Fairy Tail – “Moulin Rouge” | 1
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Exploding eight balls. Multi-ball trick shots. Cats pitching cue balls. Girl-on-girl pool brawls. A
young woman shooting billiards in a revealing bunny outfit. Yep, figured by now I had your
attention.
Welcome to the imagination of Hiro Mashima,
the creator and illustrator of Fairy Tail, a
Japanese manga series that was subsequently
adapted into an anime series beginning in 2009.
The billiards snippets referenced above are from
the episode “Moulin Rouge” (“Mūran Rūju”),
released on October 11, 2014, toward the end of
the series’ fifth season. The full episode is
available to watch here.
Both in its original manga (Japanese comic book) and subsequent anime (Japanese animated
art form) format, Fairy Tail is aimed at the shōnen demographic, which is a broad male
audience, though the target age range is probably 12-18 years old. As such, the anime
features strong male characters, attractive young women with gravity-defying proportions,
tight-knit teams, and plenty of high-action battle sequences.
Fairy Tail follows the adventures of the excessively curvaceous 17-year-old wizard, Lucy
Heartfilia,[1] after she joins the Fairy Tail wizards’ guild and partners with Natsu Dragneel,
who is searching for his missing foster father. Over time, the team expands to many wizards,
including Erza Scarlet, an equally sexy, buxom wizard who is widely considered to be the
most powerful female member of the guild.
The “Moulin Rouge” episode begins with two of the Fairy Tail Guild wizards, Gray Fullbuster
and Juvia Lockser, returning from a job with a new pool table, courtesy of an appreciative
client. Gray, showing off not only his chiseled physique but also his otherworldly pool
prowess, proceeds to make a series of incredible shots, wowing his fellow wizards and
causing Juvia to ask aloud whether he will “poke [her] with his cue stick next.”
Natsu, less familiar with the subtleties of pool,
also picks up a cue stick, but confusing the
game with baseball, starts smacking pool balls
around the hall, causing considerable havoc and
wizardly mischief. The hullabaloo wakes
reigning ass-kicker and S-class swordsman Erza
Scarlet, who recounts the tale of her first
introduction to billiards.
The episode then flashes back to Erza some time ago walking into a pool hall. The hall’s
gaggle of male patrons, unaware that Erza is a wizard, jape that pool may be “difficult for a
woman.” Confronted with such derision, Erza makes a questionable costume change (though
Fairy Tail – “Moulin Rouge” | 2
not questionable to the series’ pubescent viewers) into a revealing bunny costume that even
Hugh Hefner might endorse. Then, picking up the cue stick and channeling her wizardly poolplaying power, she – literally – breaks the pool balls.
The pool hall schlubs, unsure whether to ogle in
her presence or duck for cover, start screaming
willy-nilly only when they glance her Fairy Tail
guild tattoo. Coincidentally, there is another
female wizard that has been recently claiming
membership to the guild and stealing from the
local proprietors.
Outraged by the notion of a bandit masquerading as a guild member, Erza opts to shed the
bunny for a hot waitress outfit and goes next door to the sweets shop to confront the greenhaired, scantily-clad, uber-bodacious impersonator known as Mulan Rouge.[2] Unfazed by
Erza’s cease-and-desist threats, Mulan naturally fights back by stealing Mulan’s panties (?!)
and leaving the scene. Additional fighting ensues, including Erza punching Mulans’ head
through the pool hall wall and deflecting Mulan’s bullets with her sword, while simultaneously
pocketing billiards balls. Ultimately, Erza extracts a confession from Mulan that her real name
is Bisca Mulan, a destitute immigrant who feigns a Fairy Tale guild affiliation in order to make
ends meet and feed her sick friend (and mouse) Sonny, which hides in her cleavage.
Fortunately, Erza takes pity on Mulan and
extends an invitation for her to join the Fairy
Tail guild if she’ll renounce her lawless ways.
That’s when the flashback ends and we see
Bisca, now with long green hair and perhaps
even skimpier outfits, reunited with Erza and
reminiscing about their first encounter, which
leads to them once more playing pool.
As the popularity of anime increases, it will be interesting to see how it intersects with
billiards. Until recently, the only “game” in town was Death Billiards, a 26-minute psychofantastic film from Madhouse Studios that released in March 2013. Then, one week after A-1
Pictures and Satelight aired the “Moulin Rouge” episode of Fairy Tail, A-1 Pictures aired a
billiards episode of Magic Kaito 1412 entitled “Hustler vs Magician.” And on Halloween
this year, Madhouse Studios set the Twitterverse aflame with the announcement that Death
Billiards would become the basis for a new televised anime series called Death Parade in
2015.
[1]
Lucy’s presumed measurements are a 37-inch bust, 23-inch waist, and 36-inch hips. In
comparison, Barbie’s measurements are probably a 36-inch bust, 18-inch waist, and 33-inch
hips.
[2]
Mulan Rouge is not only a variation of the Baz Luhrmann Moulin Rouge musical with
Nicole Kidman, but also the spiritual birthplace of the modern form of the can-can, a
seductive dance originally introduced by courtesans.
Fairy Tail – “Moulin Rouge” | 3
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