The Series:

Fairy Tail is a popular action-adventure-comedy series which follows a group of wizards who are all a part of the renowned Fairy Tail guild. These wizards work on various missions for the non-magic folk of the world. Additionally, these talented wizards work together to face enemy guilds (the type who use their magic without a positive approach), and prepare new skills as they train to become S class wizards (the top ranking of guild members across the world). From saving the day to being hilarious, these wizards are a familial bunch that represent the world's best in magic guilds.

A huge reason for the show's success is it's wonderful cast of characters. It's the joy of the lovable and entertaining group that the show retains such a strong sense of humor and an impressive storytelling quality.  The series is infinitely more enjoyable through the use of wonderful goofballs who are a part of the magical guild. Characters include a descendant connected to dragons named Natsu, the incredibly powerful Erza, who is one of the strong warriors of the bunch and always someone looking to help keep the guild running smoothly, Gray, who happens to be a hands-on fighter who regularly misplaces his shirt, Lucy, who can call upon magical spirits to help at any time, and the talking and flying cat by name of Happy (who is besties with Natsu).

From a production standpoint, the animation on Fairy Tail is easily one of the aspects that is most impressive. The series looks finely polished and designed with strong detail and art of consistently high quality. The character designs are impressive and the background art does manage to remain lush and creative whenever need be. Whether the show is focused on an important dramatic moment, comedic sketch, or action-packed sequence, the artwork does consistently work (and remarkably well).

One of the most popular ongoing anime series of the moment, Fairy Tail is a series which has already had a second extension on life after a four season run and is currently in its fifth year.  Based upon the similarly popular manga series from artist Hiro Mashima, which began to be published in 2006 in Japan, the manga was adapted into this similarly successful anime with a premiere arriving in October 2009. The anime series production became such a huge success in Japan and was licensed and released by Funimation to great response in North America.

The Collection:

Everything gets off to an interesting start as the guild begins a competition tournament designed to determine a member of Fairy Tail to become an S-Class member. Becoming a member of the S-Class means that you are one of the best wizards around (with magic strong enough to rank as one of the most important and powerful wizards in Fairy Tail). Competition is fierce as only a small number of members are chosen to compete. The season starts with preparation for the event.

As the Fairy Tail guild competition begins, the episodes suggest a story arc in the vein of Yu Yu Hausho or Dragon Ball Z but this element of the arc doesn't last long when a dark magic enemy guild approaches with the goal to destroy all of Fairy Tail and begin annihilating non-magic humans so that the world is reduced to a small number of wizards that these guild members deem as being the most powerful around. They also seek to finally raise from the dead the most-powerful dark magician of all time, who has long been the subject of legend and is known by name to all the wizards, including those in the Fairy Tail guild.

This means Fairy Tail has some serious work ahead for them as they must try to stop the evil guild from their plans to take out their guild and to stop them from raising the most powerful dark wizard and beginning the destruction of the world. Matters are made more complicated when someone dark-haired, soft-spoken, and overwhelming powerful enters the scene on the Island. Yet this is seemingly not a evil wizard: despite having incredible powers, this wizard seems to be unable to control their powers... wishing instead to prevent the destruction which they cause. Who is this new character and what role will they play in the ensuing battle of good versus evil?

The end of the arc is reached in the second half of the collection and the Fairy Tail guild must defeat the wizard Zeref, who could destroy all of wizarding if the guild cannot defeat him. The second half of this collection contains some intense action-packed episodes and brings the storyline to a conclusion. The end of the collection also contains a brief introduction to the next arc on Fairy Tail.

The animation remains as consistently strong as it has been from the beginning. The character designs are uniformly excellent and distinctive for all characters. The environments are well detailed when necessary and are often beautifully animated. The production values and art is excellent and won't leave fans feeling disappointed. The dubbing is also stupendous and works well for the series. Fairy Tail has one of the best English dubs in production.

This set is action-packed, often humorous, and almost entirely non-stop edge-of-your-seat with one of the best story arcs on the series to date. Fans of Fairy Tail won't want to miss Collection Five. It contains excellent episodes from the third  season and contains an entire story arc which ranks amongst the series best.

The Blu-ray:

Video:

The quality of the release is impressive and is a step up over previous collection sets. There are still some minor issues with banding, and some minor aliasing was noticed within a couple of scenes but for the most part lines are smooth, well-defined, and the colors are much improved with the standard definition to High Definition upconversion to 1080p. This is certainly as good as can be reasonably expected for this collection of episodes.

Audio:

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English audio dub is my option of preference. I enjoy the high quality dubbing. The voice-work is uniformly excellent and the ADR Director has made this series a consistently fun one with its English adaptation. The original Japanese audio version is also a good option, if preferred, and is presented with a quality lossless mix too but it lacks the same level of depth and dimension that is added to the surround sound English mix with its standard 2.0 stereo presentation.

Extras:

This release is a Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack.

Episode Commentaries, U.S. Trailers, Textless Opening/Closing Themes, and Trailers for other Funimation releases.

The Marketing of Fairy Tail (20 min.) explores Funimation's marketing of the anime series in North America.

Final Thoughts:

Funimation's release of Fairy Tail: Collection Five contains the previously released Part 9 and Part 10 sets combined into one. This collection of Fairy Tail episodes is one of the best to date. Season 3 contains some of the best episodes of the series.

Fans of Fairy Tail should consider the set a must-own. The included episodes are entertaining, comedic, and action-packed. For fans collecting the re-released Collection sets, this is another excellent release from Funimation that is well worth picking up.

Highly Recommended.

Neil Lumbard is a lifelong fan of cinema. He aspires to make movies and has written two screenplays on spec. He loves writing, and currently does in Texas.