FAIRY TAIL VOLUME 2
March 23rd 2010 00:37
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
Publisher; Del Rey Ballantine Books
Story & Art by: Hiro Mashima
Translated & Adapted by: William Flanagan
Lettering by: North Market Street Graphics
Cost: AU$17.95/US$10.95
In this the second volume of this particular manga series there is an interesting feature at the end of the volume where the audience is introduced to the staff involved in its production along with a bird’s eye view of where it all comes together. Combined with this little vignette is an afterword from the author himself regarding how the characters were named and just a message on what possible directions that the story will take over time – mainly an exhortation to fans to make useful suggestions and render advice when necessary. It’s an interesting glimpse into the word of the manga-ka, although I have to wonder whether it’s used to justify the high price of this particular series which is at least four dollars more than the manga produced by VIZ Media.
Lucy, our plucky protagonist, has managed to get herself accepted as a member of Fairy Tale due to the efforts of Natsu aka Salamander. She has become part of this famous or infamous (depending on whether you’ve had property trashed by a Fairy Tail wizard) guild and is now looking to make the most of it. Of course being teamed up with the somewhat erratic Natsu and his offsider Happy may not be the best of choices, still there is no doubting that despite their somewhat goofy antics the pair of them are a force to be reckoned with magically and physically. So when they invite her to go along for this job involving the villainous duke and his book she knows that they’re likely to come well out on top regardless of any dangers that may come their way. What they aren’t prepared for is the true nature of the book they’re out to get and in actual fact not even the owner or their patron is fully aware of the actual truth behind this work, suffice to say though that there is magic involved.
The rest of the volume’s contents revolve around the opening stanzas of ‘Lullaby’, now the Oxford Concise Dictionary defines a lullaby as: a soothing refrain or song to put a child to sleep. Certainly music does play a significant part in this story, as does the notion of sleep although not the usual night-time sleep one engages in over the course of one’s daily activities but sleep of a more terminal kind. A grand scheme has been concocted, one which the wizard’s of Fairy Tail have to thwart otherwise it will mean a great deal of chaos and calamity. It all begins with the league meeting of the regional wizards guilds.
Now most guilds are members of a regional league and the various masters of the guilds get together and sort out anything that needs sorting out, exchange pleasantries and no doubt generally enjoy a good old fashioned bun fight; the kind where you eat, drink and make merry not try to stone you fellow attendees to death with hard bread rolls which is the little known other kind of bun fight. Notice that I said most guilds are members of a league, out on the fringes of wizard society their exist what are effectively known as dark guilds, guilds who follow outlawed practices such as line dancing, demonic summoning, necromancy and assassination just to name a few. One of Fairy Tail’s more powerful members, Erza Scarlet, whilst on in a pub after a completing a job overhears several members of the Eisenwald guild discussing something seemingly innocuous.
Eisenwald is one of the dark guilds, it was outlawed for its continued carrying out of assassinations for hire, which sounds like a very valid rationale for it to be outlawed, still its members don’t seem to look beyond that. All they can see is that they, in their minds, have been hard done by; by both the league and the Wizard’s Council – the body that oversees all wizards’ guilds all over the world. Under the leadership of the Death God Erigor, an infamous wizard assassin the Eisenwald Guild intend to demonstrate to their ‘detractors’ just how wrong it was to outlaw them and the consequences of such an action. The key to this is Lullaby. Fairy Tail Volume 2 is an enjoyable read and if you have the time, and money to spare, its worth checking it out, or maybe if you’re lucky your local library may have a copy sitting on the shelves waiting to be read. You never know…
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