Manga Review: Fairy Tail, Volume 8

Hey all, Dani here.

Good morning, and welcome back to my slate of Manga Monday posts. When this one goes live, I’ll be at work. It hasn’t been too bad to be back down in the standard jobs, but I do miss my job in isolation.

But, I’ve heard that I might be changing job parameters again in the next few weeks, which possibly will include going to night shift instead of day shift. But it is a better job with better pay so I’ll be okay with needing to adjust my sleep schedule all over again.

Okay, before I jump into the review, I need to say that I’m definitely in a “Fairy Tail” mood right now. We started watching one of my favorite story arcs of the anime again and it has been really fun. Okay, review time.

Book Details

Format: Paperback

Pages: 208

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Publication Date: June 14, 2011

ISBN: 1612621015 (ISBN13: 9781612621012)

Summary

ULTIMATE DUEL

Gajeel is a dragon slayer who can shoot huge iron pillars from his body with crushing precision, while dragon slayer Natsu fights with devastating flame attacks. Their fierce battle began when Gajeel’s wizard guild, Phantom Lord, assaulted rival guild Fairy Tail–but can either headquarters withstand two such destructive forces?

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

Gajeel is such a jerk when we first meet him. He pretty much tortures Levy, Jet, and Droy, and then he destroys the Fairy Tail guild hall, and he kidnaps Lucy, even going so far as to string her up and toss knives at her because he’s bored. And when his guildmates talk about him hitting her, he says that he doesn’t care if she lives or dies.

I think this hits so hard because this arc is from like season one of the anime, and I’m watching the Grand Magic Games Arc of season six, and there has been so much character growth for Gajeel and many others. They’ve all been through so much.

Seeing that growth also made me look at how Fairy Tail accepts change and how easily they can forgive those who start off as rivals and enemies. Fairy Tail is a family and sometimes families struggle and fight, even with each other, but eventually they forgive each other and move past it. This found family can accept someone like Gajeel or Juvia into their ranks even after they attacked and nearly killed members of Fairy Tail, but the way that Fairy Tail treats people, their willingness to fight for and defend each other, their never give up attitude, it changes people.

That is what I took from this volume as I looked back at the overall series growth. The character growth is absolutely outstanding.

There’s some really big action scenes as Natsu and Gajeel fight each other in this volume as well.

I can’t wait to binge read some more of this series during Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon this weekend.

Where to Get a Copy

You can grab your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore through IndieBound.

You can also check with your local library.