Blu-ray Review: Fairy Tail – Part 6

The fairies are back on Blu-ray, but what can we expect from Manga Entertainment’s latest outing, Fairy Tail – Part 6, well lets find out in our Blu-ray Review of it.

Synopsis:

Nirvana continues its march to destroy Wendy’s guild along with a dark secret. Team Natsu and the coalition – as well as an unexpected ally – go full-force against the top sorcerers of Oracion Seis to expel the ancient city’s evil curse before it becomes unstoppable!

Then, when Natsu goes on a mission to see a woman about a dragon, his trip becomes a trap that could force him to turn Magnolia into ash and rubble! Can his friends snuff the Salamander’s involuntary rampage without torching their friend?

Our View:

Magic Spells Destruction and with the Fairy Tail guild that’s exactly what you get, especially within this sixth instalment of the series. Prepare for plenty of fights, laughs, an emotional truth and some new recruits as things go full throttle, especially when it comes to Natsu. It’s Fairy Tail at its comical best which is sure to provide the right amount of entertainment for its viewers. Aye!

The sixth instalment provides the right amount of entertainment and spreads out 12 episodes across two blu-ray discs, with the Oracion Seis Story Arc receiving most of the attention. The story resumes where the fifth instalment left off, with Combra and Natsu engaging in an aerial battle, meanwhile the rest of the coalition attempt to re-group in order to stop Brain once and for all, but as always things don’t go to plan.

The first Blu-ray disc, which contains eight episodes, feels like a constant battle with the Oracion Seis, as with each passing episode a new fight takes place with a new set of characters. For instance once Natsu & Cobra’s fight is done with, Erza engages in a fight with Midnight, while this is going off the ‘real’ founder of the Oracion Seis is unveiled and a brutal battle between him and Natsu takes place and even then Nirvana is still moving around and causing destruction. Of course there is more than just fights (and surprises) taking place on screen, but when the battle is done the shocking truth of the Cait shelter guild is revealed, much to the surprise and dismay of Wendy.

Continuous fights aside the remaining four episodes of this sixth instalment tells its own little story and act as a nice “filler” into the next big storyline. In these episodes Natsu and Wendy go off to follow up on a dragon sighting rumour; however upon arriving it’s actually a trap that sees Natsu captured and used as a power resource for a magically created Dragon. With Natsu trapped inside Dragon the entire Fairy Tail guild team-up to not only save their town but also to save Natsu, and as you’d expect they do it in their own comical way. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it has a few surprises and currently this is one of the best releases thus far with some superior voice acting and detailed picture quality when compared to previous releases.

Extras:

The extra features included with this release of Fairy Tail remain consistent with the previous Part Five release, whereby two English Cast Commentaries, Text less songs and a variety of trailers are included.

As with all Anime releases, and remaining consistent with the previous release, all of the extra features are located on the second disc, except for the Episode 64 English Cast Commentary which is included on the first disc. Interestingly since these discs are a ‘direct’ replica of the US version there are trailers for Guilty Crown (on Disc 1) and Last Exile: Fam (on Disc 2), each of which appear before the disc menu.

Disc 1:

• Episode 64 English Cast Commentary with Tyler Walker (ADR Director), Philip Webber (voice of Brain) & Micah Solusod (voice of Midnight)

Disc 2:

• Episode 70 English Cast Commentary with Tyler Walker (ADR Director), Todd Haberkorn (voice of Natsu) and Gwendolyn Lau (voice of Daphne)
• Text less opening
• Text less closing
• US Trailer
• Trailers

Just like previous anime releases there isn’t much content to be found in the extra features, and for those who enjoy listening to Audio Commentaries about the show then you may be slightly disappointed. The Episode 64 English Cast Commentary provides a useful insight into some of the series timeline, such as the tower of heaven incident and how its linked to current characters such as Brain and Midnight. This particular commentary also takes a look into how Philip and Micah provided the voices for the characters there are representing on screen and, like I said, is quite an entertaining commentary. The Episode 70 English Cast Commentary on the other hand talks more about Gwendolyn’s personal life rather than her thoughts on the series, but for fans of Gwendolyn’s voice acting it does provide information on why she has been absent for so long.

Its still interesting to see Trailers for American products included on a UK release, especially for titles that haven’t been given a UK release but either way trailers included are One Piece, Eureka Seven AO, Legend of Legendary Heroes, Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Chrome Shelled Regios, Sengoku Basara and a gameplay trailer for the Remnant Knights Game. While some titles may not be available (yet) in the UK it’s nice to see them included as usually the only way to find out about a product is by viewing websites.

Specs:

Media: BD 50 x1, BD 25 x1
Region: A & B
Running Time: 3:15:46 (Disc 1), 1:37:58 (Disc 2)
Video: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (English), Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (Japanese)
Subtitles: English (White)
Resolution: 1920×1080 (1080p)
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Aspect Ratio
Frame Rate: 23.976 fps

Overall:

Fairy Tail – Part 6 provides a perfect mixture of entertainment, whether it be the progressive storyline, characters development, comedy or fights there is something for everyone and every episodes contains just enough to keep everyone satisfied.  Like I mentioned before this instalment concludes the Oracion Seis storyline and drops into a small filler styled story arc which starts the build-up to the next big storyline, something which for the time being remains a mystery.

In regards to this Blu-ray release the picture quality (as it is presented in 1080p High Definition) seems much more detailed than the previous part five release, while the audio track (which is a 5.1 Surround Sound English Audio) also feels more cinematic, with explosions and background noises (music) making themselves known. For those who prefer the original Japanese track then that is provided as well in Standard 2.0 Stereo with easy to read subtitles.

Another interesting fact is that the subtitles are for the Japanese audio track and are not for the English Dub, in other words the subtitles are not dubtitles. Watching the Japanese version with Subtitles provided a different dialogue experience to the English Dub, it still had the witty banter but it seemed more mature with its words (I’m not talking about swearing either). Basically watching both versions will provide different experiences, both of which are as entertaining as each other.

So what exactly does Fairy Tail – Part 6 offer? Well it finishes of the Oracion Seis storyline and has some laughs in the smaller filler styled arc, it provides plenty of comical entertainment, a few revelations and constant fighting but for me is that it was an enjoyment to watch from start to finish and you can’t ask more than that. Of course if you’ve watched all of the sets till now then picking up Part 6 is a no brainer, however if you are new to the franchise then starting at Part 1 (or even Part 5) will be a good idea, either way Fairy Tail is this generations One Piece and it provides plenty of laughs for all ages.

Score:

Fairy Tail – Part 6 will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from the 24th February 2014.