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The following review contains spoilers for Fairy Tail (2009), Fairy Tail (2014), Fairy Tail: The Phoenix Priestess, and Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry.

Fairy Tail Dragon Cry or pandering to Natsu fans, the movie is a perfect example of everything Fairy Tail fans are sick of. I was even more hyped for this than I was for Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, which delivered everything a SAO fan could have asked for. Fairy Tail is my favorite anime of all time and has been for over four years now. After waiting a year for the English dub to come out, Dragon Cry is the single most ... disappointing release in all my years as an anime fan.

Respect for the Main Character

The story starts out with Natsu and of course is all about Natsu and some irrelevant, movie exclusive characters named Sonya and Zash. Despite the fact that Lucy is the main character of Fairy Tail, she is treated the same as Erza and Gray. Or maybe even worse because at least Erza and Gray get some bad ass moments, while Lucy's best moments are using her wit and sex appeal.

The Tartaros arc proved that Lucy is just as capable of a fighter as her friends. Not only did she defeat Jackal (something Natsu couldn't do) but she also held her own against Mard Geer, and the only reason that fight went to a draw was because she passed out from using too much energy after having summoned three celestial spirits at once (something no one else has been able to do) and on top of that summoning the Celestial Spirit King! If it were not for Lucy, everyone in Fairy Tail would have died to Alegria.

Dragon Cry had plenty of opportunity to prove once again just how strong of a fighter Lucy really is, and show once and for all that she is on the same power level as Erza and Gray. Unfortunately, while Lucy does get some new powers in this film thanks to her Star Forms, she really only uses them to outsmart Zash and then shoot a few arrows at some random guards. Meanwhile Erza, Gray, Wendy, and Natsu all win notable fights.

Fairy Tail does not respect its main character enough. I was so happy to see Lucy finally get a big win in the Tartaros arc. In fact, the two episodes covering her fight against Jackal are my favorite anime episodes ever. The emotion was off the charts and seeing Lucy prove herself after 200+ episodes of watching her grow and become stronger and stronger was the most gratifying moment I have ever experienced.

Lucy actually does get more powerful in Dragon Cry since she has Star Forms now and does fight alongside her spirits. However, simply fighting random guards while everyone else fights named characters does not give her a chance to show the progress she has made. At one point, it looked like she was going to fight Zash, but this lasts for about a minute before Zash runs away. Maybe you could technically consider that a win since Capricorn hit Zash and he didn't fight back, but it's not exactly impressive.

Pandering to Natsu fans

Let me say this really clearly, Natsu is NOT the main character of Fairy Tail. Lucy is the narrarator, the first character we see, and most of the story is about her. After 267 episodes (not counting Fairy Tail Zero) all we really know about Natsu is that he was raised by a dragon named Igneel, and he likes fighting. We know everything there is to know about Lucy. Every anime original arc is about her for a reason. She has by far the most character development in the series, and the strongest relationships with the other characters, and has made more improvements as a fighter than any other character.

The only reason anyone thinks Natsu is the main character is because he has the most marketing, but that is only for two reasons. The first being because Lucy has nothing in common with other shounen MCs such as Naruto and Luffy while Natsu is practically a clone of them. The other being that Natsu is a male and for some reason, male anime characters have always been more popular than females. These are superficial reasons that really only effect marketing. As far as the story and the anime/manga itself, Lucy is the main character, and Natsu is the male lead.

In every other battle shounen, the main character wins most of the big fights, but unfortunately in Fairy Tail, Natsu does. It often feels like a shoujo, with Lucy the MC watching as her hero the male lead protects everyone. This is one of, if not the biggest flaws of Fairy Tail as a whole, and it is very prevalent once again in Dragon Cry. For most of the movie, Zash is the main villain. He antagonizes Lucy throughout the film, and while she kind of gets a bit of revenge on him she never really fights him. This was yet another chance to let Lucy FINALLY beat the big bad villain of an arc but no, because that would be to good to be true.

In the last half hour of the movie, suddenly Zash becomes an afterthought and some dragon that was inside Sonya's body for years (much like Igneel was inside Natsu) appears to set up the final battle. Naturally, all of the focus is taken off Lucy vs Zash, so much so that their conflict never reaches a conclusion. All so Natsu can play hero once again and save the Kingdom of Fiore from the evil dragon.

Making Sense

With Fairy Tail's manga having ended out of nowhere in 2017, you would think one of the most popular anime in history that has lasted for a decade would respect its story. Dragon Cry is all over the place, introducing things that anime fans who don't read the manga don't have any clue about and just pretending like we should know whats going on with zero explanation for why things are happening. Some examples of this are Carla having a human form, Lucy having her Star Dresses/Star Forms, Natsu having a dragon form, and Acnologia having a human form to name the most obvious ones.

On top of all of that, the film randomly drops a massive bombshell on us, that Natsu is somehow the infamous E.N.D. Now I'm confused as fuck. Will the new anime starting sometime this year explain this stuff, pretend it never happened, or just hope we somehow figure it out ourselves without reading ahead in the manga and spoiling the anime? Also, I understand why Fairy Tail is together like normal in the movie, but the last thing we saw in the TV series was that Fairy Tail had disbanded, and Lucy, Natsu, and Happy were going to try and bring the guild back together. For the movie to just say fuck that, Fairy Tail is one happy family again as they've always been is incredibly annoying and once again makes me question where the anime will go from here. They absolutely cannot just pretend the guild never disbanded, but if any of this movie is intended to be canon they can't pretend that they never got back together.

Fanservice

Fairy Tail has always been known for having more fanservice than any other show in its genre, as it should because the girls are fucking hot. The first movie, Phoenix Priestess has one of the best nude scenes ever with Lucy's naked butt prominently on display. Dragon Cry on the other hand teases but never delivers. There is lots of cleavage and a bit of butt crack, but when you consider how great the nudity has been in previous Fairy Tail releases, it is a big let down to see this movie continually tease us but never pay it off.

The transformation scenes are especially ridiculous. There are at least 3-4 brief transformations scenes where the characters (Lucy, Erza, and Carla) are briefly naked but we don't see anything as their bodies are covered by infuriating white lights and in Carla's case, a tail. For Fairy Tail of all anime to let me down in the fanservice department is something that has not happened before, and something I was not expecting.

Despite it's flaws, it's still more Fairy Tail

Make no mistake about it, Dragon Cry is the worst Fairy Tail has ever been. But the worst my favorite anime has ever been is still pretty good. While the series flaws are more obvious than ever, there is still a lot to like here. The characters (besides for Natsu, Happy, and Gray, who are lame) are all still awesome, the girls are all still hot despite keeping their clothes on, and the voice acting is still great (besides for Tia Ballard, who is still awful). The art and animation are better than ever (which makes it all the more disappointing we didn't get any nudity).

Overall, I loved seeing my wife Lucy once again after a year and a quarter of no Fairy Tail. Her dancing was the highlight of the movie, but it wasn't a long enough scene to save this movie from being disappointing, and very average. The only reason the score is a 7 is because I've missed Lucy so much so it was great to finally see her and some of the other characters again.

Over the years, Fairy Tail has always managed to bring out some emotion in me, whether it was happiness, sadness, or horniness, I always felt something when watching my favorite anime. Dragon Cry just left me frustrated and blue-balled. While Ordinal Scale satisfied my appetite for more SAO, Dragon Cry just made me want Fairy Tail to return more. This film while enjoyable, was honestly not worth the trouble of avoiding spoilers for a year. Still I can't wait for Fairy Tail to return.

Characters - 10/10
Story - 6/10
Art - 10/10
Fanservice - 6/10 (Lucy's dance scene was hot as fuck but its lacking nudity)
Emotion - Lacking/10 (Fairy Tail usually makes me feel something)
Enjoyment - 6/10