#i have another mashima event this week

[gruviaweek]

Ten years.

The first ever Gruvia Week was held in 2013. It is now 2023. Meaning, this is the 11th edition/Gruvia Week... but 10 years have passed since the creation of this blog and beloved event that’s been held on the exact same dates since the beginning (April 1st - April 7th). That’s right, the event date has never changed, never held early, nor late. To keep it this consistent and for so long is truly an accomplishment.

Thank you to all the wonderful fans that have kept this event alive for so long. It has been my pleasure to host this celebration for the last 10 years, and it’s because of you that I do so. All the dedicated Gruvia lovers deserve this. The fandom has changed a lot as time went on. People come and go. However, most notably, we have grown in more ways than one. Likewise, Gray and Juvia have gone through a tremendous amount of development in the last decade. They have confirmed mutual romantic love and a son that we have yet to meet in earthland, but still very much canon in the manga and drawn by the author (Hiro Mashima) of his own accord on multiple occasions. Despite this, we are still waiting for the day they “officially” get together. The setup and foreshadowing is there... He wants it, so Gray, confess to Juvia soon!

In the meantime, we celebrate the ship once again. Here are the official Gruvia Week 2023 prompts displayed in the image above. Just like in previous years these prompts are not complicated, but they are broad and meant to make you think. Be creative. Interpret them however you see fit. If you don’t know what a word means, look it up. Specific and basic prompts would result in different versions/entries of the same thing. That’s why Gruvia Week is so successful every year; imagination. Prompts for this event are always different every year. No repeats! See: Previous Gruvia Week editions

Those who are new to the week, unfamiliar, or would like to simply rehash, please click here to learn how to participate. Also be sure to follow the rules and guidelines. Feel free to ask questions, however please check this blog’s previous posts before submitting them. It’s possible your question could have already been answered.

Reminder: All pieces must be new. Old works will not be reblogged/included in the week. Be sure to specify the day/prompt used in your post. If you don’t have a tumblr, you can still participate. Post your work on any social media platform for that target audience. Participate anywhere; the more the merrier! However, if you’d like your work to be posted/featured here as well, be sure to submit it to this blog. Or submit the link to it (if posted on another platform such as twitter, instagram, wattpad, ao3, etc).

Reminders:

Tag your work with #gruvia week (with the space) within the first five tags.

Avoid using links in your post, as there is a chance it will not show up in the tags. Try using only five tags and no links if your post does not appear. If you must use a link, make sure it shows in the tags.

If your work contains an image or gif, make sure it’s within tumblr’s photo dimensions and size limits. Sometimes big images cause posts to not appear in tags.

It is YOUR responsibility to make sure your post shows up in the mobile and/or pc tags, so be sure to check if it does.

Gruvia Week will be held from April 1st - April 7th as always. Get ready and get creative!

Graphic/art by the wonderful and talented @goodnightlover. Thank you! ♡

#gruvia #gruvia week #gray fullbuster #juvia lockser #fairy tail #gruvia week 2023 #fairy tail 100 years quest

[charlierejouis]

Edens Zero Week: Favorite Moment

Ladies and gentlemen... he did it.

He actually did it.

I expected Mashima to find a way out of the dark situation he wrote himself into with chapter 84. I could see Weisz going on without an arm for the rest of the series. I could see the team getting back Happy and Pino. I could imagine Shiki, Homura, and Rebecca finding a way to break free and help all their friends. But once Drakken Joe shot Shiki, I knew that something had to change.

But I could never imagine Cat Leaper’s awakening in chapter 84 being what it was. Of all the possibilites Mashima could have gone with to bring things back to normal, this wasn’t one I could have expected. And yet, the more I think about it, there wasn’t any decision he could have made that would have sense. In honor of Edens Zero Week, I’d like to talk about what makes the activation of Cat Leaper such an amazing moment, along with its future implications for the series.

Strap in, because this is gonna be a long one.

What happened when Cat Leaper awakened?

To start, let’s talk about the moment itself. To be clear, I am speaking of the proper awakening of Cat Leaper in chapter 84. Even as the ability is revealed in chapter 64, I’ll be refering to that moment as the unlocking of Leaper for the purposes of this post.

A big reason for this is that Drakken Joe makes a distinction between Rebecca’s ability to use Cat Leaper to move very fast and the actual power that he’s trying to steal. That power

If I have anything to criticise this moment for, it’s that it’s taking place in a shower. On the one hand, it’s the only place that Drakken Joe wouldn’t reasonably put cameras in, which is important to this moment happening at all. Still, I don’t like that this important moment is happening while Rebecca’s naked. It’s worse considering you have moments where we go from Rebecca think about Drakken Joe to her being in the shower, as opposed to a consistent view from that flashback perspective.

That being said, the awakening of Cat Leaper is dependent on not taking advice. Upon seeing Rebecca still brooding about what happened to her friends, he flat out says, “forget the past”. In his mind, there’s no point in dwelling on the past. After all, it’s not as if there’s anything she can do to change it. It’s irony like that which is why I love Mashima’s writing.

With the actual moment, it happens because she wishes that she could change the past. Specifically, she wishes that Shiki wasn’t dead. And that was the trigger for Cat Leaper’s awakening. She wanted to return herself to a place where Shiki could have been saved and was brought to one of the easiest places for that to happen: right before going to Belial Goer.

The crazy thing about this is that there was a subtle hint towards what’s about to happen within the chapter title. You’ll notice that the title of this chapter is “A World Without Shiki”. If you were to read this without knowing about this moment, it would mean that the world has to move on without Shiki. Knowing what happens, the title is describing what is at stake for the rest of the arc: a world without Shiki.

Speaking of which...

What did the awakening of Cat Leaper do for the Belial Goer arc?

In the most literal sense, all it did was reset the events of the arc by about 15 chapters, from the middle of chapter 69 to the last few pages of chapter 84. This resulted in much of the darker events of the arc to be negated near entirely.

Near, being the operative word. Yes, Weisz doesn’t lose his arm to Fie. Yes, Shiki doesn’t die. And yes, the crew is prevented from being held as prisoners by Drakken Joe. However, that doesn’t mean that events are the same as before.

Notice that the amount of time Rebecca has been out has changed. In chapter 69, Sister Irvy says that Rebecca was out for about a full hour. In chapter 85, she says it’s only been half an hour. With the thirty minutes saved, she’s able to prevent the EZ Crew from going to Belial Goer and setting off the events that set up the future Rebecca came from.

Not to mention, the EZ Crew doesn’t find Labilla in the same state she was. In fact, they didn’t find Labilla to begin with. In this universe, Amira infiltrated Belial Goer, pretended to be Labilla, and hid the real one in a dance hall. Rather than finding Labilla as the victim of Daichi’s sadistic tendencies, she was accidentally spotted by Homura.

In one sense, this power can be seen as Mashima finding yet another way to keep his characters from dying. As someone who has made that complaint multiple times about his writing, I understand where that comes from. This is something that has shown up in both of Mashima’s other major works.

However, we were well prepared for this aspect of Cat Leaper’s abilities by Rebecca’s fight with Nino in the previous arc. I questioned why this wasn’t a bigger aspect of Rebecca’s reaction to activating it originally. This doesn’t strike me as Mashima breaking the rules of reason to keep a character in the narrative. This feels like a deliberate choice on Mashima’s part.

When Rebecca unlocked Leaper in chapter 64, Xiaomei hints at her understanding of the Ether Gear being limited. She outright says, “This power may save the universe one day... Yes... it is the power of possibility.” That doesn’t sound like something you’d expect to be said about a simple speed boosting power. And we already knew that Leaper was more than just a speed boosting power.

Even before then, we were introduced to Xiaomei in chapter 5, who made an important declaration. “In this story, time doesn’t really mean much.” By the end of that arc, this could have been assumed to mean that, with the existence of chronophages, time can be more relative from planet to planet. When we learned that time could be reversed with Leaper, characters were less bound to time than they would have been otherwise.

Not to mention, Rebecca doesn’t make it through the jump unscathed. While she didn’t experience and physical torture, she had to live through the events of the future. She has the mental scars of the event and has been shown to be apprehensive about doing things that could cause harm to Shiki or Weisz.

In erasing the previous events of the arc, there was another important thing that happened. The nature of the arc changed. That’s not me being hyperbolic.

Up to chapter 82, the main goal for the arc was to fight Drakken Joe. The expectation of the arc would be to fight the various members of the EZ Crew to fight Drakken Joe’s goons, including the Element 4. Ultimately, this would culminate in a final battle between Shiki and Drakken Joe. That’s not a bad set up for an arc.

But, after the awakening of Cat Leaper, the arc still has the EZ Crew fight with Drakken Joe’s people, and Shiki still fights the Element 4. However, the change in events results in a shift of the arc’s focus. The motivation for these actions became trying to reach out to people who may become friends by the end of the arc in Kris and Labilla. Not to mention, there are reconciliations with Sibir and Amira, opposing forces from previous arcs, that were made possible by the change in events.

What does Cat Leaper’s awakening mean for the rest of the series?

I can’t say that Xiaomei’s assertion that time doesn’t reallly mean much should be taken as literal as it may seem. After all, the reason that the revised plan works at all is becasue she woke up at a different time than before. The extra thirty minutes was the difference between life and death.

However, knowing how Cat Leaper works really does change how we see the rest of the series. Our understanding of the series has shifted from a normal set of events happening on a linear timeline to a set of various timelines beginning and ending at various points where Rebecca come to and from.

Knowing that Rebecca has been using Cat Leaper to avoid other events has put a lot of moments into perspective. Of course, it explains the flash forward at the end of chapter 4 and the nightmare that Rebecca had in chapter 69.

However, it does leave fans with an interesting question: is it possible that Cat Leaper is responsible for the change in other events throughout the series? Does Rebecca die because of the kidnapping to Guilst by Illega in another timeline? Does her initial meeting with Shiki have a different result in a different timeline and is that meeting the result of Cat Leaper in the first place? Is the fact that Rebecca and Labilla aren’t friends anymore the result of Cat Leaper? These are questioned opened up to fans with the awakening of Cat Leaper.

As for how the awakening of Cat Leaper specifically affects Rebecca’s character from this moment on, that will stand to be determined. Her ability to become an Ether Master was mentioned in that previous timeline. However, I’m more interested in the after effects of the mental trauma she’s experienced through the jump in timelines. How that plays out will be interesting to see take place.

For example, if (not necessarily when) Mashima decides to push Shiki and Rebecca’s relationship towards a romance, we’re going to look back at what happened in this arc. This may be the start of Rebecca realizing that she wants Shiki to be more than just her friend. Presumably, Shiki would have something awaken similar feelings in him.

I’m not currently hyped over any EZ ship, but I love what we’ve been getting regarding Shiki and Rebecca’s relationship. The first chapters gave us a great look into their complimentary views on robots as people and friends. And as the chapters have continued, it’s been interesting to see their relationship change and grow. Recent chapters have even been showing links to their Ether Gear abilities. This moment serves as a great reminder of that.

Of course, this also could cut in a darker way. If Shiki ends up in a situation where his life is on the line, how will Rebecca respond? Even facing Drakken Joe before he fought Shiki was enough to trigger traumatic memories for her. Of course, Cat Leaper may come in to prevent his death from sticking. But at what point does Rebecca break from the stress of seeing her friends die again and again?

It’s worth noting that Mashima has been known to use both to his advantage in writing characters and character relationships. While an overall lighthearted series, Edens Zero has had its fair share of dark moments, starting from the very first chapter. It will be interesting to see what direction Mashima takes this in.

Where should Mashima go from here?

One thing I worry that current and future fans, along with Mashima’s detractors, may complain about is that a power such as Cat Leaper may result in the series tension becoming nonexistent. Of course, that’s contingent on Rebecca being able to control that part of Cat Leaper and that’s not entirely a given, considering we already know it causes a number of problems. But if that happens, that would theoretically mean that Mashima could kill characters and bring them back as he pleases. There’s no way Mashima could prevent this.

Right?

Let’s ignore the obvious issues with this accusation that we’ve already touched on somewhat. I doubt that people who’d make these accusations actually care if events differ from time lines, Rebecca carries mental scars from the events through the timelines, or that this was set up long before we got to chapter 84. They’d likely only care that a character who was dead is brought back.

Before chapter 99, I would have said that there was one important thing that Mashima can do in the future to prevent this accusation. If and when Rebecca activates Cat Leaper to undo previous events again, this ought to come the cost of something else. Yes, the group is able to prevent a character from dying in a new timeline, but it comes at the cost of something or someone else precious to the group. In some cases, a tragic incident can happen across both times despite trying to change events. 

Of course, this isn’t without precedent. In chapter 2, we learned that Happy died after a car accident and Professor Weisz is responsible for his current cyborg form. It was revealed that the first time Cat Leaper was ever used, it was used passively to correct her dying in that same accident. In other words, while Cat Leaper prevented her from dying, it wasn’t used to correct the incident altogether. In my eyes, that was proof enough that Cat Leaper isn’t a magic “get out of death free” card.

However, I still would have said Mashima would do well to not make that the only instance where escaping death comes at the price of something else. While I’ve thought losing Weisz’s arm might be the next step, as long as something important is lost that isn’t undone, the effect is the same.

What a difference a couple of weeks makes...

With the most recent chapters, it seems as though the current timeline has come at the cost of Captain Connor as part of the EZ Crew. While his impact on the series was relatively minor up to this point, it’s hard to say that his current position won’t have an effect on the series. When he first showed up, the existence of other Edens ships was debated. Chances are that the EZ Crew will have to meet with the Edens One sometime soon. It stands to be seen if that will be a happy meeting or not.

Now, if Mashima really wants to really mess with us, we’ll see Rebecca use Cat Leaper a few more times throughout the series. We’ll see some of the similar effects here and there. However, at the end of the series, we’ll see a lot of the major antagonists serve as the final bosses for the EZ Crew. As crazy as that might seem at this point in the series, if certain spoilers are anything to go by, I wouldn’t be shocked to see something like that happen.

In Conclusion:

Cat Leaper is an amazing moment in its own right. But, while its main focus was overwriting events of the series, it also managed to change the nature of both the arc and our understanding of the series. It will be fun to see what this means for the rest of the series and how Mashima plays with it.

If you didn’t know, I talk about new chapters on this blog every Wednesday. If you’re reading this after June 30th, I might have the reaction for chapter 100 up now. I’ve also talked about the decision to go find Mother in chapter 3 for last year’s EZ Week.

See you!

#edens zero #edens zero week #edens zero 84 #cat leaper #rebecca bluegarden #this was a fun post #it took forever to make #i have another mashima event this week #why do i do this to myself #edens zero spoilers

[sofya-fanfics]

Dance With Me

I'm sorry for the mistakes, English is not my mother tongue. I hope you like it.

Summary :  ‘You can't dance either ?’ Natsu asked. 

‘Juvia hasn't been to many parties. And when she did, she didn't dance, she was afraid of being ridiculous. But this time, she hopes to dance with Gray-sama.’

Juvia's eyes lit up as she imagined herself spending the evening dancing in Gray's arms. Natsu wanted to laugh. He should have known that she wanted to learn to dance for Gray. Suddenly, an idea crossed Natsu's mind and he grinned from ear to ear.

‘How about we practice dancing together ?’

Disclaimer : Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

AO3 / FF.NET

Natsu was in the forest where he knew no one could find him. Even Happy did not know where he was. He was too ashamed to tell anyone what he was going to do.

In a week, Magnolia city hall will organize a party and the Guild of Fairy Tail will be the guest of honor. And as expected, in this kind of event there is always dancing. Even if he would never admit it to anyone, Natsu was tired of everyone making fun of him because he can not dance. So he decided to train in secret.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and concentrated. He got into position and even if there was no music, he imagined one. He took one step, then another, trying to dance, but it was hard to tell if he was doing the moves correctly without anyone to correct him. He could have asked Lucy to help him, but he was afraid she would laugh at him. He stopped moving when he heard someone arriving behind him. He never thought somebody would found him here. He turned around and found himself face to face with Juvia. She looked at him in astonishment.

‘What... what are you doing here ?’ Natsu stammered.

‘There is a river not far from here where Juvia likes to train,’ she answered.

She looked at him curiously and asked :

‘Was Natsu-san dancing ?’

Natsu looked away, embarrassed.

‘Are you training for the party ?’

He sighed and nodded. She had found him out, so there was no point in hiding anymore. Julia smiled. She was going to make fun of him, Natsu thought.

‘Juvia does the same,’ she said. ‘She asked Mirajane to teach her some steps and since then she has been training every night.’

Natsu opened his eyes wide. So he was not the only one worried about the party. This reassured him a little.

‘You can't dance either ?’ He asked.

‘Juvia hasn't been to many parties. And when she did, she didn't dance, she was afraid of being ridiculous. But this time, she hopes to dance with Gray-sama.’

Juvia's eyes lit up as she imagined herself spending the evening dancing in Gray's arms. Natsu wanted to laugh. He should have known that she wanted to learn to dance for Gray. Did she know he hated dancing even more than he did ? Suddenly, an idea crossed Natsu's mind and he grinned from ear to ear.

‘How about we practice dancing together ?’

Juvia opened her eyes wide. She did not expect such a request from the dragon slayer. She frowned, thinking about what he had said.

‘Juvia doesn't know. She hoped to dance only with Gray-sama.’

‘And you think you can do it if you train with no one.’

She grimaced slightly and did not answer, still undecided.

‘You and I are in the same situation,’ Natsu said. ‘So we can help each other.’

He held out his hand, hoping she would say yes. Juvia looked at his hand and took it. They shook hands, sealing their agreement.

‘Let's improve together,’ Natsu said.

Juvia nodded and could not help laughing at his enthusiasm.

‘Let's start now !’ She said with the same enthusiasm.

Natsu agreed. He was finally going to be able to improve thanks to Juvia. On top of that, with the steps Mirajane had taught her, it was going to be easier.

They trained all the evening and part of the night. They were exhausted, but happy to see the little progress they were beginning to make. They decided to meet again each evening until the party.

Natsu thought the week had gone by extremely quickly. Thanks to Juvia, he felt like he had improved. He had not become an expert, but he was able to get by. For the party, he had chosen to wear a tuxedo. Even Happy wanted to make a good impression and wore a nice jacket and bow tie. He confessed to Natsu that he hoped Carla would like him by being well dressed.

The great hall of the city hall was decorated for the party and everyone was having fun. Natsu danced with Lucy, who congratulated him on his progress. He danced with Lisanna and he had even begun a dance battle with Gajeel. From time to time, he looked at Juvia. She looked like she was having a good time too. It seemed that she did not to want to stop dancing. Natsu smiled every time he looked at her. He lost his smile when he saw her dancing with Gray. He should be happy for her. After all, that was what she wanted. But when he saw her dancing with Gray, Natsu felt a pang in his heart. And yet, it did not matter to him when she had danced with Gajeel. So why did seeing her dancing with Gray bother him ?

His hands clenched and he left the room. He did not want to see them together. He arrived on the balcony. The air was nice and he could see the stars studding the sky. After a few minutes, he heard someone arriving. He took a deep breath, smelling the scent that filled the air. It was Juvia's. He looked at her.

‘Natsu-san ! Juvia wondered where you had been.’

She walked over to Natsu.

‘Are you having a good evening ?’ He asked.

A huge smile lit up Juvia's face and she nodded.

‘Juvia is having a lot of fun. But there is someone she would like to dance with.’

Natsu frowned, not understanding.

‘But, I saw you dancing with Gray.’

Juvia blushed and looked away.

‘She did, but Juvia would have liked to dance with Natsu-san.’

He opened his eyes wide.

‘Juvia was happy to dance with Gray-sama, but she realized that she preferred dancing with Natsu-san.’

The dragon slayer grinned from ear to ear.

‘I'd rather dance with you too,’ he said.

There was the sound of a new music. It was the last dance. Natsu held out his hand to Juvia.

‘Could I have the last dance ?’

Juvia smiled and nodded. She took his hand and they both danced slowly to the rhythm of the music. They realized they did not want to dance with anyone else.

The end

#fairy tail #navia #natsu X juvia #natsu dragneel #Juvia Lockser #navia fanfiction #fairy tail fanfiction #fanfiction #My writing

[lucy-and-rebecca]

Edens Zero theory: Rebecca's powers.

So Furena's dead, Creed's dead and I'm not buying it.

Witch is on the verge of death, I sensed death flags with Couchpo and Weisz and so many people have died off-screen. This arc has been so violent and traumatic. A little too much if you ask me. Which is why it's going to get undone.

It's following the same pattern as Belia Gore arc. Rebecca falls unconscious, sees a bad future with older Shiki, wakes up, things seem better for a while until it gets really bad. So the logical next step is going back in time.

It would be really frustrating to have past ten and however chapters in the future just get undone. At the same time this is a really good opportunity to explore Rebecca's powers. Maybe she can rewind the time of specific person/place/event instead of the entire universe and starting a new timeline.

Another think I want to add is this line Rebecca said

In that arc Rebecca was the first one to notice Andrew and Nadia were lovers and that he was dead. Throughout that arc we kept seeing her reaction. And at the end she wishes for a time rewind so that thise two lovers would be able to reunite. So that Nadia can see Andrew again. Not to mention she herself rewinded time by one week, far more than she has ever before, because she wanted to see Shiki again.

I know some people have felt Mashima was really pushing Homura and Creed as a couple. There was also the completely unnecessary romance between Furena and what's his name. Honestly the only reason I remember her name is because she just died. It's safe to assume most people would not be invested and hence would not care about these two couples. But I'm pretty sure Rebecca would.

Oh and right now she is just so happened to be headed towards Laguna and Ijuna, neither of which is completely safe.

Lastly chronophage turn back time of a specific planet. So what if that line was foreshadowing? What if she could turn back time of specific person/place/event? And she would do it for the first time to reunite lovers and realise she has that ability?

I don't know how probably this actually is. Let's see what happens.

#edens zero #edens zero manga #edens zero spoilers #rebecca bluegarden #shicca #shiki granbell #homura kougetsu #weisz steiner #homureed

[stellacolletore]

i. kanade finds chihaya alone in the club room

Finding Chihaya sprawled on the tatami mat is a sight Kanade did not know she missed until she sees it again. It is late in the afternoon and the club meeting is cancelled as the members need to pore over their studies for exam week. She herself is about to go home, but her footsteps had drawn her here before she could even think of a reason why.

She enters the room and settles on the space beside Chihaya.

“What brings you here, Chihaya-chan?”

Chihaya’s eyes spring open in surprise. She must have been in deep thought, Kanade notes. Her friend’s outstanding hearing allows her to quickly sense them whenever they’re around that Kanade’s long used to being on the receiving end of her greetings.

Chihaya sits up, turning towards her. “Kana-chan…” she pauses for a second. “I needed somewhere to think, that’s all.”

It’s understandable. In between the whirlwind of last weekend’s Meijin and Queen matches and the upcoming university entrance exams, there are merely a few moments for Chihaya to take in everything that has been happening. Indeed, this quiet hour in the club room is the perfect time and place for mulling over pensive thoughts. Still, something is telling her she shouldn’t leave Chihaya alone just yet.

Kanade lies down on the tatami mat. “This is nice,” she announces to the startled girl beside her. With a hint of wistfulness, she admits, “I should have done this more often.”

“But it’s really an unladylike thing to do and you’re a graceful girl, Kana-chan, so there’s nothing to feel sorry about!” Chihaya supplies immediately, her sincerity bringing a fond smile to Kanade. Laying back on the floor again, Chihaya mutters, “You know, I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to ever become a graceful girl. Or even understand how it is to be like one.”

The concerning tone of her voice prompts Kanade to ask. “What have you been thinking about earlier, Chihaya-chan?”

Kanade could feel Chihaya stiffen slightly beside her. A few seconds pass before she hears a muted reply. “I was thinking about what should I have said to Taichi when…when he told me he loved me before.”

Eh?! So he did tell her?! That explains a lot of things but—when did that happen? How? It took all her self-control for Kanade to conceal the dizzying questions in her mind. Feigning a calm demeanor, she asks instead, “I see. Do you perhaps regret what you said to him back then?”

“I don’t know,” Chihaya answers, seemingly frustrated at herself. “I just know it was wrong because it hurt him enough to leave karuta, to leave the club, to leave…me.”

“Oh, Chihaya-chan.” Kanade loves Chihaya for all that she is; however, she can’t deny not hoping to have a conversation like this with her dear friend, one who has long been entangled in matters of love whether or not she’s ready to welcome it. Nevertheless, it is worrying to witness her perpetually cheerful friend in distraught. It’s clear that Chihaya had been deeply affected with President Mashima’s previous departure, but she evidently had no clue about the extent that feeling went. Attempting to provide some level of comfort, Kanade says, “But he’s come back now. Everything’s fine.” She looks over Chihaya, only to find a weary expression on her face. It’s not, it seems to say.

A new understanding dawns on Kanade. If she understands this correctly, then…

“You are worrying about what happens after you two graduate, aren’t you?” Chihaya’s open expression tells her she’s right. Kanade pushes on, “Chihaya-chan, even though you and President Mashima are going to different universities, it’s still possible to meet with each other. You can ask him to eat with you or to play karuta at the Shiranami society when there’s time. Unless…” It’s now or never, Kanade thinks as she finds her voice again, “…that wouldn’t be enough for you?”

Kanade fixes her gaze at Chihaya, determined not to miss her reaction. Chihaya’s eyes are open wide, and Kanade’s sure that the intention behind her question got through to her. Then, most unexpectedly, she covers her face with her hands as starts to snivel. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Not when he says his feelings for me have faded away.”

So she’s heard us before?  Pushing aside the thought, she focused on consoling her friend. “Look at me, Chihaya-chan,” Kanade waits for her to heed her request before continuing. “You trust me to know things about poetry and love, and so I want you to believe me when I tell you this: President Mashima is lying. I could tell that he still loves you. So tell him what you wish to let him know, Chihaya-chan.” Kanade gives her an encouraging smile, her own heart soaring in happiness for her friends.

Chihaya takes a steadying breath, appearing soothed, but then she’s overcome with another worry. “I can’t.”

“It’s not that hard, Chihaya-chan. You just have to tell him you want him to stay with you and—” Kanade’s advice is cut off at the sight of Chihaya shaking her head. “No. I can’t tell him anything.”

It’s Kanade’s turn to be baffled. “What do you mean—?”

Chihaya’s face crumples as she suddenly wails, “I can’t tell him anything because I can’t find him anywhere! I’ve been searching for him this whole week and he’s nowhere—not in the library, or his cram school entrance, and I can’t bother him during class…” She collapses on the tatami mat once again, “At this rate, I won’t ever see him ‘til graduation! And only to tell goodbye!”

Before she could stop herself, Kanade bursts into laughter. Chihaya looks at her, petulant. “Kana-chan!”

Wiping at the moist in her eyes, Kanade explains, “Sorry, Chihaya-chan. You’re right, Prez isn’t around right now—but only because he’s on ‘house arrest’ for the week, as Nishida-kun calls it.”

“Huh?”

“Prez has his entrance exam this weekend, and since he took the time to watch someone play last Saturday,” Kanade gives her a playful wink, “his mother had him locked him up in his room to catch up on his studies. According to Tstutomu-kun, even his phone was confiscated.”

Chihaya was awestruck for a whole five seconds before being the one to dissolve in laughter this time around. “Mrs. Pressure must’ve been terrifying.” Chihaya proceeds to stand up and stretch her arms as if she’s detaching herself from the things that worried her. Beaming at Kanade, she declares, “Well, if Taichi’s doing that much and he’s already smart, I may have to start seriously studying for my exams. All right, let’s go home!”

Before leaving their separate ways as they head for their respective train stations, Chihaya asks Kanade for a favor. “Kana-chan, if you’re free this Saturday…can you and Sumire-chan help me make chocolates again?” Kanade’s sure about the reason behind the request, but decides to indulge in the happiness of hearing Chihaya say it. “Of course, Chihaya-chan. Do you want to host another Valentine’s Day picnic at the club?”

Chihaya stammers out, blushing all the while. “T-that’s a nice idea, Kana-chan! But I actually wanted to make some for Taichi—as a congratulations present. For taking the exam. And, um,”—Kanade’s internally squealing at how adorable Chihaya tries to convey herself—“I needed a reason to tell him what you told me to tell him.” Kanade holds Chihaya’s hands, “Everything’s going to be alright, Chihaya-chan.”

In the train on the way home, Kanade recalls the turn of events at the club room. Looking up at the full moon behind the train windows, she thinks of two poems that resonates with them:

Even for a time/Short as a piece of the reeds/In Naniwa’s marsh

We must never meet again:/Is this what you are asking me?

Though I would hide it/In my face it still appears—/My fond, secret love.

And now he questions me:/“Is something bothering you?”

#chihayafuru #taichihaya #ayase chihaya #mashima taichi #taichihaya-day #come talk taichihaya with me!

[nalufever]

do you have any more nalu fic recs?

Sorry, not sorry - you’ve unleashed more than you could’ve guessed. ^^ Always happy to Recommend a List of Fics ~ And thank you for asking! Admittedly there’s a few Recs that aren’t Nalu - I got excited to share my favs. ;)

A Girl Worth Fighting For: Natsu navigates unspeakable horrors to win Lucy’s love or Natsu goes shopping, looking for the perfect white day gift. 

A Lesson: Natsu and Lucy can’t keep themselves from expressing their passions - and the results are bed breaking. Short but smutty - smexy in fact. ;P 

A Solidly Constructed Kiss: Erza strong-arms Lucy and Natsu into working the Kissing Booth to raise funds for a school trip. Lucy’s never been kissed and Natsu acts like he’s never entertained even the idea of kissing another person. Things naturally come to a head when Lucy and Natsu are given the task to build the actual booth; will they fight over construction or build themselves some kind of relationship? 

Fairy Tail Week: A collection of drabbles from tumblr prompts to celebrate Fairy Tail. Fairy, Ladies, Lads, Magic, Guild, Ultimate Team, Stronger, Mashima, Tail. Only rated teen to err on the side of caution, family friendly content featuring most of the Fairy Tail Guild! 

Feathers and Scales: Angel/Demon AU. Devils are more than they seem and Angels no less. Pitted against each other in a never-ending battle for souls, a single Angel and Devil trade mercies and fall in love. Warning: major character death(s). 

Full Moon Secret: Natsu had wanted to tell Lucy his secrets, to share his family history with the fey…it had just never been the right time. Tonight the truth was going to be revealed, one way or another. 

Okay, I could just keep hyping all of my own fics individually - but I won’t - other than to just put in a link to ALL OF THEM. ;) Fair warning, I have a few other fandoms works in all the Fairy Tail stories - from Brooklyn 99 to The Flash, Snow White with the Red Hair, RWBY, Blue Exorcist, Teen Titans and some Hakuouki. Yes, I’m a shameless self-promoter. Speaking of that - one more I need to rec!  Natsu’s Stars in Lucy’s Sky. I swear Imma finish this. 

I also have more than a few favourite authors who write for Fairy Tail (and other fandoms) ~ some have not contributed lately to Fairy Tail or chosen to concentrate on other fandoms - but I like them and their excellent writing. 

ObsessedwithNalu: One of my first fandom friends and pretty much any of her FT stories is gold. @obsessedwithnalu  

Christmas Treats: Admittedly a gift to me and very cherished for that fact - and - it’s frigging awesome. Lucy does a little holiday baking at home before Fairy Tail’s Christmas party. Natsu, as always, is there. One thing leads to another… 

Thanks, Krov: When Krov decided to relax at his favorite bar after work, he never imagined that he’d be seeing some of his old guild members, especially since he thought they had died long ago. Nalu fluff. 

Edo-Nalu love fest: Submissions for the Nalu love fest week of 2014. But instead of regular Nalu, these ones feature Edo-Nalu. Smut-tastic and delightfully mature. 

ImpracticalDemon: Another early fandom friend who’s still writing this, that and the other thing - and she’s just GREAT. Again, a link to all her works and a few that are special to me follow. XOXOX @impracticaldemon  

May the Best Man Survive: “Gray would never have in a million years thought he’d host Natsu’s bachelor party (Nalu pairing). Why is it his job to herd the bunch of rowdy mages from bar to bar, ending up at the guild where the real surprise party is? Oh yeah, the idiot had asked him to be the best man at his wedding. Hijinks, chaos and hilarity ensue.” ^^ A prompt supplied by me and I’m smirking so wide because the fic Imp came up with delivered more awesomeness than I could have hoped for! 

A Star At His Side: “Accidentally Fall Asleep Together” for Endragoneel on tumblr. Natsu and Lucy spend the day together at a festival in Magnolia. Natsu ends up watching more than just the stars when the festival is over… 

Christmas Gifts: When Erza walks Wendy home from the Guild’s Christmas Party, Wendy realizes how alone her friend and mentor is feeling. She sets out to recruit Lucy, Natsu and the rest to break Jellal out of prison for just one night, as a Christmas gift for Erza. Meanwhile, Natsu has accidentally burned some of Lucy’s writing. Will she forgive him? 

Dark Shining Light: One of the best and most welcoming writers I have ever interacted with! I’m still gobsmacked she’s a friend! She’s a legend and I don’t know what else I could add to any discourse about her writing - but the classics are classic for a reason, yeah? Here’s a few of my personal favourites of her works and just know there’s too many to list them all! AKA @ff-darkshininglight 

Mischievous Cat: Let’s just say there have been a few incidents where Happy has come in at a bad time. 

What Belongs to a Demon: Everyone knew she belonged to the great demon lord and she would prove that she deserved to stand by his side. 

The Truth Revealing Cards: Lucy should have known if there was a card that would reveal her secrets, Natsu would want it. 

Eliz1369: Got introduced to her for her Hakuoki fics but she’d dipped her toes into FT as well ~ and this is a great fic. ^^ @eliz1369 

The Light of Fairy Tail: The members of Fairy Tail may be their own brand of crazy, but their hearts are always in the right place. 

rougescribe: Shame on me for not reading more of this author’s works! @rougescribe  

Fire Sprite No 5: For him, Heaven wasn’t a place or a single moment in time. It was a feeling built on memories upon memories, past and present and a hope for future ones all tied down together. All sharing one common denominator: Her. Nalu. Tumblr Valentine’s Event. 

Fallen Ark Angel: Admittedly I only have interacted from afar with this writer. I mainly read Nalu fics but I love her take on Mira and Laxus and her next gen offspring characters. She’s got a lot to offer and it’s all superb. @fallen029

Loving Satan: Loving Satan is never easy. But when she loves you back, its twice as bad. 

Madartiste: Another one-sided love affair with someone else’s writing. And her stories are all wonderful and prolly appear on hundreds of Fic Rec Lists - but here’s one of my Favs! @madartiste  

Hoarding: Getting interrupted gets old fast. 

UranoMetria: I added her to my stable of fav authors 05-03-2014. Wow. Eons ago and even if I’m not sure she’s still active in the fandom, I salute her. Kudos. 

The Goddess Gate: With six years of partnership, Natsu and Lucy are torn apart by a mysterious visit from a secret magic council. Lucy is kidnapped and her memories suppressed. She fights her way back home to regain her life - with a startling secret revealed as she begins to remember. The lives of all Earthland hang in the balance. **Okay, this is a wicked old fic - but amazingly written and fuelled my own desires for writing. Last updated in 2018 but who knows? Some current attention may slay any demons on her back in regards to writing - and even if not - the hours of enjoyment reading this is worth giving a comment just to say, ‘thank you for writing.‘ 

Wild Rhov: Do I even need to say anything about this author? Famous, famous, famous. Excellent. Writes a lot of pairings and fleshes every relationship into something REAL. I Can’t Even. @wildrhov  

Beastly Possession: Something is murdering people in Magnolia. When Lucy is attacked, Natsu goes on a rampage to find the culprit, and everyone in Fairy Tail wants revenge. But could this bloodthirsty attacker be someone they know? Warning: High octane nightmare fuel! Do not read while eating, and beware of red eyes in the dark! 

Shell1331: Introduced via Imp. This writer is in a few fandoms and is worth reading. @shell-senji  

Juicy: Impulsivity and poorly chosen words get Natsu into more trouble than he’d expected, which is saying something for him. 

AbsentAngel: Everyone should know this writer. Been stalking her since 2014 so that says something. Tho, it’s prolly just that I’m creepy. ;) My suggested fic here is being re-written/has been? into something original and worth being purchased when it becomes available and re-read over and over. No, I am not being paid to shill but I am open to having senpai notice me. @absent-angel  

To the Flame: She stares, transfixed, as the blood runs down his fingers and begins to pool in his palm. He holds his hand up to her lips in offering, and she tears her eyes away from the blood to study his face. He is smiling softly. “Go on Luce, I didn’t cut them for nothing.” [Vamp AU] 

HawkofNavarre: Loved for awesome and delightful Gruvia content. Looks like there’s a tumblr but I can’t manage to link it. :(

You Stole the Rain: He just wanted to be friends; fine, she just needed to change his mind. Gray x Juvia 

Ricardian Scholar Clark-Weasley: Not sure I spelled that right even after checking three times! I usually short hand that to RS-CW in my head. And she’s prolific - has a tonne of fandoms and is a tower of talent. Is anyone reading all my fangirl gushing? 'Cause she follows one of my fics and comments (sorry I haven’t updated that fic in a while) and it’s a source of happiness that someone who writes so well happens to enjoy some of my content. Okay, bragging over - back to the Recs! 

Tales of Fairies: A collection of oneshots exploring different friendships, ideas, sad themes, comical scenarios, and lots and lots of pairings…but mainly Nalu. 

snogfairy: Another giant in the FT fandom. Impressive talent. @lineffability  

naughty nalus: smutty nalu oneshots B) ***Mature content!*** 

Rivendell101: Another giant in FT and other fandoms. This author would be considered required reading if I ran a fandom course in a University setting. Just sayin’ @rivendell101  

Crave: /krāv/ Verb. To feel a powerful desire for (something). They crave each other. And satiation doesn’t come easily. He growls against her again. “Beg for it,” he demands, lips ghosting against her. 

Lakerae aka @hidetheremote : Did you think I’d forgotten you? Ha! Gotcha good! You’re an inspiration to me because you’re working so hard to publish your children’s books. Kudos to you li'l sis! You’re busy but still make it a point to talk to me and I love you for that and everything.

The Gift of the Magi: A Gajevy Twist: A retelling of the classic Christmas story “The Gift of the Magi,” with your favorite Fairy Tail couple Gajeel and Levy! It’s Christmas time and Gajeel and Levy exchange gifts. They both are surprised what they receive and learn a lesson of the true meaning of Christmas. 

I could add more and more as I search my saved favs on FF.net ~ and I’m sorry to not include all of them - but this is crazy long as it is. If you read and like any of the recommended fics, please be sure to let the author know. To the authors of these and all fanfics, Thanks for everything.

#fic list #rec fic list #fan fics galore #mainly Nalu rec'd fics #sorry not sorry #asks #answered #more than poor anon bargained for

[juvian]

A turn of events - Chapter 3

Header cr.

Summary : Korimi Lockser always been one of the best students, but one day when her crush decide to come visit his friends more often, including her sister. She decide do to the dumbest thing she's done in her life... fake being stupid to get is attention.

Disclaimer :  Fairy tail belong to Hiro Mashima !

Characters : Korimi Lockser (Oc), Gray Fullbuster Lyon Vastia, Juvia Lockser.

Shipping(s) : Oc X Lyon Vastia, Gruvia, Gale (Mention)

Genre : High school au, modern au, romance and humour.

Words : 1334

Chapters : Masterlist // Chapter 2 // Chapter 4

Chapter 3 

My week-end was smooth, I spent the day watching movies with my sister,  while our parents worked and texted Rogue like usual. We talked a lot about the fact that Gajeel was in town, apparently the only reason why Levy asked Gajeel to visit his family is because they would move back to Magnolia again. They were not living far away from us, but still a little far for the little time they had to see everybody. They even came see me and Juvia, before going home. Juvia would probably have killed him if he didn’t.

Now we were Monday and I just came back from school. Sting was whining that he would have to endure Gajeel again and also whining about school. I also got to hit him like I was supposed to Friday and Minerva joined me for no reason, it was fun. I came home alone today too, I had a good feeling about tonight so I wouldn’t want to risk anything by bringing the boys with me. I was going to shout to my sister that I was home, when I saw a familiar figure standing in the living room. Happy to see him. I just started running and jumped on his back without any warning.

“What the f…!” He exclaimed, almost falling,  but was able to steady himself and caught me. “You are crazy! I could have fallen!” 

“I knew you would catch me in time, I believed in you.” I laughed, getting off his back. 

“You’re still crazy.” He laughed , turned around and gave me a hug.

“It runs in the family.”

Gray laughed loudly hugging me and I hugged him back. I love my sister’s boyfriend so much, Juvia and Gray weren’t even dating, that he was treating me like his own sister. He also jokingly said one time, that as long as having a crazy sister, he would prefer me over Ultear anytime. I am not sure if I would be better than Ultear, I’ll probably be worse honestly.

“So how are you kid?” Gray asked.

“Kid? I’m only a year younger than you!”

“You are 17 years old, so still a kid.”

“I’m good and you?” I respond after glaring at him.

“Good”

“I’ve missed you, where were you hiding?” I said sitting on the couch.

“Under a pile of books, being a medical student is pretty hard.” He responded and joined me.

“Yeah must be.” I said looking at him. “If you are here, where is Juvia?”

“Ah she is with my stupid brother outside.” He said rolling his eyes. “Apparently there’s a bird in your courtyard that Juvia never seen and she asked Lyon if he knew what species it was.”

Oh great Lyon is here! My intuition was good, I wonder if it’s for our little class. 

“Oh cool.”

“Yeah, did you know that this bastard decided that He’ll come here at least once a week?” 

“Umm, yeah he told us school is driving him crazy he needs to see his friends a little.”

“And you believe that? I think he just wanted to see Juvia.”

“You’re jealous?” I said with a smirk.

“I just don’t trust him.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll check him, but he is not like that he would never do that.”

And he probably wants to come that much for me anyway, but I’ll never tell Gray this, he would kill me. And Lyon. He would never let his brother teach me anything and Gray is really well aware of my perfect grade, my plan would automatically fail. Gray and I continued talking a little bit until we heard a voice from behind the house, probably Juvia and Lyon coming back. We got up from the couch and when my sister saw me, I went to hug her. 

“Hey Ju!”

“Kori-Chan!” She said smiling at me. “Juvia is happy to see you, look Lyon came again!”

I blushed, smiling at Lyon saying hi. I am so fucking weak! I can’t even look at him! 

“Yeah, my class is cancelled tomorrow morning so I thought I could come and give you your first lesson.”

Even though Lyon was smiling, I was petrified in front of Gray and Juvia’s confused face? How can I explain this without explaining this?!

“Why do you look all weird? Are you okay with this Korimi?”

“Umm yes! Of course! I was just surprised I did think it would happen now!”

“What in hell are you talking about?” Gray started and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to kill him before he said anything else. I love him too much for this to happen and my sister will never pardon me. “What lesson? Like this kid needs…”

Before Gray could add anything else, Juvia covered his mouth with her hand. I love you Ju! It was Lyon's turn to be confused, even more when he saw Juvia glaring at her boyfriend. I didn’t tell her about my little math lesson but sadly, she knows about my little crush. I never wanted to tell her, but we can read each other like open books so it must be pretty hard to miss that and she did way worse to have a little time with Gray before, so she can’t judge me!

“Come Gray-Sama, we’ll leave them alone! We almost never see each other now is the time!”

Before Gray could say anything my sister dragged him upstairs to her room, I think I should put some music on, I’m scared of what we could hear.

“So should we start?”

***

“So to have this result you only have to do…”

Honestly I didn’t even listen to him, I was too occupied by watching his beautiful face teaching me things that I already know. And since I already know the answers, I didn’t have much problem when he was asking me to answer the questions after. I failed some to look credible , but not all of them. He looked really proud of me when I answered correctly and thinking about the fact that I would have to tell him one day that I was never an idiot  made me feel bad. Maybe I’ll until we are married to tell him. Wait married? What am I saying? Korimi thinking of your non-existent marriage make you you fucking sound like your sister.

“So you understand?” Lyon asked, about I don’t know which question.

“Umm…”

“We’re home!”

Saved by my parents! Wait, my parents?! If my dad sees this he would blow my cover up, that’s for sure! Fuck!  

“Your parents are here, we should stop and continue another time.” Lyon said closing the book we were using.

“You are right…” I said. “Oh and Lyon?” 

“Yes?”

“Can you not say anything about our little lesson?” I said, maybe if I asked him my plan would be saved. “I mean, I don’t want to worry my parents about bad grades.”

“Of course it’s okay.” He said, smiling at me.

God he is so beautiful, I hate him.

“Is someone home? Korimi? Juvia?” I heard my mom asking, sounding a little worried.

“Yes mom! I’m in the living room!”

I’ve come greeting my mom who hugged and kissed me on the cheek, the second she saw me and my dad smiled at me, but his smile disappeared when he saw Lyon behind me.

“Oh Hi young men what are you doing here?” My dad, being overprotective like always.

“Gray came to see Juvia and I followed, I wanted to see your daughters, school is taking all of my time. I need to see my friend a little.”

“Oh that’s good! You must be working really hard! You didn’t choose an easy path.”

“Yeah, I know but I love it.”

“You want to stay to eat dinner with us?”

“I don’t want to be a burden!”

“You are not ! If you were I wouldn’t ask you.”

My mom smiled at him and he finally said yes. Oh my god today is a beautiful day.

#The part with Gray is one of my fave ! #alex's stories #📖 : atoe #original date : February 13th 2018 #fairy tail #mine #fanfiction #👤 : Korimi #gray fullbuster #juvia lockser #lyon vastia #👤 : Jackson / Yukito #👤 : Meehae / Umi #oc x lyon vastia #gruvia #my fanfiction #my story #fairy tail fanfiction #fairy tail fanfic #ft fanfic #ft fanfiction #romance #humour #fairy tail modern au #fairy tail high school au #ft modern au #ft high school au

[6ix-dragons]

Edens Zero: The Chapter 83 Uproar (and What’s Next)

(Please be advised: important spoilers for the latest chapters of Edens Zero will be found below!)

When I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the other day, about having to take a break from this series...I was actually half-joking about it. More on that, at the end of this post.

But, ladies and gentlemen...even ‘though it has been probably mentioned multiple times, by now—can we still talk about how incredibly dark the latest chapters have gotten, for this series...so far? I mean...pump the brakes there, Mashima! We can’t handle all this angst, and feels, that quickly!

As long-time followers of Hiro Mashima’s works would know, these dark themes and situations are really nothing new. We’ve seen them before, in Rave Master. We’ve seen it also happen in Fairy Tail—despite it being considerably lighter in nature, compared to Rave. However, all of those darker moments in both series don’t come even close to what had just happened with the latest chapter of Hiro’s newest series!

Now, for those who have actually yet to be caught up with the story, I’ll just cut straight to the chase: Shiki and a few of his prominent allies of the Edens Zero have taken on the next biggest villain (and, arguably, who might yet be the most infamous amongst those who the EZ crew faced, when this is all said and done), in Drakken Joe, and his equally-challenging cronies that are the Elemental Four. 

Long story short—all of the more prominent members of the Edens Zero crew end up losing their fights to them, and are promptly captured by Drakken Joe, and his group. What then happens next will may as well have sent most of the fandom into quite the shock they’re having right now.

Not long after Weisz ends up losing his arm, as punishment following their defeat, Drakken Joe—who claims he doesn’t kill people (yeeeaah...keep saying that, why don’t you? /s), makes the serious decision to execute Shiki, by putting a friggin’ bullet right through his head!!

I haven’t seen an execution this brutal being carried out by a villain, ever since Arlong did it to Bellemere, from who knows when!

Okay, now, not long after this chapter was released, I made the social media rounds to see how readers of this series really felt about what had happened in that chapter. There were some who actually praised Mashima for taking a more realistic, grounded approach, as well as for bringing the tone and themes more in line with Rave. Personally, I don’t see much of a problem with these opinions. I also did think that Edens Zero should stand out more than Fairy Tail did, in terms of both. However, as I will mention this later on, I was also concerned at the same time, as having something like this happen much earlier in the story, does bring major implications to the entire story itself, including its direction. 

Aaand, then, there are the opposite reactions from the other portion of the fanbase. I’ve heard rumblings of a lot of readers who were upset (rightfully so, but greatly) by this latest development. In fact, they were so upset about it, they actually sent hate messages—and, probably death threats, too, while we’re at it—to Hiro’s social media accounts! At least, that’s what I’ve come across from others in the fandom, who were warning those not to do these kinds of things.

So, what are my actual thoughts, and opinions, about what had just transpired from all this? Having read the latest chapter myself, I had the same reaction just like most of the fanbase did. I was shocked, and upset, at what was being done to, who is (apparently), one of the major, prominent leads of this series. And, just like certain portions of the fanbase, I had previously expected a different outcome for the main characters involved. Just an outcome that would not  potentially divide the fanbase in half, much like now. That wasn’t quite the case, unfortunately, as I have mentioned everything above.

As it stands right now (as of the time, and date of this post), it seems that Shiki has been ‘killed-off’...maybe for real, but, maybe not. It’s hard to mention, for sure, if he really is—unless there’s solid confirmation from Mashima, himself. All I can say is, ‘though, Shiki’s ‘death’ does open up more new questions, than it does answer the ones that have already been established before. 

Questions, like, how does this really address the nightmare that Rebecca had, from a few chapters earlier? In that sequence alone, we do get to see Shiki in it, as he tries to lead her out of an intense battle happening somewhere, at some point in time. How do the events of this newest chapter factor into what was already happening before? 

Another question, I think, would be even bigger than that. We’ve seen, from the beginning of the series, and onward, about what each character’s motives are, and their goals. Shiki’s ultimate goal was to find the mystical space entity, “Mother”. With the events of chapter 83 seemingly putting that into major doubt, however...that just makes me wonder what Mashima’s true intentions are, for this series. Were we really to believe that this would just be about the protagonist going on a journey to search for this entity of sorts—only for Mashima to mislead us into thinking that, and what really ended up happening, was definitely all for naught? Because, I certainly want to know what Hiro was truly thinking, when he planned out this arc of the story. 

Then, there are the significant implications to the future direction of the story that I previously mentioned above.

So, it’s obvious enough that Shiki is, at the moment, ‘killed-off’ quite early in this series. Where does it all go from here? As I previously mentioned above, Shiki’s goal was, ultimately, to find Mother. Without him at the helm of the Edens Zero, however, it won’t be possible anymore. Maybe the rest of the crew there can take the mantle from him, but I have a hard time imagining that would be the case. After all, he is the one guiding them, in the first place.

With all that being mentioned, I’ve been hearing from some who have mentioned that Shiki should make a return into the story, at some point. I also think that he should come back into the fold, too. The only questions for that, is: how—and, how soon?

Let’s start, by answering the first one. Assuming, again, that Shiki isn’t 100% confirmed to be killed off, for sure (which, also again, is pending on what Mashima says, himself), there are already a few possibilities on how he can make a return to the story in some form, or capacity. 

One of the most common theories I’ve come across from readers, is this whole C.A.T. idea. It’s been mentioned more than once in the story, including one from Master Noah, of all people. The thing is, ‘though, we still don’t know anything of what C.A.T. really is about. That’s where the whole aforementioned...mention from Master Noah comes in, however. He claims that Shiki is the key to unlocking C.A.T.—as he is talking about Rebecca, in the same breath. What does this all mean? Not much, but I believe Mashima should address that question, in a later chapter at some point. 

Speaking of Rebecca...another theory some fans have, has something to do with her recently-discovered Leaper ether-gear ability. They theorize that Rebecca would use that ability to somehow reverse these particular events from happening in the first place. Some of them have also included the above-mentioned C.A.T. idea, and combined the two together. I would seem to think there is some plausibility to this notion—it all comes down to how well Rebecca can develop her ether-gear to that point, however.

The third-most plausible theory would have something to do with Shiki himself. I believe it was either Drakken Joe, or Master Noah (correct me if I’m wrong; I’m trying to remember what happened in that chapter, as I’m typing out this part xD), who mentioned that Shiki ‘wasn’t human’. However, let’s go way back to the beginning of the story, when Shiki and Rebecca visited her guild, for the first time. Shiki claimed that ‘he saw Mother before’, after when said entity was mentioned by someone else. Maybe there is something more to how Shiki and Mother are greatly linked to each other, than we already know, in the grand scheme of things.

And, then, there’s this theory thrown out there that might be one of the least-plausible. A certain section of fans claim that Shiki could possibly make a return to the story...not as a human, ‘though—but, as a robot/cyborg of some sort. Yeah. No. Seriously. While it does lend credence to an older, but still-relevant idea that the Demon King Ziggy could actually be Shiki himself, I also have a hard time believing it would happen so soon. I mean, it’s still a possibility, of course...but, given the timing of it all, I reserve a healthy amount of doubt about this one. 

So, the other question to answer about Shiki’s (assumed) potential return in the story, is, how soon?

From how the story is paced yet, so far, I have my doubts that he will make a return that quickly. There is a source I’ve come across on Twitter, recently, who regularly posts spoilers for upcoming chapters of this series (I won’t name the source here, ‘though; you’ll just have to look it up, yourself). Based on the purported synopsis and spoilers straight from this source, for the next chapter—chapter 84, it appears that the focus is on what happened after the previous chapter, roughly a week later...mainly on Rebecca, herself, as she tries to make her escape. 

Of course, there are also other questions to answer that remain from the last chapter, such as the whereabouts of Weisz, Homura, Happy, and Pino. But, regardless, I digress. The point I’m trying to make here, is that, assuming Shiki does come back into the story...it probably won’t happen, until at some point later on. How late, we don’t really know. It all depends on what Mashima does next, for the upcoming chapters, soon. But, we can only hold onto the hope that he does write Shiki back into it all. Otherwise, I...well, I don’t know what to think of, anymore, then.

This has been a long post, so far. I only typed this out to let it all out from my mind, because of how chapter 83 had actually bothered me. I’ve been into Edens Zero a little bit more, now that the story has gotten somewhere—and that Shiki happens to be one of my favourite characters from that series, just like Natsu, from Fairy Tail. These latest revelations from the last few chapters, so far, have put a damper on what I expected out of this cast of characters, going forward. I know that there are some who wanted this series to stand out from Hiro’s previous works, through the inclusion of darker themes, and moments. But, this is something I think was a bit too extreme, in my honest, personal opinion. It also lead me to think more about how this series is going to progress, as well...which is why I made this post, and posts like this one, prior. 

Anyway, I had already stated that I would be taking a break from Edens Zero, for now—half-jokingly, that is. I will still try to keep a close tab on what will happen, every now, and then. But, you can let me know when Shiki does make a return (or, not) in the story, by leaving a reply on this post, or you can DM me. Either way, thanks for reading this entire post. Click on the heart if you like this; reblog this to all your friends...and, I will now focus on the Fairy Tail side of things. At least that can’t be any more messed up than EZ is, right now...

...right??

#edens zero #ez spoilers #chapter 83 #shiki granbell #rebecca bluegarden #weisz steiner #homura kougetsu #edens zero happy #em pino #hiro mashima #fairy tail #long post #personal takes

[kero-reviews]

Happy Monday and howdy!

This week I am reading:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Tokyo Ghoul Volume 12 by Sui Ishida

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

and The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I’ve barely gotten to touch Six of Crows, but I already love it SO much! So far it’s my favorite book in the GrishaVerse. @books-take-flight and I have finished the Shadow and Bone trilogy and have started the Six of Crows Duology.

I made progress in the Tokyo Ghoul series! Book 12 is going well so far, as we’ve gotten to learn more about Uta and Tomo’s past. We’re also learning a lot about another character, where it turns out everything we’ve known is a lie. I won’t say the name to try to avoid any spoilers, but it’s incredibly exciting!

And I’ve read a little in Gemina, and it’s been exciting seeing the connections between Gemina and Illuminae that I forgot about (or didn’t notice the first time because I didn’t read them back to back). Though I’ve been trying to avoid reading this book to keep the information from Illuminae separate until I’ve finished my review.

I haven’t been able to read Sherlock Holmes, again.

This week I was able to finish:

Fairy Tail Spinoff 3: Lightning Gods by Kyouta Shibano and Hiro Mashima

Tokyo Ghoul Volumes 10, 11 by Sui Ishida

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Four-Panel Comics by Hiromu Arakawa

and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Lightning Gods was a gift from @books-take-flight and it was SO nice to get to see Fried and Laxus with more screentime. Fried is a favorite of mine so it was great to see him more, even if he wasn’t our main protagonist here.

Tokyo Ghoul is progressing so well, I can’t wait to keep reading them. In these volumes, they’re hunting to find the doctor that turned Kaneki to see what leads they can get.

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST (~fullmetal alchemist~) It’s been so long since I’ve read any Fullmetal Alchemist so I greatly enjoyed getting to dive back in a little. This book contains the four koma from the manga as well as the ones that were DVD inserts and ones contained in other books (novels, character books) and events. It was great reading them, especially the ones I haven’t gotten to read before, as it contains strips that were previously Japan-exclusive.

And finally Ruin and Rising. I was really pleased with this book overall, and I was glad I got to read it. It fit the tone of the series and gave a lot of closure. It made me all the more excited for Six of Crows, but I’m so excited that Six of Crows is taking a different tone. While the Shadow and Bone trilogy was great, it didn’t have that extra something I was hoping for, something I hope to find in Six of Crows.

Well that about wraps it up, please expect my review of Illuminae up in the next couple of days.

HAPPY reading everybody!!

-Kero-chan

#booklr #books #grishaverse #book #ruin and rising #sherlock holmes #tokyo ghoul #fullmetal alchemist #fma #six of crows #gemina #i tried a new format #do you like it?

[ratretro]

Title: Obstacles

Pairing: NaLu

Prompt: NaLu Angst Week 2018 - Obstacles

Rating: M; Ages 18+!

None of these characters are owned by me, they are all owned by the wonderful Hiro Mashima!

A/N:

I hope this came out well because I wanted to make it kind of fun and kind of awful

But the good kind of awful

Idk my angst game is weak rn im sorry tbh

Of course it happens right as angst week writing begins lmao heres an arranged marriage au for you all

also I won’t be doing tomorrows prompt unless i have time to complete it ive got some stuff to work out

FF.net

           The male beside her had eyes the shade of the night sky on the new moon; cold and empty. His hand was resting comfortably on her hip, but she’d felt his fingers twitch each time she walked by. The she Lucy was referring to was not herself, but a smaller girl on the other side of the room. The girl with the flowing, soft blonde hair that fell in waves with ribbons adorning both sides of her head in perfect symmetry. Her gown was a shade of pink that reminded Lucy distinctly of cherry blossoms, and though it was elegant she could tell the fabric was lightweight and the design specifically made to appear as though it matched the overall feel of the party. This made sense considering Mavis was cunning, and tactful. She needed to be quick on the floor, but she also needed to blend in. She was her father’s advisor, and an outstanding one if this party wasn’t a testament to her hard work.

             The manor they lived in was all shimmering gold, and sparkling wine. The chandeliers were perfectly lit, and every bulb had been replaced in light of tonight’s event. Once again, her husband’s hand twitched as the sprite of a girl passed. Lucy didn’t much care on the transgressions of her husband. They’d made an agreement after all. That didn’t stop her from glowering at him. He was an idiot, and it was like he wanted to get caught. In truth, he probably did. Then he could stop the charade and be with the woman he actually loved. However, that wouldn’t do well for Lucy. Her father would just find another man to marry her to and she couldn’t have that. She may have wished it in the beginning, but too much was at stake now. Her father wouldn’t care if the male beside her was having an affair, but to bring public shame to the family would be a disgrace.

             “Careful, darling.” She placed emphasis on the pet name, and once more her smile full of lies graced her face. “You’ll get us caught.” She mumbled below her breath to keep their conversation from being overheard.

             “The only reason I agreed to your deal is my brother. Otherwise, I would have left with her long ago.” He muttered back to her. His tone having shifted from ‘overly excitable husband’ to ‘don’t get cocky’ in a matter of seconds. Two could play at this game.

             “I know that. I don’t care. Don’t. Get. Caught.” Each word was said through gritted teeth.

             “Oh my! Look at the happy couple!” it was her aunt Supetto for the third time that evening. “You look marvelous, my dear!”

             Her cheeks turned a shade of rosy pink as she knelt to her aunt’s height, and gently gripped her hands. “As do you, auntie.” The two separated, and she watched her aunt wander back out to the floor. She’d certainly be back.

             “You say I’ll get us caught. His face has been the epitome of ‘don’t touch her’ all night.” Shots fired. He was right though, Natsu had been throwing a silent tantrum since they’d descended the stairs arm in arm, with smiles of a happy couple. She didn’t want this anymore than he did. Zeref’s hand returned to her hip and pulled her just an inch closer. They’d come up with a system in their closeness. This marriage was one of necessity and convenience. Neither wanted this, but still. Zeref couldn’t shame the Dragneel name, and neither could she to the Heartfilia Konzern. Both would be inevitable as the affairs they both engaged in continued. And yet the pair of them felt addicted to their other half.

             “Surely, we could separate for a moment.” It was a suggestion that Zeref posed nearly every political event. He couldn’t stand to be there like some exhibit for very long, and truth be told Lucy couldn’t stand to have someone other than him touching her.

             “Surely, we could.” She echoed, and the pair separated. Both gave each other their signature smiles, and that lingering glance that they’d practiced and become sufficient at. It was like when she had played pretend as a child. Her performances could give a professional entertainer a run for their money. She crept down a small hallway that normally led towards the restroom, but instead of entering the ladies’ room she ventured to the left. The door shut softly behind her, and there she waited.

             It wouldn’t be long now, she hoped. And she was right. She heard his stomping before he even entered the room, but once he did she felt like her skin was on fire. Her father was insistent on marrying into a family of dragons for the status, and the fame but she’d always wondered what his thought process was on that. Did he think they’d be controlled? Impossible.

             “Natsu, could you please turn down the furnace. It’s rather hot.” She teased. Though, from the look on his face it was clear he was past the ‘joking to ease tension’ phase. Dragons were peculiar that way. They got insanely territorial over what they felt was theirs. It was how she’d first noticed Zeref’s feelings for Mavis, and it was how she’d discovered Natsu’s for her. She had been drawn to the mysterious air of the elder Dragneel, but immediately felt he was too tense, and stuffy. Natsu had been like a breath of fresh air in the spring. Zeref felt like a cloudy day with a one hundred percent chance of rain and high humidity. Yet, Mavis loved him with everything she had. To each their own, she supposed. Her own was right in front of her.

             Natsu wasn’t about to just let Lucy slide with a joke like he normally did. He’d watched them practice flirting, and getting the timing of their own lies together the entire night. That hadn’t bothered him, much, but the one thing he’d forgotten in his entire time with Lucy was that their parents had expectations. His father expected Lucy to bear the next heir of the Dragneel name, and of course Lucy’s father expected the same. He’d heard them practice what to say to their respective father’s, but both had become silent. Every single one of them knew that the argument wouldn’t hold out.

             Zeref’s eyes had been the color of blood red, and Lucy couldn’t even bother to face him. She couldn’t bear to tell him the truth, and he knew that. He knew that one day she would have to bear the child of his brother. It was either that, or she get sold to some other high ranking socialite. Zeref could easily sway their father to choose Mavis, but he hadn’t out of respect for Natsu. Natsu appreciated it in ways his brother would never truly understand, but Zeref was at his breaking point. It wouldn’t be long before he called it quits, and Lucy knew that too.

             They continued to refuse each other in this small room. Natsu never moving towards her, and Lucy staring into her hands like they were the most interesting thing in the world. He couldn’t stand it any longer. The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. He moved towards her, and the movement startled Lucy into looking up.

             She could barely see through blurred vision as the water pooled, threatening to spill over. His hand touched her cheek, and she could feel the weathered skin, and each scar across the tips of his fingers and his palm. A tear slid when her eyes closed and she relaxed into his touch. His thumb ran under her eye to brush the liquid from her cheek.

             Not even a single tear should stain her cheeks. He’d decided this when they first began their arrangement, but that was then, and this was now. He couldn’t make this better. The greed of her father far outdid that of a dragon. He wasn’t sure if that was a compliment, but he highly doubted he could ever think something nice of Lucy’s old man.

             “Stop cryin’, Luce. It’ll be alright.” She gripped his suit jacket tightly and nodded before tugging him against her. Her forehead nuzzled softly into his chest.

             “I know. I’ve been thinking lately… what if we all just ran away? Me, you, Zeref, and Mavis. Couldn’t we just leave?” if she cried anymore she’d ruin her makeup. Appearance was everything. She had to keep up appearance.

             “That wouldn’t solve a damn thing. My father would hunt us to the ends of the earth, and so would yours.” That didn’t mean he didn’t want to, because fuck did he want to. He could run to hell and back as long as it was her by his side. But they couldn’t. They couldn’t just leave.

             “What if—” she stopped herself. One ‘what if’ was all she could afford. Any more than that, and she’d have actual hope. His rough hand gently raised her chin up to look at him, and he pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead.

             “I love ya. And if that means I gotta fight an army to keep ya then I will.” She didn’t want him to. Anything that would hurt him, she could never forgive. Even if it was herself.

             “Please don’t. I don’t want you to get hurt, idiot.” She lifted to her tip toes, and pressed a kiss to his lips. It was soft like it always was, he mused. Her lips were sticky from the lip gloss she’d chosen. It tasted like watermelon. She had always liked those flavored ones, and he couldn’t help but agree. He licked her bottom lip, and she giggled – a real giggle – for the first time that night. The sound was like music to his ears. His own private symphony.

             He pressed his head into her neck, and his hands gripped her hips. She gave a small gasp that had him growling softly. Then, a scent rose to his nose. It was buried beneath her floral perfume. He was glad she chose the softest one she had in her array of scents. It hadn’t taken the heiress long to learn the sensitivity of a dragon’s nose, and since then had only worn soft scents that smelled of vanilla or a flower shop. Today was the flower shop. Still, that wasn’t the problem. No, his problem lay under that.

             Lucy noticed quickly the change from playful growl to territorial growl. She froze on the spot, and then she waited. Territorial Natsu could sometimes be a hassle, between sibling rivalry, and his disgust about their situation it often gave her trouble. Tonight, for example, he likely smelled Zeref on her skin. They’d had to do a ‘lover’s embrace’ in front of their fathers. Complete with longingly staring into each other’s eyes, and happy smiles. They joked about how disgusting it was later.

             In another life, she and Zeref would have been friends. She thought so anyway. Here they had a mutual partnership. One that likely wouldn’t make it much farther. It was just as she thought. They should all just run away.

             Natsu’s breath on the crook of her neck distracted her from her thoughts, and she tensed while a shiver ran down her spine.

             “Your father sucks.” He muttered, resting his forehead to her collarbone, and gently pushing her backward. It wasn’t long before she bumped into the desk at the far back of the office. This idiot was going to try that in a place like this.

             “He does. But you know what’s worse?” she was setting him up for a joke. Just like when she’d entered, but his brain didn’t want to hear it. Her dress had been distracting him all night, and with the scent of Zeref on it that was making it all the more irritating. It was tight, black and boy did it fit her like the perfect sized glove. He shivered the second his fingers caressed the fabric. His hands were gripping her hips again, which in turn made her nervous. She’d chosen the dress with slits on both sides with the purpose of riling him up, but she didn’t mean for right now, she’d meant for later. When they were alone in their chambers, and the party goers had gone.

             “Hmmm.” The sound vibrated against her neck as a tongue lashed out to lick her skin. A whimper slipped through her lips, and the grip on her hips tightened.

             “Happy’s going to destroy the furniture before we get back.” She deflected to the feline for aid in distracting Natsu from his current activities.

             “And when he does we’ll confiscate his prized fish as punishment.” A gasp of horror came from her body, but he was more than aware that she was joking. Soon, another giggle erupted through her ribcage.

             “And then we’ll have to buy a new couch. Again.” She mumbled.

             “What can I say. He really liked the old one.” Natsu wasn’t distracted one bit. In fact, his lips were kissing trails up her neck, and she was doing her best to hold it together.

             “For someone who owns a cat, you’re such a sly dog.” He bit into her neck softly, but she got the feeling that if he ever could, he’d leave nothing but marks on her pale skin to show everyone who she was with. She was his, and he was hers. This situation just complicated matters was all. Lucy rocked her hips into his, and he grunted.

             “Dragon. I. Am. A. Dragon. We are majestic!” he groaned loudly in annoyance with her terms, and she supposed he was right, but she wanted to make the joke, and so here they were.

             “Yes, a mighty dragon. He who lays claim to all treasure.” She had deepened her voice, and added a tone that sounded a lot like a story narrator.

             “If we lay claim to all treasure, then you’re mine. You’re my pile of golden coins.” He brought her hand to his lips, and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. She flared a vibrant red, and her face felt like it was on fire all the way up to the tips of her ears.

             Their lips met again, but this time more urgent. Her fingers dug into his hair, and his hands finally found their way to her thighs. He squeezed one as he slid his other hand up her inner thigh to reach the seething warmth. A shaky sigh left her lips, and with one touch to the clothed flesh she was throwing her head back, and biting her lip to keep from making a sound.

             His grin was devilish as the finger began to rub up, and then down. Up. Down. Up. Down. He continued the slow pace, and the deliberate stroking even as her grip on his hair tightened. She breathed, and his name flowed out. His finger stopped abruptly, and he pulled it back. Then, once more a searing kiss to her lips.

             A knock at the door startled her from her haze. She froze in fear until she saw the look of irritation on Natsu’s sharp features.

             “We’ve got to get back.” Zeref’s voice echoed from behind the door, and she nearly cursed before pushing past the pinkette. She straightened up her appearance before hanging her head and mumbling something. Natsu had heard her, and all be damned he was a dragon. And wasn’t it a dragon’s duty to kidnap the princess and hide her where she’d never be found again? Her hand pressed to his chest, and she left him with a soft, lingering kiss. It was so pure and tender. It was so full of love that it nearly ripped out his heart to watch her leave arm in arm with Zeref.

             With her lingering glance on him as she left he silently promised the world would fear the wrath of Natsu Dragneel if it meant he could live a full life with her.

#nalu angst week #nalu #nalubookclub #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #bae #dorkneel #fairy tail #ft #nalu ff #otp: welcome home #my writing

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

Wow, well I guess here we are at another wrap-up post where I end up combining my weekly wrap-up and my monthly wrap-up. That doesn’t happen too often, but it makes things a bit more fun/chaotic for me.

Umm…what have I been watching recently? Gosh, I don’t even know. My days have been starting to blend together. Oh, I can tell you what I will be watching very soon…as in the next day or two. First up, “Critical Role” is back tomorrow for episode 100. They have been off the air since like March, and it will be nice to watch some of my favorite voice actors play D&D again. And then on Friday “Hamilton” is dropping on Disney+. I have been wanting to see this show for four years now, and while this won’t be in a theater watching a live performance, it will be the main cast and is a recording of a live performance. So I’m super excited about that.

Most of my weekly wrap-up stuff will be discussed below, like what I read in the last week, and what I’m hoping to read soon. So I guess I’ll just talk about what I’m currently reading.

As usual with my monthly wrap-up, let’s start off by checking in on my overall goals for the year.

Reading: Well, I finished 27 books in the month of June, so I’d say it was another pretty decent month of reading…though 6 of those were single issue comics, 4 of them were volumes of manga, and 5 of them were children’s picture books. Still, I read a few incredible reads, and only a couple just okay reads, so I’m going to say it was a good month. So that puts me at 154 books read for the year so far, which I think is pretty great.

Blogging: I did all right on blogging this month. I’m still trying to figure out my time management so I can get things done in a timely manner, because I can admit that some of my posts have gone up late, or I’ve finished them and thought they were scheduled for publication and instead I guess I just hit save draft, so it doesn’t go up when it’s supposed to…and then I don’t realize it until days later. That hasn’t been fun. But I will get it figured out. I still have a lot more content to send your way. Oh, and because I’ve been busy and it has continuously slipped my mind…I hit 800 followers…I think it was a few weeks ago. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I honestly can’t believe that my blog has that many people following along. And to go along with that excitement, I reached 1,000 blog posts a couple weeks ago as well, which also feels like a pretty big milestone.

Writing: Well, with juggling two jobs and reading and blogging, my writing somewhat got shoved to the back burner. BUT I am happy to say that I’ve just started the Colorworld Creativity Club over on the Colorworld Live VIP group on Facebook, and it is a place for people who are working on creative projects–whether that is poetry, novellas, short stories, novels, screenplays, music, artwork, etc–to get help working through any blocks, as well as a place to have a support system to hold us all accountable for actually making progress on our projects. I’ve set myself a goal of 20,000 words to write on my novel for the month of July. Now let’s hope that the CCC can hold me to it.

Conventions: While in-person Gen Con was canceled, they are holding Gen Con Online on the same days, so that should be pretty interesting. Plus, Damian and I booked a hotel room in Indianapolis for those Gen Con Online dates, so we can get out of town for a few days (and have lovely reliable hotel internet). We’ll probably still do a few of our usual Gen Con stops as well, like going to the comic book store–obviously staying as socially distant as possible, and wearing masks in public. And we’re still hoping that Cincinnati Comic Expo in September will still be good to go. My friends at Colorworld Books have actually started doing Colorworld LIVE convention style events just about every week, sometimes two a week. They gather up three or four awesome voice actors, hold a livestream panel, then a VIP panel for anyone who buys some signed merch, and of course you can get shirts, metal art prints, and more with characters these actors have portrayed. It’s pretty cool.

Okay, now that the general month wrap-up is over, let’s go ahead and jump into the specific reading wrap-up. As always, if I have a review up already then I will include the link to it. So, let’s go over everything I read in June.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas — 5 stars

Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari — 3.5 stars

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron — 4 stars

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall — 3.5 stars

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin — 4.5 stars

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory — 5 stars (review coming July 21)

Vox Machina Origins Series II #1 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #2 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #3 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #4 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #5 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #6 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Pride by Ibi Zoboi — 4 stars (review coming July 7)

Spellhacker by M.K. England — 4 stars

Black Clover Vol 21 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

My Hero Academia Vol 24 by Kohei Horikoshi — 5 stars

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor — 4.5 stars (review coming July 2)

Otaku by Chris Kluwe — 4 stars (review coming July 16)

Beach Read by Emily Henry — 4.5 stars

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Vol 1 by — 4 stars

Edens Zero Vol 2 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

All the unicorn books above — 4 stars

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory — 5 stars

Now it is book haul time, and I’m starting with my digital book haul, because I picked up quite a few e-books this month, due to sales, or physical books being back ordered, or because I have a bunch of books to read for blog tour reviews. So I’ll go over my digital haul before jumping into my physical haul.

Okay, now for the physical haul.

Next up is the OwlCrate Unboxing.

Finally I suppose it’s time to talk about my July TBR. Unfortunately I don’t have a completely set TBR for this month. There are a handful of books I need to read for review, and then I have stacks of books that I’ve been eager to read for a month or so now, and just haven’t had the chance yet. So I have a bunch of options.

Here’s some reads I can definitely say that I’ll be completing in July: Mayhem by Estelle Laure (I have a blog tour review coming July 14th), Shielded by KayLynn Flanders (review coming July 18th), Lobizona by Romina Garber (blog tour review coming July 28th), and Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter (Nell Ingram #5, blog tour review coming July 30th).

Other than that the above books might be what I pick up…but it might also be wholly mood dependent. I’m not sure.

How was your June? Let me know some of your favorite reads of the month in the comments, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.

June Wrap-Up and July TBR/Weekly Wrap-Up (71) Hey all, Dani here. Wow, well I guess here we are at another wrap-up post where I end up combining my weekly wrap-up and my monthly wrap-up.

#ARC #Blog Tour #Book Releases #Books! #Comic Books #Reading #Reading Challenge #Review #Writing

[charlierejouis]

Quick Notes: Chapter 160

Well, it’s that time again. Let’s go!

This cover is gorgeous! It’s a Homura cover, but this is top tier.

Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed we didn’t learn more about Oedo. Still, it’s great that the hope is to change the feudal system.

Hey look, Homura and Seiji are getting closer. What could possibly ruin this.

Jesse? Okay, let’s see what happens.

You know, what happened to make Jesse hate Elsie this much? He was also crazy to punish Elsie during Digitalis.

Hey, Victory! I was wondering when we’d see you!

“I can’t get through to Creed or Jesse!” Subtle foreshadowing is subtle.

And there goes one of the members of the Oasis. (I figured this would happen to at least one of them.)

And there goes another one. (Also expected, but I can’t wait for people to call Mashima sexist for not killing her man instead)

And Jesse’s shot Seiji. He is dead. (Or not, who ever knows with these things?)

I’m honestly interested how this will affect Homura. Though that’s more dependent on future events. We’ll see what happens...

Fun fact: Shiki’s words at the end of this chapter are a callback to chapter 140. When that chapter came out, I talked about how Shiki isn’t into killing. A lot has happened since then.

And thus ends another chapter of EZ where Mashima messes with his fans. If I really hated it, I’d have stopped doing this a while ago. See you next week.

#quicknotes #edens zero #edens zero spoilers #edens zero chapter 160 #edens zero 160 #In all seriousness #i figured the oasis folks would lose some people #justice dying? #not sure how much i buy that #i could stick #but it could also not #then again he was shot in the chest #not many people survive that

[sofya-fanfics]

Firsts

My Rare Pairs Week 2020 contribution for the prompt : Firsts.

I'm sorry for the mistakes, English is not my mother tongue. I hope you like it.

@ftguildevents

Summary : Natsu looked at Juvia and smiled. She was sleeping peacefully in his arms. Juvia had just moved in, it was a new step for them. He gently stroked her arm and thought about their relationship.

Disclaimer : Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

Natsu looked at Juvia and smiled. She was sleeping peacefully in his arms. Juvia had just moved in, it was a new step for them. He gently stroked her arm and thought about their relationship.

It started a year ago, when the rain fell on Magnolia. The rain drenched him as Natsu went home. Strangely, this rain felt good. He felt like it was chasing his sadness away. He had decided to tell Lucy how he felt. He had planned everything. As soon as he arrived at the guildhall, he would have gone to see her and declare his love to her. But when he saw her, he heard her conversation with Cana and Mirajane about her date with a reporter from Weekly Sorcerer. He had left the guildhall before anyone could see him and decided to go home.

He did not made any progress in his relationship with Lucy and he felt like they would only be friends. He was halfway home when the rain started to fall, until it got stronger. At the entrance to the forest, Natsu saw a figure, sitting under a tree, protecting itself from the rain. He approached and recognized Juvia. She had her arms around her knees and Natsu could hear her crying. That's why it's raining, he thought. He should have known there was nothing natural about this rain. He approached her and called her name. Juvia jumped and turned to looked at him.

‘Natsu-san !’

Natsu sat down next to her.

‘Juvia is sorry. It's raining because of her.’

‘Why are you so sad ?’

Juvia was crying even harder. She told him that she had asked Gray if he wanted to spend the day with her. He had refused. It was not the first time. But this time, Gray got mad at her, annoyed with her insistence. Usually Juvia would tell herself that it did not matter and that she would ask him again another day. But this time was different. Juvia was heartbroken.

‘Why did Gray-sama get mad at Juvia ? Juvia loves Gray-sama. There is no harm in that. So why is it wrong ?’

Natsu understood what Juvia felt. They loved people who did not love them. Without thinking, he took her in his arms. It was the first time he hugged Juvia. He had hugged only two girls before, Lucy and Lisanna. But with Juvia, he felt something different. He did not know what. All he wanted was to console her and made her smile again.

‘Gray is an idiot. He doesn't realize the chance he has to be loved by you.’

Juvia blushed. Little by little, the rain stopped.

The next morning, Natsu went straight to the board when he arrived at the guildhall. Happy was following him closely. With a smile on his face, Natsu found a mission that seemed perfect.

‘I'm not sure Lucy will like this mission,’ Happy said, as he read the paper.

‘It's not for Lucy, it's for Juvia.’

Happy stared at him, wide-eyed.

‘Juvia? But we never went on a mission with Juvia.’

Natsu looked around for Juvia, impatient to show her the mission. He wanted to see her smile and he knew that a few days away from Gray would do her good. Natsu also felt the need to be away from the guild. He finally saw her sitting at a table, holding an untouched glass in her hands. She glanced sadly at Gray. Natsu winced. He headed for Juvia. Happy flying behind was him. He stood in front of the water mage. He had a big smile on his face and he handed her the mission.

‘Do you want to to go on a mission with us ?’

Juvia read the mission and smiled sadly at Natsu and Happy.

‘Juvia is not good company at the moment.’

‘Come with us,’ Natsu said. ‘I'm sure we're going to have fun.’

‘Come on, Juvia,’ Happy said.

Before she had time to refuse again, Natsu took her arm and force her to stand up. He started running, taking Juvia with him. It was their first mission together. The most important part was that Natsu had fulfilled the mission he set himself. He had managed to make Juvia smile.

From that day on, Natsu always asked Juvia to go on a mission with him and Happy. He felt happy when he was with her. Happy teased him about it : ‘You liiiiike her !’ Natsu blushed and got angry at his friend, who laughed.

But deep down, Natsu knew his feelings for Juvia were changing. Juvia was kind, funny, strong, smart, a little weird and so beautiful that he would be an idiot for not realizing the fantastic woman she was. He had only one obsession, to kiss her and to hold her again in his arms. He was falling in love with her, but refused to accept it. What if she does not feel the same ? What if she was still in love with Gray ? He had already been heartbroken when he realized that Lucy did not feel the same way he did and he did not want to feel that pain again.

The pace of events had quickened during a mission that went wrong. Juvia had been kidnapped and Natsu was unable to do anything. His dragon slayer instinct had taken over and he thought only of one thing, to find Juvia and make those who kidnapped her pay. After a long battle, he had finally found her. She was safe and that was all that mattered. Natsu had always acted instinctively and without thinking about what he was doing, he ran to Juvia and kissed her. Natsu ended the kiss, wanting to apologize, but Juvia stopped him by kissing him. It was their first kiss.

This first kiss was followed by other first times. Their first date, their first ‘I love you’, their first time they made love. Their first day living together. Natsu had never been a romantic guy. He never cared about it. It was before he fell in love with Juvia. He knew they will have other first times and he was impatient to live them. He was not her first love and she was not his, but he knew she will be his last and he would do anything to be her last.

The end

#ftguildevents #fairy tail #navia #natsu dragneel #juvia lockser #navia fanfiction #fairy tail fanfiction #fanfiction #natsu x juvia #My writing

[poisonouslightslayer]

Snowman back with another ask. If I have already asked this disregard this message. But I'm a curious snowman and I know there were a ton of fans that weren't satisfied with the way FT ended. So I wanted to know if you could rewrite Sting's ending or even his whole storyline in the series, what all would you change?

// Forgive me, but this will be long and placed under a read more for that reason and will not be spoiler free. First of all I really wished Sting and Rogue should have won their battle in the Magic Games and it’s not because I’m being bias because I expected Natsu the main character to win for change to happen, but it was how it happened.

 First off it still does not make sense to me how Natsu was able to block Sting’s Holy Nova? That unknown power of his dragon slayer secret art was very overwhelming so the how the heck could Natsu stopped such a move that looked like it was a bright nuclear bomb? I hated the fact of what Natsu did to Gajeel. That was very low and I can’t forgive him for that and add to the fact that Sting and Rogue were disgusted with that move makes my point valid. 

What really hurt the most was how both Sting and Rogue got screwed over and the fandom saw them as weaklings against Natsu which is downright irritating. Natsu basically “cheated” to have the advantage all because some of the Fairy Tail mainly Team Natsu messed around in the Celestial World and Ultear used her magic to give them second origin to catch up on the weeks of training they should have done in the first place. Sadly the twin dragons never found out about that otherwise Natsu and most of Fairy Tail, the ones that got that advantage I would think would have been disqualified. Anyway moving on I wished there was a fight between Sting and the other remaining members of Fairy Tail , but they would have been  healed before they faced off against him to give them a fair advantage.  It would have been more interesting and the result could have been the same with Laxus being the victor though because that guy is just so powerful. 

I would have loved to have seen what 26 yr Sting would have looked like because it showed how Future Rogue looked. That whole mention of Rogue killing Sting was also ridiculous. If anything he should have killed Gray for killing Frosh. Present Sting should have also met Future Rogue and found out the bitter truth from him too. It would have been filled with angst moments.  

Later on there were some events in the manga that made me upset. One of them was the absolute stupid idea of a Sabertooth eating contest.  Like seriously? No one can eat that much food in one day and change their body shape? The worst thing was that Minerva was unaffected? How the hell can she eat that much and nothing happen to her? Only explanation is her magic. I was so upset about that.  Good thing his character changed back to the way he was.  It was very unrealistic, a jab to his character , just horribly drawn and written crap because Mashima wanted to make one of his beloved side characters a joke. For these reasons, I don’t even acknowledge it with my muse like the outcome of it never happened.  I hate it when creators do that to serious bad ass types. Gajeel and Jellal turned out to be some other victims.

Next comes when Sabertooth was ambushed. It never showed how it happened and applied that they were a weak guild which is so far from the truth. The next thing you see is them up on poles like they were being crucified. How ironic with Sting’s holy magic right? There needs to be more development with that whole plot.

Another downfall in the manga of one of the events was that Yukino slapped Sting just because he had almost lost hope and felt responsible for some of his guild mates being killed. It shows how compassionate he is and the fandom mocked him for being a cry baby. It was a heart breaking moment and showed how much his character had progressed. I absolutely hated that scene and almost made me hate Yukino’s character just for that stunt because I can’t  stand it when females get away with slapping guys and if guys do it to a girl then it’s physical abuse. It works both ways, but no one deserves to be physically assaulted when they are so depressed. 

The fight with Acnologia should have had all the dragon slayers healed and at their strongest including the ones that had dual transformations. Plus the battle which I feel was the whole plot of the manga/series dealing with dragons to begin with should have been a lot longer with all the dragon slayers defeating him not lending their power for Natsu to once again be the only one to outshine everyone by beating the toughest enemy imaginable. I hated the ending. Lastly the very end, the whole Sabertooth eating contest thing again? Enough with the crack. It would have been better having the Guild Master Sting remember those that were lost to him during the war and him and the rest of his guild paying their respects then later showing him at a meeting with the rest of the guild masters since he is the youngest one alive. 

Many open ended questions are still left unanswered. There should have been some development about how and when did Sting and Rogue get their lacrimas,(3rd generation,)  and how old were they when they joined Sabertooth? Where did he get his crystal earring?  Sting should have known about Ana like he came from the 400 years ago timeline and  how he should have discovered Natsu was a demon (E.N.D.). He should have had had more interactions with the other dragon slayers like Laxus, Cobra/Erik, Laxus, and Wendy because I see the dragon slayers almost like a family to each other. Other then them, him being around Fairy Tail would have been nice to see different character interactions. His reasons for being at the Fairy Tail guild would make sense to since he is a guild master and could be meeting with Makarov. Speaking of Makarov, I personally feel Laxus should have earned his right of being Fairy Tail’s Guild Master. I would have loved to see Laxus and Sting interact more and they would have that in common besides being dragon slayers. 

 It would have been really cool to see Sting’s dragon transformation as well as the other dragon slayers dragon forms. Mashima did leave it open that they could still transform especially if the antibodies wear off since there are no dragons inside them to prevent it from happening. If Fairy Tail was to have a time skip after all plot holes and loose ends were tied up, I’d love to see how much Sting had matured as a Guild Master, how much he had grown since he was fairly young at the end of the manga,  did he get married or have kids or not? Is he a virgin or not? According to the manga there is a scene that is implied he’s not; however, there is a particular spell (the desire/lust) that Larcade used that didn’t have any negative effect on him so it’s up to interpretation. I digress.  Are Rogue and him still very close?  Is he still a grand leader to his guild or did he turn into a tyrant and get obsessed with power in order to keep his guild safe because the war had changed him? What about his physical appearance. Does he have longer hair like Natsu did or is it still short?  I imagined he’d be more muscular and taller and could have new attacks dealing with his holy light and even his shadows in his White Shadow Dragon form..  I could go on and on, but I listed some of the important details I’d like to see happen in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to read this since a lot of thought went into coming up with all these ideas. 

#🐉light dragon slayer related #sting eucliffe #questions needed to be answered #sorry for such the long post

[natsubeatsrock]

Guide to Avoiding Fairy Tail Criticism

Fairy Tail is far from a perfect series. I'm not here to argue otherwise. I've made plenty of critiques about Fairy Tail over the years and I've been a strong proponent of people being allowed to say things they don't like about the series.

Though, as I watch the fallout of Hbomberguy's video on RWBY and how its fans are dealing with it, it's hard not to think about the stupid things people have said negatively about Fairy Tail. This series has its fair share of stupid, bad faith complaints repeated by critics over and over. While I've talked about some of these in the past, I think it's worth talking compiling a list of things that people who hate Fairy Tail say that I can't take seriously.

"Fairy Fail."

Let's just get this one out of the way. It's not clever in any way. I can't believe this has become as popular an insult as it has. I've seen so many people jokingly refer to this series with this name. No one who unironically uses this is genuinely interested in engaging the series on fair terms at all.

More than that, it's not even true. Despite any issues regarding the series, Fairy Tail is still a fairly popular series with fans, especially outside of Japan. It's one of Kodansha's most successful IPs of the 2000s. The fact that people put it on the same level as Shonen Jump's Big 3 is impressive. If this is what a failing series looks like, I can't imagine what success would look like for Mashima.

"Mashima didn't plan anything."

This is one I've fallen victim to in the past. To be fair, Mashima hasn't been the best at explaining this to his fans. For critics, it's easy to see that Mashima says he comes up with plot points as he goes. Of course, the reason this is a critique is that this is as far as many go.

As Mashima explains it, it's not that Mashima didn't have any plans for future events for the series and how future events would go. While he didn't start the series with many concrete plans aside from the basics, he has had plans for how the series would go. But rather than being fixed plans, Fairy Tail's decisions have been more fluid paths Mashima chooses to go down as the series continues.

This isn't a bad way to write a story. As a story progresses, you may realize that certain ideas may be less possible than others or things you've planned at the start make less sense than you originally thought. Again, the critique could be that Mashima's style of writing is responsible for some of the series' weaker moments. However, it's wrong to say that Mashima shot from the hip every week, as some people have described his writing. Luckily, Fairy Tail is the only series Mashima has written this way. Both Rave Master and Edens Zero have been planned more from the beginning.

"It's like One Piece, but worse."

I've seen it thrown around that Fairy Tail looks like One Piece. If that's all there was to it, I don't think this would be on this list. Despite what people tell you, Mashima was never an assistant for Eichiro Oda. Mashima got into the landscape without being anyone's assistant. That's easy to dismiss.

However, I've seen people argue that Fairy Tail is a poor attempt at trying to copy One Piece's formula. Ignore for a moment that Edens Zero is closer to following that model and even it isn't a copy. Or that every series this side of Dragon Ball has been accused of being similar to it and people have been doing the same with series after Naruto.

The focus of Fairy Tail isn't similar to that of One Piece. There is no grand treasure or giant goal that the series revolves itself around finding. A lot of the main conflicts to Fairy Tail present themselves less as threats to the individual goals of characters or but to the guild's existence.

"There is no point to Fairy Tail."

I've talked about this one in the past. One thing you'll see people say regarding Fairy Tail is that there wasn't a goal the series was getting to. People will often make the poor comparison to Bleach in this regard, despite Bleach's focus being Ichigo's growth towards being able to protect the people that care about him.

This is a point that even fans of the series miss. I've recently been describing Fairy Tail as a series told through the lens of its main characters about the guild. The focus isn't on how the Fairy Tail guild grows towards being the best, especially since they start at the top. We're meant to watch the characters in the guild as they interact with the world around them and the other guild members.

If that sounds like a weird way to run a series, it's not. Durarara has a similar setup but splits the focus from one core group of characters to several groups and individual characters split up across its main city. Its plot focuses on how each different group connects with each other in ways they don't know and we can't expect as viewers. I wish people would engage Fairy Tail criticism on this level because there are ways to criticize in its implementation of this. However, people see that there's no "I'm gonna be Hokage" or "I'm going to find the One Piece" plotline and think that the series has no point to it.

"Natsu/Lucy is a bad protagonist."

This is related to the last point. The series is less about how Natsu or Lucy achieve their specific goals and more about the guild after they meet each other and start working together. If the series were about those things, we'd get more time focusing on Natsu's search for Igneel or Lucy's growth in the guild. Once you understand what the series is about, the focus the series takes makes sense.

However, I want to spend some time explaining the functions that either character. Again. While the series is, for the most part, told through Lucy's perspective, Natsu is the main driving force of the series. The comparison I've been making for years now is the Sherlock Holmes stories. If Natsu is Sherlock Holmes, Lucy is Dr. Watson. Mashima's referred to both as the main character and the argument could be made that this focus expands to other main members of the Strongest Team.

"Juvia had no arc."

Yet another one I've been responsible for sharing. I've had a weird arc over the past few years of writing about Fairy Tail going from tacit defense to reluctant attacks to my current stance of nuanced critique. However, I've never been a huge fan of how Juvia's been written, despite liking Juvia herself. It's been thrown around that Juvia didn't have a real character or arc, especially outside of Gray.

Juvia's arc involves coming to experience love better. She goes from learning to love other people as friends to engaging with romantic love. She even gets the opportunity to share that love with others. While the focus of that arc becomes centered around Gray, it's not as if Juvia becomes less loving of others or that her arc focusing on Gray makes no sense considering he started her on the path of becoming more loving.

As much as I should sympathize with this argument, it's become a lot more annoying to see this kind of argument levied towards female characters. You're not seeing people argue that Jellal's change is too focused on Erza. I'm not even saying this as someone who loves how this has been played out in the series. It's just annoying to see at all.

"Watch Craftsdwarf's videos on Fairy Tail!"

I've talked about a few of the issues I have with the series already, but I keep seeing this brought up. I'll give credit where it's due. Craftsdwarf's "Overly Long Analytical Tirade on Fairy Tail" does make good points about the series. And considering it's broken up into different parts, it's more digestible than that rant about RWBY. I'm a big fan of the kind of media analysis videos and I've often linked some of my favorite videos in my posts here.

However, Craftsdwarf's videos aren't perfect. The videos come at the series from a hilariously uncharitable point of view, resulting in repeating many of the points I've already mentioned in this post. Their analysis of both Fairy Tail and Rave Master is often shallow and ill-formed. It might be helpful to watch the series to see a negative perspective about Fairy Tail. However, I worry that the points made in that series will be the foundation of future criticism of this series.

“Fairy Tail is the worst (popular) battle action shonen.”

It’s funny seeing this one levied towards plenty of series that aren’t Fairy Tail. People say this about Dragon Ball. People say this about the Big 3. People say this about other hits in Weekly Shonen Magazine like Seven Deadly Sins and Fire Force. People say this about the current popular stuff from WSJ like MHA and Black Clover. Fairy Tail is far from the first or last series to get this complaint.

Even ignoring how hilariously hard this is to quantify as objective fact as opposed to personal preference, I’ve noticed that most of the people making this claim don’t do the work to understand why things they don’t like happened. To be honest, I don’t know too many fans who are willing to do the same. A lot of fans have the infuriating mindset of “it’s bad, but I still like it”.

Despite whatever anyone tells you, Fairy Tail has internal logic outside of “nakama power”. Characters face genuine loss and win for logical reasons. Even if it’s not as consistent as fans would like it to be, I don’t think the anime/manga fandom is worse for this series being as popular and beloved as it is.

Let me know if I forgot any or if you’ve heard another one.

#fairy tail #to be clear #i haven't seen hbomberguy's video #not because i don't watch long form criticism #he's not doing it in good faith

[thefairystales]

Mashima Hiro interview by WebNewtype (2/5/17)

Quick translation so that I can get this up before the movie airs. Please correct me if you spot any errors.

Article ©WebNewtype Translated by thefairystales | DO NOT EDIT OR REMOVE SOURCE Please credit by linking back when using. (usage rules)

You not only drew the key visual and designed original characters for Fairy Tail Dragon Cry, but also worked on a storyboard close to 200 pages in length. What made you so involved in the production of the movie?

All I did was to start drawing after the request came (laugh). The request to make a movie came in just when the manga was entering its final part, and I had many ideas floating around in my head. Nothing would begin if no one does anything, and I wanted to give my best since I was asked to be involved in it.

When did talk about writing an original storyboard start?

There was interest expressed in making another movie right after the first movie (Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess) was released. I was also interested, and since I had amassed many ideas that I was not able to use in the manga, I tried to come up with a story leading to a new climax. I was hoping that the release of the movie could coincide with the climax of the manga, even though I did not specifically aim for it to happen.

When the PV of the movie was released, there was also a comment posted of you saying “I want to make a movie that is focused on entertainment.” Which parts of the movie contribute to that?

I came up with the story of Phoenix Priestess while thinking “I want to make all the fans cry”. However, Dragon Cry turned out to be a simple story with its highlight being the intense battles and flashy action scenes. I thought that it would be nice to make a movie that the audience can enjoy without having to think too much while watching. I also drew the key visual, and I wanted the scene where half of Natsu’s body is dragonized to be the focus.

You also commented that there are surprises in the movie.

A certain character’s past, which has not been touched on in the manga, is revealed in the movie. Please watch attentively “to the end”! In addition, there are various references made in the movie, even though many of them have unfortunately been cut... You can see what has been cut by comparing the movie with the original storyboard. The storyboard is merely a draft, and it’s embarrassing to show it to everyone.

I’ve seen both the original storyboard and the film, and I feel that the original characters Swan, Doll and Gapri are even more charming in the movie as compared to the original draft.

I made additional suggestions after submitting the original storyboard, and also received suggestions from the anime staff. There were many parts of the movie which were touched up after we integrated our ideas. Of the 3 characters mentioned, Swan became an especially good character after that. I have yet to watch the completed film, but I think that it’s an enjoyable movie.

We can also see new settings that have yet to appear in the manga.

Most of these, including the “surprise” that I’ve mentioned earlier, are things that wouldn’t be included in the manga and drawn only for the movie. In that sense, the movie complements the manga and I hope everyone will enjoy it.

You have also worked on the storyboard for the original animation DVDs (OAD) that were bundled with the manga volumes. Were there aspects of that experience that you made use of when you worked on the original storyboard for this movie?

The original storyboard is also a draft proposal, drawn with the expectation that the anime staff would adjust its contents accordingly. I drew it with the same feeling as I would draw the manga. However, doing the anime storyboard was difficult, and I had a tough time! I drew it while timing the seconds with a stopwatch in one hand, and also repeatedly grappled with trying to understand terms that I had just learned while working on it.

You handled the writing of the original storyboard in a similar manner as the manga.

When it comes to the weekly serialization of the manga, there have been times when I was absolutely stuck and and just decided that “I’ll just drag things on till the next chapter for now, and wager on myself (when I work on the chapter for) next week!” (laugh). That wouldn’t work when it comes to the draft of the anime, and I made sure that I handled the story composition and development properly, recalling the days when I was still a rookie.

Please tell us about yourself as well. What are the kinds of things that interest or appeal to you when you come into contact with a piece of work?

I think a good piece of work is one that surprises the audience, and I tend to like those that contain an unexpected twist right at the end. I keep in mind the joy of trying to surprise my readers when I am drawing as well. When I’m developing my story, I don’t foreshadow one event after another, but instead often adopt a pattern where I’ll add in some foreshadowing at parts that I can potentially expand on, and revise it when I expand on the event subsequently. I’ve become good at this since I’ve been doing it for a long time, but there have also been times when sharp readers have pointed out something that had been retconned. I want to work towards being able to draw my manga in such a way that nothing appears to be retconned even if I had revised something retrospectively. RAVE was my debut manga, and I drew it with all the developments firmly set in place. However, serialization of Fairy Tail began with me casually deciding that the story is more or less about wizards going on jobs. It was fun coming up with stories about the various situations they encounter, and I think this style is one that suits me.

Two chapters of Fairy Tail will be concurrently released on 26 April in the combined issue 21.22 of Weekly Shonen Magazine. You are known as someone who works quickly; What is the secret behind that?

I’m not fast at all! It just appears to be that way! I’m happy that people think that way, but my pace of work cannot be considered fast if you were to leap in and see the manga circle from the inside. I have to accelerate my schedule little by little many months before so that I can stock up, and only release 2 chapters at one go when I have a surplus of one full chapter of content. I don’t draw 2 chapters worth of content all of a sudden (laugh).

You also post illustrations of Fairy Tail on Twitter even though you’re busy.

I started it as a form of fan service, and also partly as a hobby because it was a fun. I’m also glad that I get to personally experience the support of many foreign fans through the replies I receive. I’ve heard about having foreign fans from the editorial department, but I thought that they were just paying me lip service (laugh). I worked on the manga with an awareness of the foreign market after that. For example, I try to ensure that the shape of the speech bubbles are more circular rather than elliptical so that it would be easier to fit the English-translated lines. I also take into consideration the difficulties of translation, and stopped including puns that play on the Japanese language.

Fairy Tail has been serialized for 10 years, and next year marks 20 years of your professional debut as a manga artist. Please tell us your feelings about your journey.

This 10 years passed in the blink of an eye. It feels like only so little time has passed, yet at the same time, it has already been 10 years. I was a high school student when I started seriously aiming to be a manga artist, and looking back, I think I was really lucky. I was also aided by the trend of the times. There were hardly any fantasy manga in Weekly Shonen Magazine at the time of my debut, and filling that niche has allowed me to come this far.

Lastly, please leave a message for the fans.

If you enjoyed watching Dragon Cry, that is because of the effort put in by the anime staff. Please convey your comments to them. The Fairy Tail manga is also heading towards its climax. I would be glad if you continue reading till the end!

#fairy tail #fairy tail dragon cry #translation #interview #mashima hiro