Title: Fairy Tail (Vol.15)

Story and Art by: Hiro Mashima

Volume 15 contains chapters 119 to 126, and the manga picks up with several members of Fairy Tail injured or unconscious after the various skirmishes due to Laxus’ games and the defeat of Laxus’ protectors. Unbeknownst to Laxus, his grandfather Makarov is dying while he forces the Fairy Tail members to fight each other before he destroys the town of Manolia. We get exposition on Laxus and why he feels the way that he feels. It is revealed that he feels overshadowed by his grandfather’s reputation. However, Mystogan shows up to challenge Laxus. There’s some pretty words thrown and Mystogan does do some pretty flashy magic featuring a summon of a really cool monster in space. However, this turns out to be an illusion (which sucks because it would’ve been cool if he’d actually done it).

During the battle, Natsu and Erza appear. Laxus takes the opportunity to sneak attack a distracted Mystogan which reveals him to be their former enemy Jellal. Mystogan claims he’s not Jellal then disappears. Natsu steps up to fight Laxus in a pretty intense battle while Erza leaves to deal with Laxus’ Thunder Palace spell. Natsu stands his ground despite his rival having the upper hand. Another member of the guild speaks with all the guild members asking to aid Erza. Loved Warren’s expression while everyone is yelling through him. They gang successfully destroys the lightning orbs but due to the Organic Link Magic they all are struck by lightning as an after effect. Laxus finally takes his gloves off (figuratively) beating Natsu into a pull a summoning Raging Bolt spell. Natsu is nearly killed but saved by Gajeel Redfox at the last minute and the two team up. Despite their rivalry the two actually work really well together. Their team attacks are freaking sweet.

However, Laxus survives their assault revealing that he too is a dragon slayer an mops the floor with them with a large blast attack. Somehow the two jackasses survive (they really should be dead at this point, especially Natsu but what would an anime be without its main protagonist). So Laxus decides to use his grandfather’s ultimate spell, Fairy Law. Levy arise telling Laxus that his grandfather is dying but Laxus shrugs it off and invokes the Fairy Law spell. Brilliant representation of the spell, showing a glowing light from various angles (looks more like a nuclear explosion if you ask me). Laxus is pissed that his attack doesn’t kill any of them, learning that the spell didn’t work because he doesn’t truly see them as enemies. Natsu somehow recovers engaging Laxus once again, though Laxus still holds the advantage. Natsu takes quite a beating but still manages to keep fighting. Gajeel saves Natsu yet again and he goes on the offensive, tearing into Laxus and eventually defeating him (complete bullshit).

The Verdict: In the end, Fairy Tail (Vol.15) was just epic. We get an epic battle with everyone pushing themselves to the limit. Was disappointed that Natsu was able to beat Laxus because there could’ve been a better opportunity towards his development…I would’ve liked him actually stopping it himself. But besides that it was really good. Fairy Tail (Vol.15) gets 4 out of 5.