So with the end of Sword Art Online, you will be finding your reviewers here at ExtroInverse flailing around, trying to find new anime to fill the gap in our lives. For me, I have filled that gap with Fairy Tail. Why? Because I heard that there was actually romance in it, and I love animes that actually GO places with romances between characters, unlike several of my favorite animes where it is painfully obvious characters like eachother and it goes NOWHERE (Im looking at you, Soul Eater, Ghost Hunt...).
With Fairy Tail, however, I have been disappointed so far by the lack of romance, but hey, its only in the first season still! I am also a bit disappointed with the openings. They music is great, the animation is great, but its REALLY easy to predict the storyline and who the enemy is by the opening...
The Macao arc is just the intro arc to the life in Fairy Tail. The story follows Lucy, a Celestial Spirit mage who uses Keys to open gates to the Spiritual world and summons spirits from there, the most powerful being the golden keys, one of a kind keys that can call spirits such as Aquarius, Taurus, Virgo, etc... She is in the port town of Hargeon, where she meets a man called 'Salamander', a mage who uses fire magic that you cant buy from the stores, and falls instantly in love. However, Natsu, a pink haired man with a blue talking cat companion, bursts into the crowd around Salamander. He has been searching for someone and believes Salamander might be the person, but upon seeing Salamanders face realizes that he has the wrong person. Most of the girls in the crowd attack him for being rude, but Lucy looks at him and is broken from a spell cast upon her by Salamander. She thanks Natsu as Salamander and his crowd leaves, and treats him and the cat, Happy, to lunch. There she gives a bit of background about the life of Mages and Guilds, explains that Salamander was using a spell called Charm to get girls to like him, then leaves the two there. Later, she is reading a magazine and saying how she wants to join a guild featured in there, Fairy Tail, and Salamander comes out of the bushes (creeper) and says he is the Salamander from Fairy Tail and will let her join the guild if she goes to his party. She agrees, and later that night goes to the party. Salamander is acting all romantic, grossing her out a bit, and she realizes that he is attempting to cast Sleep magic on her. She confronts him about this, and he states that she is now his property, and the curtains around them open to show the men of the ship with the women who were attending the party all asleep. Lucy tries to summon a spirit, but Salamander takes her keys and throws them into the ocean.
On shore, Natsu is chillin and hears some girls say that Salamander is throwing a party on his ship, and that he is the famous Salamander from Fairy Tail. Natsu is bothered by this, and Happy brings him to the ship with his magical wings (a flying cat, yes) and they crash in on the party. Happy leaves Natsu and grabs Lucy, but his magic runs out and they both fall into the ocean. Lucy finds her keys (oh how convenient) and summons Aquarius. Aquarius seems to be crabby, and hates Lucy apparantly, because when Lucy tells Aquarius to make a wave to send the ship to shore, Aquarius attacks her instead, and the ship gets caught in the attack by mistake. Natsu is revealed on shore to be the REAL Salamander of Fairy Tail, and kicks the fake Salamanders butt, destroying half the port in the process. He grabs Lucy as he runs away, and when she is questioning why she has to run, he says she can join Fairy Tail if she comes with him. She agrees, and joins Fairy Tail.
(And from now on I shall summarize the plots rather than spell it out. Go watch it yourself!)
The next episode Natsu goes to save Macao, a guild member, and Lucy tags along because she feels like it. She ends up getting kidnapped by a perverted monster, summons the perverted spirit Taurus, and is eventually saved by Natsu, and the monster is defeated to show that it was actually Macao, taken over the by the monster.
And that is the end of the Macao arc. Two episodes. Pretty much just a bit of background about the world of mages and the Fairy Tail guild.
The next arc, the Daybreak arc, Natsu goes to Lucys newly rented house, asking her to form a team with him. She agrees, saying since Celestial Spirit mages use spirits based on contracts, she cant break a promise. Natsu then reveals that he already picked their first job, a job in which a blond girl is needed, and Lucy realizes that he only wanted to team with her to get her help with the job. She goes along with the job, which is to destroy a book possessed by a perverted rich man who likes blond maids. They go, manage to get the book, and Lucy shows her bookworm habits by refusing to destroy it, since it is written by her favorite author, and instead reads it and realizes there is a spell on the book. She gives the book to the client stating that he can destroy it himself if he wants, and the spell on the book lifts, and etc etc Natsu decides since they didnt destroy the book they wont accept the reward, to Lucys horror.
The Lullaby arc is a bit longer. Erza returns to the guild, a female weapons master mage, whos magic is to switch out her weapons and armors. She requests that Natsu, and Gray, an ice mage and Natsus childhood rival, help her with investigating a dark guild that she believes is trying to unleash a sealed curse death magic called Lullaby. Lucy is asked to tag along to keep Natsu and Gray from fighting when Erza is not looking. They go and beat up the ENTIRE guild minus the leader with only the 4 people, and then Natsu beats up the leader. And they save the day.
So far, despite the lack of romance, I find myself intrigued by Fairy Tail. It has just the right amount of funny, serious, sad, perversion, and random displays of friendship and hatred all in one to keep me entertained. I would highly recommend watching this, and I shall keep you updated on my thoughts on each arc.
-May Hotaru
