Fairy Tail Volume 7

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.” – Garrison Keillor 

This latest collection of Fairy Tail is pretty topsy-turvy. We see the strangest things: Natsu driving a vehicle and not being sick; Gray being friendly with him and wearing lots of clothes; Lucy acting like a sadistic thug. What’s going on?

This collection starts off with some filler episodes, but overall they are not a bad bunch. Highlights include Wendy taking on her first big job, and we meet Gildarts, the strongest wizard in the Fairy Tail guild and master of destructive “Crush” magic.

The main story however begins when Wendy meets up with Mystogan, who tells her that something terrible is going to happen to the guild due to a spell called “Anima”. But before Wendy can warn the others, the entire guild and all of Magnolia vanish. The only survivors appear to be Dragon Slayers: Wendy, Natsu, Charle and Happy.

Charle reveals that actually she and Happy come from another world called “Edolas”, a parallel world in the sky where, as magic is a finite source,  they decided to steal magic from the ground world, known as “Earth-land”. Happy does not remember any of this, but Charle tells them all that in order to restore everything back to normal they will have to travel to Edolas and free the Earth-landers from imprisonment.

In Edolas Natsu, Wendy, Happy and Charle discover many things. Because magic is finite they cannot perform their spells and the cats cannot fly. The cats also discover that the humans in Edolas are scared of them and call them “Exceeds”. But the strangest thing is that this world has its own Fairy Tail guild. 

In this Fairy Tail, however, the personalities of the members are radically different, and at times totally opposite. Usually drunken Cana is teetotal, manly Elfman is a wimp, Juvia does not really care for Gray at all, and Wendy is tall and buxom. But the greatest difference is that Fairy Tail is an illegal Dark Guild. This is because the evil king of Edolas has outlawed the possession of all magic except for himself and his army. Amongst his army commanders is someone Natsu and Wendy know and fear all too well.

So far this has been a good story. The twisted versions of the characters are a fun idea. Perhaps the best is Gajeel, who discovers that his Edolas version is a freelance journalist. The two get on surprisingly well. However, the funniest situation is that because of the way the magic works in Edolas, the most powerful Earth-land Fairy Tail wizard is Lucy, as her celestials do not need magic to work. 

While the situation is funny, at times it is also surprisingly dramatic. The best character development is with Happy and Charle. The role of the Exceeds is a dramatic one, and they discover some terrible truths as to why they came into contact with Natsu and Wendy in the first place.

Whether this storyline will pay off will be seen in the next collection, but it has been good so far.