November 3rd, 2024 
AstroNerdBoy Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 17
フェアリーテイル 100年クエスト
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Lucy uses all of her mana to manifest the Aquarius-Scorpio fusion outfit, allowing her to defeat a single Metro golem. Other Fairy Tail members do battle with golems to varying success. Juvia and Gray attack Metro, who squashes Juvia. However, thanks to her water powers, she is unharmed. Unfortunately for her, Metro decides to absorb her, using her body as a shield.
Gray has a difficult time attacking Metro without harming Juvia. When Gray is forced to admit that Juvia his strength, Juvia begins to boil, harming Metro. This gives Gray an idea, so with Juvia’s assistance, he uses his ice magic to turn her into a weapon. Upon freeing Juvia, she and Gray initiate a Unison Raid to defeat Metro.
Elsewhere, Gears uses magic to cause Jellal to start to forget how to do things. As such, Jellal even starts to hallucinate that Erza is attacking him, not Gears. When Gear’s magic causes Jellal’s time to stop, he finds himself in limbo, where the image of Ultear visits him. Their chat causes Jellal to figure out how to overcome Gear’s magic by using thought form magic to “split” himself in two.
Jellal’s Siegrain self still has Gear’s binding on him. This stuns Gears as Jellal informs him that Gears is in Jellal’s spell. As such, Jellal obliterates Gears, defeating him. Back with Lucy, Brandish offers to enlarge one of their party members to fight Aldoron. Inside the Wood Dragon god, the god Seed Aldoron reveals to Natsu that he will consume the other five Dragon gods.
Thoughts/Review:
I gotta say, I rather enjoyed Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 17, even if we get an extended recap, and a silly filler with Brandish.
The Power of Love
I have loved the Juvia character ever since she was introduced to the franchise. The only frustrating part about her character arc is her relationship with Gray, whom she had to fight in her introduction. While Mashima-sensei doesn’t allow too many character advancements when it comes to romance, he did throw Gray x Juvia fans a bone in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 17.
Sure, it can be argued that we know that Gray cares deeply for Juvia. And it is blatantly obvious that Juvia LOVES “Gray-sama”. That said, when Gray tells Metro that Juvia is his strength, I liked that moment. Yes, it lead to the gag of Juvia boiling Metro in her excitement. And yes, Gray refuses to say he loves Juvia, and refuses to repeat what he said to Metro. However, he does pull Juvia close and express his gratitude. Mere crumbs to be sure, but sadly, that’s all we can expect.
On the other romance front was Jellal x Erza. When she comes to, she acts like she’s a child when Laxus calls Jellal her boyfriend. However, on Jellal’s part, his battle with Gears causes him to think Erza is giving him a rightful beating. Here, Mashima-sensei finds a way to bring Ultear back to encourage Jellal to live for Erza after all Erza did for him.
I really do wish Mashima-sensei was better at the romance stuff. He gets all coy with it, but then will show a couple of minor characters get married. Showing Gajeel and Levy suddenly expecting a child was unexpected, but there’s no proper story to set that up.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Let me wrap up my review of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 17 with some final thoughts.
- I couldn’t help but laugh a bit how Natsu and god Seed Aldoron just kinda twiddle their thumbs to wait for Metro and Gears to be defeated.
- Juvia’s use of the term “netorare” (NTR in the subtitles) made me laugh as well.
- Looks like Brandish will again be used bail Fairy Tail out of a bit of trouble in fighting Aldoron’s dragon body. As an aside, I will say that while the comedic intro with Brandish did actually fit into the episode (unlike other, comedic intros), it still is jarring to continue a story in this fashion.
- I already mentioned that Mashima-sensei brought back Ultear in a unique way. He also found a way to technically bring back Siegrain. At this point, it is obvious that the cameo train will continue.
In the end, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest 17 was quite enjoyable, more so that I expected it would be.
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I just finished reading your Ranma review then moved to this one. “Status quo romance” is definitely tiresome in longer series, and neither are an exception in that regard. The fact that both series end with no clear romantic resolution is quite irritating. And yes I understand the hypocrisy since my favourite series suffered from that too.
I just wanted to add that there was a hint that Levy was expecting in the final chapter of Fairy Tail, so it’s not as out of nowhere as it might seem. I never read far enough to see them blossom into a couple but I was aware of it. Of course Natsu/Lucy and Gray/Luvia remain as mobile as a mountain.
By the end of the Fairy Tail manga, I’d gotten quite weary of the series. The battles were insanely long and filled with too many people. Maybe because I’m seeing this in anime form for the first time, but the battles in 100 Years Quest don’t seem so drawn out or tedious. Regardless, I don’t remember that hint that Levy might be pregnant. There was always the “understanding” that Levy loved Gajeel, and Gajeel loved Levy. But in terms of writing, there wasn’t a natural progression on that front.
I would argue that the Gray x Juvia one at least had some tiny elements of movement. This current episode depicted that. And I’d love it if Juvia somehow got to join the team for the 100 Years Quest. But I also recall in the time skip, Gray and Juvia lived together for a while.
But yeah, Natsu x Lucy…ugh. That’s the real “will they or won’t they” romance element, and there’s really none of that to speak of. Well, I think there was a hint of something a few episodes ago, but so tiny as to be forgettable.
Still, the status quo elements in Fairy Tail don’t bother me as much as the ones in Ranma 1/2 or Urusei Yatsura.
The hint was basically her whispering to him and him blushing. The tiniest of hints.
As for the rest of the romances, well… if they were resolved that would certainly take an element out of each series. Ranma’s ending is almost a copout… but because of how the couple reacted to one another it was the only way it could end.
Natsu remains as dense as a black hole. Or maybe he has figured it out, but from what I read in the series finale he still had no idea. I’ll refrain from voicing my opinion on that character. I do hope this series does a better job with things than its predecessor. I never got past Edolas but it never felt like I was missing all that much. Just hope Mashima shows some actual foresight in this series since he tends to write from the seat of his pants.
I vaguely remember that, now that you mention it. I know shounen titles aren’t about romance and such. But it would be nice if some did them in a more meaningful way. And there are a lot of simple ways to do that, but oh well.
As to Ranma and such, Takahashi-sensei isn’t good with romances either. Her best work in that regard was Maison Ikkoku, and it too is flooded with “status quo” elements, even though the series is a more straight forward rom-com. And it had a good ending. Technically, Inuyasha had a good ending, but it is more of a “skip to the end” kind of thing.
I think the thing that bothers me about Ranma and what makes it super outdated is that Ranma’s other suitors simply have no chance due to them being utterly annoying or permanently in the friend zone as is the case with Ukyo (my personal favourite). I can’t say I’ve read too many harem series outside of the Akamatsu-sphere but having the “winner” be super obvious is a boring result. And even a boring result can be forgiven as long as some progress is made. Ranma and Akane’s progress is glacier speed and while I certainly understand that romances don’t develop overnight, you can only be so pig-headed and/or oblivious for so long. This is also the case with FT although as you’ve indicated, Gray and Luvia seem to actually be getting somewhere after a few hundred chapters of her not-so-subtly pining for him. Natsu and Lucy on the other hand.. I don’t know. Natsu’s IQ seems to be somewhere in the teens so Lucy has her work cut out for her.
I’m still interested to see how far the Ranma remake gets and how much it alters the source material since the genre has been refined to almost a science in the years since. It’s actually easy to forget that there is a battle element to Ranma that comes and goes…
That’s the problem with Takahashi-sensei’s “maintain the status quo at all costs” method of writing. Her solution is to just keep introducing new characters to stir the pot.
Romance aside, I have enjoyed the new Fairy Tail series though.