There’s a lot that you could say Fairy Tail is known for, some of it good (fight scenes, soundtrack, fun characters) and some of it not so good (fanservice, questionable death fake-outs). However, I’m going to throw my hat into the ring by attesting that Fairy Tail is home to some of the most powerfully moving and emotional beats in all of Shonen anime. Whether a poignant sacrifice, an shocking death, or an unexpected tear-jerking twist, Fairy Tail knows how to pull out all the stops so that each new arc still leaves you with a lasting positive impression, even if the journey was a bit rocky.
Let’s get this underway, then, by looking at my picks for the Top 10 Most Emotional Moments!
10) Zeref and Mavis’ End
At long last, it’s the end of the road for one of the anime world’s most tragically cursed power couples. A girl trapped for decades as a lingering spirit afflicted by death’s curse, and the immortal man she loves who can’t let anyone close lest his own death curse take away those he cherishes. In their final moments, Mavis tries to circumvent the curse by falsifying her feelings, but the tears on her cheeks made her heart’s true desires clear. Only in a final decisive death are these two able to be together and experience their happiness.
This is a moment that’s grown on me a lot since my first viewing, especially thanks to a certain someone’s surprisingly positive reaction to these characters and this scene (you know who you are).
9) Gray, Juvia, and Silver
For the majority of his life, Gray has lived without his parents, thanks to the destruction of his hometown by the demonic monster, Deliora. Gray found family in the Fairy Tail guild, and earned the unending affections of a woman named Juvia by being the first person to show her kindness. Still, Gray’s never forgotten his past, and it comes crashing back into him when his inexplicably resurrected father appears and attacks his friends. Claiming to be Deliora reincarnated, Silver forces Gray into a fight.
But, Silver’s proclamation isn’t true, and he’s actually the helpless puppet of a necromancer named Keyes. Gray figures this out, as does Juvia as she squares off with Keyes. Silver convinces Juvia to take out the sadistic puppetmaster, even knowing it will bring his life to an end. Juvia does so, earning Silver’s gratitude and blessing. Gray, meanwhile, gets to share one final proper farewell with the father he barely knew, as Silver assures him that he’s a confident, capable, strong young man.
8) Future Lucy’s Death
One can make jokes about how Fairy Tail almost never kills anyone off, and when it does it’s through some sort of contrivance like time travel. But putting those little japes aside, treating this scene lightly does it a drastic disservice. Whether it’s a future version of Lucy or not, seeing the main character be blasted through the heart with darkness and succumb to her wounds is heartbreaking. All she’s been trying to do since time traveling is trying to right the world.
It’s even sadder knowing that her desperation for saving the future comes from the horrible future she’s escaped from, wherein the entire Fairy Tail guild was destroyed and all of her friends were killed. The reaction on Natsu’s face when he sees Future Lucy’s guildmark has faded from her hand still makes me tear up. This is a girl who has lost everything, and now she’s faced with death as her reward. Only a final closing scene implies that she may finally find some peace and reunion with her old friends in the afterlife.
7) Zera’s Goodbye
This is still one of the most shocking anime twists to me. For the entirety of this arc, we are led to believe that Zera survived the wounds she suffered as a little girl, and that she lived on to become Mavis’ closest and only companion for all these years. It’s only at the end of the arc that it is revealed that the Zera we know has been an illusion all this time, conjured by Mavis’ illusory powers and born from Mavis’ trauma at seeing Zera die in her arms as children. It’s that same trauma that’s blocked Mavis’ memories of that moment, so even she didn’t know the Zera before her was a lie.
A character being forced to confront a world-shattering truth like this is never easy (as an entry much further down this list will demonstrate), and Mavis is understandably floored by the revealation. Not only that, but because she now knows Zera is an illusion, the magic spell begins to dissipate and Zera starts to fade (as the illusions only work on those unaware of their origin). The two girls have only minutes to say their final goodbyes, as Zera assures Mavis that her new friends and family will continue to look out for and care for her.
6) Aquarius’ Final Stand
I actually still have vivid memories of watching this scene, as my older brother walked into the room while I was watching it, and was rather concerned about why I was crying so hard. I tried to answer him, but I was crying so much I could barely get the words out!
Aquarius begins Fairy Tail as a haughty and assertive Celestial Spirit who frequently gets Lucy caught up in the very attacks Lucy wants her to aim at the enemy. Despite her surliness, however, it’s clear how close her relationship with Lucy is, as Aquarius is the first spirit Lucy ever summoned. In a way, Aquairus is almost a surrogate mother to Lucy after Lucy’s own biological mother passed away from sickness. And, like a mother, Aquarius is willing to throw down everything she’s got to save her child.
At the apex of the Tartaros Arc, Lucy is the only member of Fairy Tail not frozen by the evil demon’s unstoppable spell. Left to defend herself against an insurmountable horde of enemies, Lucy summons Aquarius. Aquarius fights hard, but eventually realizes drastic measures are needed. At the cost of never being able to be summoned by Lucy again, Aquarius shatters her own summoning key to defeat the enemy and save all of Fairy Tail. Lucy, sobbing, still holds to her strong will and carries on, wishing desperately for another way but knowing the reality that this is a necessary sacrifice…and one she won’t ever forget, as Lucy keeps the broken key by her side for the rest of the show.
5) Erza and Jellal’s Separation
To say that Erza and Jellal have a complicated relationship is putting it very…mildly. They were childhood friends who survived a terrible trauma, only for Jellal’s mind to be seized by a dark spirit (sort of). Under this possession, Jellal attacked Erza, forcing her to run, and he began building a giant death tower. Years later, Erza returns to defeat Jellal and save the world, but at the cost of Jellal’s life…until he is resurrected later with both his dark possession gone and his memories gone! From a clean slate, Erza begins rebuilding her relationship with him, and Jellal seems truly set on the path of good.
But, just because he’s remorseful of what he once did, that doesn’t erase it from having happened. The magic council’s security force arrives to arrest him, and though the Fairy Tail gang is eager to cover for him, Jellal knows he needs to pay the penance for his crimes. Erza backs up this mature decision, but it’s not hard to see how figuratively losing Jellal yet again hurts her deeply. Minutes after his departure, Erza goes off alone to process this, and the heartbreaking shot of her sobbing is hard to watch, as this is the most emotionally affected we’ve seen her in the show up to this point. Watching the strongest people break down is always hard.
Her anguish is witnessed only by Wendy, who herself soon faces an emotional reckoning…
4) Lucy and Michelle
For all of the Key of the Starry Heavens arc, Michelle has been a bit of an enigma. She appears from nowhere, claims to be an old childhood friend of Lucy’s (who Lucy can’t manage to remember), and she has a memento from Lucy’s father in her possession. Well, fifteen episodes later it’s revealed that Michelle is actually an enemy spy named Imitatia, who has been pretending to be a close family friend of Lucy’s all this time as part of a grand evil plot. Except, even that isn’t the full truth.
See, thanks to the dark wizard Midnight and his power to create a temporary living being from an inanimate object, it’s revealed that Michelle is actually an old childhood doll of Lucy’s. Though the doll was a normal doll, it retroactively gained memories and a personality thanks to Midnight, and thus properly became Michelle. Michelle now had memories of cherished playtimes with Lucy, witnessing Lucy’s despair over her mother’s death, and years spent alone in an attic. Though a doll in truth, Michelle yearns for a kinship with Lucy like the girl is her own sister, the one person in life who loves her like family.
All of Michelle’s feelings for Lucy are real, and she even turns on Midnight once his plans to destroy the world become clear. Michelle was the last person to talk to Lucy’s father, and her love for Lucy is what gives her the power to subvert the evil Infinity Clock and save the day. As a result, Lucy keeps her precious doll Michelle by her bed for the rest of the series, never forgetting the old friend she’d had by her side all those years as a child.
3) Ultear’s Sacrifice
Ultear is a woman who has made countless horrific choices in her life, and they have all led her to the one point in time where she can make a good, selfless choice. With the power to alter time in various ways, it’s no surprise that Ultear has a few exceptionally powerful time-manipulation spells up her sleeve. One such spell actually allows her to reverse time itself, with the amount of time reversed proportional to the value of the caster’s own life. The cost? The caster has to sacrifice their own time (aka, decades of their life) to cast the spell.
When a horde of dragons are threatening the continent, and members of Fairy Tail are falling left and right (including Gray, Ultear’s close comrade and her mother’s student), Ultear decides to use the spell, willingly relinquishing her life’s time to rewind the clock and prevent disaster. She’s horrified, then, to see that her life was apparently only worth one minute, and her decrepit body passes out…not knowing that a single minute is all the world needed to turn things around, prevent everyone’s death, and save the future.
When she awakens in her now elderly body, Ultear sees the bright sky and smiles, wondering if she has, perhaps, finally found peace with her life. Keeping her identity secret, Ultear says farewell to her closest friends, and even takes time to spare one final parting wave to Gray. Connecting the dots, Gray realizes who the old woman is and what she has done, and he breaks down into tears over her sacrifice. He vows to keep on living and fighting for a better world in her stead.
2) Wendy and Cait Shelter
The Oracion Seis arc is a relatively high-energy and action-packed arc, so the absolute last thing I expected when I first watched it was a soul-crushingly sad final episode. First, we get hit with the magic council coming to arrest Jellal, and Erza’s breakdown over the emotional and unexpected farewell (as I, of course, detailed in an earlier entry). Then, mere minutes later, we get hit with an even more shocking revelation that has been foreshadowed throughout this arc, and finally comes to a head.
Wendy’s guild, Cait Shelter, isn’t a real guild at all. It was simply a village housing the last remnants of an old people group, with only a single elder remaining. However, when a young Wendy stumbled upon the village crying and looking for friends and family, the elder took pity on her and used his magic to conjure an illusory guild full of new friends and family for the young girl. Having no way to know it was all a well-intentioned trick, Wendy happily joined this new guild, and spent the next seven or so years living among them.
But the elder finally runs out of magic, and the illusion crumbles away. Shocked, Wendy screams for the friends she never knew weren’t real not to disappear, only for the elder to point out that Wendy now has true, real friends and family to live with at Fairy Tail. As everything around her fades away, Wendy falls to her knees sobbing…and Erza, of all people, steps forward to comfort her. Having just lost Jellal, Erza is keenly aware of what it means to lose those closest to you and be forced to carry on without them, and Erza is more than willing to help Wendy shoulder that burden and be a supportive ally by her side.
Wendy and Erza have my absolute favorite underrated friendship in Fairy Tail, and it got its start here.
1) The Toll of Seven Long Years
Fairy Tail and its members manage to just barely escape the wrath of an unstoppable dragon, but the cost is being locked in a magic sphere for seven years. Upon being rescued, the gang definitely runs into a bit of growing pains due to being seven years behind those who weren’t in the magic sphere. Old rivals are now twice as strong, the dynamics of guilds and their popularity have shifted dramatically, and a few dark stirrings are happening in the magic underworld. Overall, nothing too crazy.
That’s why Lucy doesn’t expect much when she immediately heads to her father’s place of work, eager to catch up with him and explain her disappearance over these past seven years…
…only to discover he passed away in his sleep mere months ago. Her father is dead, and she wasn’t around for his final moments.
The news leaves Lucy shell-shocked. She’s had an extremely difficult relationship with her father over the years. He always put business above family matters, and he grew even colder when his wife (Lucy’s mother) passed away. He tried to use Lucy’s marriage potential as a bargaining chip, and he even hired an enemy guild to attack Fairy Tail to convince Lucy to come back home. After that debacle, Lucy swore off further contact with her father, but when he did eventually reach out again he appeared to truly be trying to turn his life around and apologize for the earlier spiteful, cold-hearted person he was when his wife died.
For all those reasons, Lucy wonders if she stopped loving her dad, as her heart refuses to cry upon being told he’s dead.
Later that night, when she returns to her apartment (for the first time in seven years), she is stunned to see a stack of six presents on her table, and a seventh on her bed. They’re birthday presents…from her father. The man who never once paid attention to Lucy or her birthday since her mother’s passing.
Lucy opens the one on her bed, finding a handwritten note from her father inside. The note details how her father doesn’t know where she’s been these years, but he trusts in her and knows she will return one day. He talks about how sorry he is for the way he treated her, and how he wishes he’d opened up to her instead of retreating when his wife died. He commends her for growing into such a responsible and mature young woman, assuring her that she has a bright future ahead of her. He mentions how much time he spends thinking about her in her absence.
And, finally, he tells her how much he always has and always will love her.
Tears falling before she even realizes it, Lucy clutches his note to her chest as she cries. Just as her father loved her, Lucy knows she never stopped loving her father either, and that she’ll remember him dearly for the rest of her life.
This moment absolutely devastated me when I first watched it, it still makes me cry when I re-watch the episode, and even thinking about it while writing this is enough to make me tear up. There’s a lot of qualms you can have with Fairy Tail, and I’ll concede many of them. But those who try to say that the show isn’t written well? That’s a stance I’ll aggressively oppose until the day I die.
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 