Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 11
フェアリーテイル 100年クエスト
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Nebaru seals Wendy in a cocoon. However, before he can eat her, she gets her arms and legs out, only to fall on her face. Elsewhere, replaces Leto and Virgo with Taurus and Gemini, the latter assuming Lisanna’s form. However, Madmole and Skullion arrive, whereupon Mirajane and Elfman battle them to a stalemate. Meanwhile, Jellal takes Erza off to dye her white while Laxus battles Kiria.
In another area, Wraith defeats Natsu. As he prepares to eat Natsu’s soul, Natsu wakes in “beta heaven”. Here, he discovers that Zeref and Mavis are now married and “living” here with their children, August and Larcade. Not only that, but the red dragon Igneel “lives” here as well. Natsu learns that this realm is in his subconscious, where the people he loved who died reside.
When Natsu awakes, he has no memory of his time in beta heaven. However, he realizes that he can now attack Wraith as a spirit. Wraith attempts to possess Happy, but this doesn’t stop Natsu. As such, Wraith seeks out someone suitable for possession. Natsu instructs Happy to guard his body, then chases Wraith. For his part, Wraith possesses guildmaster Makarov, despite the latter’s handicap.
Meanwhile, the real Lisanna attempts to turn Lucy white. At the last second, Lucy summons Capricorn, and Capricorn’s Star Dress. The sunglasses block Lisanna’s hypnotism while Capricorn chokes Lisanna unconscious. Back with Laxus, Kiria gets excited after the beating she receives from Laxus.
Thoughts/Review:
Well, there’s one thing you can say about Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 11 — there were “unexpected” jokes galore.
Pratfalls and Gags
I know that in Fairy Tail battles, there are often moments of levity. Unfortunately, many of them seem to gear around Lucy (or even Erza) getting stripped or some other pseudo-sexual thing. While Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 11 didn’t get Lucy stripped, it did drop “unexpected” gags that did make me chuckle despite myself. Starting that list was Jellal racing off with the bound Erza to “dye her white”. Yes, it was a clear, double entendre, but seeing Jellal forgetting his mission to race off with Erza to make her white made me chuckle.
Another chuckle moment was Wendy’s pratfall. While she didn’t fall on her derrière, she did fall on her face in a comedic way. Its probably just as well, ’cause I was calling BS on Wendy magically busting her arms and legs out of Nebaru’s cocoon. The comedic fall made me forget the stupidity of that moment.
The last, major gag moment came from Wraith possessing Happy. The cliched response would be for Natsu to be unable to hit his friend. Instead, Natsu punches the possessed Happy hard enough for Wraith to flee. That made me laugh as well as it subverted my expectations.
Beta Heaven
Wow. Mashima-sensei just continues to find ways of bringing back characters. For Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 11, we get five such characters. I’ll admit, I didn’t remember August and Larcade from the OG manga, but apparently, they were there (as adults, not children). Of course, I remember Mavis as the first guildmaster of Fairy Tail. (I don’t remember why her ghost came back in the OG manga though.) And Zeref was the original, “final boss” Fairy Tail were deal with before things changed.
Regardless, it was somewhat touching to see this image from Natsu’s subconscious. Natsu’s reunion with Igneel was touching as well. Still, if this Beta Heaven only exists in Natsu’s mind, then how could anyone teach Natsu how to use his spirit form to fight? Not sure we’ll ever get an explanation for it.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.
- Mirajane’s and Elfman’s fight with Madmole and Skullion was pretty disappointing. Lucy’s method for tricking Mirajane was pretty good, but once the Diabolos members arrived, I would have enjoyed seeing Mirajane go nuts. Instead, Madmole and Skullion have had their artificial weakening removed and are once again way stronger than Fairy Tail members.
- We didn’t get to see Laxus give Kiria a beating. I’m not going to complain about this as one of my remembered complaints about OG Fairy Tail were elongated battles. Here, the battles are kept short and tight. I appreciate that.
- Gray and Juvia didn’t make an appearance. Neither did Touka.
In the end, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 11 did give me a few, unexpected laughs. Those allowed me to give a pass to some of the other, more questionable elements in the story.
Back when I was reading the series, Erza was far and away my favourite character. Always nice to see her even if the series treats her only slightly better than Lucy. Jellal was a character I never once cared for, especially when he started popping up seemingly everywhere. Oh the days of “Everyone is Jellal!” or Gerard as we used to assume his name was. Fairy Tail always has weird names that are romanized so much differently than what we first imagined.
I do have a question for you, although I don’t expect you to know the answer: Besides more money, what exactly is the purpose and/or goal of this series? From what I read of the original, everything was pretty much wrapped up when the big bad went down like a chump. I guess there’s always new enemies and whatnot to fight but still.
Also man have I forgotten so many characters. I know of Mavis but I don’t think I ever read that far into the series.
While I think Mashima-sensei did get burned out making Fairy Tail, he still has a deep love of the characters. He will from time to time draw new art featuring Fairy Tail characters. At the same time, Fairy Tail was still pretty popular. Kodansha wanted to do more Fairy Tail, even though Mashima-sensei was going to do something new. But, when they asked him to write the stories for a new Fairy Tail series while letting someone else draw it (and do a pretty good job of matching Mashima-sensei’s style), he agreed to it.
Ultimately, it is all about the money though. Kodansha wasn’t ready to quit the Fairy Tail cash cow. Mashima-sensei gets two checks.
Likewise, and I read the whole series. 😅