February 24th, 2012 
AstroNerdBoy フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 17
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Oración Seis has trounced the allied, good guild teams, when their leader, Brain, sees Wendy and kidnaps her, bringing Happy along by accident. Jura arrives to save the team from being slain, along with the battered Ichiya, who uses a pain-killing perfume on everyone. The poison in Erza is spreading, so she wants to cut off her arm, but Gray stops this. Carla reveals that Wendy could heal Erza as she is a Sky Dragon Slayer, thus Wendy knows many, lost healing spells. Having revived, Lucy and Hibiki remain behind with Erza, while the others pursue Oración Seis. Hibiki uses his magic, which is similar to advanced computer technology, to keep track of everyone and transfer data to them if needed.
The groups split up, with Gray, Natsu, and Carla teamed up. They encounter a large group of “monkey-looking” folks, and to Carla’s amazement, Gray and Natsu clean house. The other groups meet similar obstacles, with Ichiya being captured. At the Oración Seis hideout, Brain dispatched Racer to get “him” for Wendy to resurrect, while Angel, Cobra, and Hoteye are sent to find the location of Nirvana, which reverses dark and light. Racer returns an hour later with a special coffin, which contains the body of Jellal, who’s apparently still alive at some level. Happy begs Wendy not to revive Jellal, but since Jellal had saved Wendy in the past, she does what Brain asks.
Natsu and Carla arrive to find the revived Jellal, who blows Natsu away. However, he also blows Brain away before leaving, forcing Brain to have Cobra tail Jellal, since Jellal will likely lead them to Nirvana. Racer meets up with Gray, who prevents him from stopping Natsu from making an escape with Wendy, Happy, and Carla. Hibiki transfers his location to Natsu’s mind so that Natsu has no problems returning. Meanwhile, Gray and Racer battle on magic motorcycles, when Lyon and Sherry show up. Since Racer’s magic makes him very fast, Lyon sees the weakness in Racer’s power and uses ice to send Gray way up in the air. Lyon battles Racer, initially seeming cocky, but even as he takes a beating, Gray readies a distance attack on Racer, who’s power actually slows others down, making him appear faster.
Racer is defeated, but decides to take his opponents with him by revealing explosive lacrima under his shirt. Lyon goes over the cliff with Racer when the explosives go off, causing Brain to immediately know that Racer is dead. Brain wakes his son, Midnight, while Sherry becomes horrified at the loss of her beloved “Lyon-sama.” At the same time, Cobra tails Jellal, who causes Nirvana to be revealed. while Natsu arrives with his precious cargo at their “camp.” Wendy heals Erza, while Jellal activates Nirvana. Sherry succumbs to Nirvana’s magic and turns dark, attacking Gray in the process. On the Oración Seis side, Hoteye is battling Jura, when Nirvana causes him to turn to the side of light. At the same time, Sherry goes to the side of dark and attacks Gray.
Natsu goes to find Jellal, and when Erza becomes conscious, she takes off for Jellal as well. Wendy starts freaking out, forcing Hibiki to knock her out to prevent her from turning to the dark side. He flees their location with her on his back, joined by Carla, Happy, and Lucy as well. Hibiki explains the true nature of Nirvana to Lucy when they come upon Gray apparently attacking Natsu. Lucy summons Sagittarius to stop Gray, but when Gray turns his attention to them, Hibiki realizes that they aren’t fighting Gray at all.
Gray transforms into Lucy, who then pulls up her shirt to show her breasts to the real Lucy, Hibiki, and Sagittarius. The fake Lucy then orders Sagittarius to attack Hibiki, which he does against his will. Lucy sends Sagittarius back, but the fake Lucy simply summons him again. Sagittarius is confused and doesn’t want to attack his allies, when Angel shows up and introduces herself to Lucy. The fake Lucy is actually the Celestial Spirit, Gemini, who have the form of twins Gemi and Mimi. Lucy summons Aquarius, so Angel counters with Scorpio, whom is revealed to be Aquarius’s boyfriend. Lucy summons Leo, so Angel summons Ares, Leo’s fellow Celestial Spirit when they were contracted to Karen.
Wait, what?! Jellal again? OK, so THIS Jellal is the one Erza and company defeated in volume 12. So, what does that make the Jellal that’s going around as Mystogan? Maybe Jellal really does have a twin brother named Siegrain, and that’s who Mystogan is. So, which one did Wendy meet? I’m going to toss a coin and say Mystogan, only because he’s been with Fairy Tail for a while and strikes me as someone who would rescue a young girl.
Regardless, Mashima-sensei really does love Jellal to bring him back like this. Plus, with the way this Nirvana thing is working, it could make Jellal good.
Normally, a smug character like “Angel-chan” would annoy me, but in this case, she doesn’t for some reason. I think that’s because there’s a fine line between arrogance and deserved confidence. Angel shows that a celestial wizard can be a powerful person, considering her membership in Oración Seis.
Even if a perfect copy, it seems odd that Gemini can summon all of Lucy’s celestial spirits, simply by adopting her form. Maybe it has to do with the fact that “they” are celestial spirits, thus can fool the system. Since I figure Lucy to win this in the end, I suppose it won’t be too much to assume that all of Angel’s celestial spirits transfer to Lucy.
Speaking of Gemini, I have to admit that when he took on Lucy’s form and showed off “her” breasts, I had to laugh. Although ecchi, the moment was unexpected, and thus funny.
Another funny moment was Hoteye’s transformation from bad to good, which was so over the top, yet it worked quite well.
The final humorous moment for me was when Lucy summons the ever cranky, Aquarius. Angel’s counter with Scorpio, who just so happened to be Aquarius’s boyfriend, amused me. From volume 1, Aquarius has mentioned a boyfriend and that Lucy shouldn’t summon her for extended periods of time because of him. Now, we actually get to meet him.
It sucks that Angel has Ares though. I guess Angel must have scored Ares’s key from Karen at some point. Since Karen is dead, did Angel kill her?
In the end, this volume was a lot of fun, as well as interesting.
On the Kodansha Comic’s side, the usual omake stuff is there, including a note from Mahisma-sensei, indicating he doesn’t know where he’s taking the Jellal character. There is also an episode of “Explain the Mysteries of Fairy Tail,” a few translator notes, and a textless preview of the next volume.
Finally, I was stunned to see just how far behind we are in the manga from Japan. Volume 17 was released a couple of weeks ago in the U.S., but volume 31 has just been released in Japan. Kodansha Comics doesn’t really appear to be accelerating the manga’s release in the U.S. to catch up, since they are on a nearly 3-month release schedule. Personally, I’d like to see things sped up a bit to get us a lot closer to the Japanese releases.
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Fairy Tail is quite amazing and I would love if after negima finishes you started review chapters of Fairy Tail, although this might get you frustrated from how seemingly quickly mashima makes things up, example from this arc: count its legs when it first gets up and starts moving( you’ll know it when you see it) and then count again nearer the end of the arc. I would suggest reading scanlations and perhaps speed reading the next arc since it is commonly seen as one of the worst( with some of the worst deus-ex machina’s I’ve ever read) although I didn’t mind it probably because i read it over 4 days and quickly started the next arc( which was easily one of my favourites). Still i’m really glad you’re still reviewing this series, after negima ends it’ll probably be my new favourite series
>Fairy Tail is quite amazing and I would love if after negima finishes you started review chapters of Fairy Tail, although this might get you frustrated from how seemingly quickly mashima makes things up, example from this arc: count its legs when it first gets up and starts moving( you’ll know it when you see it) and then count again nearer the end of the arc.
I’ll have to look for what you are talking about (assuming it is in this volume).
As to your suggestion, to be honest, after I got over the shock of Negima! coming to an end, I did start considering the possibility of shifting Fairy Tail to fill the void of a weekly manga. I’d still buy the volumes, but then I’d have a weekly series to read. It would be interesting seeing how things “read” on a week-to-week basis.
>Still i’m really glad you’re still reviewing this series, after negima ends it’ll probably be my new favourite series
Of the weekly, shounen titles, I’ll be the same. Overall, of the ongoing stuff I’m collecting in volume form, Yotsuba!& will have the edge. ^_^
You’ll find out what’s up with Jellal and Mystogan in another arc or two.
Well, if I decide to move Fairy Tail to my weekly review slot, I’m guessing I’ll learn all about this. ^_^;
In the case of Gemini, well its ability allows it to copy a person perfectly along with its memories and thoughts as well as it magical abilities. Hence it could use Ichiya’s Perfume Magic, Gray’s Ice magic and Lucy’s Key’s.
On a side note, in the review of v16, you metioned about summon restrictions of Lucy’s Celestial Spirits.
Well from what i understand the contract made with a Silver Key Spirit is different from that of a contract made with a Golden Key Spirit, also the contract is effected by the Stellar Mages magical power and the Spirits conditions (like in the case of Aquarius).
That’s because Golden Key Spirits are one of a kind and are mostly combat oriented spirits (though there are a few who aren’t that good in combat like Cancer and Ares but they can still be used during a fight).
Whereas Silver Key Spirit are commonly available spirits and one spirit can have multiple contracts and i know only one combat oriented Silver Key Spirit (you will know about it in the next volume), the rest who have appeared don’t have any combat power.
That’s why Lucy can summon the Golden Key Spirits more easily than the Silver Key ones. But at the same time, the magic power a Golden Key Spirit consumes is far greater than that of a Silver Key Spirit.
In the end, i would like to ask you about your decision regarding the reviews of Fairy Tail. Are you going to wait for the next volume to come out in US (which is most likely to happen 3 months later) or are you going to shift to scanlated ones.
Presently there is a differences of around 129 chapters (16+ Volumes) between the US release and the Japan release.
I’m leaning heavily toward shifting to catching up with Japan, and then starting chapter blogging. If I do it, it would likely be when Negima! ends, since that would give me time to get caught up. Plus, I’m sure I’d want to make a few posts here and there regarding arcs.
OH! Thanks for the information! ^_^