Fairy Tail 413 Review: Enter Zeref

Fairy Tail Chapter 413: The Book of the End

A good one-third of the chapter early on is just everyone reacting to the Faces deactivating, which is a bit of a m'eh twist in itself, though the other dragons arriving is, of course, a surprise. We get our real good looks at Weisslogia and Skiadrum, the former looking just kinda feathery and bearded and deer-horned... I think we've seen a bit of Weisslogia before? Skiadrum is a cool shadow dragon creature, though. I like Skiadrum.

Igneel then finally explains what we have been asking for two, three months ever since he showed up and we were interrupted by the stupid Erza-Kyouka fight. Igneel tells us that the dragons have all been inside the dragon-slayers, sleeping due to a sealing spell. So it's not just Igneel. But the other dragons just didn't... come out of Gajeel, Wendy and the others' mouths just because, I guess. Just for the crazy surprise thing. Igneel tells Natsu that there were reasons of them being sealed inside of their children, firstly in order to stop them from transforming like Acnologia did (though didn't Acnologia transform by bathing in the bloods of the dragons or something?) and there's a second reason Igneel is about to explain before Acnologia, of course, interrupts Igneel.

Which is not good from an explanation standpoint, but hells to the yeah is this the fight I want to see. Forget Mard Geer, that stupid distraction Jiemma and that shitty Kyouka fight. This one. This is the one I really want to see. Acnologia versus Igneel. Igneel and Acnologia fly into space and Igneel tells Natsu to get the book. However, Gray is holding the book, and he has his own promises to his own father to destroy END, and for all the world it looks like there is going to be a clash between Natsu and Gray, which would be absolutely groan-worthy because that clash, more than anything in Fairy Tail, will end in friendship.

Acnologia and Igneel clashes for a bit, with Acnologia mocking Igneel for hiding in humans while Igneel demanding Acnologia to know what he wants, since the 'end' he fears is no more. Igneel tells Acnologia to leave the humans alone, but Acnologia just goes 'I'm the king of dragons, I don't fear anything'. Igneel tells Acnologia that he was once human and he won't let Natsu be like Acnologia, but Acnologia literally just goes 'DESTRUCTION DESTRUCTION' at this point.

Natsu and Gray face off, and the book suddenly disappears, to reveal that Zeref has the book! I didn't expect Zeref to show up again at the end of this arc, though it certainly is a welcome twist since Zeref actually has a chance of not being defeated by a sudden friendship power-up like Mard Geer did, since he's a villain that was built up instead of being an arc villain. It's leaps and bounds more interesting than the last dozen or so chapters of Fairy Tail, because really in comparison to Acnologia, Zeref, END and the whole dragon mystery, shit like Face, Kyouka and Mard Geer that we know won't mean jack shit in the end doesn't really interest me. Especially since in Kyouka's case, she has already been defeated pretty satisfactorily before.

All that ranting about the bad pacing aside, I'm quite interested in the whole Igneel/Acnologia fight, what END is and what Zeref will do. It's an okay chapter, if not quite a spectacular one. Looking forward to next week.