'Fairy Tail' Kicks-Off Dangerous New Spy Mission

12/04/2018 10:44 pm EST

Fairy Tail's final season has kicked into high gear as Natsu and the others have started a new spy mission into the Alvarez Empire in order to save their former Guild Master Makarov. But like most of their missions, things didn't go exactly as planned.

After an eye-popping beach going start, things get messy quickly as Natsu and the others find themselves fighting against a strong new opponent.

In the latest episode, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Wendy, and Mest head to Caracole Island to meet up with someone who has information on where Makarov could be hiding. Upon seeing the Alvarez military, the gang disguises themselves as tourists from the Cait Shelter guild. This naturally leads to a hilarious bit of fan service as Erza and Lucy use their wiles to get back unopposed.

But when one of the guards begins attacked a child crying because they lost their mother, Natsu and the others spring into action with Natsu hilariously still in disguise as a "Ninja" (complete with a "Nin Nin" catchphrase). They get through the guards pretty easily, and even get a moment of respite, but soon are confronted with a powerful new mage.

A member of a team called the Brandish Squad appears and he has complete control of space magic. First he removes Lucy and Erza from the picture by teleporting them somewhere completely different, and he easily takes out Mest (who uses spatial magic to teleport). Things only seem to get worse from here as his commander, Brandish, appears at the end of the episode.

With this recent episode being the very first step into Alvarez, it's pretty harrowing to see it go South as quickly as it had. It wasn't even a full episode before Natsu and the others are caught, and that's likely because they are too heroic to just watch an innocent child be hurt in order to truly be on a spy mission. That's just not the Fairy Tail guild way.

Fairy Tail was originally created by Hiro Mashima for Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine, running from 2006 to 2017 and selling over 60 million copies. The series is set in a fantasy world full of magic following Natsu Dragneel, a fire breathing wizard with the powers of a dragon who is in search of his missing foster father, the dragon Igneel. As he and his wizarding guild Fairy Tail get into adventures, Natsu always tries to find a way to succeed.

The series was later adapted into an anime by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc., and Satelight in 2009 and ended its first run in 2013. A second season ran from 2014 to 2016, and the third season serves as the final one.

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