Fairy Tail Collection 6   Starring (voice): Aya Hirano, Tetsuya Kakihara, Akira Ishida, Daisuke Kishio and Daisuke Namikawa Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £29.99 MANG3152 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 24 February 2014

Lucy Heartfilia and Natsu Dragneel are members of a guild of magic wielders. Invited in by Natsu, Lucy travels the land of Fiore, in search of Natsu’s foster dragon. With a penchant for destructive magic they travel with Natsu’s companion, a blue cat named Happy. Together they travel and fight and then fight some more...

Fairy Tale: Part 6 (2011) is an anime show based on the original Hiro Mashima manga. The television show followed faithfully the original story and is an ongoing franchise running to over one hundred and eighty episodes as well as six OVAs. The show was directed by Shinji Ishihira.

For newcomers the premise of the show is pretty quick to pick up, as our heroic trio spend a lot less time with interpersonal relationship issues and more time just having fun getting into fights.

The anime is deliberately humorous, from the script to the on-screen gurning and over-the-top drawings, so popular in comedic animes. It’s difficult to see how the show could sustain much interest, however the main characters are engaging.

Like similar shows the stories are told in arcs of variable length, so even if you're bored with the current adventure there is always another just round the corner. In this way the show has been able to sustain its place in popular culture.

The animation is of middling quality; however the transfer is nice and bright with good solid colours. The show comes on two discs and covers the second part of the second season, containing episodes sixty-one to seventy-two. On the first disc, episode sixty-four has a full length commentary from the American dub team, they also provide the same for episode seventy on disc two, along with the textless opening and closing sequences and the US trailer.

Overall, it’s a nice pieces of fluff, enjoyable at the time, although I’m not sure I’d feel the same after one hundred and eighty episodes, unless the makers were able to put a bit more meat on the Fairy Tales bones.

6

Charles Packer