June 18th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy フェアリーテイル Manga
Fairy Tail Volume 46 Review
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***SPOILERS***
Normally, I do summaries, but I am rather pressed for time, so I’m passing on that and just going to the analysis.
Wendy cuts her hair! In Japan, this is a big symbol of a new beginning for women. I guess this means that we won’t see a timid Wendy any more. She’s got short hair, having sliced it off herself with a blade, so look out, she’s going to kick your arse!
I’ve said this numerous times, but I’ll say it again — Mashima-sensei loves to redeem evil characters. It has become quite cliched on Mashima-sensei’s part, but I still like it. For this volume, Minerva gets redeemed so she can rejoin her formerly bad guild, which is now a good guild. Yay, Minerva. Aren’t you happy you went to the good side of the Force and joined the ranks of the Jedi? Oh wait, wrong series. Sorry.
Most of the rest of the volume is dedicated to Gray, ’cause Gray needs some Gray time to be Gray. And Gray needs some Father-son time.
Boy, did I call this or what? From volume 43.
As to Silver, Mashima-sensei is setting this up clearly to have him be Gray’s relative. I figure it will be Gray’s father somehow, but Gray is supposed to be an orphan. That won’t matter, of course; if Mashima-sensei wants to have Gray’s father in the story, then dead or alive, Gray’s father will be in the story.
Man, I loves me some retconning. I’ll give Mashima-sensei credit by making Silver a kind of demon-zombie (or something like that). Gray defeats his father, and now has Demon Slayer magic. Well, I guess he needed a power up to get us through this very long arc.
I’m sure Mashima-sensei wanted me to feel more about Gray meeting his father, but for whatever reason, it had no impact on me. I think it was because I knew Silver was likely Gray’s father, and that meant that after they’ve fought, we’d get some revelation that makes Silver a good guy working the bad guy ranks, or that we’d get some kind of redemption. As such, the fight was pretty cliched, as was the ultimate result, though I did like Silver’s communicating with Juvia.
Finally, speaking of Juvia, I have to say that I really like Juvia, but sadly, she’s mostly relegated to comedic fawning over her beloved Gray-sama in the manga. However, in this volume, Juvia gets a bit of a moment in the sun. The way she dispatches Black Archbishop Keyes shows how truly dangerous Juvia can be. Egad, she could kill people quite easily by turning into liquid form, ramming her way inside of her target, then bursting her way out. I finally get my wish to see that element of Juvia that made her an S-class wizard in her former guild.
One thing I will say is that after this arc, if Mashima-sensei doesn’t have Juvia and Gray become a couple, I will be ticked. Yeah, I know, Juvia is clingy, and clingy people can be quite annoying. However, Juvia could become less clingy. Besides, he and Gray are really a great team in terms of powers.
On the Kodansha Comics side of things, the usual extras are here, and I think the Japanese honorifics are all intact. And we get a couple of translator notes.
In the end, we get Wendy’s surprise hair cut, Gray gets a cliched power up after a reunion with his dead father, and Juvia gets a moment in the sun. For me, the volume was mostly “meh,” but I am curious to see the new Wendy in action, and I am glad that Juvia got to shine.
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Breaking news: Fairy Tail Zero ends this July, presumably with the founding of Fairy Tail.
Well, that’s kind of a bummer, but not surprising I guess. I can’t imagine how tough this last year has been on Mashima-sensei doing a full monthly manga and a full weekly manga, not to mention all the other stuff he does.
12th chapter of “FT: Zero” is out.
As for the “Tartaros Arc” in the main FT series, it finishes up in ch 416 (volume 49) with 417 acting as the intermediate chapter for the starting of the next Mini-Arc which is in 418.
As for the news about the Ending of “FT: Zero”, its not surprising since it was meant to showcase the beginning of things.
Well, i think we would eventually get some other short series to tie-up some lose ends (which may can’t be done in the main FT series).
Thanks for the news. What do you think about my plan to leave the Tartaros Arc for the manga volumes and pick the series up online with chapter 418?
It depends on if you have volume 47 and 48 with you and how fast you can manage to read. Also considering the fact that volume 49 comes out next month.
If you have 47 and 48, then read those quickly and then start following the chapters from 413 (first chapter of Vol 49, if the wikia listing is right), rather than 418, since waiting to read 6 chapters a month later is kind of pointless.
This week we got the 440th chapter (the numbers is a bit high than usual, because Mashima-sensei did double-chapters for about 4 weeks from chapter 429-436, with 436 being a major plot chapter). And from the looks of it we would most likely be entering in a new big Arc now.
If you ask me though, i would suggest that you go directly into reading the chapters from 395 (first chapter of Vol 47, which also starts the final stage of the “Tartaros Arc”), and maybe do a Negima styled review of the volumes later on. The reason being that the main plot points starts being ‘pointed out’/’mentioned’/”covered’ from Vol 47 onwards.
And don’t skip any chapters (except maybe ch 417, which you can skip or just glance over easily in a min, since its a filler and silent chapter).
I know I have 47. I have to look to see if I have 48…my manga stacks are too high at the moment.