Summary Key Points:

[spoiler]

• The Fantasia Festival is about to begin, held by Fairy Tail
• Laxus’s Personal Gaurd, the Rajin Tribe return
• On the Day of the Festival, during the Miss Fairy Tail contest, Laxus sets his plan into motion
• Evergreen (a member of the Rajin Tribe) petrifies all the participants of the contest including Erza, Bisca and Lucy
• Laxus holds them as hostages, and says that the battle to determine the strongest is going to begin
• He says that if everyone from Fairy Tail finds them and defeats them within 3 hours, then he will release his hostages
• Everyone rushes out of the contest hall after Laxus leaves in a Flash
• Natsu and the Guild Master are unable to leave and are trapped inside because of Freed (another Rajin Tribe members) runes
• Alzak, in order to save his partner Bisca fights two of his comrades, all to satisfy Freed’s Runes Rules
• The Episode ends with Natsu hearing about this and getting severely angry

[/spoiler]

Opinions: (B)

Honestly speaking, while pretty funny, I was kinda let down by the fact that half this episode was more about the Miss Fairy Tail contest and less about the ongoing fight. Hence, we had another episode which just set the stage for the battles ahead. I do admit I felt kinda sorry for Lucy, her act got cut short thanks to Evergreen.

It seems that Laxus and his grandfather, the current Guild master, have had some disagreement or bad blood between them, because Laxus sure as hell seems content on providing the one scenario that will pain his grandfather the most. That said, I was surprised at the fact that he trapped Natsu in the hall as well. It seems that he either has some degree of respect for Natsu. I wouldn’t be surprised, as Natsu has been constantly saving the Guild and doing some rather remarkable stuff. I mean, Natsu took down Jellal, a member of the Magic council, all by himself.

Of course, it could just be that Natsu’s part comes after everyone else is done fighting. Laxus has incapacitated both Erza and Natsu for now, the only two that could provide a decent threat to him. I would say Gray is out there… but Gray really hasn’t improved or down much lately. There’s also Juvia, but she’s stuck being a stone statue for now.

The new characters introduced were okay, I wasn’t particularly impressed with any one of them. They have some serious powers though, even if they aren’t all that interesting, and Laxus is great at using their combined powers to concut this  scheme that’s forcing Fairy Tail to tear itself apart. Alzak was the first to be manipulated, and has already taken down two of his comrades. Whatever else, hopefully next week is when things kick into gear.

Preview:

Seems like Evergreen is taken out, releasing the girls. Also it seems Natsu and Gajeel are still trapped inside the hall with the Guild Master. Lucy’s back in play though, whip in hand. Next week, get here already! ;_;

~Blogged By Setsuken