Manga Review: Fairy Tail Volume Two

[Jason]

Title: Fairy Tail
Volume: Two
Mangaka: Hiro Mashima
Publisher: Del Rey
Serialized in: Weekly Shonen Magazine
Genre: Fantasy
Rated: Teen (13+)
Price: $10.95/US

Volume two of Fairy Tail continues to mix light-heartedness with some rather dark themes, and does so fairly well. For a very healthy sum, Lucy, Natsu and Happy are on a job to retrieve and destroy a book for Mr. Melon. We get the immediate fan service of Lucy in a French Maid’s outfit but it does serve a purpose: Lucy is trying to get a job as a maid with the man who stole the book in the first place, Duke Everlue.

Unfortunately for Lucy and Natsu, Everlue’s idea of beauty is somewhat skewed (your eyes won’t recover fast from this one), so it’s down to breaking and entering for them. The book turns out to be written by Lucy’s favorite author and she can’t resist reading it first. Her distraction is the least of Natsu’s problems as insane maids and assassin squad magicians show up -- not to mention that there is more to Everlue than meets the eye. The book itself also has a very dark secret.

The second story arc takes them back to the Fairy Tail guild and fills the reader in on a bit more about the world’s history. We are also reintroduced to some of the other wizards, notably Loke and Gray, the latter of whom gets into a fistfight with Natsu immediately. This all ends with the introduction of a new mage, Erza. Erza is an extremely strong-willed woman and most of Fairy Tail bows before her. Even Gray and Natsu pretend to be friends in her presence. Sadly for the two young men, she wants them for a mission. Lucy is sent along to keep Natsu and Gray in line so that Erza doesn’t just kill them for being brats.

Erza has the best cure for Natsu’s motion sickness but it leads to them forgetting him on the train. This could be very bad news for the team as Erza’s mission has to do with dark magicians and magical instruments of death. Naturally, it ends on a cliff-hanger.

The art is often very pretty and usually well done, though with just a little too much of the chibi stuff for my taste, but it’s easy enough to look past that. There are a few extras after the manga and, typical of Del Rey, there’s a plethora of translator notes, including some I’ve never seen before such as ‘this is what it really says in Japanese but that makes no sense in the Western world so we did this…’ sort of stuff. The sound effects are left intact and translated as well.

Like I said in the beginning, the story mixes lighthearted fluff in with some really dark ideas and makes it work. Fairy Tail is a cute and fun fantasy world that I’m really looking forward to seeing more of.

Reviewer: D.M. Evans
Proofer: Iliana
Editor: Lissa Pattillo