フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Manga Volume 07 Review

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The members of Fairy Tail begin fighting hard against the members of Phantom Lord at the Phantom Lord guild while the very angry Master Makarov goes to visit Phantom Lord leader, Master Jose.  Jose reveals he is holding Lucy captive as S-class wizard of Element 4, Aria, manages to strip Makarov of his power and sends him crashing down to the floor below. Erza realizes that things are going very bad an orders a retreat while Natsu takes a Phantom Lord member and discovers the location of their HQ building.

At the HQ building, Jose has a talk with the imprisoned Lucy, revealing that his guild was commissioned by her father to return her home.  That’s because Lucy father is the head of the Heartfilia Konzern, meaning Lucy comes from a very wealthy family.  Lucy is frustrated but manages to outwit Jose long enough to kick him in the groin. Her victory is short-lived as the only way out leads to a long drop to the ground.  Jose thinks he has her but Lucy is sure Natsu is near and jumps, calling Natsu’s name.  Sure enough, he catches her and is ready to go inflict damage on the Phantom Lord, but Lucy’s tears causes him and Happy to take her home.

Alzack and Bisca take Makarov to see a healer named Porlyusica, who’s known Makarov for years and doesn’t like other humans so she quickly shoos them off so she can treat Makarov. Lucy is depressed by her guild mates stand behind her. Cana attempts to locate S-class wizard Mystogan but fails. Mira contacts S-class wizard Laxus, who sneers at the thought of returning to help unless Lucy becomes his woman and Makarov turns the leadership of Fairy Tail over to him, statements which anger Mira. Mira decides she is going to get into the fight but is restrained by Cana as Mira may be officially an S-class wizard, but she’s not what she used to be.

Jose brings his guilds HQ building to Fairy Tail and fires the massive cannon Jupiter at it.  Only Erza’s powerful defensive armor deflected the shot though it leaves her injured. Mira takes charge and after Lucy is knocked out, Mira has Reedus take her to a safe house. Mira transforms her appearance into that of Lucy to try to fool the enemy. Natsu and Happy make it into the cannon firing room while the clock ticks for the gun to recharge but they meet S-class fire wizard Totomaru.  Natsu is at a serious disadvantage as Totomaru can control Natsu’s fire but Natsu eventually manages to outwit his opponent and destroy the cannon.

Jose is angry and transforms the guild into Super Magic Giant Phantom MkII and the “mecha” begins a magic mandala in the air. Mira, disguised as Lucy, tries to confuse things but Jose is not fooled.  Mira is troubled that her brother Elfman is in battle against S-class wizard Sol while Jose has SMGP grab Mira as hostage. Elfman learns of Mira’s capture and remembers how their little sister was killed. Enraged, Elfman performs a full-beast transformation and defeats Sol and rushes to save Mira, who’s initially scared of him, not knowing if he’s in control or not. With the defeat of Sol and Totomaru, SMGP’s mandala creation has slowed down tremendously, meaning if they can defeat Juvia and Aria, it will stop.

Elsewhere, Gray encounters Juvia and promises to not hold back just because she’s a woman. Juvia finds herself attracted to Gray, more so because she uses water magic and he uses ice magic, which makes her unsure of what exactly to do against him in the battle. Because their powers are related, neither can defeat the other so Juvia asks for Gray to hand over Lucy and it will be over.  When Gray refuses, citing Lucy as someone special, Juvia gets jealous and literally begins boiling.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, I’ve REALLY got to work on my summaries.  ^_^;;;

So, is Jose supposed to be the Joker in the world of Fairy Tail?  *lol*  He just looks like some version of Joker from the Batman comic book series.

Natsu did briefly battle Gajeel but that was cut short. So, I’m guessing the real fight will happen down the road.

Despite Lucy being weak as all get out as well as being the babe in distress, she did show some gumption when she pulled a fast one on Jose.  Add to that her “leap of faith” because she was sure that Natsu was nearby and would save her.  Interesting that Lucy is an “ojousama” and apparently ran away from home.  It must not have been too pleasant a home life based on her reaction to the thought of returning.

Also getting some character development with background information were Mira and Elfman.  That one picture of Mira from when their sister was alive and a member of Fairy Tail is quite different from her look now.  She looked pretty serious and cocky, even with a bit of a smile whereas now, she doesn’t have a harsh look to her.  The fact that she is still considered an S-class wizard (explaining why she has access to the restricted 2nd floor of the guild) must mean she has the potential to do whatever she did back then.  Beyond shape-shifting and putting people to sleep, I wonder what she did.  I also wonder what killed their little sister and if Elfman played a role in that.

Master Makarov being taken out so quickly isn’t so surprising because in these big battles, the author has to remove the big pieces to make the fight more interesting.  Thus, we have Mystogan out and the jerkwad Laxus out.   Mashima-sensei also removes Erza from the field of combat by having her take that shot from the Jupiter cannon.  Erza will get better as will Makarov in time for the final fight.  I can’t say whether Mystogan might come back or not but the way Laxus has acted, I’d say he won’t show up.  We’ll see though.

Oh, and while I’m thinking of Makarov, I wonder if he was romantically involved with Porlyusica.  I say this because she may well be Makarv’s estranged wife.  Certainly, her attitude toward him is one of a wife who loves her husband but is angry with his constantly refusing to listen to her.

Finally, there’s Juvia.  Oh man, her introduction in the previous volume was the perfect setup for Mashima-sensei to provide one of his delicious, unexpected twists.  Juvia’s sudden, initial reaction to give up immediately rather than fight Gray simply because she found herself attracted to him made me laugh.  Even while Mashima-sensei carries on some continuity with Gray’s injury from Lyon stabbing him with a sword, Juvia’s misinterpreting him removing his shirt (because of his wound) as an indication that he wanted sex was just awesome.  The fact that neither can get the advantage of the other has me interested in seeing what Juvia will do next, now that she sees Lucy as a rival. ^_^ Can’t wait to read that in the next volume ’cause I find I like Juvia a lot.

So, a lot going on in this volume with lots of action but character moments for Lucy, Mira, and Elfman as well.  Plus, there’s the unexpected bonus of Juvia!  ^_^