Live Review - Fairy Tail 357 - The Nine Demon Gates

Fairy Tail rushes(?) into its final(?) arc
I mean, it kinda seems so... Fairy Tail is ready to go fight Tartaros like, right now, even more so because they just took out the council... we know they're demons, what more reasons do we need? If there's a lot of stuff before the fights I legitimately can't imagine what it'll be. So that's pretty exciting...

Fairy Tail 357 - The Nine Demon Gates
scans by mangastream

cover
I don't remember this character at all lol.

1
Okay yeah as the title indicates we're getting proper introductions to these guys. I'm happy with that. "Franmalth"... I wonder if these names have any significance... I'm sure there's a lot of interesting mythos you can adapt when it comes to demons. I like how he sorta has a little ballcap lol. "Torafusa"... just reminds me so much of X Drake.

2
"Ezel"... wildman... It's time for a massacre!! and all that. And uhhh her name is too long. Talks with a meta awareness. Wow I like her design a lot though but sheesh pls tone down fanservice!

3
Harpy lady, whatever... see, here Mashima does a "reintroduction" box, like Oda does... I wish he did that more often. Ki-Su seems kinda cool. "Black monk" is an awesome class name. And then Silver, the normal dude, Gildart's brother or something lol.

4
Oooh, creepy. Genuinely creepy...

5
What was this restaurant again? Those are Laxus's friends, right? Man I feel like I'm missing a huge joke here... it's right on the edge of my memory...

6
Oh yeah, I kinda remember this guy. Why are they working at the restaurant? Does this have something to do with some aspect of the like, Laxus terrorizes the town arc that I forgot?

7
Oh okay nevermind. This is a pretty bizarre sequence. Well whatever. Mashima wants to exploit some of his lesser seen characters... like fanservice exploit when possible lol.

8
That's not Laxus. Maybe that's a d-d-d-d-DEMON. Okay so Mashima's probably gonna let these guys get rolled, that's why we're watching them... not major characters get like reverse plot armor. Maybe Tartarus is like, taking out former magic council members too?

9
Woooooooosh! Yeah looks like they're doing all sorts of terrorist raids. Is this the final member of the 9? Or some lower ranking dude? Doesn't look like this really killed anybody though. Nice spread... Mashima's having fun with all this destruction mode.

10
Yeah looks like he's gunning for the former council member guy. Maybe they know something... He'll prolly get barely saved and spill his beans for Fairy Tail. I'm thinking... last minute save by Laxus.

11
This guy's all about twisters and spinning and stuff... that's pretty cool. One-shots these dudes yeah as expected.

12
Wait woah did he just toast the council guy? Maybe I'm wrong...

13
I can't remember what glasses girl does like at all lol.

14
Ah, so he's the last of the 9... does that mean he's the leader? That's E.N.D.? Hmmm...

15
This is pretty brutal... wait, what is the old man gripping? Air? Hair? Well whatever.

16
Aha yeah I got it... doesn't seem like this guy's getting saved after all though lol.

17
Waaaaaaaait nevermind, haha. Called it. Obviously.

18
If this wasn't the final member of the 9 I'd say Laxus would have a shot... I think he's gonna get rolled though lol.

Everything seems to be proceeding as it should
Mashima has a pretty interesting plot and he's going through all the requisite motions. It's a pretty straightforward big battle sort of arc, it seems... I'm okay with that. A nice simple arc. Could be very exciting. This chapter was pretty exciting, got to see the new guys some more and had a nice little fight... predictable, but I mean, not routinely predictable, just like... the fun of having correct anticipation is part of being predictable. A good part.

A-