Review for Fairy Tail: Collection 2

Introduction

I don’t really need an excuse to re-watch something that I enjoy, but when Manga Entertainment go back and upgrade their first four Fairy Tail DVD releases to two Blu-ray collections, I’m more than happy to push the title to the top of the re-watch pile. It’s also a nice reminder of just how effortlessly Fairy Tail told its story, managed to entertain, and engage emotionally during its first 48 episodes. The three more recent releases have shown the series struggling somewhat to recapture that initial effortless charm, and only with Part 7 has it found that first series groove again. Parts 3 and 4 of Fairy Tail on DVD were where the show totally won me over, and with any luck, this Blu-ray collection will do the same again.

The Kingdom of Fiore is a rather special place, a nation of some 17 million where magic exists, is commonplace, and is a commodity to be bought and sold. Those who become proficient in magic are the wizards, and together they form guilds to serve the community, or serve themselves. The most famous, and indeed the most infamous guild of them all is Fairy Tail. 17-year-old Lucy Heartfilia is a wizard, or rather she wants to be a wizard. She’s already skilled in a Celestial magic, able to summon spirits to do her bidding using Gatekeys. Her dream is to be in Fairy Tail, and when she meets a travelsick young wizard named Natsu, and his talking cat companion Happy, it seems like destiny has brought them together. Now Lucy has joined the Fairy Tail Guild, and with its unique roster of wizards, including Natsu, the ice wizard Gray Fullbuster, and the armour wizard Erza Scarlet, and the flying cat Happy, they undertake the toughest, the most challenging, and the weirdest of missions.

Since I’ve already reviewed this Collection in the form of Part 3 and Part 4 on DVD, I’ll point you at those reviews for a more in depth look at the content. This review is more about whether it’s worth double-dipping. In this second collection, you get 24 episodes of Fairy Tail across 4 Blu-ray discs, two dual layer and two single as follows.

Disc 1
25. A Flower Blooms in the Rain
26. Wings of Flame
27. The Two Dragon Slayers
28. Fairy Law
29. My Resolve
30. Next Generation
31. A Star Removed From the Sky
32. Celestial Spirit King

Disc 2
33. The Tower of Heaven
34. Jellal
35. Voice of Darkness
36. Heaven’s Game


Disc 3
37. Armor of the Heart
38. Destiny
39. Give Our Prayers to the Sacred Light
40. Titania Falls
41. Home
42. Battle of Fairy Tail
43. Defeat Your Friends to Save Your Friends
44. Thunder Palace

Disc 4
45. Advent of Satan
46. Clash at Kardia Cathedral
47. Triple Dragons
48. Fantasia

Picture

Blu-ray should mean sharp, crystal clear, high definition animation. Not so much with Fairy Tail though, as while the show does get a 1080p widescreen presentation at the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, it’s clear that the show was animated at a lower resolution and scaled up. It looks little different from the DVD presentation, soft and with somewhat muted colours. I also get the feeling, given the odd bit of judder in pans and scrolls, particularly during the credit sequences, that it’s been converted to a progressive format from an interlaced source. What the HD presentation does offer is clarity and smoothness of character artwork, with no aliasing to speak of, and compression artefacts completely absent. And you do get a 24 fps progressive presentation, without any of the PAL speed-up or pitch correction that you would get with a PAL DVD. That alone is reason enough to opt for the Blu-ray.

The image is clear and generally very pleasant too watch. It’s a bright, lively anime, and given that it’s a long running series, the character designs are understandably simplistic, the world design not overly complex. It’s full of primary colours, and the animation itself is energetic, especially through the various spell sequences.

The images in this review are sourced from the PR, and aren’t necessarily representative of the final retail release.

Sound

You have the choice between Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround English, and Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Stereo Japanese, with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. You do get the added clarity and range of a lossless presentation, but it’s still pretty similar to the DVD, although I must once again reiterate that it’s at the native frame rate and without any speed-up or pitch correction. My preference as always was for the Japanese audio track with the subtitles. It is adequate, although one slight point of annoyance for some may be the lead character of Lucy played by Aya Hirano, who simply supplies another variation of her stock Haruhi Suzumiya tsundere voice. Otherwise it’s a fairly run of the mill audio track, playing the show for laughs. More impressive is the show’s music, which with a pop Celtic theme supplements the show’s magical themes very well, although it is boosted by a wholesale plundering of the classical music archives.

The subtitles are clear, well timed, and free of error throughout although for these earlier discs from Funimation, the subtitle font is a little thin and easily overwhelmed by noisy backgrounds.

Extras

The discs get animated menus with the show’s music playing in the background.

Disc 1 autoplays with a trailer for .hack//Quantum.

The first disc gets two audio commentaries, the first accompanies episode 26. In it, ADR Director Tyler Walker and the Mix Engineer Andrew Tipps get together to chat about the way that the English dub is put together, and more importantly, how Funimation creates a 5.1 surround track from the original stereo effects and music track that the Japanese company supplies. This does get pretty technical, but it’s a nice accompaniment to an episode which divulges information you may never have heard.

The second audio commentary accompanies episode 32, and this time Tyler Walker hosts Cherami Leigh (Lucy), and Eric Vale (Loke) to talk about the episode and Loke’s character arc in the story.


Disc 2 autoplays with a trailer for Princess Jellyfish, making me wish I had a Region A player to go with my Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of the set. You also find two textless opening credits, two textless closing credits, and further trailers for Sands of Destruction. Nabari no Ou, Kaze no Stigma, One Piece, and Hetalia World Series in SD, and the defunct Dragon Ball Z Level sets and Fairy Tail Part 4 in HD.

Disc 3 also gets a trailer for Princess Jellyfish, and on it you will find an audio commentary to accompany episode 39. In it, ADR Director Tyler Walker and voice of Siegrain (and others) Rob McCollom get together for the typical light hearted Funimation yak track.

Disc 4 autoplays with a trailer for Dragon Ball Kai on Blu-ray, the abridged version of the epic shonen classic.

Disc 4’s audio commentary accompanies episode 45, and this time Tyler Walker hosts the show’s writing team, fellow cast members John Burgmeier (Fried), and Monica Rial (Mirajane), and this is a more appealing commentary with interesting insights into the adaptation process.

Disc 4 also has the textless credits, as well as further trailers for Okami-san and her Seven Companions, and Sengoku Basara Season 2 in HD, and Sands of Destruction, One Piece Chrome Shelled Regios, Nabari no Ou, and Yu Yu Hakusho in SD.

Conclusion

I’ll keep it short and sweet here. My opinion really hasn’t changed since I reviewed the DVDs, although, I have to say, without the added distraction of taking notes this time while I watched, I enjoyed these episodes even more, and picked up on little plot developments that didn’t quite register the first time around. Once again, I have to say that these episodes, comprising the Jellal storyline and the Battle for Fairy Tail storyline are the pinnacle of the show so far, and since then, parts 5 and 6 have fallen short, while part 7 with its parallel world storyline might have a chance of emulating what these episodes achieved when it comes to writing, character, storyline, and emotional resonance.

The real question is should you double dip? If you’re starting out on Fairy Tail, naturally the Blu-ray is the format of choice, but if you already have those DVDs, it is really just the audiophile that doesn’t want to put up with sped-up and pitch corrected PAL audio, and who will hear the difference in lossless audio who would feel the technical need to opt for these Blu-rays. Otherwise it is the obsessive collector who cannot stand an inconsistency in spine height who’ll want all Blu-rays on their Fairy Tail shelves. When it comes to the video, the colours are crisper, compression is less, but in terms of resolution and detail, there’s not a lot in it between the DVDs and the Blu-rays.


I had forgotten just how much promise Fairy Tail had at the end of this collection of episodes. We’d had two major arcs, with the reveal of Erza’s past and her friendship turned sour with Jellal, and we also had the awesome Battle of Fairy Tail, with Makarov’s grandson Laxus letting his disaffection with his perceived lot lead him down a wrong path, and in true shonen anime style, he needed a good beating to help him realise the error of his ways. The season ended on a powerful, forward-looking note, with tantalising threads hanging about Ultear and Hades, Gajeel and Ivan, and an interesting exchange between Igneel and Grandeeney, none of which has yet panned out in the three subsequent instalments of the show. However, we have followed up on Jellal, and we are in the middle of the reveal about Mystogan’s nature. But I really do feel that these later episodes have yet to live up to the promise of this collection.