Fairy Tail brought down the curtain on its 11-year history in July 2017. The author of the manga, Hiro Mashima, has never gone on hiatus during Fairy Tail’s run and there was a time when he released 2 chapters a week for three weeks consecutively! He is a person who loves his work and the fans of his work. It’s sad that it’s ending, but as a fan, I am happy that I was able to see the work through to the end.

At almost the same time as the ending, the production of a brand new anime was also announced. We still have a long way to the broadcast but I am excited to see how they will carefully create the anime having understood the complete flow of the manga.

In this series of articles, I would like to look back on the important parts of the anime episodes which have been broadcast so far.

The key to Fairy Tail’s story is the bond of the guild and the existence of dragons. This time, let’s talk about an episode that allows you to understand the bond of the guild. Episode 122 of the TV anime, ‘Let’s Hold Hands’ covers chapters 252 – 253 of Volume 30 of the manga.

Spoiler Alert
This article contains spoilers for the Fairy Tail anime (up to Episode 122) and manga (up to Chapter 253)

Acnologia at the time of the raid of Sirius Island

There is a scene where Makarov, in order to protect the guild members from the threat of Acnologia, tries to hold back Acnologia. It is obvious that a single human trying to match up to a dragon would immediately be overpowered but Makarov laughed as if he were content. It was the first time he was able to do something parent-like.

When you watch the anime, the moment Makarov laughed, Acnologia stopped moving for a moment. This was a scene that wasn’t in the manga. Maybe he didn’t understand the state of mind of Makarov who was laughing in the face of a life-threatening risk. If you were to put dialogue to it, something along the lines of ‘What’s so funny?’ may have been used. He didn’t react to Natsu and Wendy’s calls but it is hinted that after all, Acnologia, just like other dragons, is aware of human words and emotions.

According to Zeref, even though Acnologia is highly intelligent, the reason he doesn’t try to talk to humans is because he doesn’t see them as anything more than insects. He doesn’t care whether the person confronting him is strong or weak; he looks down on the entire human race.

Simultaneous attack with a do-or-die spirit

Even though Makarov ordered them to leave, Natsu and everyone else couldn’t leave him there by himself and returned to attack Acnologia simultaneously. This is the manga’s plot but more fight scenes were added in the anime. Using Laxus’ powerful technique as an axis, those capable of long distance attacks repeatedly did so Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel could use their dragon-slaying magic. This is an overwhelming amount of power so even the viewers who knew the plot were surprised and got their hopes up saying ‘Maybe they will really defeat him..!’

There was something that concerned me when I watched this battle scene. The one famed to be the strongest member of the guild, Gildarts Clive, doesn’t make a single appearance. When Makarov was unable to fight, Gildarts should easily be the strongest fighter. I wonder why he just quietly watched the children fight.

This is just my interpretation, but the reason Gildarts didn’t intervene was because he knew that no matter what he did, they would not be able to defeat Acnologia. Not because he didn’t believe in the power of his comrades. He was the only one who knew Acnologia’s threat and because of this he was calm.

Acnologia could send all of them flying on a whim, he can’t let his precious comrades die so when push comes to shove he needed to be able to protect the children as Makarov did, therefore he couldn’t allow himself to be wounded all over. It’s just my opinion but I think that was his state of mind as a veteran.

The bond of Fairy Tail

There are many people in Fairy Tail who have a difficult relationship with their family; Gray who lost his hometown, and Lucy and Cana who are unable to interact well with their parents. Each and every member has a past and is dealing with something in their hearts. The guild masters kindly accept these different sides saying, ‘The guild is a family’. That teaching has taken root over a long period of time and each member firmly believes it and passes it on to others. That is how the will of the Fairy Tail has been handed down.

The members of Fairy Tail never give up, no matter what dilemma they are faced with. No matter what huge incident they are involved in, if there is conflict within the guild, whether they have to face a nation from a parallel world, or whether they stand face-to-face with dragons who surpass human intelligence. They have faced many difficulties so far, but they have never deserted their friends or ran away out of fear. Joining hands with their comrades, they have faced everything head on and shattered all obstacles.

Family and Friendship

The bond of friends and the love of family. ‘In order to protect the precious connection that keeps me alive, I can’t just give up by myself.’ I’m sure that’s what each of them thinks. I love Fairy Tail because this feeling can be seen all throughout their actions and words.