Fairy Tail Manga Volume 28 Review (With a rather nifty dues ex machina moment.)

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 28 Review

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***SPOILERS***

Highlights from this volume have Cana realize the mistake of abandoning her friends, but being rewarded with Fairy Glitter as a result. Cana comes to help Lucy and the others literally put down by Blue Note, but Fairy Glitter, which Bluenote wants, is not enough to defeat him. An angry Gildarts appears and battles Blue Note, allowing the others to get to safety.  Freed and Bickslow also show up to battled Rustyrose. Erza battles Azuma, who upends the Tenrou Tree, manages to sap Fairy Tail members of their powers, including Gildarts. Despite her best effort, Erza takes a beating, which somehow Jellal feels from his prison and speaks her name. Erza somehow feels the connection with Jellal and revives, ultimately defeating Azuma after thinking about her friends. Azuma returns the Fairy Tail magic and is absorbed into Tenrou Tree.

The rest of the guild begin overcoming their opponents as Gray makes out like he’s going to help Ultear in her quest to defeat Master Hades. However, he causes her to reveal her true intentions when she starts to kill the defenseless Juvia, forcing Gray to attack Ultear.

As I mentioned in my review of volume 27, getting confirmation that it was decided editorially (and not on the translator’s side) to make Fairy Tail a hybrid translation when it comes to Japanese honorific usage (honorifics retain for characters introduced before the editorial mandate came down; “superior” Western honorifics for all characters thereafter, including not using honorifics because we can’t find an appropriate Western equivalent, which isn’t being lazy but a legitimate adaptation choice, unlike leaving honorifics as is, which is lazy and not a legitimate adaptation choice…but I digress…) really put me off the series. I have been buying them still, but my enthusiasm just is no longer there. I figure seeing more and more Western honorifics are going to eventually cause me to hit my breaking point, after which, I’ll drop it and send that money to something else.

But I digress again…(This is a passionate topic for me, if you couldn’t already guess that.)

This volume has the usual elements we’ve come to expect from a Fairy Tail story — Fairy Tail takes a beating, Fairy Tail comes back for the win. It could get rather boring, but Mashima-sensei throws in some elements to keep things from going that route.

In volume 26, I expressed some disappointment over how Mashima-sensei had sent Gildarts, Freed, and Bickslow away and how it didn’t make any sense except except to have the overpowered Gildarts removed from the field. Having him show up for a deus ex machina moment actually was pretty cool because I wanted to see Gildarts fight. His actual battle wasn’t too much to speak of in some regards, but he was able to overcome his opponent’s gravity magic, which had put down several Fairy Tail members. So it was cool seeing Gildarts in action.

Also, I loved Freed’s and Bickslow’s return as well. And to think, it wasn’t that long ago that they were causing Fairy Tail trouble thanks to Laxus.

Speaking of Laxus, he was the one I had expected to show up for this fight, not Gildarts, Freed, and Bickslow.

I liked the connection that Erza has with Jellal, as displayed in this chapter. Not sure where Mashima-sensei will go with that, since he’s gone all over the board with Jellal.

Another nice moment was Gray saving Juvia. I really do wish Mashima-sensei would allow them to get together as a romantic couple.

Finally, Cana got some character development with the reveal that Gildarts is her estranged father, who apparently does not know she’s his daughter.  I rather hope there’s a positive resolution to that element of the story. Cana has never been much to me as a character (though she was a decent leader during the Phantom Lord fight), so it would be nice seeing her become a more interesting character.

On the Kodansha side, there are the usual extras, including translator notes and a preview of the next volume.

Story-wise, I enjoyed seeing Fairy Tail rise up to defeat their enemies. I just wish Kodansha Comics had retained the same policy that Del Rey had for all those years when it came to adaptations. No wonder I don’t buy as many Kodansha titles as I did Del Rey titles.

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4 Responses to “Fairy Tail Manga Volume 28 Review (With a rather nifty dues ex machina moment.)”

  1. otaku nuts says:

    I agree with you about Cana. Until this volume appeared, I always found her character quite bland and stale. It was a big surprise for me when I saw Cana becoming such a major part of the story during this arc. It was when Cana finally went back to save Lucy I really cared about her.

    The appearance of Freed and Bickslow was one of the highlights for me, as I’d always wanted to see these two more. I loved when they were villains, and seeing finally return after bowing out of this arc so early is one that brings a smile to us. Even Bickslow’s new outfit looks great, with the proper helmet and gear.

    Gildarts’ appearance was surprising but nevertheless, I thought that was great to see. We’d never seen him angry until now and I’m sure we all got a bit excited upon seeing his face of rage.

    My biggest problem with this volume was how Jellal sensed Erza from far away, and then said her name. It felt a bit silly and out-of-place for me, especially since I’ve never been a true fan of Jellal ever since his convenient amnesia which took away the show’s biggest villain. Erza’s battle with Azura is really good though.

    I think we all knew Ultear was going to fight Gray and not truly work beside him. Still, it was good to see Gray save Juvia in a big, dramatic way. The sooner those two finally create Gravia babies, the better!

    Overall, I agree with you that it was an enjoyable volume and I would give it a 4/5. I’d recommend it to all fans of Fairy Tail.

  2. AstroNerdBoy says:

    >I think we all knew Ultear was going to fight Gray and not truly work beside him. Still, it was good to see Gray save Juvia in a big, dramatic way. The sooner those two finally create Gravia babies, the better!

    I heard that. ^_^

    I need to read volume 29 now. ^_^;;;

  3. SL from MH says:

    Azuma returns the Fairy Tail magic and is absorbed into Tenrou Tree

    Actually he doesn’t get absorbed by the “Tenrou Tree” since its presently uprooted (so its sort of half dead).
    Its more like Azuma’s turns into a tree because of over using the powers of his Lost Magic, kind of like a side-effect (that’s what the scanlation by MS had regarding that chapter, not sure if that part was changed in the official licensed released). Also a point similar to this also comes into play in a future chapter.

    One thing, i would mention about this arc is that it has an interesting and kind of unexpected ending to it.

    And hence the reason why i told that Volume 30 would be an important part for this arc.

    Also, upon carefully reading your review, it seems that you missed a really important fact included in this volume (atleast in your review). Well considering that some people also missed it when it was released as a scanlation comes at no surprise.

    Well you would understand what you missed to mention when you read Volume 30. Same thing applies to some of the chapters title page in this and the next volume 29 (since they sort of contain a hidden message not apparent until you read Volume 30).

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Yeesh. I’m on an unstable PC so I’ve lost my response twice. 🙁

      Basically, thanks a ton for the info. ^_^ I may have missed stuff because I have a negative attitude thanks to Kodansha Comic’s editorial decisions on the adaptation.

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