Привет hoes, I felt like making a review for whatever reason so here we go. Actually, before I do, we need to sit down and have a chat about a very important topic; spoilers. It seems as though some fuckwits are either unaware of, don't know about, or simply don't care about the wiki's Spoiler Policy. It is there for a reason, so if - like me - you enjoy a good spoiler and want to discuss it; you go and post it here. You don't go updating character pages or chapter summaries, and you certainly don't go posting it on an open blog, you cretins. ( =_=)
Anyway, bollocking over, now for the meat and batter of the blog.
Kinky Maid Time
So on the cover we get a bit of maid fetish fan service with Juvia looking cute, if a little clingy, Virgo being the masochist that she is in ropes, and poor Lucy not knowing why the feck she's there. Over all it's cute, it's cuddly. Not much else to say about it.
Chapter itself starts off with poor Mira totally knackered and silently crapping herself over the sudden arrival of Irene. Note how she doesn't draw any similarities between Irene and Erza. I don't know about you guys, but I'm struggling with why Mira had to use up so much power to stomp out Lunala and Solgaleo like she did, sure she couldn't have known that Irene would show up out of the blue like that, but still; Natsu had more tactical sense when dealing with Bakel for Christ's sake. Turns out she was totally spent, otherwise she surely would've at least struggled against being bound to a rock and tortured with burning, clothe-melting, slime/liquid/goo/whatever.
At this point, Irene further demonstrates her sadistic side by basically repeating what Lamy said when Mira was in the clutches of Tartaros that one time... Huh, suddenly I'm beginning to be underwhelmed by this chapter. Actually, I find it interesting that Juliet's goo did more to the rock Mira's tied to, than Mira herself. Must be chalk. August and Brandy show up, August rocking the black-face look still for some reason.
I have to say, I like the internal politics of the 12, or between Irene and August as it is. August being the 'General' of the 12 and Irene - one would imagine - being the 2IC within the Shields. I also like Irene's comment toward Brandish; it offers a slight insight into the internal dynamics of the 12, making me personally think that the last time the two saw each other was perhaps eight years ago?
Moving on, August scolds Irene for using Universe One, yadda yadda yadda, and Mira drops the whole "this magic power defies logic" thing again. Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, when Brandy was introduced. And we all know how that went in the long run...
Ignoring that criticism for the minute, can we just take a moment to admire Hiro's art? That panel where Mira thinks the aforementioned, the poor girl looks utterly terrified; as in "Am I going to die?" terrified. This is the sort of thing that I feel Mashima needs a bit more of in what is supposed to be an international conflict. Next page.
Going back to August and Irene, it's quite amusing to see Irene acting like a petulant child when August tells her that the 12 are all convening at FT. She is somewhat of an enigma in terms of her personality, acting somewhat childish in this situation and again when she wasn't enamoured with her epithet, and yet she's capable of going a full 180 into total psycho mode. It also brings up a point that Sane made on RWA regarding August position within the 12 when you take Invel into consideration too. August being the "General" and Invel the "Chief of Staff," however something tells me that this is possibly just a translation thing and little more.
RIP Mira
Anyway, August goes on to pull a Bon Jovi on poor Mira. I shall come back to how YonkouProductions' dealt with this in his spoilers later, as Carry and Misk aren't the only ones unimpressed with how it was dealt with.
It would seem as though my earlier concerns regarding how Hiro's dealing with an international conflict may have been unfounded, seeing as how what August did would constitute a war-crime in the real world. But that's going off in an unnecessary segue. Speaking of which:
Yukino and Sorano! Hooray for character development! \( *^*)/ Even though it feels suspiciously like a bit of filler transition. Are you paying attention Anime-team? That is how you do filler. Not really much else to say about here, as it was very well handled if perhaps a bit forced in the circumstances of their reunion, beyond that; no complaints, no critiques or any other comments apart from that Sorano has a nice arse.
End segue, back to the beach. Lisanna basically admitting she's useless at listening despite those big cat ears. Must just be for show. Then it dawns on her that Mira is perhaps a bit dead. BUT WHAT'S THIS?! Rejoice Jakuho; she's alive! Aaaaaand therein lies the biggest criticism I have of this chapter. When the first set of spoiler images came out, pretty much everyone who'd been waiting for them started freaking the fuck out, again I'll address the fandom's reaction to the spoilers later. The issue I feel with this was that by having Mira appear to die, from a story point of view and not some idiot's overreactions on Twitter, Mashima opened himself up to a fair bit of criticism. When I spoke with DM and N, I saw it as a case that if Mashima brought Mira back to life; he'd get flack for 'feigning' to kill two characters off in the space of a single arc. If he hadn't (thank god he did in my opinion), he'd still have been damned for killing Mirajane off solely as a substitute for bringing Gajeel back. We got some glorious underboob as a result of her being brought back; thank you Hiro and thank you Brandy-chan for saving her <3
A Dragneel? Whatever. \( ._.)/
Final transition, and oh how the mighty have fallen, eh Dimaria? Wriggling around like a caterpillar, totally helpless against a couple of scrubs from Lamia. Still clicking her teeth too, surprised she still has any, the rate she does it. Just as the two scrubs catch her, their souls seemingly decide they've had enough of living and go to the great beyond. Oh, wait, nope, was only the last member of the 12 to be revealed. Eh, we already knew his na- Oh... He's a Dragneel. Hmmm, whatever. Don't quite understand why people were losing their minds over this. He has the same surname as Natsu and Zeref, big deal.
Oh well, that about wraps the review up. Overall, I blame Yonkou for ruining the potential epicness of this chapter with how he handled revealing the spoilers. As an individual that doesn't mind being spoiled, knowing what I know now, I think that the way in how Yonkou handled this was incredibly poor. He's the only individual spoiler provider, who somehow gets his hands on the whole chapter four days before it's official publish dates on Wednesdays in Japan. In the past, I quite liked how he trolled the FT fandom with his actions, the Attack on Titan fandom enjoyed it too and vice versa when he spoils them. However, because of how much Mira is liked in the west, she's not liked as much in Japan it seems, I think that Yonkou didn't gauge the fandom properly and quite how they'd react. If he hadn't have published the spoiler images and just gave the encrypted summary like he did, then this whole shitstorm could have been avoided. To quote a saying within the aircraft building industry when designing new safety systems: "You can account for idiots, but you can't account for bloody idiots."
Hopefully Yonkou will learn from this, and not be such a smug git in the future when publishing spoilers. I don't think anyone could've guessed just how badly some fuckwits would react on Twitter, and that those imbeciles issuing death threats should take a long hard look at themselves before they venture onto the internet again. God forbid a fictional character dies after all.
P.S. I forgot to add this the other day - because I was a bit of a plank... - anyway, if all you lovely people that haven't already done so could help a student out with his dissertation by filling out a questionnaire that was linked in the Poll Bonanza from a couple of weeks ago. Quicker link with all the formal stuff can be found by following the link here. Thanks guys! <3