Fairy Tail has successfully made the standard shounen tournament arc into something that, if not precisely new, is still interesting even as it maintains the genre standards of increasingly powerful battles and hidden powers. Indeed, as this storyline continues forward, it becomes clear that the Grand Magic Games are more of a backdrop to the actual plot than the plot themselves, serving as garnish to a much more ominous story that is slowly unfolding in the background. Readers of the manga, which has already passed this point, are aware of that, but even if you know where things are headed, these eleven episodes, which complete the first anime adaptation of Hiro Mashima's manga, are intense and make for pretty great viewing.

Since the Grand Magic Games began, Fairy Tail, which has become the underdog during the seven years its strongest members were slumbering on the island, has had a decidedly antagonistic relationship with the guilds Raven Tail and Saber Tooth. The one is a (former?) dark guild founded by Master Makarov's son Ivan, while the other has risen to take Fairy Tail's place as the strongest guild in Fiore with two dragon slayers of its own, and Saber Tooth has no interest in allowing the Fairies to get back on top. As viewers, we can see that at least one of those guilds is cheating and that the other is, at the very least, incredibly unscrupulous. That's borne out by the opening events of this set, when Yukino, who lost her one-on-one match, is booted from the Saber Tooth guild. While the humiliation factor has been dialed down from the manga, it's still a horrifying event, and it has two direct results: Fairy Tail is infuriated with Saber Tooth's ruthless attitude towards its members, and we see that one of the dragon slayers, Rogue, appears to be aware that his guild is in the wrong. We see him looking vaguely uncomfortable up until his battle with Gajeel and Natsu in the arena, and it would seem to foreshadow a moral code that perhaps differs from his guildmates'.

In fact, we have reason to question if Saber Tooth's current roster of wizards has any sort of scruples at all – with Yukino out, the wizard Minerva takes her place in the Games, and, simply put, she's a bitch. (Anastasia Munoz deserves a mention for helping to make her thoroughly unlikable with some great voice work.) She enjoys winning to the point where it becomes less about being the best and more about forcing others to acknowledge that they aren't the best, and in her zeal she comes very close to actual murder. This proves a galvanizing factor for Fairy Tail...and also the shady operations going on in the background, as Minerva's actions come close to upending their plans. It's a particularly interesting development if only in that it puts Minerva (and possibly Saber Tooth) in a position where they are even antagonists to the antagonists, as well as solidifying their position as one of pure self-interest with no other motives.

This set of episodes, which really does end in a cliff hanger that should make us all grateful that we don't have to wait a year to find out what happens next, is a mix of tense plot and goofy battles. That combination doesn't always work, although there are enough tidbits of actual plot thrown in to make the sillier bits easier to stomach. The increasing importance placed on Celestial Wizards, like Lucy, makes us start to think that maybe they as a class aren't terribly undervalued by the wizarding world at large – as well as to wonder if Lucy might not be the anti-Zeref somehow, a conclusion that events would seem to be building towards. Of course there are lighter moments as well, and Brina Palencia, whose Juvia I'd not previously been sold on, preferring Mai Nakahara, really sells the character this time around, particularly with some of her fantasy scenes, and if the script isn't always stellar (a dub line about Shellia and a litterbox isn't great), both casts turn in very good performances. There's thankfully not a return to the gratuitous fanservice of the fourteenth collection; while the Naval Battle does have the ladies in swimsuits, it isn't harped on. Plus there's a little masculine fanservice if that's your thing: Quattro Puppy's Rocker shows up in a speedo that doesn't leave a lot to the imagination. Another visual highlight is Erza's epic monster battle, wherein she changes armor roughly every ten seconds, showing us a lot of requips we haven't seen before, including a jungle cat outfit and a suit of armor that looks awfully like a Gundam.

The Grand Magic Games may have a day left, but the real plot driving the arc is starting to overshadow the tournament itself. With hints growing bigger, secret motivations coming into the light, and a couple of very ominous revelations becoming clearer, things are gearing up to give us more important decisions than who the strongest guild in Fiore is. You'll soon understand why the new ending theme introduced in this set sounds so sad as the arc picks up its pace and begins to run headlong towards its conclusion.