Review: Fairy Tail Chapters 538 Through 544

Fairy Tail

I took a break from reading Fairy Tail for a bit because I couldn’t see it getting any better than its latest chapter. I finally caved in and read them all in one go. You’re probably thinking that my opinion somehow changed as I read along right? Truth is it didn’t. I normally try to make one review per chapter or episode but literally nothing of substance was brought forth to warrant that from my part.

Read my last Fairy Tail review.

My opinion that it needed to die has only been reinforced by these chapters.

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The story told in these chapters

Having waited for a bunch of parts to come out, there were expectations that they would at least have a cohesive narrative that would tie up loose ends decently. What we were met with was a story that went nowhere and instead destroyed every single idea put forth in previous chapters.

Chapter 538

Chapter 538 switches the story back to one of our main characters; Lucy. She played around with the book of END and rewrote the part where Natsu died. Just when we think she might be affected by some negative side effects, Gray uses the power of Ice Devil Slayer magic to purify her. Whatever, that sort of makes sense right? Natsu comes back they have a friendship moment, and then he disappears. Right there is when I felt a bit of the old Fairy Tail coming back, but my hopes were dashed against the stones in the next few parts.

Lucy always felt like a character that could do everything while also being the weakest character there ever was. It was a beautiful paradox at times, but that eventually became annoying as it was always a repeating cycle.

I honestly felt that Fairy Tail was going to kill its protagonist and it felt good since no one has the fortitude of spirit to end their story with death and destruction anymore.

Chapter 539

Chapter 539 was honestly the best chapter there was, and there’s a bizarre reason for that. The reason is that there’s almost no dialogue in it where the author can ruin the whole story. Acnologia, the Dragon King, makes his comeback because obviously, the ravines of time wouldn’t be able to hold him back because he can literally eat magic. This was pretty cool as all hope was lost for everyone and the dragon slayers were disappearing. The author finally made us feel things other than pure disgust for his work!

Fairy Tail chapter 539 Acnologia is back
It looks cool right?

Chapter 540

Chapter 540 goes back to just breaking all of the progress made in 539. Ichiya and Anna get a revival for no good reason. The characters themselves don’t even know why they’re alive again. Turns out there are two battles going on between Fairy Tail and Acnologia’s dragon body and the Dragon slayers against Acnologia’s mind or something. Look by this point you can tell I kept reading to simply get closure.

Fairy Tail chapter 540 Ichiya and Anna are back
This made no sense and there’s no explanation in the story for this travesty.

Chapter 541

541 is where the heroes hatch a plan to take down Acnologia’s dragon body by using a boat to cause it motion sickness and then Fairy Sphere to just trap it inside or something. It’s a hidden magic but it’s been inside a book in the FT library all along. I know it was supposed to be a serious moment but come on! Meanwhile, Acnologia’s spiritual body is curb stomping the dragon slayers with no effort on his part, but we know with absolute certainty they are going to turn it around. How can anyone take this seriously anymore?

Chapter 542

542 sees the terrible plan the team came up with torn to shreds. All Acnologia did was blow up the boats. The method to activating Fairy Sphere is also told to us. Are you ready to hear about how to activate it? Hold hands. That’s it. That’s all Fairy Sphere needed to pop off.

Fairy Tail chapter 542 Acnologia attacks
Yeah… so that’s just him blowing up boats.

Chapter 543

We got some backstory for Acnologia about how dragons ate his family, and that’s why he became angry at the world. The author probably didn’t care at this point honestly. Gray made an ice ship, and Wendy transfers all of the DS powers into Natsu. Remember to keep in mind for the next part that this is all still magic.

Chapter 544

The final chapter for this review is 544. Turns out FT didn’t have enough members to trap Acnologia so they fall into despair until some random girl named Meredith that I just can’t remember for the life of me shows up and says she linked up everyone on the continent. That’s enough of a boost to trap Acnologia’s dragon body, but for some reason it also affects his spiritual body. There was no mention or expectations that this was going to happen but okay. Seeing Acnologia unable to move Natsu gathers magic and punches him which kills him. Acnologia is strangely alright with everything and the power of friendship saves the day once again.

Final thoughts

Look it might seem as if I’m overly critical but there’s a reason to this madness. I was a fan once and felt that this could have been something amazing. Instead, the whole manga crumbled down halfway through and never really got back on its feet. This is what happens when you make your villain strong to the point that there’s no logical explanation as to how they are beaten at the end. Power levels should be respected unless you want a tragedy on your hands.

Jahmssen Ruiz Castaneda
Jahmssen Ruiz Castaneda
Jack of all trades, master of none. Did some college time, and ultimately got a degree that looks good on a shelf. I like anime, video games, and I love manga.