Project #287.5: Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry

Hey guys, Nitsuj here, and welcome to another side blog the blogs between the blogs. Let’s talk about Fairy Tail. My relationship with Fairy Tail is a complex one. There’s a lot of plot holes in the story, the fanservice can get out of control in some areas, some things are poorly explained, pointless characters return for no reason, and friendship BS that manages to solve everything. Yet, despite all of this I don’t regret picking up and reading the manga from beginning to end. It’s a basic shonen series that’s easy to get into and get lost in. Too bad is Dragon Cry is a poor example of this. Released in 2017 by A-1 Pictures, Dragon Cry is the second Fairy Tail movie and perfectly encompasses everything we like and don’t like about Fairy Tail. Let’s go on an adventure and take look at Fairy Tail Dragon Cry.

The movie starts off with Natsu having a dream about being a child and discovering Igneel for the first time (he had a big head as a child. That body should not be able to support that head). He wakes up shackled to a cell that is being carried away by a giant bird. The cell breaks and he manages to eat some fire regaining his strength and defeat the bird (I’m sure there’s a reason behind this but for now I’m calling it pointless). We cut to a few days ago where a man named Zash is traveling the snowy region to Fiore with a girl named Sonya. The boarder patrol stops him (wow, a border patrol that works) because apparently Zash is a wanted man who betrayed Fiore in the past. He dealt in black magic and tried to overthrow the royal family but his plan failed and he escaped across the border with the help of his allies. We get to see that his power is being able to control others and he has all the soldiers fight and kill each other (it’s like Lelouch from Code Geass except it kills people). We then cut to Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, and Wendy traveling to Fiore’s capital for a mission from the king who wants them to find a staff they call Dragon Cry that was originally in the graveyard of the dragons. The staff absorbed the anger and grief of the dragons and now has the power to destroy an entire empire (the rage of a dragon is not to be messed with). This is where Zash comes in, he now has the staff and is planning to use it to exact revenge on Fiore. All the group has to go on is that he’s the prime minister of the Stella Kingdom (https://youtu.be/Er_yEIE2I2o) a kingdom known for their famous mineral Stellanium a mineral harder than diamond and their beautiful night sky (that sets the perfect mood for some much-needed romance). The group infiltrates the kingdom where we get some Lucy fanservice as well as Erza fanservice with in her a bunny outfit (Baron: I’d love to give her my carrot. (Corbin): I’d love to cool Lucy down with my icicle. (Nitsuj): Wow, you guys are being way more obvious than normal. (Corbin): It’s Fairy Tail, they don’t hide it and neither should we). Since this is a bar that Zash visits a lot the group plans to steal his ring, break into the castle, and steal back to the staff to avoid an international crisis. He shows up (he heard the bar had a new blonde girl with amazing saucers) where Lucy distracts him with her dancing (use that extra thicc body girl) and Erza steals his ring without him noticing (scene here: https://youtu.be/Dga_wRrYeDU, it’s just not Fairy Tail without the fanservice). Gray makes an ice copy and gives it to Happy and Carla who use it to break into the vault. They retrieve the staff but trip the alarm resulting in a chase scene where everyone gets a short moment to shine (I especially like Wendy’s part where she used her wind magic to give herself a short burst of speed in order to reclaim the staff after she dropped it) and they manage to escape.

Animus, the king of Stella is rightfully pissed and orders Zash to retrieve the staff. With the help of Sonya who can detect magic artifacts Zash finds them and the group gets defeated by Swan (capoeira fighter), Doll (big muscular guy who fights with dolls), and Gapri (uses a bouncy ball to fight. Ran out of ideas) a group of fighters known as the 3 Stars and the kingdom’s best fighters. They retrieve the staff and lock Natsu and the others in those bird cells except for Lucy who gets taken captive by Zash personally (he takes his girls extra thicc). This leads us to our current situation we saw at the beginning where Natsu defeats the bird and then proceeds to save the others where they try to come up with a plan to save Lucy. We return to the palace where we see Lucy in the dungeon of Zash who plans to use her as a sacrifice for his black magic (man he’s into some satanic shit if it requires him to sacrifice people). Luckily, Natsu bursts onto the scene like the Kool-Aid Man (Baron: Hey Natsu! (Corbin): Oh yeah~) and saves Lucy from the blood sacrifice. They managed to escape thanks to Sonya who reveals herself to be Animus’s childhood friend (which means you love him. Some tropes never die). She also reveals the reason why they stole Dragon Cry, to save their kingdom. The Stellanium gains power by absorbing the starlight. However, once it absorbs too much starlight it becomes unstable and explodes (just like a star except it doesn’t leave a blackhole). In time all the Stellanium on the island will become unstable and destroy the kingdom along with everyone in it (not the best way to spend your Friday night). The only way to save the kingdom is to use Dragon Cry to clear out the Stellanium since it alone has the power to destroy them. Sonya begs them to give up on trying to retrieve the staff but Natsu warns her that using the staff is dangerous (such is the case when wielding the power of a dragon) but she refuses to listen to him and takes her leave. After the group escapes the palace, they rest in a forest for the night where Natsu shares a moment with Lucy and shows her the stars (scene here: https://youtu.be/jX2yWvzTGko). The next day comes where the festival to use Dragon Cry is going to take place and the group attacks where we see Gajeel, Lily, Levi, and Juvia are there as well on some trip. They all split up and do their own thing. Lucy goes to free the girls down in Zash’s satanic sex dungeon, Wendy and Carla defeat Gapri, Gray and Juvia defeat Doll, and Erza defeats Swan (scene here: https://youtu.be/lFL4N-ICkNI). Back with Sonya she realizes that using the staff might not be a good idea (Baron: You think? Don’t mess with dragon magic. Trust me, that shit will kill you. (Nitsuj): From the mouth of pumpkins) and tries to stop Animus but that’s impossible because she is Animus (pardon?). Yeah, in a strange twist (to be fair it’s better than Shyamalan’s twists) Sonya and Animus are one in the same. Not only that but Animus is actually a dragon who had no choice but to jump into the body of Sonya who at the time was dying. Because this wasn’t an ideal vessel, he couldn’t escape willingly and has been stuck in her body ever since. He now plans to use the staff to make create a new body and be free once again. Sonya regains control of her body and tries to hand the staff to Natsu but Zash comes in and takes the staff for himself where he plans to use it to exact revenge on Fiore (so much happening in this final act). Animus managed to absorb enough magic from the staff to break free from Sonya but it’s an imperfect form. To restore to his true form, he needs the full power of the staff and goes after Zash to get it with Natsu right on his tail. Zash uses the staff but the power is too much for him and he gets destroyed by it (weak~). Natsu and Animus fight for the staff where Natsu fails and gets pierced by Stellaium where he supposedly dies until Lucy’s tears of friendship (and love because let’s face it she wants the double D. The Ds standing for Dragon Dick for those who didn’t get the joke) brings him back to life and he fights against Animus where he transforms into a half dragon and defeats Animus. Natsu is of course deeply shaken by his monstrous (yet cool) transformation but Lucy comforts him and says he’s still the same Natsu she knows. Sonya takes the staff and destroys it which in turn destroys Animus who fades away and the staff reverts back to its original form, a ribbon, before flying away where if you watch the post you’ll see it winds up in the hands of Acnologia who destroys it while being observed by Zeref who says his fight with Natsu will soon begin (scene here https://youtu.be/aWNjduv9Wks).

Final Thoughts

I did not enjoy this movie as much as the last one. The first movie had decent pacing, a three-act structure, a good mix of comedy, action, and drama, and effort put into it. This movie unfortunately doesn’t have that. This whole movie just feels basic. Like they weren’t even trying to add anything new. The villains are uninteresting, the story is rushed and poorly paced, the animation is cheap, the soundtrack is pulled directly from the anime, the fights aren’t really that exciting and predictable, and the fanservice while enjoyable feels unnecessary and forced. The only thing I can say I enjoyed was that one NaLu moment when they gazed at the stars but everything else was a waste. Like I said in the first movie you can tell there was effort, you can tell they were trying to give justice to the series. But here, it’s clear that this was just a quick cash in with no real effort put into anything.

Final Score

The final score for Dragon Cry is a 3/10. It’s a movie that isn’t worth your time whether you’re a fan or   a non-fan. If you want to see a decent Fairy Tail movie go watch the first one and just ignore the second movie as it’s pointless and doesn’t tie in to the original story like we were told at all. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.

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