This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess is the first film in the Fairy Tail series. It was directed by Masaya Fujimori, written by Masashi Sogo and produced by A-1 Pictures with the story written by series creator Hiro Mashima. It was released in Japan on August 18, 2012.
After winning the Grand Magic Games, the titular guild comes across a young amnesiac woman, Eclair (Aya Endo), who doesn't know much about her past — only that she's traveling with her friend, a bird named Momon (Mika Kanai), that she holds half of a mysterious stone. It doesn't take long for people to come after her in the form of the Carbuncle guild, who act on behest of Duke Cream (Koki Miyata), the spoiled ruler of a small country named Veronica. It soon falls on Natsu's team to protect Eclair and at the same time prevent whatever Cream has in store for her.
Most of the main cast from Fairy Tail return to reprise their roles, including Tetsuya Kakihara as Natsu Dragneel, Aya Hirano as Lucy Heartfilia, Rie Kugimiya as Happy, Yuichi Nakamura as Gray Fullbuster, Sayaka Ohara as Erza Scarlett, Satomi Sato as Wendy Marvell, and Yui Horie as Carla. New additions to the cast include Hidehiko Masuda as Dasuma and Keisuke Okada as Geese.
Phoenix Priestess received an English dub from Funimation, which was released on DVD in December 2013. Since the dub had yet to cover the Edolas arc by the time of this movie's release, this dub marks the first anime appearance of Panther Lily.
The film is chronologically followed by the Sun Village arc and in production order by Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry.
Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess contains examples of:
- Action Prologue: Twofold, the movie opens with Eclair's tribe being slaughtered by soldiers to get one half of the Phoenix Stone, and after the opening credits, Natsu's team on a job to catch a criminal.
- All There in the Manual: A special tie-in manga (and subsequent Animated Adaptation) which explains Momon's creation: He was a stuffed bird Eclair made who was brought to life by the magic of Eclair's stone; Eclair initially rejects him because of her centuries-long Heroic BSoD, but warmed up to him when he saved her from a pack of wolves. The story also strongly implies that the death-fearing boy who asks Eclair to bring his dead weasel back to life is Dist, the film's villain.
- Anti-Magic: One Coordinator's magic styles. Has the power re-quip but can also take away the power from people who use the same magic (Erza) or Take Over Magic (Elfman and Mirajane).
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Duke Cream, a pretty much self-entitled brat trying to gain immortality.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Eclair and Momon at the end of the film.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The phoenix.
- Big Bad: Duke Cream, with Dist serving as The Dragon and The Starscream.
- Bittersweet Ending: Fairy Tail manages to beat Dist and destroy the phoenix, but at the cost of Eclair and Momon's life, the former who sacrifices herself to do so.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Unlike the anime, which aired in a morning timeslot at the time, the movie doesn't shy away from showing blood, most notably when the elder of Eclair's village gets skewered with spears, and later when Cream slices Eclair's shoulder.
- Broken Pedestal: The wizards have become this to Éclair at the beginning of the story. She also makes a valid point to Lucy and the others that magic can bring people sorrow and pain, given how she watched her friends die over the years and her immortality. Ultimately, with Fairy Tail's help, she sees that wizards can use magic for good purposes.
- Casting a Shadow: Chase, a man with an assassin motif.
- Chekhov's Gun: The wedding dress Erza buys in the middle of the movie. During her bout against Coordinator, when all her magic armor is rendered useless thanks to her anti-magic (even her usual samurai get-up). Erza switches to the wedding dress since it doesn't have any magic power for Coordinator to take away.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Geese, the criminal Natsu's team chases at the beginning of the film. In the climax, he saves Lucy and Eclair from falling into a crevasse caused by the Phoenix.
- Continuity Snarl: While this movie takes place after the Grand Magic Games since Fairy Tail is back in their old guildhall, a number of character designs don't match up with characters wearing older outfits like Juvia and Bickslow. Elfman is especially noticeable, since he bulked up considerably during his training but is sporting his design from the first season here. This is likely a byproduct from the movie coming out before the manga completed the Grand Magic Games arc, leaving the animation staff in the dark.
- Designated Girl Fight: Erza and Coordinator.
- Didn't Think This Through: Dist manages to call upon the Phoenix, but doesn't get his desired immortality as he didn't know it was the tears of the phoenix that causes this rather then the blood as he thought.
- Disney Villain Death: Dist after Natsu blasts him off the phoenix.
- Freudian Excuse: As the prequel short story The First Morning reveals, Dist developed a fear of death after experiencing the death of his pet weasel as a child, and being told by Éclair that all things die eventually. This eventually turned him into an Immortality Seeker.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: The rest of the Fairy Tail guild comes out to help against the phoenix.
- Heroic BSoD: Éclair has been stuck in a 400-year-old one ever since she became immortal and watched her friends die over the years, thus starting her resentment towards wizards and magic. She has a minor one upon discovering that Kalard is already dead.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted by Momon to save Eclair. Played straight with Eclair herself.
- Karma Houdini: Geese doesn't suffer a grisly fate unlike the rest of his gang, who are rounded up by Fairy Tail. Which turns out to be a good thing as had Lucy succeeded in catching him, she and Éclair would've fallen to their deaths without him wandering free and saving them.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Cream seems to get off very lightly for trying to awaken the world-destroying phoenix and nearly immolating Éclair purely out of spite. However, considering it's unlikely Fairy Tail wouldn't report his actions to the Magic Council, it's safe to say his kingdom will be dissolved in due time.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: For the dub as it reveals the regained guild hall, Panther Lily, and the death of Lucy's father, Jude, and the un-death of Lisanna. For regular viewers of the anime, the guild regaining their old guild hall after the Grand Magic Games arc.
- Living Toy: Momon, who was brought to life by the Phoenix Stone's power.
- Mistaken for Gay: Juvia thinks Cannon is her new romantic rival after he jokingly calls Gray "pretty boy".
- Naked People Are Funny: Poor Lucy after being chased by one of Carbuncle's henchmen.
- Never My Fault: Happy at the beginning seeing Natsu go sliding down a frozen hill (due to an earlier attack by Gray) which he calls "karma" for hitting him with a fireball...despite the fact that Happy fell in the line of fire after being blown into it by Wendy's attack and was hit by accident. Natsu even apologized for it. He also didn't seem to blame Wendy for her misfire either despite the fact he was standing right in front of her when she unleashed her attack.
- Old Maid: Played for Laughs. Erza fights one of the Quirky Miniboss Squad, who has the power to dispel Erza's magical armor, so she switches to a non-magical wedding dress she'd bought earlier. After Erza defeats her she snarks to Erza "You must be desperate to get married."
- Recycled Premise: It's extremely similar to Memories of Nobody the first Bleach movie, right down to a movie only girl who befriends the main characters but is a plot device to unleash a great evil and the heroes are too late to stop this forcing the girl to sacrifice her life to save the world, however at the very end Lucy sees what appears to be a reincarnated Eclair as she's going about her day, just like Ichigo sees what appears to be a reincarnated Senna.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While Natsu's team fights in Veronica, Makarov tries convincing the Council to lend him the weapon necessary to dispel the Phoenix Stone. When he arrives with the weapon in hand, Erza asks if he successfully got their permission to take it. He didn't.
- Ship Tease: Natsu/Lucy, culminating in a tearful hug at the end of the movie.
- Shoot the Dog: Markarov has Erza fire the arrow to destroy the Phoenix, withholding the information that Eclair will die with it. Under the circumstances there was nothing he could have done.
- Trash the Set: The Fairy Tail guildhall gets trashed...again. Veronica likewise is heavily damaged after the events of the film.
- Why Won't You Die?: Dist asks this of Natsu during their battle.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Eclair certainly doesn't as she has to outlive everyone around her. But it turns out it was a failsafe by the leader of her village. After her village was razed, he gave her immortality in the hopes that if the phoenix is called upon again, she would be able to get rid of it for good. Once Fairy Tail does destroy it, she finally dies.
- The Worf Effect: Erza and Mirajane get taken out quickly by Goordinator's Anti-magic during the attack on the guild.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: The phoenix gets released despite the group's efforts to stop it.
