Fairy Tail 414 Review: Main Character Death?

Fairy Tail, Chapter 414: Drops of Flame

Well, haven't done a review about anything for quite a while. All the TV shows are on winter break or whatever, and there hasn't been anything new manga-wise until very recently, which is this chapter of Fairy Tail. And it's a great little twist mostly because I didn't believe Fairy Tail even has the balls to kill off a character, even a father/mentor figure like Igneel. After all, Fairy Tail already pussied out of killing the obvious mentor (Makarov, though I did like that subversion), and this one is one that seems to be far more fatal than Makarov's fight back then with Acnologia.

Zeref shows up and takes E.N.D., and then confronts Mard Geer, who is part terrified while still trying to kill Zeref and realize his wish, but Zeref just snaps his fingers and turns him into a book and blows him up. Gray seems to be the only one who actually gives a shit about Mard Geer dying, though really after all his tough-guy talk about wanting to kill END and everything it's kind of jarring.

Zeref comments about Acnologia for a bit, before we get a cool shot of his face going all 'I will give you even more despair', so it appears that this massively overlong and dull Tartaros arc is not going to be Fairy Tail's finale, which is great. Zeref just leaves into the dust, holding END. And again, for all his resolve, Gray doesn't even try to do anything. I think I'm okay with Zeref showing up and kind of screwing everyone up before going off, so yeah, it's certainly a welcome change.

We cut to the far more interesting scenes of Acnologia and Igneel tussling, which is a lot more welcome than random mugshots of Natsu and company. Natsu runs towards Igneel while he telepathically tells him some stuff. Apparently all the dragons stay within the bodies of their Dragon Slayer children so they can create antibodies to stop their Dragonification, and now none of them will turn into dragons. And Igneel also has a second reason, which is to try and defeat Acnologia... yeah, real big help you did, Igneel, back in Tenrou Island.

Natsu does a 'I'll help you don't say these kinds of words' speech while Igneel and Acnologia kind of flies into the air and flies towards each other. And I do like how for a moment it seemed that Igneel, having ripped off Acnologia's arm, is going to begin at least some sort of resistance, buying time until Natsu or maybe the other dragons can help out... and then the next page is a two-page splash of some Toriko-level 'holy shit' kind of reveal page with Acnologia having flown straight through Igneel's entire body, just leaving, well, very little of his torso and abdomen left.

Igneel's remains fall down to the ground and he gets to talk to Natsu one last time, telling him how he's grown up and grown to love humans, while Acnologia launches a gigantic ball of explosion that seems to engulf Igneel's body while Natsu watches in horror. It could be a fake-out and Grandeeney or something could heal Igneel if Acnologia's big dragon roar didn't completely obliterate Igneel's body, and indeed that final two-page didn't really show Igneel being completely destroyed -- a good chunk of him is still around. And taking the Toriko comparison, Toriko tends to do this big 'holy shit the main character just got blown up' before subverting it with healing or illusions or whatever in the next chapter, which is fucking annoying by the way, and I am really hoping Fairy Tail won't stoop that low either. Wouldn't be entirely surprised if Igneel turns out to have survived in some way or form, though.

I also appreciate how Igneel doesn't go into a long tirade. Yes, he does the manga 'dramatic speech before a death' thing, but it's fast paced and Acnologia certainly only wastes a bit of time to charge up his dragon breath attack thing. So Igneel's death is scripted quite well in my opinion, even if we don't know Igneel as a character all that much since beyond being the mysterious father figure behind Natsu he hasn't actually done anything.

Executed properly, Fairy Tail could regain a good chunk of it's former glory with all these developments with Acnologia, Igneel, the dragons and Zeref. And after the horribly messily-paced Kyouka and Mard Geer battles to cap off the already over-drawn and relatively mediocre Tartaros Arc, this is a well-needed breath of fresh air to the series, whatever the final verdict is on Igneel's fate. I am not trying to hype myself too much because it'll hurt more if it gets dashed, but it's a new year and I'm all about new beginnings and stuff. And if Fairy Tail is going to turn the tables around and get a really productive and awesome year ahead, I'm all for it. Certainly knows how to kick start the year, anyway.