Fairy Tail Part 9   Starring (voice): Aya Hirano, Tetsuya Kakihara, Akira Ishida, Daisuke Kishio and Daisuke Namikawa Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £24.99 MANG3182 Certificate: PG Release Date: 23 February 2015

Lucy Heartfilia is determined to leave home and join the guild of wizards. In this much she succeeds, collecting various companions along the way. Together they travel the land righting wrongs and having adventures...

Fairy Tail: Part 9 (2011. eps 97 - 108), by this time the franchise and its characters have been well defined and so the show can call in other standard anime elements such as school relationships. The show continued to be directed by Shinji Ishihira.

This set is somewhat peculiar, I don’t know who decides how many episodes are released per set, but it seems to be determined by the number rather than where they fit in the show’s original run. So the first four episodes are actually the conclusion of the third season. Not that this creates a problem as the main story arc had pretty much been concluded and these episodes see the collected characters undergoing a magic exam, so some fighting, but heavy on the relationships and a concentration on Natsu.

Episode 101 is where the forth series begins, however as the new arc had begun in the previous season's four episodes we remain with the Sirius Island Arc which involved Fairy Tail’s S-Class examination being prematurely curtailed when they have to deal with Grimoire Heart who has come to the island seeking the dark wizard Zeref.

Pitting the guild against a new enemy guild gives the show a lot of leeway when adding in well choreographed fight scenes, but here they have also dropped in a mystery, in the form of a dark haired youth, who seems powerful, but is unable to control the power he wields. At this stage of the game we have no idea if he will be a force for good or ill.

Given that the show is presented over a two disc DVD set, the extras are pretty good. Anime releases do not make mega bucks, so depending on the show popularity this will determine how much cash is left to pay for extras. Of course, you’ll get the obligatory clean opening and closing sequences, in this case two of each, but you also get a video commentary for episode 99 and audio commentaries for 97 and 107. I really like the idea of the video commentaries, as, for the most part the dub artists are not that well know.

One of the most impressive elements of the show is the care taken over the visuals, the animation is detailed and good character design allows for distinctive looking players. Overall it a good package, with a strong story, good design and a superior English dub.

8

Charles Packer