Fairy Tail 2

Hiro Mashima – Del Rey – 2008 – 14+ volumes

I was reading a little bit about the third volume of this series coming out, and I realized I hadn’t read the second volume.  Somehow, this escaped my “to be read” pile and wound up on an open windowsill getting rained on.  Luckily none of the pages were damaged or moldy, just a little dusty from the soot blowing in.

I like this more and more every time I read a chapter.  I can’t help but compare it to One Piece since it’s sort of about these weird underdog/very famous guild of great eccentric magic users, and it’s drawn in exactly the same style.  This series worries me only because the author admits to not having a direction, whereas One Piece has the most sprawling, cohesive manga plot EVER.  It’s probably not fair to compare it to One Piece though, because OP is… well, one of the best series out there, plus the two are very different aside from their visual style and quirky characters.  This is still great, probably one of the best action series I’m reading right now, and I like it a lot without the OP connection.

Lucy and Natsu head out to take a job worth two million… jewels, or whatever their currency is there.  The catch is that they have to break into the heavily guarded mansion of a local mayor figure and destroy a book in his library.  The mansion is guarded by… maids, bodyguards from a rival guild, and the mayor himself.  There’s lots of funny stuff going on, including an attempt by Lucy to be hired on as a maid, and some awesome magic battles.  My favorite part of the series so far is seeing all the unique ways magic is used by the various characters.  It’s sort of an anything goes kind of thing at this point, which is something that can be ugly if used incorrectly, but so far it’s very cool.

After that mission, a new character, apparently the strongest member of the guild, takes Natsu and another strong wizard with her to stop a dangerous assassin.  The other strong wizard was someone introduced earlier with some sort of exhibitionist impulse (he frequently disrobes or forgets to put pants on in the morning), and so far it’s turning out great.  The strong guild member is entertaining since she rules with terror and an iron fist, and lots of humorous opportunities are exploited.

The humor, along with the awesome magic, also makes this series great.  Natsu and Happy are constantly bantering back and forth in weird ways, and most of the characters aside from Lucy have some truly bizarre traits.  It’s really great, I promise.

The one thing I don’t like about it is the fanservice.  It’s not nearly as frequent as it could be (I just read Enchanter, which makes this series look tame), but I hate that it feels it has to stoop to fanservice to be enjoyable.  It doesn’t.  I feel embarrassed for it whenever Lucy flashes a little cleavage and makes a joke.

Now I’m ready for volume 3.  I can’t say I could go on enjoying this series indefinitely, but at this point I know it’ll be many more volumes before I tire on it.  As long as fanservice is kept to a minimum, I’ll be a happy camper for a long time to come.