Anime Review: Fairy Tail Part 17 (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Fairy Tail Part 17 (UK Rating: 12)

The long running games have now reached their grand conclusion and, of course, Fairy Tail comes out on top, and it does so in style as numerous members of the guild get to show off some new big league trump card abilities. As the games reach their big climax, though, the real drama of this story is yet to come. While the mage guilds prepare for the dragons to appear, there's more to this eclipse plan than was first thought. Lucy isn't the only one to travel back in time from the future; a future version of Rogue was, too. He has come back from a time where dragons once again rule the world and he says it's all Lucy's fault. Rogue claims that she closed the Eclipse Gate, stopping the weapon from killing the dragons and allowing them to instead run rampant. Rogue has come back to kill her and stop it from happening.

This collection includes some of the usual extras fans have come to expect. It's dual audio with the English still being of questionable quality, and there are the usual opening and closing themes. The opening themes have been particularly lacklustre for Fairy Tail for some time, but that changes here with the supremely toe-tapping STRIKE BACK from BACK-ON. Then there are also two episode commentaries, a handful of trailers, and a featurette based on the all-ladies guild of Mermaid Heel.

7/10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Fairy Tail Part 17 wraps up one of the most enjoyable arcs in recent memory and delivers a conclusion that combines some huge battles to showcase the extended cast with some big revelations to the lore and overall story. This arc is very much Fairy Tail's equivalent of One Piece's legendary Marineford arc, and while it can't live up to Oda's masterpiece, this is a heck of a fun story. After this, Fairy Tail is returning to filler hell for another 24 episodes. Hopefully, it won't drop in quality too much.