Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1 Review
フェアリーテイル 100年クエスト

For the original Fairy Tail series, I didn’t bother with the anime adaptation. I enjoyed the manga for what it was, but I never felt a desire to watch the anime adaptation. Further, the manga story wearied me by the end. As such, I never bothered reading Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest when that manga came out. Still, I don’t deny that because I did get enjoyment out of the original manga, when the anime adaptation of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1 came out, I figured I’d give it a gander.

The Story, in Brief

Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Wendy, Happy, and Charle (Carla) set out to undertake the 100 Years Quest, something no one has completed. Traveling to another continent, Team Natsu meet the human mage turned dragon, Elefseria. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, Team Natsu learn that Elefseria wants to seal or eliminate five Dragon gods, who are as powerful to Acnologia, whom Fairy Tail had difficulty defeating.

Their first target is the Water Dragon god (Suijin), Mercphobia. However, a dragon slayer guild named Diabolos wants to get to these dragon gods to consume them for their power. However, Mercphobia lost his power to someone known as the White Mage and now has a humanoid form.

After resolving that situation, Team Natsu head to the Wood Dragon god, Aldoron. They discover the dragon is in hibernation, but has five different cities built upon his body. Complicating matters, Diabolos returns to wake the dragon. Further, the White Mage shows up, having enthralled the members of Fairy Tail, leading to a 3-way combat.

Eventually, the Aldoron situation is resolved and Team Natsu eventually find themselves in the land of Elentear, where the White Mage Faris is from. They learn she’s not the real White Mage and was conned by the Moon Dragon god, Selene. Suzaku, a member of Diabolos, appears to defeat Selene. However, she uses him for her own ends.

Faster Paced Battles

The first thing I noticed in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1 is that the typical shounen fights are no where near as long as they were in OG Fairy Tail. Frankly, I appreciated this. I’m old now, so long, drawn out, cliched shounen battles bore me. Well, these fights are far from boring.

What I will say is that sometimes the battles feel too quick. Solving a problem comes quite quickly. To that end, fights sometime feel anticlimactic, especially when they are faced with some boss-type foe. It is fine to wrap up a fight quickly, but that quick ending should be earned. Too often, they don’t feel earned.

Speaking of earned, the fast pace and demands of the plot often mean that Team Natsu (or other Fairy Tail members) can be easily overwhelmed, despite how powerful Team Natsu is. But then Team Natsu quickly overcome. Unfortunately, because of the Dragon Slayer guild Diabolos keeps showing up, Mashima-sensei has to have ways for Diabolos to get an upper hand, then be forced to retreat. That also makes fight wins not seem earned.

Cameos Galore

Mashima-sensei comes up with all kinds of ways to bring about cameos in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1. (The anime adaptation script seems pretty spot-on faithful to the source manga, from what I was able to check, thus I’m crediting Mashima-sensei with the actual writing.) Since the story centers around Team Natsu, it isn’t surprising that the other members of Fairy Tail would get cameos.

What is surprising is the sheer number of cameos from so many of the previous encounters in Fairy Tail. Obviously, this would start with cameos from other guilds allied with Fairy Tail. The biggest of these is Brandish, a former foe of Fairy Tail. She shows up from time to time, bailing out our heroes when Mashima-sensei writes himself into a corner. To keep her around, Brandish is searching for Aquarius’s key, in competition with Lucy. (And Aquarius even shows up for an extended cameo.)

Even the dead get cameos in this series. Mashima-sensei brings back Zeref and Mavis via a pseudo dream. Gray gets pulled into a dream world where he has his perfect, fantasy life with his father, Ur (his mentor and mother-type figure), Ultear, and of course Juvia. Heck, even Erza’s mother Irene shows up in spirit form to bail Wendy out, unbeknownst to the others. (And by “Wendy”, I mean “Mashima-sensei” as it allows him a “get out of jail free” card.)

Surprising Minuscule Character Development

The biggest surprise for me in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1 is that Mashima-sensei allows his characters to actually develop beyond the normal power creep stuff. For a start, we get confirmation that Levy is pregnant with Gajeel’s child. I recall in Fairy Tail, they were an item of sorts, but now it has moved beyond.

Okay, that’s a tiny bit of advancement for minor, supporting characters. What else is there?

Erza still acts like a child regarding her feelings for Jellal throughout the series. But at the end, she and he go on a date without the usual rubbish typical of a shounen series date. Their conversation is mature and one would hope to see this advance.

The other area of minuscule growth is Gray and Juvia’s relationship. I recall during the time skip in Fairy Tail, they were living together. However, Juvia always embarrassed Gray with her overwhelming adoration and affection for him. Now, Gray’s motivation is Juvia. He’s no longer ashamed of her intense attachment to him. Yeah, it is a small thing, but anything that gets us beyond the status quo is a good thing.

Plot

As to the overall story in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1, I found it interesting enough. Mashima-sensei has come up with creative ways for Team Natsu to take down two of the dragon gods. The third one still has to be dealt with. The fourth we’ve met, but he’s apparently just waiting for his turn at bat. And the fifth one is unknown to me.

I think my biggest issue with the plot thus far was the White Mage, Faris. She joins Fairy Tail early on, then easily takes over the guild without breaking a sweat. She possessed the body of an Exceed. The enthralled members of Fairy Tail obey her without question. And apparently, Faris killed folks while filling this villainous role.

But then we get a rug pull. Apparently, much of what Faris did was due to the Moon Dragon god, Selene. Acting under duress, Faris did what she did to save her people and her world. It is routine for Mashima-sensei to turn villains into allies. But in this case, it isn’t a natural progression. It is just a flip of a switch. However, by the end of the series, I grudgingly was fine with Faris. Further, Team Natsu forgave her. 🤷‍♂️

I will say that Selene is the most interesting of the Dragon gods. I’m genuinely interested to see what she’s going to do, now that she’s revealed her true plans.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest S1 was mostly nicely entertaining. We didn’t get bogged down in cliched, shounen battles. Some characters got minor advancements outside the status quo. Mashima-sensei had clever ways of doing an insane number of cameos. And the plot was interesting enough by the end that I’m seriously considering chapter blogging the manga since there’s been no announcement of a second series.