- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit), English English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Region: AB
- Rating: TV-14
- Run Time: 300 Mins.
- Discs: 4 (2 x Blu-ray + 2 x DVD)
- Studio: Funimation Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: January 31, 2012
- List Price: $54.98
[amazon-product]B005W2BWLC[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Fairy Tail: Part 3 on Blu-ray/DVD at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:4.5/5]
For those unfamiliar with the series, Fairy Tail is a multi-part fantasy anime based on a serial manga published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. It follows the exploits of a group of young and powerful wizards in a fictional land known as Fiore where magic is a part of people’s daily lives and many magical guilds have formed, allowing wizards to band together in order to seek out work for payment. The titular guild of the series, Fairy Tail, is host to some of the most powerful wizards in this world, and in this world we find our main heroine Lucy, a celestial wizard with power to open up the gateways to other dimensions and call forth powerful astrological beings contracted to do her bidding. When Lucy is abducted by a magician claiming to be the powerful Salamander of the Fairy Tail guild only to be sold into slavery, she is subsequently rescued by Natsu, a powerful wizard with the power of fire and dragon’s strength who enlists her into Fairy Tail. Together with Erza, the league’s most powerful woman, a wizard whose power is a body of armor and the ability to summon bladed weapons at will, and Gray, an ice wizard who somehow always manages to end up half undressed, these powerful wizards will battle the dark guilds (illegal guilds practicing dark magic) trying to bring down Fiore).
For fans of the series, Part 3 will be a real treat. It picks up from the ending of Funimation’s Part 2 release and filled with a host of new adventures, new characters, and shocking new revelations. The series takes a bit of a darker turn in these episodes as Fairy Tail continues their battle with the Phantom Guild and finds a new foe in a dark magic cult with ties to Erza’s past.
As I said in my review of Part 2, “Part 2 makes this action filled fantasy anime much more interesting to watch and left me more than ready for the next volume.” Well, it was worth the wait, because this segment of the series has raised the bar on this fantasy series to whole new level of action, intrigue, and adventure without comprising the fun.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The upscaled AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 transfer remains consistent to the previous two parts, with the same sort of motion artifacts and stairstepping around the line art. Otherwise, there’s pretty good detail and a good amount of vibrancy on the color reproduction.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio is also consistent with previous releases in both the original Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 dub. The Japanese mix is a good one with clean dialogue and wide stereo imaging. The English dub opens the soundstage a bit, less aggressive than I assumed it would be, settling for a more atmospheric sound design truer to the original Japanese language track. It also offers clean dialogue, a good spread of sounds, and decent dynamics.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
Two audio commentaries are really the only additional materials added to this edition of Fairy Tail. Beyond that, the usual clean opening and closing credits plus additional Funimation trailers are offered.
The supplements:
- Episode 26 Commentary
- Episode 32 Commentary
- Textless Opening Song “FT”
- Textless Opening Song “R.P.G. ~ Rockin’ Playing Game”
- Textless Closing Song “I’m Sorry”
- Textless Closing Song “Kimi Ga Iru Kara”
- Trailers
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
Fairy Tail continues to be addictive with its easy mix of laughs, goodhearted humor, action, and unexpected character developments. The cliffhanger in Part 3 has me geared up for Part 4 already, since I’ve never seen this series, and I’m certain it will be worth the wait.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B005W2BWLC[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Fairy Tail: Part 3 on Blu-ray/DVD at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
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