Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest Volumes 11 and 12 Review

With Volume 10 of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest having brought the multiverse arc to its conclusion, it’s time for the series to move into a new storyline. With two new volumes of the manga in hand, let’s find out what’s in store! 

Volume 11 opens with scenes of the Moon Dragon God Selene taking over the Diabolos guild (an enemy guild looking to use the Dragon Gods for a nefarious plan) and commanding the seven strongest members to take on a special quest for her. Meanwhile, Natsu and his party pay a visit to Elefseria, who’s the last remaining member of the very first mage guild, Magia Dragon, and the one who sent them on the 100-Year Quest to begin with. 

Upon reuniting with Elefseria, the group tell him all about their challenges facing the Dragon Gods so far, but before they can get a hint as to where to go next, Elefseria is alerted to a crisis. Diabolos’ party has invaded the Great Labyrinth which is home to Elefseria’s heart (having been eaten by a Dragon God whose remains lie in the labyrinth). So now it’s up to Natsu’s party to put a stop to the group before they can find what they seek! 

The remainder of Volume 11 and then the entirety of Volume 12 take place in this maze of a labyrinth. Selene has made a game out of the whole situation, teleporting team Fairy Tail inside and separating them from each other. It’s a race to see who can get to the heart first, combined with an opportunity to watch members of the two teams fight against each other and prove who’s stronger. 

Since Diabolos’ party has seven members, Selene is even kind enough to summon Luxus and Gajeel to even out the numbers for team Fairy Tail. This is also nice for us readers since both characters are fan favourites and we haven’t seen either of them since the Wood Dragon arc which took place over Volumes 4 to 7. Although Gajeel’s inclusion does feel a bit wasted as Luxus, Lucy, Wendy and Erza steal the spotlight when it comes to the fights we see in these two books. Gajeel has yet to be allowed to fight anyone from Diabolos himself.  

Midway through Volume 12, Selene is forced to bring her game to a halt when the Fire Dragon God Ignia appears in search of the heart for himself. Selene doesn’t want the heart falling into his hands, given it contains secrets on a powerful ancient weapon and she races to the scene in the hopes of stopping him. Meanwhile, Natsu is eager for a rematch with Ignia and also wants to stop his plans and is even willing to work with Diabolos temporarily to make it happen. 

Just like the previous arc, one of the nice things about this storyline is that Natsu continues to take more of a backseat while Lucy and Wendy continue to be given character development and improve their battle capabilities. The labyrinth is also a more natural extension of this quest than some of the other arcs we’ve seen so far, particularly the multiverse storyline from Volumes 8-10.

Perhaps most importantly of all, it seems that all the pieces are now in play. It’s becoming clear what Selene, Ignia and Diabolos hope to accomplish by using the Dragon God’s powers. There are still a lot of questions, particularly since we haven’t seen Ignia or Diabolos for a while, so readers are unlikely to remember or have had the opportunity to come to grips with their motivations. 

Still, it looks like Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is starting to come together in a way it wasn’t before. Recently it has felt like author Hiro Mashima was getting distracted by other ideas he wanted to incorporate, but in these two books we’ve gone back to the basics and that has worked in the series’ favour. 

Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest Volumes 11 and 12 come to the West thanks to Kodansha and continue to be translated by Kevin Steinbach with lettering by Phil Christie. Both releases read well with no problems to note. Volume 13 of the series is currently scheduled for an English release in July and then #14 in October. 

Overall, these two new volumes of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest kickstart a new storyline that brings all of the key players together, as well as bringing in two fan-favourite Fairy Tail guild members. As far as the start of a new arc goes, there’s nothing to complain about here and certainly plenty to enjoy. 

Our review copies from Kodansha were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.