Fairy Tail Vol 4

[meganbmoore]

(Why yes, I am trying to clear out as much of the manga backlog as possible before the last books from rightstuf’s Viz and Tokyopop sales trickle in. Why do you ask?)

Did I read that right that Gray’s badass master who he wants to live up to is a female? Things like that are allowed to happen in shounen outside of Fullmetal Alchemist?

And Deilora’s whole issue is that he never got to prove himself as strong as her? Excellent. Though I don’t think waking up the demon is the way to go about dealing with that. Though I do like that Gray sent Lucy to protect the city, but just wanted Natsu out of the way while he fought.

Natsu seems to be making a habit of making himself comfortable in Lucy’s apartment without checking with her first. That’s the sort of thing that can get him killed. So Erza knows the council guy who’s interested in Fairy Tail? Interesting. (And…err…is it just me, or does he look like a male Erza?)

Not sure what I think, though, of Natsu and Happy stealing an S Class mission. I kind of hope they just get in trouble for it, as opposed to the promotion they want. Though it probably also means Lucy won’t get her golden key. (And Loki’s fear of Lucy makes me wonder if he’s a celestial spirit, or has some connection to them.) Of course, their greatest fear should be what Erza will do when she catches up with them.

Comments

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

The female mentor was cool. I totally agree with you about wanting them to get in trouble for stealing that mission. I was pretty miffed that Lucy didn't put up more resistance, since she heard the penalty will be expulsion, and joining Fairy Tail was, like, her life's goal.

And wasn't Mystogan cool?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Mystogan...has cool potential? Yeah, pretty much, but I've had characters with similar intros turn out to be losers and/or non-fun dorks before.

I'm torn on Lucy. On the one hand, not only does it not seem right for her to risk her position in Fairy Tail like that, but she's also the smart one who thinks first. OTOH, she does have her materialistic side, and doesn't seem to think right when keys are brought up.

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

I hadn't really considered the key as motivation for her lapse of sanity. I still don't like that it overrides her brains.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Neither do I, really. I like that the materialistic girl who'd normally be the flaky dingbat is the brains of the operation. I kinda wonder, though, if there's more to the key obsession than just getting more powerful. Actually, I really want there to be more to it than that. (Though I also got the impression that that key was worlds beyond the ones she already had.)

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

Me, too. Didn't it say there's a limited number of the gold ones?

I dunno, I just didn't like this volume as much as 3, and I think it was due to the lack of much magical combat. The originality of the powers is my favorite part, and there wasn't much of that this go 'round.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

A limited number of gold ones sounds right.

I think you're right about the less fighting bit. We did get a bit on the differences between Deilora and Gray's use of their powers, but beyond that...

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was also annoyed that the author admitted Gray's angsty background was an attempt to lure more female readers.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Where was that mentioned? I think I missed it.

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

*consults volume*

It's in the Afterword. "And the story is all wound up in Gray's past. Why Gray?! Well... Let's not think too much about that. I-It's got nothing to do with me seeing a lot of female fans out there!! Or rather, I don't really see many, so I hope to pick up more female fans... Hopefully, that's the effect."

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yeah, missed that.

Well, it isn't exactly anything new and (sadly-for reasons involved, not the result) seems to have the desired effect most ofthe time. At least Gray is interesting and entertaining in his own right, which is more than a lot of "add angst for interest" characters can say.

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's a mild annoyance, but he's really just admitting what a lot of creators already do.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My inclination is to sigh and say at least he's being honest.