Summary Key Points:

[spoiler]

• Natsu takes on Purehito and unleashes all the magic power he got from Laxus into one devastating attack that carries across the entire Island.
• Freed, Bickslow and Elfman take down the last remaining enemies back at the camp.
• Purehito rises, unfazed by the attack, and removes his eye patch, revealing his true power
• Happy, Panther Lilly and Carla find the “Devil’s Heart” inside the ship
• As everyone is devastated by the turn of events, Natsu recalls what he learned in his battle against Gildarts and rises up again.
• The episode ends with everyone working together to launch Natsu straight at Purehito, causing a massive explosion in the ship.

[/spoiler]

Opinions: (A)

If there were a specific checklist of things a shounen series has to do within a given episode, Fairy Tail’s 119th episode would probably hit on all the right points. Of course, with that, we have some filler that seems to not make as much sense and another cop-out as far as the big main ongoing battle goes. All in a week’s work for Fairy Tail I suppose XD

Picking up after last week, we actually opened up the episode with Freed and the rest taking care of the final remnants of those enemies that were attacking the camp. Now, I said that this filler was a decent addition to the cannon, but in this episode it really began to feel a bit forced and unnatural.The big issue, for me, was that Freed, Bickslow and then eventually Elfman, were having such a hard time dealing with two foes that Gajeel had already dispatched.

Now with Gajeel, it made sense that he got beat up as badly as he did because he was outnumbered two to one, even if it was by enemies that were slightly weaker than the 7 kin of Purgatory. But Freed, Bickslow AND Elfman having to put sooo much darn effort into dealing with what essentially constitute as weaker foes than the ones they’ve already faced? Seems a bit odd to me.

The battle was pretty nice visually, and the combo attack fairly well done, it just… didn’t make as much sense in the grand scheme of things. Unlike the battle with Hikaru, this one seemed to make a lot less sense.

That aside, we had the much awaited pummeling of Purehito/Hades by Lightning Fire Dragon Natsu. As always, the animation and just general choreography for the battle was a joy to behold. I think if there’s one thing that has REALLY changed since the start of the series, its the amount of detail, fluidity and jaw-droppingness factor of the battles that’s steadily improved to the point where it is now.

It was also nice to see the battle be slightly one-sided, as Natsu just pretty much owned a baffled and surprised Purehito. And of course, in true Natsu fashion, he didn’t draw out the battle for too long, and unleashed all the magic power he had just gotten into one huge blast. The fact that Erza and several others commented on Natsu “eating” the lightning, lays to rest the idea that Natsu did something other than absorb the lightning in the same way he did Etherion ages ago.

Of course, in a rather surprising twist, Purehito was HARDLY taken down with this intense barrage of attacks. With Natsu totally drained, Purehito rose to stand again, and even took off his eye patch to release his TRUE powers.

In many ways, this idea of Purehito reviving and not being taken down by Natsu’s new power up, broke convention. For all of those people who are tired of Natsu powering up and beating people at the end, well, this episode should give you some semblance of joy. Purehito rose up, laughed, and then used his overwhelming magic power to send everyone to their knees in fear (quite literally).

Its safe to say, that Purehito can’t be defeated as long as the “Heart of the Akuma (Devil)” exists inside the ship, which none other than Happy, Carla and Panther Lily discovered. It seems that there’s a very literal reason that Purehito’s new Dark Guild is called “Grimoire Heart”. In some ways, it also means that Purehito has the same sort of protection that Fairy Tail has due to its Tenroujima Island.

I did find it interesting that in the middle of the battle, just as everyone was overwhelmed by Purehito, Lucy recalled that she had heard about the one magic before, from her mother no less. I admit, I didn’t care about Lucy’s mom, and I thought the mangaka didn’t either, but man… It seems Lucy’s mom is going to play an extremely vital part to the mythos of the series.

The real awesome moment though, was actually seeing Natsu lead everyone out of their despair at facing up against such a mighty foe as Purehito and his Dirt Devils. Natsu had experience this overwhelming fear once before, in this very arc. The battle with Gildarts had been extremely necessary in hind sight, as it really led Natsu to become strong enough to stand up against Purehito. Having Natsu flash back to and call upon the words that Gildarts had said earlier, really showed how much Natsu has grown  in this arc.

I think the issue of fear, which nearly every shounen series deals with at some point, was best dealt with by Fairy Tail in this arc. Dealing with extremely devastating odds and then having the courage to stand up and face up against it is the bread and butter of any shounen series. Its therefore, surprising to see Fairy Tail tackle the topic with a real feeling of freshness.

And finally, as the episode ended, we got treated to another beautifully well done sequence that embodied EVERYTHING that I enjoy about Fairy Tail. We had gorgeous animation, an intensely well thought out running scene, some amazing team work between all of Fairy Tail, and then we had a pretty intense cliffhanger that had “Natsu-missle” about to hit Purehito.

It seems that the fight with Purehito is going to go on for a bit longer than I thought it would. if we continue to get such awesome character moments and such gorgeously well animated scenes, however, then I just can’t help but sit back, enjoy and eagerly await what comes next! (Also take a gander over to the bonus section, as its slightly different this week)

Preview:

Next week seems to be the real conclusion of this arc, with the Tenroujee helping out the members of Fairy Tail one last time! See you all next week!

Bonus:

Generally, this section has some sewn together fanservice shots or something along those lines. This week however, I’ve decided that we’ll also added some cool shipping stuff here as well. This episosde actually featured some great Natsu x Lucy stuff, that really made my inner fanboy squeel with joy!

[spoiler]

First, we had the scene where Natsu used all his magic power on Purehito, and almost fell to his death from weakness, only to be rescued by Lucy, who rushed to his side. I loved that tender moment between the two of them:

Secondly, was the obvious hugging/comforting moment when everyone was in despair:

[/spoiler]

Overall, this was a great episode for Natsu x Lucy fans, IMO.