Fairy Tail 468 Review: Obligatory Bikini Mermaid Fanservice

Fairy Tail, Chapter 468 Review: Memory of the Stars

Manga reviews are back! It's not a bad chapter, but it's definitely not a good chapter. It was way too intro-dump-y for my liking, and there's way too much obvious information just being drummed down in the last few chapters all Naruto-style that doesn't really match up with what we know before. The thing with the Heartfilia family using the Eclipse gate to send the dragon slayers into the future really felt clunky. I mean, it doesn't technically not make sense, but the lack of foreshadowing and the general feel of 'by the way, all this happened by the side' just feels like subpar writing.

And, of course, what little dignity that Brandish has as a legitimate threat and villain ends up getting crushed into rubble thanks to Aquarius apparently having this 'you're my doggy' deal going on with Brandish that she immediately agrees to play for a sequence that lasts like an entire page longer than it really should. It's one thing to put in jokes to lighten up a serious arc -- that's fine and dandy. It's another thing to utterly humiliate and degrade a character that's been built up to be quite dangerous just for... laughs? To appeal to those people with a BDSM fetish? In any case, Brandish is apparently Lucy's slave via Aquarius. 

Aquarius, whose key has apparently respawned, ultimately negating the already minimal impact of her 'noble non-death sacrifice'. And if there is any doubt that it won't end up back in Lucy's hands again you're clearly reading a less predictable and formulaic manga than Fairy Tail. Something about Brandish and Lucy going to a dream world where they are bikini mermaids for a reason. Something about Lucy's ancestor Anna Heartfilia, Zeref's co-conspirator. Also has a random under-boob window for whatever reason. 

The flashback bits were decent, as we learn that Layla happens to be born in the generation where Anna decides to open the Eclipse gate to welcome the dragon slayer kids. Which is mighty impractical for a time travel spell, but at least it's something. Layla apparently sacrificed part of her life, costing her health and magic abilities, to substitute for Brandish's mother who was MIA with the Aquarius key. Honestly, though, Layla, you're going to fulfill a generations-old pre-planned thing that has the fate of the world in balance, you'd think you would gather all the keys like a year or two before the fact. Jeez.

Some crying crying moment for Grami, Brandish's mother, coming in to apologize and the two of them end up being friends. It's mushy, as you expect from Fairy Tail. It's not particularly bad because actual death and regret is involved instead of 'insert a friendship speech just because'. Randomly Zoldeo, a.k.a. the stitch-faced servant that would become Caprico of Grimoire Heart, decides to kill Grami in grief. Wait, didn't Zoldeo utterly loathe Layla Heartfilia? Wasn't he intent on hunting Lucy down and killing her because she's Layla's daughter?

Of course, this is Fairy Tail where anything you do can be forgived with a friendship speech. Grami dies, though, and that's the important bit. Lucy and Brandish are like 'maybe we can be friends like our mothers' which thankfully only takes a single panel.

Happy walks in because Natsu apparently passed out. See, Happy. You should've let Natsu used his suicidal demon powers to finish Zeref off, because at least that way his death will have some impact. Of course being a protagonist and being Fairy Tail there isn't really any tension of anything remotely bad ever happening to Natsu. So yeah. 

Overall, though, while I don't hate any particular part of the flashback, the chapter is just so rife with unfunny jokes and coincidences and everyone honestly called out on the fact that Brandish is going to side with the good guys. The sheer obviousness of everything, and how Layla's heroic sacrifice to open the Eclipse Gate ends up looking pretty dumb in retrospect, rather dilutes the effect a fair bit, though.