Manga Review: Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest

Spoilers for the first few chapters of Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest!

It’s another day at the Fairy Tail guild! Three new members are being welcomed in: a young man, a young woman, and a young boy. Except… Laxus frightens off the man and the boy, the latter of whom runs away screaming, “This place is terrifying! How could anyone make themselves at home here?!” But the young woman, Touka, sticks around because, as she loudly proclaims, she’s hopelessly in love with… Natsu??? However, Natsu is in absentia at the moment, as he, Lucy, Gray, and the cats are off on an adventure on the continent of Guiltina, to accomplish the titular “100 Years Quest.”

It’s one that involves the oldest magic guild in the world, Magia Dragon. (There’s just the right touch of new lore here: not overwhelming, but sufficient to provide a foundation for the new story.) Our heroes quickly find themselves up to their elbows in new friends and enemies. And meanwhile, back at the Fairy Tail guild hall, Touka may not be as innocent and friendly as she appears…

Review: Fairy Tail may not be ranked by most among the famous classical “Big Three” of anime, but it has certainly solidified its position as a classic over the years. When the manga, and then the anime, concluded, I had mixed feelings: I mean, it was kind of time for the whole thing to wrap up, but I was gonna miss Natsu, Happy, Lucy, and my other friends. Because if there’s one thing thing that Fairy Tail is about, it’s friends. It perfectly captures and distills the carefree, rambunctious free-for-all from the best of my college days, with the guild building kind of presenting the same sort of atmosphere as a dorm.

So it’s fun to see the Fairies return! This really feels like a new plot arc of the same story, rather than a true sequel. (Edens Zero is more properly a kind of spiritual sequel, in that it’s doing something new but in the same spirit of FT.) Though as I said, it was already time for the series to draw to a close. Mangaka Hiro Mashima has already tied together every loose thread, and answered every important question (except for the one raised back at the start of the series, “Do fairies have tails?”). Can something new be said in a story that has so thoroughly explored its characters, or something new done on such well-trod narrative ground?

To be honest… I’m not yet sure. Even if this new arc doesn’t break new ground, I’ll enjoy it. More of the same is fine with me. But I’d also like to see some new direction or new elements added to the old formula, if such can be done without breaking the Fairy Tail spell. So for now I’ll stick around and see where the adventure takes us next!

If you wish to check out the new adventures of the Fairy Tail gang, you may read them for free at K Manga or purchase the paperbacks on Amazon. (As always, when you go through the Amazon links, you support the blog too.) I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!