Previously on Fairy Tail:

Natsu & his team succeed in stopping the dark guild Eisenwald from unleashing the Lullaby spell in Clover. They now make their way back to Magnolia and to Fairy Tail. Spoilers Ahead.

After stopping the attack on the Guild Masters, Team Natsu makes their way back to Magnolia along with their Master Makarov (R Bruce Elliot). However they find themselves lost while following Happy (Tia Ballard) and end up in the deadly Clover Canyon. Suffering from an extreme case of hunger the group stops in a town inside of the canyon, but when they get there they find out that the town is completely deserted.

This what we in the anime community call an “Omake” episode, or in layman’s terms filler. These episodes are usually made to pad out the anime so the manga the show is based off of can get farther ahead. These episodes can either be one or two episodes (as seen here) or they can be entire ARCS (as seen in DBZ, or the more notorious culprits: Naruto & Bleach). There is nothing really wrong with filler (SOMETIMES) but they can be real jarring at times and ruin the momentum of a story arc is used wrong. And there is your anime lesson for the day (don’t say we never taught you anything).

Back to the episode. Nothing too much in the ways of story progression here, but it still manages to be a mildly enjoyable outing. A few funny moments here and there, mostly coming from Lucy’s (Cherami Leigh) overreaction’s at the things happening around her. There are a couple 4th wall breaks from Happy when Natsu (Todd Haberkorn) & Gray (Newton Pittman) happen upon some mushrooms on the outskirts of town. We also get a few funny moments between Makarov & Erza as they investigate why the town is deserted.This gives us more insight into how the wizards interact with the Master and we also get a small peek of Makarov’s awesome power near the end of this episode.

Another one of Erza’s many armors

That doesn’t mean this episode is all humor however, there are a few good action scenes when the wizards find out just what is up with the crazy town. Consisting onf Erza debuting another new “armor” and Happy having a pulse pounding battle with a living chair! We are also introduced to two more members of the Fairy Tail guild: Bisca Mulan (Angela Chase) & Alzack Connell (Austin Tindle) who are searching for their lost comrades for Mirajane (Monica Rial).

“Natsu Devours a Village” may be a filler episode but it is an enjoyable one. Filled with the light hearted humor the show excels at and a few good action scenes. Not much drama here, but the mystery of the deserted town is interesting and the dangerous history of Clover Canyon adds to the atmosphere of the scenes. The adventure continues next week as Team Natsu finally return to Fairy Tail.

3/5