AnimeHolic - [REVIEW] Fairy Tail S2 Episode 2

Hey everyone~ So...as from the title, I am just going to jump-start this up by saying that I have never read the manga so my reviews as of now will not be based on the story or the manga art because Hiro Mashima is NOT responsible for the art in the anime. It seems clearly unfair to blame him for the new art style but I will definitely talk about that again for this episode...because...it seems that the ones responsible in drawing the characters really S.U.C.K at their job.

First off, I want to say that the people who are in charge of the backgrounds are amazing. They look super detailed and refined that I have to admit it is almost better than the previous seasons.

I mean look at this picture...the colours are vibrant, the lines are fine and distinct and the shadows are in the rights places that shows how much effort it took into creating this image itself.
It's....very peculiar to me to how they are so good at colouring the backgrounds and props...but the characters itself look SO bland and just...dull.

I have to admit, the first thing I looked at when this scene came up was the metal bars. JUST FREAKING LOOK AT IT! The highlights brought out the richness of the bars and they even made fine details of the rust and created a worn-out effect on these bars...Then, I looked at Lucy who is...not all that badly drawn in this scene yet I felt that the hands holding onto the bars looked out of place and somewhat...photoshopped in a sense.. X'D For the audience to note how simple prison bars look better than the character is a bad thing no matter how you look at it.

In this scene, I TOTALLY had my eyes on Erza's armor...the highlights and shading just blew me away to how...beautiful the armor looked. It was DEFINITELY better than Erza's previous armor. Even the wood in the background stood out with its details...but then I look at the characters and...ugh...they're not bad. Not at all....but I just can't accept to how bland they look compared to the props and background... =.=

Oh boy...this one is a doozy.

What...happened to Natsu here?? I'm sorry but he looked SQUASHED. His facial features are not in proportion at all and....he just looked messed up in so many ways that I can't accept. I almost thought it wasn't Natsu.....just...ugh.

Here's a comparison that I found and I just...HAD to put this here...

This is a picture of Juvia and Lyon in the previous season:

and this is what happened to them in episode 2:

...WHAT HAPPENED??????

What upsets me the most is Lyon...that image is from a scene where it featured him and ONLY him! It was a full blown 5 second shot of Lyon and...*sigh* I used to have a crush on Lyon because I thought he is hot but now...I just fell out of love....seriously...

My advice to the Fairy Tail anime production team right now, I think you need to beat up a few people because this is getting out of hand. And also...you might wanna consider taking in the people who did the backgrounds and the OP+ED scenes because those were excellent and they deserve a raise and a spot to design the characters instead of having these dull and lazy-ass-looking images.

THIS. IS BEAUTIFUL.

 THESE ARE SPECTACULAR.

AND THIS! Just makes my NaLu shipping heart explode every time.. X'D

That's all for this week's review...I'm just...really disappointed right now. But I don't want to stop watching because I love the characters and the story so much... *sigh* I'll keep hoping that the art improves in the upcoming episodes...