ANIME MONDAY: Fairy Tail – “A Flower Blooms In The Rain” Review


Previously on Fairy Tail:

The battle against Phantom continued as Fairy Tail encountered members of the Element 4. Natsu, Elfman, & Gray defeat Totomaru but when the group separates Elfman finds himself in battle with Sol! Spoilers Ahead!

Elfman (Chris Sabat) succeeds in using the Full Body Takeover, defeating Sol (Barry Yandel) and saving Mirajane (Monica Rial) from danger. Noticing that the giant is drawing the circle slower, Mira deduces that the Abyss break spell is powered by the Element 4 and that beating them will stop the spell completely. Inside the giant Natsu (Todd Haberkorn) & Happy (Tia Ballard) encounter Aria (Chris Rager) while outside a fierce battle begins between Gray (Newton Pittman) & Juvia (Brina Palencia).

With the secret behind the Abyss Break being revealed, it sets up some more hoops that Fairy Tail has to go through to beat Phantom. This is alright seeing as how we get some nice fight scenes.

Elfman & Sol for starters is just a continuation of last episodes so it’s pretty short and only takes up about 2 minutes of time as it’s just Elfman beating the crap out of Sol while in his “Beast” form (although it was satisfying to see Elfman dominate, especially when he put Sol’s soul back in his body and continued to pummel him). Mira & Elfman also have a nice family scene as they are still trying to forge ahead after Lisanna’s death.

Elfman in his Beast Soul Takeover

We only catch glimpses of Natsu’s fight with Aria, but what we do see of it proves that Natsu is against the ropes to the say the least.We also see Lucy (Cherami Leigh) & Reedus (Sonny Strait) but nothing really comes from this since it’s just Lucy reiterating how it’s her fault and she should be helping.

The main feature of the episode is the battle between Gray and the rain woman Juvia. As the two wizards use complimentary magic (Gray uses Ice & Juvia uses water) it is an interesting battle as Gray has to use his head to defeat her, since simply freezing the water won’t be enough. Even more interesting is that Juvia immediately falls in love with Gray before they even start fighting and her goal is to beat him so he will become hers (eh I’ve seen worse ways to get someone to notice you). This made the fight amusing as Juvia constantly fangirled over Gray during their fight.

We also get a look into Juvia’s back story during the battle which was kind of odd since this didn’t happen with the other element 4 members. Her story is pretty sad as she had no friends and was teased by other kids growing up since she couldn’t control her magic, meaning that wherever she went it rained. It even ruined a relationship she was in. (She was with Bora, you remember that guy right? The fake Salamander from the 1st episode? No? Ok moving on.)

Young Juvia

“A Flower Blooms in The Rain” is a decent episode that continues to satisfy, but not wow. Elfman’s fight was a bit anti-climatic and most of the stuff was moved out of the way for the Gray, Juvia fight. Juvia’s back story was a nice addition and it was cool to see Gray take the reins in another episode.

3.5/5