After setting up enough of guilds and the world around our main characters in Fairy Tail’s Oracion Seis arc, the Edolas arc gives fans a huge curveball: a story taking place on a completely different Earth! Delving into the background of Happy, Carla, and another specific member of Fairy Tail, the Edolas arc gives fans plenty of answers to questions they didn’t even know they had.
And by the end, it even has one of the most touching reunions in shonen anime history. One of the series’ better storylines, this list takes a look at ten of the best episodes of the Edolas arc, ranked by IMDb.
10 CODE ETD - 8.0
With the Exceeds having convinced the humans they should be feared and worshiped, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to take them down. That’s exactly what Edolas’ King, Faust, seeks to do in Code ETD, which stands for Exceed Total Destruction. The spell transforms Exceeds into a giant lacrima, while they simultaneously declare war on the Exceed’s nation, confident in the power they’ve stolen from the Dragon Slayers. With the Edolas arc being somewhat short, Code ETD moves a lot of plots all at the same time, as we also get a glimpse at Erza’s first meeting with her Edolas counterpart.
9 FAIRY HUNTER - 8.0
The first few episodes of the Edolas arc involve tons of confusion both for the viewer and the team themselves, as they’re suddenly dragged to an entirely different world with different rules, and the team is being hunted by an army from a country they don’t even know. But Fairy Hunter introduces us to the Edolas version of Fairy Tail, and the arc starts to take shape. Of course, the real reason Fairy Hunter makes it onto this list is obvious: we get to meet the Edolas version of Erza, who’s just as terrifying as always...but now she’s working to destroy this world’s Fairy Tail.
8 DRAGON SENSE - 8.0
Part of the climax of Fairy Tail’s journey to Edolas, Dragon Sense saw the group finally succeed in taking down finally save the land of Extalia. Not only that, but it saw future Fairy Tail member Panther Lily make the full turn over to their side. This gets him attacked by Edolas’ Erza Knightwalker, which was bad for him...but great for us, because it lead to the rematch between Erza Scarlet and Erza Knightwalker!
7 EXTALIA - 8.0
This is the episode where we learn the false purpose for Happy and Carla leaving Edolas—they were meant to kill Dragon Slayers. It’s really unfortunate this didn’t turn out to be the case and the Exceeds weren’t the incredibly powerful beings they claimed to be.
It would have been cool for them to have had to fight their own people because Fairy Tail meant so much. Of course, that doesn’t mean they don’t ignore this so-called purpose. In fact, we get an awesome moment here of Happy standing up for Carla, defending her and his guild and reminding us there’s more to him than eating fish and poking fun at Natsu.
6 I'M STANDING HERE - 8.0
Surprisingly, the actual finale of the Edolas arc lands several episodes lower than multiple others, including the next to last episode. We see King Faust finally get felled by the combination of Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy. Still, it doesn’t stop Edolas from losing it’s magic, and Fairy Tail member Mystogan decides this is actually what’s necessary...and goes even further, suggesting that Panther Lily kill him to quell the citizens fears after the loss of magic. Of course, this is Fairy Tail, so that grim ending had no chance of sticking.
5 ERZA VS. ERZA - 8.1
From the moment we were introduced to Erza Knightwalker, everything was building towards this moment. Natsu envisioned an Edolas Erza to be weak and easily bossed around, but the true opposite of Erza isn’t weak, because her character isn’t about being powerful. The core of her character is loving Fairy Tail more than anything else in the world, so of course her opposite could only be at ends with Edolas’ version of the guild. We get a satisfying clash between the two while they also move the plot forward, something doubtlessly many fans would’ve passed on for a longer fight.
4 THE BOY BACK THEN - 8.1
Perhaps the biggest mystery during the Edolas arc was the idea of the Exceeds being worshipped as these all powerful beings. After all, by this point we’ve seen not one, but two different Exceeds. One’s a certified expert in the tastiest fish and not much else, while the other is smart, but not even close to something that would strike fear in an empire. But here we learn the sad tale of the Exceeds, and get to see Carla learn the truth about the mission that’s been tearing her in half ever since she befriended Wendy. But even still, she chooses her people over revenge, and encourages them to keep fighting.
3 KEY OF HOPE - 8.1
Key of Hope continues the storyline from “Fairy Hunter”, with all the members of Fairy Tail making their way to the royal city. Though magic has been stolen from them, they learn they can still have magical abilities by getting weapons which resemble their abilities.
This episode was solid, and the greatest loss of this arc is that it could’ve been extended slightly by showing the team learning to use these magic weapons over their own spells. ….But instead of that, Lucy shows up with the ability to use magic, so naturally everyone else isn’t too far behind in gaining their powers back.
2 O LIVING ONES - 8.2
The penultimate episode of the Edolas arc, this episode sees both versions of Fairy Tail unite to battle against King Faust and his giant armored dragon. This also gives us the finish of Erza vs. Erza II, with Erza Scarlet convincing her Edolas counterpart that their way of life won’t be destroyed merely by the loss of magic, and explaining the importance of having a good heart. It’s a little weird to have an evil Erza so easily convinced in the heart of battle, but the arc’s almost over, what can we expect?
1 LISANNA - 8.5
Coming in as the highest rated episode of the Edolas arc is actually the epilogue to the entire thing, as it wraps up a long-running plotline we’d seen for ages. The Strauss family had long been broken thanks to the loss of Lisanna, but with the Fairy Tail mages being sent back home, they find Lisanna comes back with them as well. It’s the kind of happy ending that’s almost too easy, but when you had to defeat an entire country, it’s hard to say it wasn’t earned.