Slightly Biased Manga

I was actually very surprised that the story arc from the end of the last volume lasted through this entire volume.  I’m not sure why, especially since I associate this series with One Piece, and One Piece has story arcs that last ten volumes sometimes.

The battle with the dark guild really is the coolest thing ever, though.  As you would expect, most of the volume is battles between Natsu and an opponent, Gray and an opponent, and Erza and an opponent.  I’m fine with that at this point, because all of them still have really fresh and unique fighting styles.

It starts off with the four splitting off into girl/boy pairs to find the guy with the lullaby spell.  Obviously, Lucy isn’t a good match for Erza since the latter is fantastically strong.  You know she’s strong because very strong characters are afraid of her, but to see her in action in a fight is AMAZING.  Lucy is starting to become more and more useless as the story goes on, which is unfortunate because she’s too annoying to keep around if she’s not actually serving a purpose in a fight.  I like her summon magic, but she literally serves almost no purpose here except to help out at a very key moment.  Even Happy gets to help more.

After dispatching the entire dark guild, the members still have not successfully stopped Lullaby.  The guild’s true intention was hidden from them, so they wind up on another wild chase to catch one lone member.  The lone member winds up squaring off with Natsu, which turns out to be a pretty good fight since the rogue member is a wind user and Natsu uses fire, which is inherently ineffective against wind here.  We get to see more of Natsu’s strengths, and I’m really hoping Natsu winds up with a great role in the story somewhere down the line.

What actually happens to Lullaby is very good.  I should mention, as corny as the constant jokes inevitably are, I like this series’ sense of humor a lot.  It’s got a bit of “throw out 500 jokes to see which ones stick” syndrome, but it’s also got a really bizarre and unique sense of humor that you don’t see that often.  It’s kind of like Law of Ueki in that way, except Fairy Tail’s sense of humor is slightly more refined.  The art is also good, mostly because it looks just like something Eiichiro Oda would draw, and One Piece will always be my favorite.

No plot has emerged as of yet, but at this point the ride is still fun enough that I can see myself following along with the flow of events for at least a while longer, even if there is no immediate destination.  It’s funny, it looks good, the battles are awesome, the characters are good… and that’s just about everything you can get right in a series, so I have no complaints.

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.

I love anything automatically that bears a strong resemblance to One Piece, hence my inordinate fondness for Law of Ueki.  This series isn’t ripping off the plot so much as the art looks exactly the same, but apparently Hiro Mashima used to be Oda’s assistant, so I suppose that’s all right.  It makes me think of One Piece while I’m reading it, which is never a bad thing.

I also love fantasy series a lot, especially light fantasy series, hence my inordinate fondness for things like Sorcerer Hunters.  This does fantasy quite well, and one thing that the first volume does is lay out ALL the rules for the fantasy world.  Types of magic are defined, a guild system is set up for the characters, we learn that there are magical laws, and even better, we get to see the main character’s magic, which is a key summoning system the likes of which I’ve never seen outside a video game.  I like the fantasy elements A LOT.  It also doesn’t seem overly serious or epic about its magic or fantasy bits yet, which can turn me off in fiction quite a bit.

I can’t say too much about the characters just yet.  The main character is a bit dopey and out there in the same way as… well, Goku, Luffy, Ueki, and scores of other main characters who are out of it and also insanely strong.  He was taught by a dragon how to handle fire magic, and is apparently one of the better magicians of this type.  He meets up with Lucy, and after a brief battle to introduce their magic skills, Lucy is taken back to his magical guild, Fairy Tail, which she had been dreaming of joining.  Lucy is the serious female lead similar to… Nami, who she also resembles, unfortunately.  She’s the one that explains most of what’s going on to the reader.  There’s also a cat named Happy who is a shape-shifter and hangs out with Natsu, the fire magician.  We really don’t get a feel for any of their characters since so much of the rules and background are laid out first, but I feel pretty confident the details will fill themselves in later.

Based on the strength of its setting, I’m pretty excited about this series so far.  Plot and character details haven’t been filled in yet, but with the way things are going, even if they turn out to be medicore, I have a feeling that I’ll still enjoy this series quite a bit.