Fairy Tail Manga Volume 33 Review

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 33 Review

--> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
--> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
--> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!
--> Purchase from Yes Asia! (Japanese tankoubon) 
(Note: The LE edition of Fairy Tail Volume 33 is sold out.) 

***SPOILERS***

Highlights from Fairy Tail Volume 33 begin with Fairy Tail throwing a loud party despite having done so poorly in the games. Natsu (Fairy Tail A), Gajeel (Fairy Tail B), and Sting (Saber Tooth) all suffer from motion sickness, the curse of the Dragon Slayer, and do poorly in the next competition. Kurohebi (Raven Tail) defeats Toby (Lamia Scale) in a battle. Elfman (Fairy Tail A) is chosen to battle Bacchus (Quarto Cerberus), where Elfman defeats him by taking on a spiked, lizard man form, causing Bacchus to damage himself to the point of losing. Mirajane (Fairy Tail B) battles Jenny (Lamia Scale), conceding to do a swimsuit competition, then switches it to a battle which Mira easily wins.

Kagura (Mermaid Heel) defeats Celestial Mage Yukino (Saber Tooth), causing Saber Tooth's master to humiliate Yukino in front of the guild before throwing her out. Yukino pays Lucy a visit, offering up her two Golden Keys (Pisces and Libra), but Lucy refuses since Yukino does care about her spirits. Millianna surprises Erza with a visit, revealing she's in Mermaid Heel and that she and Kagura want Jellal, whom Erza had earlier met with, dead. Natsu goes to apologize to Yukino for thinking ill of her, whereupon he learns of the disgraceful way she was kicked out of Saber Tooth. As such, he decides to challenge Saber Tooth's Master Ziemma.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In terms of content, Fairy Tail Volume 33 provides some interesting stuff, but also some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen Mashima-sensei do.

Mashima-sensei suddenly retconning things so that all Dragon Slayers are cursed with motion sickness is pretty typical for him. In this case, the amusement of having Natsu, Gajeel, and Sting being sick and failing the running race on the moving “chariot” platforms trumped everything. Mashima-sensei does acknowledge the retcon by having Gajeel question why he's suddenly motion sick when he'd never experienced this before, and by having Laxus's teammates say something to him about this. So, I'll let it ride. ^_~

Since Bacchus had been shown to have that drunken fighter style which meant that folks could never lay a hand on him, Elfman's tactic to adopt a form that would cause Bacchus to damage himself is good thinking, but dodgy writing at the same time. At some point, one would think that Bacchus would realize that taking more damage than he was dealing is a losing proposition and would settle for a draw. But, he basically beats himself to death, allowing Elfman to get rare praise from Erza (a nice moment to be sure) and admiration from Evergreen. Plus, Elfman's bet with Bacchus protected his sisters and caused Quatro Cerberus to be referred to as Quatro Puppy, which is humorous.

Mirajane's battle with Jenny caused my eyes to roll since it was basically pure fanservice. That said, Mashima-sensei does know his audience would not be happy with any tournament contest where Mirajane didn't go into her Satan Soul form to defeat an enemy. Plus, her bet with Jenny did lead to the funniest stuff Mashima-sensei has ever done. More on that in a bit.

Kagura's battle with Yukino comes off fairy cliched since Kagura doesn't unsheathe her sword to defeat Yukino. Still, there's something about a badarse babe with a sword who's so badarsed, she doesn't need to unsheathe her sword to get a win.

I liked how Lucy turned down the offer to take possession of Yukino's Golden Celestial Keys. I still think that eventually, Lucy will end up with all twelve Golden Keys, possibly at the end of this arc, but we'll see.

This thirteenth key that Yukino has wasn't part of the deal, which I find interesting. Why would Yukino be willing to part with two of her keys but not the thirteenth. Actually, why would she want to part with any of her keys unless she's in on this Eclipse scheme. But how could she be since Captain Arcadios apparently didn't know there'd be two Celestial Mages in the tournament? Regardless, it just didn't make a lot of sense to me for Yukino to offer two keys. She should have offered them all if she were going to stop being a mage completely.

Natsu going after Master Ziemma is a fairly cliched moment. I can almost see where this is going, and that was without the aid of the spoiler preview of the next volume at the end of 33.

Finally, where Mashima-sensei scores a massive win on the humor front is in the "silent" omake chapter where Wakaba and  Macao buy Sorcerer 3D in order to see Jenny naked in 3D. However, both are horrified when they discover the issue also has Eve, Ren, Hibiki, and Ichiya (front and center) naked. Macao's woes are added to when his son Romeo comes in to see the naked, 3D Ichiya there. A similar event awaits Wakaba, when his wife and daughter catch him looking at the same image.

I have to say, this omake chapter makes me laugh even now. The looks of horror on Macao's and Wakaba's faces after they went from seeing Jenny to seeing Ichiya and his crew is so priceless. While the joke of having others walk in on the guys as Ichiya is out there for all to see is cliched, it just adds to the humor of the initial horror.

As an aside, I'm not sure what to make of Freed's reaction to Eve, Hibiki, and Ren's nudity. ^_^;

On the Kodansha side of things, I'm not very happy. The hybrid adaptation really made my head hurt this time. They might have snuck it over on me had they not used Western honorifics, but the moment I saw Yukino saying "Miss Lucy", it was red alert time. I had thought that a simple -san honorific was replaced with Miss, but imagine my surprise when I discovered that Yukino was addressing Lucy as "Lucy-sama". Further investigation revealed that Yukino addresses EVERYONE with the -sama honorific.

Seriously, that completely changes Yukino up for me. When she's just being casual with everyone, it is one thing. When she's being so reverent to everyone, then that is another person completely. Clearly, Mashima-sensei had Yukino use the -sama honorific as a literary device, but hey, we ALL know that a fantasy title must NEVER have filthy, disgusting Japanese honorifics in them. Sometimes, I'm surprised that Kodansha doesn't just translate names (You know, 'cause Japanese names in a fantasy title? Unforgivable!), except I believe Yukino's name is written in katakana, not kanji (so there's no definition per se).

Still, once my eyes have been assaulted thusly, then the other things that I usually give a pass on start irritating me as well, such as Lissana not addressing Elfman or Mirajane properly (Elf-niichan, for example, rather than "Elf"). Then there was Juvia's fantasy sequence where this adaptation had her saying, "How could Gray do that to me?!" Except Juvia would NEVER, EVER, EVER say "Gray" without the "-sama" honorific, even in a fantasy sequence. Turns out, she apparently never used his name, but hey, up yours reader! "We'll add his name the way it is SUPPOSED to be used because we aren't slant-eyed gimboid gits in America!"

Of course, once the dung starts rolling downhill, it gets larger and larger. After learning that in Yukino's and Kagura's fight, the two basically just said the equivalent of "pleased to meet you" (vs. "Fight well," "And you."), I decided that I better quit looking or I'd just stop buying the manga completely.

Yes, I know this is a dead horse issue and yes, I know that for most, they won't give a rat's keester, but we all have our weaknesses and pet peeves, and the removal of Japanese honorifics and rewritting of text because, "Well, I think the characters should say 'this' rather than what they say 'cause what I came up with is cooler" is one of mine.

I will say that I do appreciate the Japanese attack names being retained as well as the Japanese name of Kagura's sword. I just wish the editorial decision to make the adaptation hybrid hadn't been made.

Otherwise, the usual extras are here, including a couple of pages of translator notes.

Manga-wise, I like this volume. Kodansha-wise, I don't like what's being done.

Fairy Tail Manga Volume 32 Review

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 32 Review

--> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
--> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
--> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!
--> Purchase from Yes Asia! (Japanese tankoubon) 

***SPOILERS***

Highlights of this volume start with the ghost of the first Fairy Tail guild master, Mavis, showing up to cheer on Fairy Tail (only they can see her). Fairy Tail gets two teams in, with Team A being Elfman, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, and Gray, while Team B consists of Laxus, Juvia, Mira, Gajeel, and "Mystogan" (Jellal in disguise, put in on the sly by Makarov, but approved of by Mavis). Other guilds participating are Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, Mermaid Heel, Quatro Cerberus, Saber Tooth, and Raven Tail.

The first contest is "The Hidden", which sees Fairy Tail A (Gray) end up with zero points and Fairy Tail B (Juvia) end up with a point. Next is a battle between Lucy and Flare Corona (Raven Tail) in which Flare attempts to cheat by secretly threatening young Asuka until Natsu stops it. When Lucy is about to bring the pain with the help of Gemini, but again Raven Tail cheats and absorbs all the magic from Lucy. After some other matches, "Mystogan" faces Jura from Lamia Scale. However, when Jellal gets to involved in the fight, Ultear has Merudy use her magic to cause Jellal lose the fight so that his cover is not blown.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Well, this was certainly not a volume where much of anything special happened, but it was still entertaining.

Having a second Fairy Tail team in the contest is a cheat, but I didn't mind since it brought in some other Fairy Tail favorites. Unfortunately, when Team B is revealed, Juvia looks like a total badarse, but then she turns into worthlessness. *sigh* I don't mind her being madly in love with "Gray-sama", but I would like for her to get a chance to be awesome again.

I had already been told that Mavis would be returning the the series, which she does in this volume. She's a new scene stealer of sorts, with her childlike attitudes about things at times, but with a definite element of massive power underneath. Having her around will be fun.

The other scene stealer, Asuka, got a bit less face time in this volume (more than her parents though), but she played an actual part in the battle between Lucy and Flare. I liked that.

Lucy looked to get a chance to show some real power, only to get it snuffed. I realize that part of what Mashima-sensei is doing is setting up things for Fairy Tail to come from well behind, but it was disappointing to not have her be allowed to come through.

I was highly amused by how Mashima-sensei caused Jellal to lose, via Ultear and Merudy. I didn't mind his loss since it was cheating on Fairy Tail's part to have him there.

Since Raven Tail is pulling out all the stops to prevent Fairy Tail from getting anywhere, I guess I now know why they targeted Wendy in the previous volume.

Otherwise, not much to discuss story-wise.

There are a lot of extras in this volume. There are breakdowns of all the teams in the Grand Magic Games. The only other time I've seen these power charts used for characters was in School Rumble.  I get the feeling they are used in battle manga.

There are the usual extras -- Mashima-sensei's notes, Lucy and Mira answering questions, fan art, extra art from Mashima-sensei, a few translator notes, and a preview of the next volume. Naturally, Kodansha Comic's hybrid adaptation continues.

As an aside, the Nibley Twins did the translations here rather than the normal William Flanagan, whom was otherwise engaged and could not do the work on this volume. I think he returns next volume. Regardless, with the adaptations now hybrid, it almost doesn't matter who translates it.

In the end, some fun was found in this volume, but not a lot of plot. Looks like the next volume just came in for me, so I'll have to get around to reading that soon. ^_^

Fairy Tail Manga Volume 31 Review

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 31 Review

--> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
--> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
--> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!
--> Purchase from Yes Asia! (Japanese tankoubon) 
--> Purchase from Yes Asia! (Limited edition Japanese tankoubon w/ DVD) 

***SPOILERS***

Highlights for Fairy Tail volume 31 start with Makarov making Gildarts the new Guild Master, whereupon Gildarts flees, but not before making Makarov Master again and reinstating Laxus. The Tenrou Island survivors learn they need to train up rapidly to make up for lost time, so they pay a visit to Porlyusica, whom Wendy says has the scent of the Air Dragon Grandeeney. Porlyusica is the Edolas version of Grandeeney and has a book of magic given to her telepathically by the dragon to give to Wendy. Fairy Tail starts a three month training regiment to be ready for the Grand Magic Games, but the Tenrou folks plans are thwarted when the Celestial Spirits have them over for a "night" of fun, which translates to three months real time. Merudy, Ultear, and Jellal show up with a plan to help these Fairy Tail members overcome their weaknesses with the limited time left, but they also warn of possible dark danger coming from the games. Two new dragon slayers make their presence known as part of the Saber Tooth guild.  Wendy goes missing on the eve of the games, so Elfman has to substitute for her in the Fairy Tail team of Natsu, Lucy, Erza, and Gray.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It is somewhat amusing to me to see Natsu and the others from the Tenrou Island incident having only the strength of average Fairy Tail members (or somewhat above average in the case of Erza and Mira). Granted, it is pretty standard operating procedure in shounen manga for the protagonist to need to train up to get to that next level. However, with Fairy Tail, they already started out strong. They haven't been shown needing to train to get stronger. Instead, the members of Fairy Tail, primarily Natsu, Erza, Gray, and even Lucy sometimes, end up in a situation where they reach deep and do things they've not done before.

However, Mashima-sensei decides to continue to eschew the cliched training arcs by humorously having (some) Fairy Tail members that needed training lose all of their time in the Celestial realm. Still, it was interesting to see that realm, even if reading Capricorn using Western honorifics made my eyes hurt. But I digress...

With the seven year jump, I liked seeing Jellal, Merudy, and Ultear again. This continues Mashima-sensei's love of redeeming characters, which I have no problem with. I like the idea that this trio formed an independent guild (Crime Sorcière). I liked the little moment between Jellal and Erza, though I didn't like the cop-out to avoid their progressing any kind of romance. Yeah, I know - this is a shounen title so we can't have much romance beyond that. *_*

I didn't like the dues ex machina moment for Ultear coming up with a way for Natsu and the others to be able to compete with the reps from the other guilds in the upcoming Grand Magic Games.  But, that's the price paid for the earlier eschewing of Fairy Tail training (though some members not in the games did go through training).

I'm not sure what I think about Mashima-sensei introducing two new dragon slayers (Sting and Rogue).  It seems like this is just another excuse for Mashima-sensei to have another dragon slayer vs dragon slayer setup

The cliched onsen scene made me laugh in cliched fashion. Not only did I chuckle at Erza's nonchalant attitude about the guys joining them, but when she moments earlier attacks the onsen privacy fence for intruders, the fact that Droy got hit in the keester still makes me laugh out loud.

Some questions. What is the Lumen Histoire? What is Zeref's connection to the games? What happened to Wendy?

Finally, there's a scene stealer within the Fairy Tail guild, who's not (yet) a member -- Bisca's and Alzack's daughter, Asuka. Man oh man. *lol* Is Mashima-sensei trying to prove that he's not just obsessed with young women with "huge tracks of land?" ^_~  Still, there's no denying that Asuka is a little cutie. I started looking for her in the background of guild scenes as well as the ones where she's more visible, such as when Makarov carried her on his shoulders.

Seriously, it would be awesome if Mashima-sensei did some exploring of the Connel family, but since this is a shounen manga, combined with Bisca and Alzack are B-team members means I won't see this happening. I can dream though.

On the Kodansha side of things, the usual hybrid adaptation is here (I promise not to rant about that here). The omake stuff is all here, from the Lucy and Mira Q&A, Mashima-sensei's two notes, fan art, etc. There are some translator notes too, which I always appreciate.

Now that the manga goes into a battle tournament mode, I'm not sure how much I am looking forward to the next volume, but I'll read it just the same.

Fairy Tail Manga Volume 30 Review

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 30 Review

--> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
--> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
--> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!
--> Purchase from Yes Asia! (Japanese tankoubon) 

***SPOILERS***

Highlights for Fairy Tail volume 30 start with the aftermath of Grimoire Heart's attack on Tenrou Island. Master Markov has final words with Master Hades before sending him off. Zeref shows up on Grimoire Heart's airship, pronouncing punishment on the surviving members for causing Acnologia to arrive. Cana reveals to Gildarts that she's his daughter, leading to a moment between the two. Acnologia, the most powerful of dragons, attacks the island. Master Markov orders a retreat, ready to sacrifice himself to save his guild, but Fairy Tail rally to attack the dragon. The dragon is too powerful, so they band together to create a barrier, prayed for by the spirit of the first guild master, Mavis, as Acnologia attacks, destroying the entire island as Zeref watches.

Seven years later, Fairy Tail is a shadow of its former self, bullied by a new guild named Twilight Ogre. Macao, the current and fourth guild master, tries to deal with things peaceably, but has no success. A delegation from Blue Pegasus, led by Ichiya, tells Fairy Tail that Tenrou Island is still there. A sortie is dispatched, where the Fairy Tail members find Mavis standing on the sea. The island emerges, and the members of Fairy Tail who'd been on the island are found alive. They return home in time to put an end to Twilight Ogre's bullying. A group from Lamia Scale come by to pay their respects, whereupon Lyon falls for Juvia. Lucy learns her father has died while she and the others were sealed away, but she also learns that he sent presents every year, wrote letters, and even paid to have her apartment maintained.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Well, Mashima-sensei is know for his plot twists, but man, I didn't expect him to pull some stunt so that the main Fairy Tail members are effectively sealed away for seven years while life goes on everywhere else.  I have to say that it was pretty interesting, as are Mashima-sensei's remarks about how in the seven years, everyone has grown stronger while the core Fairy Tail members on Tenrou Island were sealed away. I get the impression that he's going to give a reason for Fairy Tail to have to claw their way back to primo status. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I love that Bisca and Alzack are married and have a daughter (Asuka). Since the are B-team members of Fairy Tail, they don't get a lot of face time. After the arc where Laxus tries to take over Fairy Tail, that was pretty much the last we saw of them. Mashima-sensei had said that they had feelings for each other, but never confessed, which meant that they'd be like other romantic pairings in Fairy Tail -- going nowhere fast. Now, they've confessed, gotten married, and multiplied. I hope that Mashima-sensei finds a way to explore their family life in the guild, but that would be hoping for too much in a shounen series.

The changes to the B-team members of Fairy Tail was actually pretty funny. Droy having packed on the pounds while Reedus lost all his weight made me laugh. I also laughed at Lyon falling for Juvia. I guess he doesn't have to worry about Sherry any more, even though she was with him when Lamia Scale paid their respects.

I did feel sorry for Wendy when she saw Reedus's artwork of her, depicting what he thought she'd look like as a young adult. It must have been hard for Mashima-sensei not to draw her as a big breasted woman, as he usually does for all his women. ^_^;;;

I liked that after being talked about for so long, we got to see Master Mavis, even if she was a spirit. There's just something about her that's just sweet. Too bad she's tied to Tenrou Island.

As to Zeref, I still have a hard time accepting that this guy claiming to be Zeref is in fact Zeref, but Mashima-sensei keeps pushing it pretty hard. He may well be the real deal and not the latest head fake on Mashima-sensei's part.

I'm glad that Cana got to tell Gildarts the truth of their relationship. That's one less plot thread left dangling. It does appear that Mashima-sensei might start doing a running gag about the over-doting father and the daughter who might regret getting what she wished for. ^_^

Finally, although Lucy never got to square things away with her dad personally, I'm glad to see that in the fine Mashima-sensei tradition of character redemption, Lucy's father did try to do the right thing, even if too little too late. That takes care of another little plot thread as Lucy starts moving on with her life.

On the Del Rey side of things, there's the usual hybrid honorific usage (more noticeable with Romero, but that has always been the case from the start of the English adaptation of the manga), he notes from Mashima-sensei, the fan art, the Lucy and Mira Q&A, a couple of translator notes, and an extended preview of the next volume.

With Zeref hanging around, and the dragon Acnologia's attack on Fairy Tail, I had no clue that Mashima-sensei would decide to just time skip seven years and force the core Fairy Tail members to deal with the changes losing seven years can bring. It was an interesting twist to be sure and I'm looking forward to seeing where it all goes.

Fairy Tail Manga Volume 29 Review

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 29 Review

--> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
--> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
--> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!
--> Purchase from Yes Asia! (Japanese tankoubon) 

***SPOILERS***

Highlights of this volume continue the Tenryo arc, starting with Gray battling Ultear, where Ultear gets a revelation about her mother Ur. Natsu, Gray, Wendy, Erza, and Lucy battle Master Hades. Laxus returns to enter the fray, but ends up transferring his remaining power to Natsu to try to finish Master Hades off. Master Hades gets serious. Master Hades incapacitates the other Fairy Tail magically, though they still fight physically. The cats destroy the source of Hades's magic, restoring power to Fairy Tail as Tenrou Tree is restored, allowing them to take out Hades.

Since I had four volumes of Fairy Tail stacked up on my desk, I figured I'd have to put aside my extreme distaste for the "awesomely awesome" hybrid adaptation and just read. Yeah, every time Capricorn calls Lucy "Lady Lucy" ('cause she's nobility...oh wait, she's not nobility, just a rich merchant's daughter), I do want to claw my eyeballs out since I know Capricorn addresses everyone with the "-sama" honorific. But I digress...

Story-wise, there's not that much special to write about. We have the usual Fairy Tail members at the end to face the boss villain and take him down, so that's pretty much by the numbers, including Master Hades "getting serious" to make things as bleak as possible for Fairy Tail before they rise again. It wasn't boring or anything, but just nothing special.

In the fashion that Mashima-sensei has come to follow, it appears Ultear gets her redemption moment after being defeated by Gray, landing in the water, and making a connection with her deceased mother, who had turned herself into ice to seal one of Zeref's monsters, only to have her ice melted and apparently sent to the sea. It was a way of giving Ultear some backstory and to potentially have her fighting alongside Fairy Tail in the future.

Speaking of redemption, Laxus actually did make a return. I had thought he'd show up, but then Gildarts, Freed, and Bickslow showed up, so I forgot about Laxus. No doubt, this was Mashima-sensei's plan all along. Unfortunately, Laxus makes an impressive appearance (with a weak excuse to do so, but that's part of his redemption path), doesn't do much, then hands the ball to Natsu, under the excuse of not being in the guild (that wasn't expressly stated, but that's the implication I took).

Speaking of Zeref earlier, assuming this dude is Zeref, Mashima-sensei is playing him oddly. He insta-killed Zancrow, so that's supposed to give this latest iteration of Zeref more street credit. Knowing Mashima, this will be yet another smeghead who was caught up in another nutty scheme to make him believe he's Zeref, only so that the real Zeref can be revived. We'll see though.

On the Kodansha Comics side, while I appreciate translator notes, even if limited ones, the page number citations for two of the three notes were incorrect. The last one was for page 194. I decided I didn't want to bother looking up the middle one.

As for other extras, they are very limited. We got the two notes from Mashima-sensei (always appreciated), and some fan art was scattered within the manga. A preview for the next volume was also there. Not sure if anything was cut out (I don't have the tankoubon volume) because normally, there's more to the extras.

OK, I'm going to make a push to catch up on these volumes, so I'll try to do the next volume tomorrow.

Fairy Tail Manga Volume 28 Review (With a rather nifty dues ex machina moment.)

フェアリーテイル
Fairy Tail Volume 28 Review

--> Purchase from RAKUTEN (formerly BUY.COM)
--> Purchase from BARNES & NOBLE
--> Purchase from RIGHTSTUF!

***SPOILERS***

Highlights from this volume have Cana realize the mistake of abandoning her friends, but being rewarded with Fairy Glitter as a result. Cana comes to help Lucy and the others literally put down by Blue Note, but Fairy Glitter, which Bluenote wants, is not enough to defeat him. An angry Gildarts appears and battles Blue Note, allowing the others to get to safety.  Freed and Bickslow also show up to battled Rustyrose. Erza battles Azuma, who upends the Tenrou Tree, manages to sap Fairy Tail members of their powers, including Gildarts. Despite her best effort, Erza takes a beating, which somehow Jellal feels from his prison and speaks her name. Erza somehow feels the connection with Jellal and revives, ultimately defeating Azuma after thinking about her friends. Azuma returns the Fairy Tail magic and is absorbed into Tenrou Tree.

The rest of the guild begin overcoming their opponents as Gray makes out like he's going to help Ultear in her quest to defeat Master Hades. However, he causes her to reveal her true intentions when she starts to kill the defenseless Juvia, forcing Gray to attack Ultear.

As I mentioned in my review of volume 27, getting confirmation that it was decided editorially (and not on the translator's side) to make Fairy Tail a hybrid translation when it comes to Japanese honorific usage (honorifics retain for characters introduced before the editorial mandate came down; "superior" Western honorifics for all characters thereafter, including not using honorifics because we can't find an appropriate Western equivalent, which isn't being lazy but a legitimate adaptation choice, unlike leaving honorifics as is, which is lazy and not a legitimate adaptation choice...but I digress...) really put me off the series. I have been buying them still, but my enthusiasm just is no longer there. I figure seeing more and more Western honorifics are going to eventually cause me to hit my breaking point, after which, I'll drop it and send that money to something else.

But I digress again...(This is a passionate topic for me, if you couldn't already guess that.)

This volume has the usual elements we've come to expect from a Fairy Tail story -- Fairy Tail takes a beating, Fairy Tail comes back for the win. It could get rather boring, but Mashima-sensei throws in some elements to keep things from going that route.

In volume 26, I expressed some disappointment over how Mashima-sensei had sent Gildarts, Freed, and Bickslow away and how it didn't make any sense except except to have the overpowered Gildarts removed from the field. Having him show up for a deus ex machina moment actually was pretty cool because I wanted to see Gildarts fight. His actual battle wasn't too much to speak of in some regards, but he was able to overcome his opponent's gravity magic, which had put down several Fairy Tail members. So it was cool seeing Gildarts in action.

Also, I loved Freed's and Bickslow's return as well. And to think, it wasn't that long ago that they were causing Fairy Tail trouble thanks to Laxus.

Speaking of Laxus, he was the one I had expected to show up for this fight, not Gildarts, Freed, and Bickslow.

I liked the connection that Erza has with Jellal, as displayed in this chapter. Not sure where Mashima-sensei will go with that, since he's gone all over the board with Jellal.

Another nice moment was Gray saving Juvia. I really do wish Mashima-sensei would allow them to get together as a romantic couple.

Finally, Cana got some character development with the reveal that Gildarts is her estranged father, who apparently does not know she's his daughter.  I rather hope there's a positive resolution to that element of the story. Cana has never been much to me as a character (though she was a decent leader during the Phantom Lord fight), so it would be nice seeing her become a more interesting character.

On the Kodansha side, there are the usual extras, including translator notes and a preview of the next volume.

Story-wise, I enjoyed seeing Fairy Tail rise up to defeat their enemies. I just wish Kodansha Comics had retained the same policy that Del Rey had for all those years when it came to adaptations. No wonder I don't buy as many Kodansha titles as I did Del Rey titles.