Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 01
フェアリーテイル 100年クエスト

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Fairy Tail welcome three new members. However, the young man and boy quickly run off, leaving the seemingly shy girl, Touka. She’s infatuated with “Natsu-sama” after he helped her in the past. However, while bickering with Juvia, Touka mentions the name “Briar”, which makes Gajeel suspicious. As such, he, Juvia, Levy, and Panther Lily head off to investigate.

Meanwhile, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Wendy, Happy, and Carla set out to start the 100 Years Quest. Guild member Gildarts failed the quest, but he’s not allowed to tell the group anything. The group head to the continent of Guiltina to the first mage guild, Magia Dragon. In the rundown guild building, they find a dragon named Elefseria, Dragon of Law. The dragon confirms he put out the 100 Years Quest. However, the humans that used to belong to the guild have long since died.

Natsu senses Elefseria is actually human. The dragon turns into an elderly, human, male wizard. He explains that while learning Dragon Slayer magic, he became a dragon. Elefseria makes them sign a contract, which also prevents them from discussing the quest with others. He lays out that there are five dragon gods that must be sealed away, all as powerful as the dragon Acnologia. However, since Natsu defeated Acnologia, Elefseria feels that maybe Natsu’s party will be the first to every complete the quest.

Elefseria doesn’t know where all five dragons are. However, he has a clue to the location of the Water God Dragon, Mercphobia. As such, he sends them to a port city of Ermina. Their entry into the town is observed by an apparent human female, and a horned male, the Water God, Suijin.

Thoughts/Review:

By the end of Fairy Tail‘s manga run, I was quite weary of the series. But, I’d never watched the anime adaptation. As such, with Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 01, I thought, “Well, I’ve never read the manga. So I’ll just give the anime a look-see.”

A Tale of Two Stories

I already see a problem with Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest as a series. There were two, apparently unconnected stories depicted in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 01. The first story is actually about the 100 Years Quest. The other story seems to be about what’s going on with all the other guild members at Fairy Tail. And to be honest, that feels like a distraction and filler.

Obviously, this secondary story at Fairy Tail has to tie in somehow, right? But at the moment, the whole thing with new guild member Touka feels more like an excuse to have something for the other members of Fairy Tail to do.

As to the 100 Years Quest, naturally it would have to up the scale on the final story from Fairy Tail. “So yeah, you remember how massively difficult that fight against Acnologia was in the OG story? Well now you have to deal with FIVE dragons of equal or greater power! And oh yeah, they aren’t related to the dragons you already know. And these five were kept secret ’cause ‘reasons’. Oh yeah, the dragons don’t do anything unless something happens.” Man, talk about plot contrivances.

Still, it was interesting to hear voices with the characters. I do plan to press on with this series until the end.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 01 with some final thoughts.

• I don’t plan to read the manga, but out of curiosity, I did look at the chapters that went into this first episode. The anime adaptation was spot on from what I could tell. So kudos for that.
• Not sure I care for all the old gags returning, especially the one for Juvia fawning over Gray in an unrequited fashion. I love Juvia as a character, ever since her introduction as an enemy for Gray to fight. During the time skip, she and Gray lived together. So for me, the two should be an item. But Juvia was left behind, so…😑
• I’m pleasantly surprised CR left in the Japanese honorifics.

In the end, I don’t have a good feeling about Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 01. Much of that stems from the OG manga series overstaying its welcome. But we’ll see how things go.