Opinions (B+):

Contiuing on with this 6 episode review bonanza (of sorts? XD), we dive right into episodes 171 and 172.

Episode 172 pretty much focused on a bit of the reactions and fall out from the previous fights of both Laxus and Wendy, as well as built anticipation for the upcoming clash between Sabertooth and Fairy Tail. With Raven Tail out of the way, everything is pretty much primarily focused on the feud between the two most powerful guilds in Fiore.

We had Fairy Tail celebrating another round of victories that night, while members from Sabertooth looked toward the next day. We also had Mermaid Heel’s two girls Kagura and Milliana prepare to exact their revenge on Jellal, while Jellal pondered the whole issue of Zeref and his too close for comfort encounter with Lahar and Dragonbalt. Perhaps most worringly though, we had Yukino join under the army and right into the hands of the good old head of the Guard.

Now… Given that Fairy Tail had been on a bit of a role in the last few episodes, it was time for Sabertooth to re-assert their dominance on Fairy Tail…. And man was the rest of the episode a truly brutal experience.

It was another uncomfortable bunch of shifts in tone. Firstly, the battle we had was another Swimsuit battle. I kind of wonder if Fairy Tail throwing so much fanservice at the viewer was a last ditch attempt to get the series another renewal? Its hard to say, but given the context of the series ending soon, its hard not to atleast think of it.

Of course, if you thought this episode was going to be another funny, silly fanservice episode, then damn were you wrong. Although it did start out that way, all with some truly embarrasing declarations of love for Gray from Juvia. I kind of really liked how the whole issue between Gray and Juvia took center stage for a little bit again. It really gave me hope that Fairy Tail might be the shounen series to slowly start dealing with romance elements in its story. Of course, when Sabertooth’s Minnerva booted Juvia out of the arena, things changed… a lot.

With only Lucy and Minerva left, Lucy was totally slaughtered by the extremely powerful Sabertooth mage. Maaan… this one sided battle was extremely hard to watch, with Minerva being set off with Lucy’s refusal to give up. The end result was a rather painful torture session, and one that made me quite uncomfortable. Its not bad per say, just really tough to watch.

Episode 172 pretty much ended with Lucy getting the worst thrashing she’s ever gotten, and Minerva becoming the dislikable monster that she is. Its no stretch to think that things could’ve ended for Lucy had the match gone on. Luckily, since she’s a key element in whatever big plan the captain of the gaurd has planned, the match was stopped just in time.

Lucy is rushed to the infirmary after emergency aid from both Cheria and Wendy. This was another moment of great tragedy for Fairy Tail. Lucy definitely took a major beating this time, and everyone came and visited. It was definitely expected of Natsu to be the first to be at her bed side (my Natsu x Lucy shipper will take what he can get at this point XD), but even Laxus came to visit. Again, I have to comment on how much the character has truly come far. Of course, alongside Laxus was the entire Fairy Tail team B as well.

It was definitely interesting to hear, that, in light of Raven Tail being disqualified, Fairy Tail A and B team were to recombine. The end combination that Fairy Tail went with, was pretty darn bad ass:

Two Dragon Slayers, Two S-Class Mages and Gray (Sorry… XD). Pretty epic team all around I’d say. Beyond that, we headed back into the battles, and this final round of battles seemed to be a bunch of Tag Battles.

I’ll say this about the first battle before the much awaited battle between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth, was exceedingly stupid and downright silly XD

First lets talk about Ichiya and Nichiya…. Wow. Just… Wow. I have no meare words that can describe the weird sensations of the experience of watching that whole battle. It was weird, it was akward and I won’t discount that it wasn’t funny. The whole Ichiya joke was definitely taken to its logical and illogical extreme. I just know, that this series can never push beyond this point, there’s nothing left. The Ichiya and Nichiya joke will probably haunt my dreams for a few years too. I must say that I was just so… taken a back by what I was shown on the screen that I didn’t even care that Ichiya won the battle.

My only complaint about the whole segment, is that it really felt like it was taking up precious time, precious time for a series that’s soon to end and could better spend that time focusing on other things.