http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/miskos1/Chariot_zps2669b4c0.png
Welcome to my review! This time, it's the 161st episode, named Chariot.
Hey, it's not like taking other people's underwear is wrong...
Well, this episode has sure managed to set an example for the children watching this anime. Drinking, party, more drinking, stealing clothes and destroying stuff, no problem! But again, that's what Fairy Tail is usually about. Destroying stuff, that is.
One may think that everyone will be depressed due to the results of the first day. Actually, Gray and Lucy are and behold! She finally confesses her feeling to Gray, even though Gray claims he has Juvia... Wait, there's something wrong here. Yeah, it's just Juvia's imagination running quite wild. Who saw this coming? Either way, it was certainly hilarious.
SquareNose knight meets the king, which unintentionally brings some revelations. No, I'm not talking about Arcadios being obviously evil (or is he?) or the GMG being corrupt (by now that should've been quite obvious), but I wonder if anyone noticed the king's voice. Because from what I can tell, it totally sounds like...
Yeah, the pumpkin guy. Is he the king? I've suspected that for some time, but this has given me another possible proof. Does anyone remember Grandine sharing the same voice actor with Porlyusica or Mystogan with Jellal long before it was revealed that they're the same people, but from different worlds? On the other hand, it may not mean anything because Arcadios is voiced by the same VA as Capricorn, I've got this one confirmed. So yeah, either that or they haven't got enough money to get a different VA for him.
I still don't get why the castle's design was completely changed in anime
Moving along, a new person appears to replace the (fried) member of QC, War Cry. Just who is it? Noone other than Erza's old rival, Bacchus! And guess what, he takes Cana's bra after beating her in drinking. Meanwhile, Carla is attempting to stop being usele- I mean - is telling Porlyusica about the supposed premonition.
Holy shit, I've typed so much and the second day hasn't even started yet.. And so, the second day starts with Natsu and Gajeel joining the... yeah, Chariot event. Let's make this fun (or retarded?) by giving all the Dragon Slayers the same trait as Natsu. I'm talking about motion sickness, of course. Sting's remark that only true dragon slayers have that makes me think that while Natsu has been a 'true dragon slayer' since the start of the series while Gajeel has reached that level just now - way to make him look weak. No, I'm not going to try to justify this at all because I simply consider it an asspull.
'Who ate my cookies?!'
Other guilds' mages showcase their magic (with anime giving us static-like images instead of actual animation.. Seriously, have they run out of money?) but are owned by Bacchus, who wins the event. Natsu gives one of his usual speeches (it wasn't as annoying as usual though, I admit) and completes the event. Sting is mad, btw. The crowd suddenly changes their mind about Fairy Tail. Lol.
Is that... a wig?
Now, I'm wondering why couldn't they spend the rest of the episode with something else, perhaps the Chariot event could be extended, but instead, we rush into the first fight of day 2, Toby vs. Kurohebi (Blacksnake wtf, don't translate that @_@ Reminds me of Czech translation of Harry Potter, they turned half the names into something different for no apparent reason..) Oh and Kurohebi's voice is scarier than Voldemort's one. Tehehe. And so, the episode ends without actually finishing the fight. Weird..
To sum it up, it was an average episode for me. Nothing special happened, the animation doesn't seem to improve and the pacing is quite weird (2 and a half of chapter for this one?) but again, I haven't exactly enjoyed this in its manga adaption so I didn't expect anime making it awesome.
7/10. Comments are welcome!
P.S. Random remark: The snow creates random lag, can I switch it off?