lesser, strength than the members of the other guilds. I guess this is to make them the bigger heroes but come on, if you're going to have a team-up arc with various guilds then you should make it so it's a legit team-up and not occasional cameos.
Luckily, the Oracion Seis were essentially the perfect counters to this as they seemed to be the exact opposites to every member's magic, and then Midnite was just kinda awesome, as was Zero's magic. I would say that they're my favorite Dark Guild thus far but it's very close between them and Grimoire Heart. Sure they only appeared for this half of the season but boy were they a joy to watch. Just bouncing between battles was very cool to see, sometimes it was nice to see how they would relate to battles elsewhere.
There was also a little hint at what we would see coming as we got to see a tidbit more with Jellal and his role in what was to come, specifically regarding Wendy. Luckily it all resolved very quickly because Wendy's relationship with "Jellal" was kind of confusing for a while there.
I think that the biggest things that the Nirvana arc gave to us were Wendy and Carla, the power known as "Dragon Force" to be obtained by the Dragon Slayers (Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy), and of course, what is in my opinion one of the best songs in all anime or just soundtracks in general, "Dragon Force." It plays during Natsu's final showdown as well as for a moment during the Edolas arc that I can't say because spoiler but man oh man, it's amazing.
Some regard "Dragon Force" as nothing more than the sped up "Fairy Tail Theme" but to them I say, "Haters gonna hate, this song is da bomb dot com" because in all honesty, it is. I just love it so much. And the "Mystogan Theme," which we get to hear in the Edolas Arc.
Speaking of which, let's get onto that. I've been looking forward to talking about this arc since I decided to do a review of Fairy Tail simply because of how much it reminded me how great of a show it is. After the Tower of Heavens arc, the show seemed to sort of slow down for a little. There wasn't as big of an emotional output, the characters sort of folded into themselves, nothing was really happening in terms of grand story. Not even the openings were living up to what the first two were like.
And then Magnolia gets vaporized.
So that happened, and so begins the Edolas Arc, in which Natsu, Wendy, Happy, and Carla all travel to a parallel world in search of their friends under the direction of Mystogan, who is apparently from this place. The catch? Their magic doesn't work, and they're tasked with overthrowing an entire kingdom without it!
I loved this concept. It showed what great warriors our heroes of Fairy Tail were even without their powers. Rather than just sit and moan and cry that their friends were gone they immediately took action, listening to an S-Class (or, senior class, if you will) member of their guild to save everyone they love and bring back their home.
Not only that, but we learned a whole heck of a lot about so many characters. The Edolas arc was basically the culmination of all the answers we'd been waiting for. "Are Happy and Carla really just talking cats?" "Why do Mystogan and Jellal look exactly alike?" "Why did Happy and Carla naturally gravitate to Natsu and Wendy?"
What also sucked me in, besides the story, was the dynamic of the world of Edolas. Yes, it was supposed to be a parallel universe in which magic worked differently, but the way that things were run were still similar. There was still a kingdom, there were still magic guilds, and there were still talking cats, known as Exceeds. But, as it was in Edolas, things were flipped, so the oppressed were really the rulers. If you thought Erza Scarlet was a noblewoman who would sacrifice everything for her friends, could the same be said if there was another Erza?
The biggest element of Edolas was the fact that there were doubles of characters, specifically Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, and even Cana. Those were the ones that stood out the most as the ones who had completely opposite personalities and I loved all of them. Of the Edolas versions we saw the most of Gajeel because he was actually in the Royal City when everything went down, so see Edolas Fairy Tail was loads of fun. That's probably what people remember most about it, but I remember the absolute emotion and suspense that the arc brought with it.
Keeping in mind that the strongest guild in all Earthland was wiped out by a mysterious blast and now only four, well, actually six, of it's members were left without their magic to fight an entire kingdom to find out why is a pretty strong premise. Add on the belief that Carla and Happy were sent to Earth in order to eventually kill Natsu and Wendy, the fact that the Earthland wizards have been turned into a giant Lacrima (a magic crystal) that, if broken, could kill all of them, and that there is a plot to kill the "Angels" of Edolas brewing and you've got yourself an emotional rollercoaster. Several of my favorite moments in all Fairy Tail occur within the span of this arc, from Happy's declaration of rebellion to the Exceeds deciding to fight to Natsu and Mystogan having one final showdown, this arc has it all man.
And the action in this is top-notch, even without the magic. It all just goes to show, like I said, what the wizards of Fairy Tail are capable of.
I feel that this arc, alone, is the amalgamation of all that is Fairy Tail. There are some episodes that feel like filler, like in the overall show. You've got great character development, several brewing story lines that are all getting ready to strike unexpectedly at the same time, you've still got the same old Fairy Tail comedy you've come to love over the course of the show, the music is great if not better than before in the way that it is used to make you feel the dire-ness of the situation, and the action is still top-notch, showcasings several "what-if" battles you never thought possible until now.
Season 2 wasn't necessarily saved by the Edolas arc, but it's certainly what kicked the show up several notches for me. It was almost as if the Oracion Seis were the calm before the storm for this, but, in fact, they weren't. Not for this.
They were but a glimpse of the Dark Guild to come in Season 3, as next week that's what we take a look at as Fairy Tail dukes it out with Grimoire Heart on Tenrou Island in the battle that forever changes the guild. Plus: more Cana and Gildarts, yay!
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