English Dub Review: Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest “The “First” Guild and the “Strongest” Guild”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

While the Fairy Tail guild greets some eccentric new members, Natsu and his friends begin one of the most challenging quests ever conceived.

OUR TAKE

It’s hard to believe that the Fairy Tail anime ended almost five years ago after going non-consecutively for eleven years, though even when the manga ended shortly before, it was clear there was more of this story to tell. Only a year after said manga concluded, a sequel began to continue the story of Natsu Dragneel and his friend group who all definitely have names that I’m not avoiding typing out at all. I started watching Fairy Tail back when it began showing on On Demand and kinda got sucked in, but dropped off around the first hundred episodes and never picked it back up, aside from having to cover an episode of the final season in which I was totally lost as to what was happening, and I’ve never really felt the need to watch the episodes I missed in between. So, when I got assigned this sequel show, I figured I would be without a lot of important context that would make jumping in at this point really weird. Thankfully, or maybe unfortunately, it seems like it doesn’t really require all that much knowledge of how the old show ended to start this one, which is certainly a surprise.

If you have even a surface level familiarity with these characters, it seems like you really can just start 100 Year Quest straight away without much help. When I think about sequel shows to long running Shonen stories, it usually involves a considerable time-skip to the point that most of the characters have aged up and become more complex people. Looking at Boruto from Naruto, Dragon Ball Super from Dragon Ball, or any of the early Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure arcs, there was a pretty clear blueprint for how to handle this next step in a franchise. But for whatever reason, I guess the idea here was this sequel series will just be…more of the same. Which I suppose is fine if you enjoyed the old show enough or what a more accessible point for newcomers, which I’m certainly all for on paper. Still, I guess I wish there had been some bigger sense of progression, while also balancing it as a good jumping on point for lapsed viewers like myself. Or maybe I’m overthinking all this and we’re just in for a good and fun time, who knows. Heck, we don’t even know how long the show’s going to be because the manga is still ongoing!