Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail ~ Another battle shounen anime to join the glorious world of anime. Adapted from the manga written by Hiro Mashima of the same name. Now before you continue reading I must warn you that if you haven't seen all the episodes or are a huge fan that can't take criticism please refrain from reading this review. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. For those yet reading this review please keep an open mind about what you are going to read. Initially I did enjoy fairy tail but in the end i started disliking the series. Here are a few reasons why First of all the arcs are short. Which means there's a lot of things they can't do, bigger story, adventure or exploring, showing more of the side characters, etc. Every arc ends up boring to me and not memorable. The arc size also makes it so predictable. They have to go there without knowing much, be beaten by the enemies easily, get back up and run after them, beat them, a little talk afterwards, then go home. The fillers, Fairy Tail has horrible fillers. Like the Daphne arc and the Starry Key filler arc. Just unbelievably bad. ABove that the filler arc is the second longest arc in the whole series. For those who might argue that fair tail has "less" fillers let me point out that FT has 38 filler episodes out of a total of 175. That's 21% filler, which is quite a lot. Lisanna~They took a nice little cute backstory that helped multiple characters and ruined it. Brought her back without a good explanation and then afterwards nothing has changed. She barely talks to Natsu, she isn't important in the story. It was better when she was gone. Her being back and doing nothing basically ruins the whole flashback which was supposed to show how much she thought of Natsu, he thought of her, how Elfman decided to get stronger after losing her, Mirajane changed to be nicer, etc. There's no training neither any foreshadowing. None of them really change. They were only going to train once but then Mashima said screw you, they're going to instead get powered up in 5 minutes. Natsu had a chance to grow with his powers near the beginning. He learned that he could use his flame to hold things or whatever. He forgot right after, lost a good chance and it hasn't showed up again yet. Natsu's a horrible character. He's a main protagonist of the worst type, cocky yet can't prove it. Always runs ahead and gets beaten easily by the enemies, then he gets up and is able to beat the main boss of the arc. He needs a power up every fight or he loses, he sometimes has to get insulted until he's angry enough to beat him. Why the hell can't they give him a fire lacrima to use in a fight, he always has to get fire from some inconvenient ways. He even forgave Gajeel after he beat Lucy for like an hour, talked to him all nicely about dragons after their fight. I couldn't even care about any of the characters. They are contrived, one dimensional, stereotypical and lack even the little bit of depth that the story sometime requires. Natsu's power is supposed to be unique. Yet, every arc they run into a new dragon slayer. And then they run into god slayers that's powers are even stronger than their dragon slayer counterparts. It's like he's making it up as he goes. The comedy is annoying. Natsu's vehicle sickness got boring when it screwed up his chance to fight, which was by like the 8th episode. After that it's just been used way too much and has messed with his fighting multiple times since. Gray has to strip every god damn episode, they haven't thought of giving him a jumpsuit or whatever. Everyone elses comedy is boring. The only person who ever says something funny is Happy. The action sucked, all the fights weren't interesting and of course were full of random powerups and bad comedy. The animation of the fights were mediocre and most fight end in Natsu consuming fire in some convenient way for the plot or getting help from his "nakama" and magically beating the enemy who seemed overpoweringly strong till now. Story is nothing special. Nothing has really changed since the beginning. Oh the time skip. I totally forgot about mentioning that. It was horrible, a 7 year skip. They didn't even let the mains train or whatever. They came back and were easily able to beat enemies that had almost beaten them 7 years ago and had been training the whole time they were gone. All in all Fairy tail happens to be one of the worst battle shounens i have ever seen and this is coming from a guy who has seen a fair amount of shounen. With this I end my rant. To those rating this review as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Fairy Tail is definitely one of the most popular shounen anime and if you are thinking of watching it based on this fact alone, then I encourage you to read some reviews first. I have one small request, reader. Please try to keep your egos in tact and read the review before evaluating it. We all have our reasons to like or not a show.Thank you. Stay tuned. I am still amazed at myself that I managed to watch all of this series, but that only indicates that there are some positives to it and I somehow enjoyed it all. What can be said about the story? Nothing really special, a girl named Lucy wants to become a wizard in a famous guild and after she meets Natsu, one of its members, she manages to join him and thus, they form a team and start on taking missions and embark on journeys. Natsu is trying to find his parent, a dragon who raised him and taught him rare magical skills and abilities based on fire. Although the concept of guilds, which is taken from online games is interesting, it is in no way original. The story progresses in arcs with each arc being connected nicely with the next one and the transition between them feels smooth and logical. The atmosphere and the nature of each arc generally remain the same lighthearted and cheerful vibe following the vibe of the anime on its whole, except for some moments and scenes which need to be dark to show the contradiction between good and evil. Although, the story of each individual arc can be described as cliche, you could at least expect the execution to be masterful for a popular anime like this, right? No, they decided to shit all over the place with the word mediocrity, though there are some glimpses of good storytelling and directing in some arcs, but this is exactly what they are, glimpses. Individual elements of each arc are interesting but the story itself is unoriginal, although how it's told and executed is what counts the most and this show had the potential to be great, but they vomited it all out to appeal to the general public and/or their target group If this was their purpose than they nailed it. Linear, repetitive and predictable storytelling and the use of generic guidelines as in any typical shounen of this type leave no room for the element of surprise for some rare plot twists that might exist.Also the amount of fan service, aka huge breasts for almost every female and semi nudity for males, is staggering at the least. Generally, the arcs are short and leave no room for good development and the pace of each arc is out of place. I felt that some arcs needed faster pace but others slower, go figure. Some episodes are uneventful with no action and on top of that no story or character development of any kind. Dialogues are mediocre and superficial for the most part but there are comedic moments where combined with sound and animation made me actually laugh hard. The blend of action, comedy and drama is mediocre and as I already mentioned "Oh the potential!!!!". Animation is one of this anime strong parts. For a long running show, it is pretty consistent in quality and is very good. Colors are bright and cheerful which suit the anime very much and they adjust well to the atmosphere and the mood of the scene. Facial expressions are distinct and well portrayed. The designs of characters are unique and suit their personalities quite well which in consequence make them somehow memorable. The only complain I had is in the moment of fight scenes which could be depicted better and in more detail. My favorite part ironically or not was the sound. My gosh it was incredible!!! I actually searched and downloaded some soundtracks of this anime and I usually don't do that. The sad music and ost's in the epic moments of the anime are just amazing. OP and ED songs are really great you will love them trust me.Incredible is the fact that the soundtracks match their arc themes and the moments of sadness,joy,tension,mystery and action too damn well. There were parts in the anime that wasn't that melodramatic but with the right ost it actually managed to invoke from me a sad emotion. Also, I don't remember any misuse of sound, it was just perfect. Voice actors are all good and for the most part, fit well to the characters. Fairy Tail's characters is another disappointing fact. We are introduced to a large cast of characters who are one dimensional and static. Main characters are flat and underdeveloped. I understand that combined with short arcs there isn't much room left to develop so many of them, but they could at least try. Every stereotype of this genre can be found in this series, from the typical hotheaded male protagonist to the evil villain who becomes good and changes sides and the fact that most of them remain the same throughout the series makes this show even more predictable. It's impossible to be caught by surprise when you expect for them to act based on their generic stereotype and they act exactly like that in any given situation. The villains of the show are equally as underdeveloped as the main characters. Of course, there are some exceptions and we can see glimpses of good development here and there which are later ruined to the bones. So much good development is so brutally destroyed, that it is frustrating even to imagine the potential of this series. Nonetheless, there are likeable characters whom you will want to cheer for but that doesn't change the fact that most of them are flat and superficial. The last disappointing fact I want to mention, is the fighting scenes. Battle system is your typical "raw strength+power ups wins" concept. Almost no amount of thought or originality can be traced anywhere. Some abilities are cool, but that's it. The battles are won by overpowering the enemy and no strategical thinking is involved. Superficial and annoyingly tiring dialogues and monologues which ruin the pace of the story take place in every fight scene and I mean literally in EVERY fight scene. I know that concepts like friendship and comradeship are important, don't misunderstand me, but not when they are in excess and feel like they try to nail it in my brain with a drill and on top of that, at the expense of the story. Power levels are confusing as one reviewer stated. There are no trainings but main characters manage to win enemies they shouldn't be able to win like ever. Oh yea, I forgot the power of friendship and nakamas!!! Silly me. Generally this whole thing can be summed up in 6 steps. Step 1: A strong enemy appears. MC's are beaten up by the enemy. Step 2: MC's yell about friendship and the power of nakamas. Step 3: They power up emotionally and physically by the power of friendship and random stuff. Step 4: MC's overpower the villain. Step 5: No training of any kind whatsoever. Step 6: New arc. Go to step 1. When an anime can be summed up like this than in my books this is not good at all. All in all, Fairy Tail generally has a vibe of positivity and lightheartedness. If you like characters that seem cool, raw power, mc's that overpower their enemies who rely on their friends and protect each other, if you like good animation with awesome soundtracks mixed perfectly to every scene, if you liked something like D-Gray Man or Bleach than you should watch this show and I am sure you will enjoy it very much. I definitely recommend this to children, as well. But if you are an experienced anime viewer or if you like intelligence, good story, plot and character development, if you like insane plot twists and strategic battle scenes with complex fighting systems or if you want to watch something of this genre but don't have much time than don't waste it on this and watch something like Hunter x Hunter or Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Story: 4/10 Characters: 4/10 Art: 8/10 Sound: 10/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 Overall: 5/10 *English is not my native language, excuse me for any mistakes. All feedback is appreciated.* **EDIT** It has been pointed out to me that this review has …

Fairy Tail isn't so much a bad anime, it's just over-welcomed it's stay. It was a one trick pony that was constantly played until you get annoyed and see the repetitive nature of the show and it's sad because this had a lot of potential to be really good . Story - (3/10) This is one of the weaker aspects of Fairy Tail as it gets daunting and rather boring because there is no real progression, and it becomes incredibly predictable with how it will play out, at first it was pretty fun since the stories did serve a proper purpose and introduced us to some other characters but as it goes on, you feel that it's afraid to make changes to the characters so they just write what they know and that's where the repetitiveness comes from. The gags were funny for the first 20 episodes but then they get really old fast as well as the fanservice, it even gags at important moments, you could have a serious fight but instead have a comedy bit in the middle completely ruining the mood for the fight. Art - (6/10) The animation is pretty good for a shounen anime as it can be fast paced and some of the magic does look pretty cool but at the same time, the designs of most characters seem really plain looking, minus maybe 2-3 characters everyone else looks really generic. Sound - (9/10) Quite possibly the best thing about Fairy is the sound as it mixes irish folk music with some modern day sounds blending really well and does match the battles that happen, this was something I am glad they kept as it was something very different from the norm. The OP's and ED's were also very nice to listen to and mainly composed of some very energetic pop music. Characters - (2/10) This is by far the worst aspect for Fairy Tail, one dimensional, bland, incredibly cliche and just lacked development. I will start off with the main character Natsu who is to me one of the worst MC's in anime ever. He never develops, there is no challenge for him, he doesn't have any conflicts with how he does things its just 'I'll beat the crap out of you' no matter how evil that person is, even if they kill someone he will still treat it more like a sparring match rather than him losing control and losing himself in the process of it, if he's always going to be this guy who doesn't think and just swings away then its going to get really boring really fast.He doesn't so much get stronger but rather uses the power of friendship after making a speech and wins. Lucy is another character I just could not handle because she was just fanservice and a plot device, she didn't get stronger each time, she just gets caught in a messy situation, screams a bit, summons a spirit and that's it, her character seems to be a key for the arc to go through but apart from that she is utterly useless. Now despite all the bashing of the characters I will say that there are some decent characters like Erza, Wendy, Gajeel and Gray because most of them did get stronger and developed and were conflicted with how they did things but even they can fall victim to lousy progression. Enjoyment - (4/10) It was fun at first but once the story and comedy repeated all the time, you get sick of it and switch to something else straight away, there is no proper pacing and some arcs went for too long that you don't feel as invested or interested any more to care Overall - (3/10) Fairy Tail lacked a lot of important elements and was clearly confused as to what it wanted to be, it was either over the top battle or a comedy, it was too messy to balance both because it couldn't have the comedy at the right time, I wouldn't recommend this anime because it's fallen to the many cliches and doesn't really bring anything solid to the table.

Story (3/10): Oh god. People praise this as one of- No. THE best shounen anime out there. HAHAHAHAHAHA, no way dude. I swear, the writers follow a step by step process on a poster hung up in their office when creating this. This is what the poster reads: 1. Fairy Tail is aware of some evil people. 2. The regular Natsu, Lucy, and Happy group, sometimes with Gray and Erza, set out for adventure and to beat the bad people. 3. They find the bad dudes, and these bad dudes are seriously bad dudes. 5. A guild member (usually Lucy) is put in danger 5. Natsu attempts to fight them but they are far too strong. 6. Cue flashback/motivational speech about friendship. 7. This will then summon this random "will power" within Natsu. 8. Natsu beats the seriously bad dudes that are way OP for him and shouldn't be able to beat. 9. Celebration and breathing. 10. Back to the guild for absolute shite humour consisting of Juvia loving Gray, Gray taking his clothes off, Erza hurting people, Natsu destroying crap or eating, Lucy is making stupid faces because of what the guild members are doing, and brown hair girl is drinking. 11. Return to step 1 for the beginning of a new arc. Art (6/10): My only complaint is the magic. I feel like is could be much better quality. Like, Natsu's flames looked like fire animations you'd pick up on Clipart or something. Apart from that, I suppose the art was pretty solid. Y'know, not outstanding, but just average. Sound (6/10): Asides the less than average sound effects that is to be expected in all lengthy shounen, everything was pretty sweet. Fairy Tail had a nice OST, good OP's/ED's, and decent voice acting. Characters (3/10): Of the 141 episodes I watched, every character did not change one bit. Even after that, however long timeskip it was, nobody changed. Except for their appearance I suppose. The villains, the villains, the villans... They are so awfully cliché, I want to vomit. Think of the most generic super villain you can think of. Done? Alright. Yeah, he/she's in this. People just trying to destroy the world, or cover it in darkness, etc etc etc. Pathetic. Now if we move onto Natsu, I have a complaint. Tell me how he could defeat all of these villains. They were over powered to the max... Like at that crystal joint (tower to heaven or something of the likes?), that guy was WAY out of his league, but no. All he had to do was have thoughts of Erza, and he's gold. I can't remember what he did, but I think he merged with the crystals? Either way, it's a last minute power up and that sort of crap ruins series. There are a lot more examples, but my memory is so bad (I'm editing this 5 months after I wrote the review, and even longer after I dropped it). Enjoyment (2/10): I enjoyed it for a long time while I was still in my newborn anime diapers. I'm pretty sure this was my 4th or 5th anime ever. So obviously, I had no real taste, and sort of just watched and liked whatever I watched. But now that I've been watching anime for a while now, I see that this series is just crap. One hundred and seventy something episodes of pure repetition, garbage humour, and cliché villains. Overall (3/10): Definitely not the best shounen anime. In fact. The worst. I've watched every episode and read every chapter so far of One Piece, and Fairy Tail doesn't hold a match to One Piece. Of the 650+ episodes of One Piece I've seen, there has been, yes, MC's beating over powered characters, friendship flashbacks for random "will power" etc. But the level of repetitiveness is FAR less noticeable in One Piece. I'm not saying OP's a masterpiece, but it's definitely light years beyond Fairy Tail in terms of "the best shounen to date". And then I watched Hunter X Hunter.

It just sucks the way it ended… Not that it ended badly, it just sucks that it ended at all. Fairy Tail is, for lack of a better term, your generic shounen. You have a group of teenage wizards running around fighting bad guys and all the while they get stronger as Natsu Dragneel looks for his father… who is a dragon. Shounen clichés come with the territory, and Fairy Tail is no exception. Think about it. If you make a shounen, no matter how you make it, it is going to have some generic components. What makes Fairy Tail so unique is that it is good in spite of all the clichés the plot may have. You have to remember something that so many people easily forget. Not every part of a generic shounen is bad, and Fairy Tail actually does a really good job capitalizing on the things we love in a shounen. It has great humor, consistent arcs, short recaps, nice fight scenes, and most importantly nice character development. The members of the Fairy Tail guild are an interesting bunch to say the least. Since they can all use magic their fighting styles are extremely diverse. After the first season you will feel like you know the members of the guild personally. There are dozens you are introduced to and you will most likely remember their names because the show does that good of a job at giving the characters a long lasting impression. When something happens to one of the members of the guild it will probably make you sad, maybe even bring on some tears. You won’t even realize you have an emotional attachment to these characters until something happens. It is almost as if you are blind-sided a bit by the connection you have with the Fairy Tail guild members, and you will most definitely have a connection with the members as you will most likely see yourself in one of them. I guess it doesn’t hurt that this anime had an all-star voice cast to help with making you like the characters. That’s right; you’ll definitely recognize at least a few of the voices in this anime. The first one that I noticed was the voice of Toradora’s Aisaka Taiga, but the show itself has many more notable voices than that including Alphonse Elric, Hanekawa Tsubasa, Miki Sayaka, and Amane Misa. A voice cast like Fairy Tail’s does not come around often and is something that must be acknowledged when going into this anime. Not only does the show have an all-star voice cast but the score for the show is also pretty over the top. Normally it would be hard for a show to get the soundtrack just right but Fairy Tail managed to do it extremely well. The art and animation should really go without saying. It is extremely well done, and fluid allowing for really awesome fights to be had. The style of the art is a little strange though, and not unlike One Piece it may put some people off at first, but after a few episodes you will find yourself really loving the art, just as you will find yourself loving the anime as a whole. I myself really love Fairy Tail. I love the jokes that I used to see, the characters that I got so attached to, the fight scenes, the soundtrack, the art, and you know what? I even love all the generic shounen aspects that came with it. If I had to describe the show in exactly five words I’d tell you “Fairy Tail is really fun.” Because it is, it is just plain fun to watch. That’s why I’m sad that it had to end. I didn’t want it to have to end. ---BREAKDOWN— Story – 5 Art – 7 Sound – 10 Characters – 9 Enjoyment - 9 Overall - 8

I hate this anime so much yet I cannot stop watching it in the hope that over two hundred episodes down the line the story will actually develop. I now have to take monthly breaks in between of individual episodes so that I can convince myself that the next episode wont be as bad as the last. Story: 1/10 If this section of the review is a mess it is because there is no way in words to describe how horrifically bad fairy tails story is and I have therefore just ranted for a while about how bad it is as well as I could. Imagine if nobody ever died even the bad guys. Does that sound like an interesting story with high stakes? This is what Fairy tail is. Not only that but every villain seems to have a change of heart and become good or just comes back to be defeated again. Death is something acknowledged as happening in the past yet literally nobody seems capable of being killed from blows that should destroy entire cities. There is no plot development, a horrific seven year skip, an overarching story that disappoints at every turn, so much bad filler, people recover strength from fucking friendship in every fight etc. This anime has got to the point where each horrifically short story arc is incredibly easy to predict. The story never changes it is just on a constant loop in which the heros lose then get motivated and come back to win. Art: 4/10 The art has its ups and downs (more downs) but is what you would expect from an anime of this size. I have never been disappointed with the art but it has never excited me either. Sound: 7/10 This anime is made watchable only by its well voiced characters, good sound effects and great music. I still listen to some of this anime's music despite the horrific memories it gives me. Characters: 5/10 The pros of the characters are that they are well designed and all have their own interesting distinct powers. If this anime had been good then I would have been very pleased with the cool way magic is portrayed in such variety. The cons of the characters is that they NEVER FUCKING DIE. Literally every character is invincible there are no stakes. They also reintroduce characters that should be long dead and make previous story arcs even more pointless. More characters are added at such a rate and bad guys convert to good so fast that there are now hundreds of main characters. Overall: 3/10 I'm being generous here when I say this

Fairy Tail falls under the same category as many of the most popular anime in existence, namely One Piece, Bleach and Naruto, and because the shounen genre is never exactly rich in story or character depth, ive decided to be fair and rate this anime for what it is rather than comparing it to the likes of Cowboy Bebop and Steins;Gate, so please enjoy! In a world where magic is part of everybody's daily life, we follow the story of Lucy Heartfilia; an aspiring wizard who-after meeting Natsu Dragneel- becomes a member of the wizard guild known as Fairy Tail. Seems pretty basic right? Well the story doesn't get much more complex than thet until later on, which gives the viewer time to get attached to the characters and for the story itself to put all of the pieces in place ready for the last 20 or so episodes. The show is divided up into around 13 arcs, with the last episode of each arc having some form of impact on the Fairy Tail Guild that will be used as a plot point much later on. The art is really well done, but repetitive, the most noticeable of which are Erza's transformation, Lucy's gate calling and Natsu's Fire Dragon Powers, but eventually you become used to them and they dont become painful to watch. the battles are also amazing to watch, which comes as no suprise considering this genre of anime iare the masters at long, drawn out yet visually impressive battles, and last but not least, most of the character designs are also very creative and well drawn, with the female characters being adorable and the male characters looking like the typical strong hero. When it comes to the sound, and most importantly , the sub and dub of the show, i really have no complaints; Todd Haberkorn (well known for playing Death the Kid in Soul Eater) does a brilliant job at nailing Natsu's fiesty but caring personality to a T and other heavy hitters such as Monica Rial playing the gorgeous Mirajane also do a fine job at nailing Mira's cutesy but serious personality, the japanese script was written to appeal to a slightly older audience than the american dub, with swearing and a much more aggressive tone added to Natsu and Erza, yet they seem to be missing or rewritten in the english dub to appeal to a much younger audience. I cant leave behind this part of the review without talking about Aya Hirano, who often worries me because when i hear her voice i think of so many other characters over the character she's trying to play, but for some reason i was able to look past that this time and can confidently say that she too does a really good job of turning Lucy into a damsel in distress character thats fully equipped with a fiery personality. The character is where things start to get more complicated though, as, individually MOST of the characters have been given their own backstory and are well fleshed out, but when it comes to character relationships, things begin to slowly roll down hill. The show makes it blatantly obvious that characters are romantically interested with others, yet throughout all 175 episodes, nothing is done about it until the very last few episodes of the entire series; and even then nothing is resolved, only hinted at. Back onto the subject of the story arcs, some are incredibly fun to watch but some become incredibly tedious after a while, thats because every arc follows the same formula; -MC gets beat up by villain -Villain does something to MCs friends -MC uses the power of friendship to overthrow the villain -Villain get their ass whooped back to the stone age This runs the risk of a person's enjoyment of the series to become very stale and thus people begin to drop the series, made worse by the fact that the best arcs are much later on (Edolas Arc starts on episode 76, Tenrou Island Arc starts on episode 96 and the grand Magic Games arc starts episode 150) this is a real problem if a show takes 75 episodes to really get going, aend thus enjoyment of the show will vary from person to person, but dont worry, its not like the series BEFORE episode 76 isnt good, its just doesnt really progress the plot. On the whole, i really enjoyed watching this show, despite a pretty shaky start and a couple arcs that get kind of boring after a certain point, what you have here is 175 episodes of pure mindless fun and because it knows what it is, everything works brilliantly, my only problem comes with the cliffhanger ending, yes after 175 episodes the story STILL hasnt finished, luckily its re-airing in April, but it upset me that they didnt even finish the story arc.

Fairy Tail was the first anime I had ever seen and when I look back to it, I have to say it was a great gateway to the world of anime. But that is about it. The main building blocks of any anime, plot & character could have been executed a lot – when I say a lot I really mean a lot, better. The plot is quickly summarised as generic. The main team of characters, Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Erza come across some evil activity that has to be stopped. They are later joined by Gajeel and Wendy. When they find out who is behind this evil activity they have to stop them, by beating them. The first round they get beaten, but then the group will summon the bonds of nakama’s or the willpower of Natsu will be found and he beats the people who do this certain evil activity. End of story, repeat. I fear that I have summed up and summarised every arc, including the fillers. The repetitious plot is also accompanied by jokes that get old very fast, like Natsu’s and any other Dragon slayers vehicle sickness. Outside that the characters are flat, to the extremes. They are cliché stereotypes. It is defanatly not a good sign if you can summarize the characters in one word. You have the rival Gray, the over manly man Elfman, the pervert Makarov, the fangirl Juvia, the OP main character Natsu, the Damsel-in-distress Lucy, just to name a few. It also has inconsistencies, where Natsu at first is shown to the viewer as an user of an extremely rare kind of magic. Later you find out that there are three generations of Dragon slayers. So it is not that special after all. The thing I dislike most about this show is that the story revolves around Lucy, but she rarely gets any screen time compared to Natsu. I sometimes wonder; “Why do these things always happen to Lucy?’ to then be reminded again, ‘Oh yeah!, she is the main character’. This is easily forgotten because of the immense emphasis put on Natsu. The art however is not bad at all. The animations of magic are well executed and the characters look appealing to the eye. The art is solid, just like the sound. The voice acing was alright and Fairy Tail did have quite a few good OST’s. Overall, I would say that Fairy Tail is a great gateway to the wonderful world of anime, but other than that, it is not worthy of being watched. If you had quite the history of anime that you have watched, I would suggest that you skip this show. The art and sound are the only real upsides of this anime.

After watching 175 episodes (minus the potentially suicidal filler arcs) of Fairy Tail, I have come to the conclusion that a total of 3,500 minutes ( roughly translated to 58 HOURS and 20 MINUTES) has been completely and utterly wasted on this horrible excuse of an anime. And in case you're wondering, I am going easy on this since it's a shonen, hell those 3 points are me being MERCIFUL. This will be a full in-depth analysis to try to understand what exactly makes this show so bad. I will try not to mention "nakama power boosts" and "unkillable characters" as most people think that's whats wrong with the show. However, there are many more glaring problems that must be recognized before stuff like "nakama power boosts". Strap on your googles, Pick up your shovels and join me as we shovel to the heart (rectum) of Fairy Tail to decide which shit is better than that shit. Understand? No? Welcome to Fairy Tail. Let's Begin. THE GOOD The number of things that are good in Fairy Tail are limited but I will mention the few that are so I don't sound biased. The first thing that comes to mind is it's great soundtrack. Fairy Tail's soundtrack is both incredibly beautiful and emotional at times, dramatic and even badass at times. I really love it's Celtic styled theme song as it suits the show perfectly. All of it's openings are all great. A few of the abilities in the show like Erza's Requip are unique and fun to watch. Hmmm...that's kind of all really, I mean...Happy's funny, I guess? THE BAD 1. LACK OF ORIGINALITY A show needs to offer something that's unique and creative. Something they won't find in any other show. In One Piece there's a daring pirate world, In Bleach there's a haunting afterlife world and In Naruto there's a ninja world. Each of these are different in their own right and that's what makes them so successful. Now, take a look at Fairy Tail. Nothing stands out in fact everything just feels like a rehash of stuff that's already been done in OP, Bleach and Naruto. In fact, look at all the similarities between One Piece and Fairy Tail. The show blatantly copies it's art style and themes. Just take a look at how much Natsu is similar to Luffy. It's world feels empty and soulless outside of it's guild, which shows how poor it's landscape and world building are. If there was one thing that the show attempts to do differently, it's romance. By romance, I mean "shipping". Don't know what that means? It translates to "a never ending romance that never truly begins but is based purely on MAYBE". Unfortunately, this has also been done time and time again. It's a neat trick that the writer came up with to keep you from escaping this nightmare. TIP TRICK: Listen up, guys. My gone off broccoli is more likely to get with Lucy than that stupid ass pink haired retard. If they ever do get together, I can guarantee it will be only at the VERY END to keep all you fan girls watching. 2.LACK OF OVERALL OBJECTIVE/GOAL I simply cannot fathom how the show could f*ck THIS up. But surprise, surprise, they did it again. Establishing an overall goal is critical for any anime ESPECIALLY a shonen anime due to their overall length. This is done to prevent people from becoming bored and wondering "what the f*ck is going on?" You'd think that the goal would be to find Natsu's dad, which although it's a cliche in itself at least its a clear goal, but nope. Natsu only mentions his "all important lost father who he hasn't seen in like 10 YEARS" when he feels like it which is every 50 episodes or when he's not eating something. Because of this each arc feels extremely sloppy and random, and we begin to ask ourselves,"what the f*ck is going on?". Oh, almost forgot if you thought the story is awful wait till you watch the filler arcs which will break even the strongest will power to their submission. PRO TIP: NEVER EVER even look in the direction of a filler arc. Luffy wants to be the Pirate King= STRAIGHT FORWARD GOAL, Naruto wants to be the greatest Hokage= STRAIGHT FORWARD GOAL. In a nutshell, it's like taking away the handle bars on a bike. It doesn't have a clear path but it's definitely going somewhere alright. Probably to the soul crushing and tortuous guild know as Fairy Tail. 3. UNRELATABLE/AWFUL CHARACTERS I suppose you expect me to now go on a rant on how Natsu's character has as much believability as a magical unicorn. I suprisingly don't have many issues with his character. Maybe it's because I had anticipated this type of character or maybe it's because it's been so overdone, Goku/Luffy, that it doesn't bother me anymore. Natsu is a representation of a symbol more than a character. That however, does not excuse the other main characters in the show. Each and every single character is incredibly beautiful and powerful. I think the writer's intention was for Lucy to feel relatable to the viewer? I find this difficult when her first noble act is seduction in order to get a cheaper price. She then eventually becomes OP as f*ck just like everyone else. The only weak character left is Happy. This would be fine if he wasn't a BLUE CAT. Are the writers implying that we mere humans are as useless as blue cats? No, scratch that, we wouldn't survive a blast radius of 200 metres. Only a f*ckin' blue cat could achieve that. In terms of 'character development' there appears to be some at the start of the series. It starts off with Gray, whose past turns out to be exceptionally boring. Bare in mind this is within the first 20 episodes of the show. Although, development is seen in the arc after it the development just up and vanishes. Character's simply revert to the way they used to be. Character development means it alters there decisions in the FUTURE. They will do things they would never do before. It feels like the writer wants to get their 'development' out of the way. Some characters are given ACTUAL development but they're usually supporting characters like Laxus and Cana. After their time to shine, they simply fade into the background and return to their roles as insanely beautiful and powerful non important characters. Others characters will feel bland and unmemorable. There's also Erza who can win any fight. WHY? Because shes's ERZ-f*ck off. The characters in Fairy Tail simply look cool but lack in any depth. They all come as stereotypical and unmemorable. When you turn all your characters into unstoppable gods, they will end up feeling unrelatable to the viewer therefore we will not give two sh*ts about them. 4.ANIMATION/FIGHT SCENES Aside from it's not particularly original art, the main problem with it's animation is it's god awful fight scenes. It's fights are only bad because of two massive reasons. 1. NO BLOOD. I'm not asking for gore fests like Hellsing just A LITTLE MOLECULE OF BLOOD so I can feel like the character is in danger. Like it's just blood? BLOOD? It's a perfectly normal aspect of life and by not introducing it in the show it becomes a 6 year old cartoon. 2.NAKAMA POWER UP I said I would keep it short so all I'll say is this. When a character has lost 99.999% of the fight , you CANNOT find that 00.001% and add in "friendship power" in every single fight. I know other animes do this, but go damnit if Fairy Tail doesn't do it the most.

Fairy Tail revolves around a mage called Lucy Heartfilia and her guild Fairy Tail, embarking on adventures with themes revolving around friendship and family, to summarise it quickly. Okay Fairy Tail by any means is not fantastic and quite similarly too many mainstream shonen mangas (naruto, bleach and one piece) had many flaws, ass pull, bad character development and anti-climatic boss battles with the most clichéd main character ever. Let me just say though, I enjoyed the anime immensely whilst watching it but looking back at it, it just got worse and worse. Story 4/10 The setting was fantastic and a world I would have loved to live in, other than the fact of using magic and fighting, the guild is the essence of how a family should be like. Friends, camaraderie and all the good things about life, the universe and concept was fantastic to say the least. Although what ruined it was the poorly written or annoying characters and the unnecessary fanservice in it and eventually the lack of care given to the characters. To focus on the plot first is that it repetitive. How? An arc follows this pattern; Job-mini-boss squad- gets owned- then all of a sudden after some motivational speech on friends etc- Natsu beats up the ultimate big bad whilst the rest finish off the mini-squad. It was that simple. Although in its defence, it shares the spotlight around slightly better than other shonen mangas, some other characters also get some pretty big crowning moments of awesome. The humour in the anime is also not fantastic, at first it might seem quite amusing but in hindsight now, the latter of the anime relies on fanservice waaaaaay too much for comedic sakes and thus made it slightly unbearable to watch. Also the ass pull in the anime, with the hope spot after the main character suddenly powers up with some really unbelievable method and an inspirational speech about friends, BAM! Villain gone good guys win with no serious repercussions. For example, one does not simply eat some nuclear rock and then suddenly power-up to defeat a villain who was kicking your ass previously. The motivational speeches were truly quite inspirational towards the start but it was overused so much it became somewhat annoying. Couldn’t they find another way to win a battle? Although it is the main theme of the anime so I guess so slack could be given. The anime also has a habit of censoring all the blood and making the anime overly fluffy and happy. I understand that it’s supposed to be happy and aimed at children but seriously you cannot go through a fight with a major fight and only come out with minor cuts and bruises, this enforces the unrealistic nature of the anime. Also how the anime just seems to refuse to kill off any characters, instead of giving them an epic death, the author just lets them sit in the background and rot away which I believe no character deserves. Characters- 6/10 Then the characters in the anime, most of them are poorly developed or overly annoying. First of all being the main lead Lucy, one of the most commonly bashed characters but not to show my bias, I have to agree as well due to the fact that she is useless. Her sole purpose seems to be for fanservice and appealing to male fans, I mean come on; she can’t get through a single fight with her clothing intact. Also the situations she are put in to make her appear stronger and in retrospect to the other lead Erza, her primary purpose is for fanservice and shipping sakes. Perhaps if she was a minor character, I wouldn’t have disliked her that much but the due fact that the arcs revolve around her and she doesn’t do anything annoys me. Then we have Natsu, your typical hero who has a food obsession, is impulsive and stupid, unbelievably powered and the guy who gives all the motivational speeches. Yeah, really annoying just by the simple fact that he isn’t an original character with virtually no character development throughout the series. These are the main two character issues but I also have a major issue with the villains. A villain just can’t seem to stay dead or stay gone, they always come back, remember Erigor in one of the first arcs? He appears at least two times later and then you have the members of Oracion Seis who just had to return for a filler arc and don’t get me started on Jellal. My opinion is that it has too many characters and these characters aren’t fleshed out to a good standard due to the focus on the four main characters, I mean what’s the point of bringing them back if they don’t change at all, other than becoming more powerful with no logical explanation? But then I did love certain characters in the anime and thoroughly enjoyed to see them in action so I couldn’t rate it too badly. Art- 7/10 Not the best art I’ve seen but it was decent and considering the detail gone into those magic circles, some of the fight scenes looked pretty awesome although I wouldn’t say it wasn’t an highlight. Also sometimes it was slightly inconsistent, one second a character looks good, the next they are warped that they go from decently looking to pretty horrendous and in the latest the arc, the animation has dropped in terms of standards by quite a lot but that could be due to the lack of funding. Soundtrack- 9/10 Definitely an up for the anime. The soundtrack by Yasuharu Takanashi is plain awesome. With a variety of upbeat battle music to the slower emotional ones, it captures every scene perfectly and fits the anime. I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack and despite having a heckload of songs in each, it was worth my time converting all the songs onto my ipod. Enjoyment- 7/10 Yeah, I know I rated the anime pretty low but I did finish every episode within the period of a month and enjoyed it immensely. Maybe as this quote says “Whether fairies have tails or not, or whether they even exist, nobody knows for sure. So it's like an eternal mystery, an eternal adventure.” An eternal adventure that doesn’t end, there was always more jobs, always tough situations and it just doesn’t end with a happy ending for most things. In a contrast to reality I think this was the reason why I enjoyed it, an eternal adventure, an escape. Final Score- 7/10 For a long-running manga, it has its highlights and its detractors but based on everything I did get some form of enjoyment out of it despite the poor story line so I couldn’t rate it too badly. It was decent for a shonen and not appallingly bad like some others. Yeah, I know I said quite a few negatives things about the anime but I judged it like any other anime and like any mainstream animes, it has the same flaws so I tried my best to ignore those tropes. 'Tried being the operative word'

Fairy Tail is probably the worst shounen of the big three, but its not the worst anime ever. This is an honest review and I am not hating. I will look at the good and the bad of the show. Story - (2/10) What story? Fairy tail is a string with cliches plots and fight scenes attached to it. It's as if Hiro Mashima wanted to add every shounen cliche ever, into his show, time skip, tournament arc, alternate universe. The entire story is predictable and so are all the fights, Natsu and his friends always win with the power of friendship which is horrible. Hiro Masima refuses to kill off any of his characters (besides extensions ie. edo-Lisanna or future Lucy or ghost-like Mavis) You know the heroes will win in the end through overused tropes and cliches, so unoriginal. Art - (7/10) The animation is fine. It's very good during fight scenes, it's nothing too spectacular though. Sound - (9/10) I can't even lie. The soundtrack is amazing. The old European Irish style and flutes are nice. The Openings are so energetic and the endings are so calm and sad. Characters - (3/10) Fairy Tail probably has the worst cast ever. I have never seen such one dimensional characters in an anime. Natsu and friends ALWAYS win. No mater what, no matter how unrealistic, through the power of friendship. Natsu is honestly the worst anime protagonist ever, he never trains or does anything and everything always works out fine for him. Villains are even worse, they have such one dimensional goals (take over the world muhahahaha!) and the worst part is how after losing in a fight against Natsu they automatically "turn good." Like seriously, sociopathic murderers are totally kind-hearted and nice after losing in a fight.? really? Other than a butt kicking from Natsu, they also receive no punishment for their actions. Enjoyment - (5/10) I think this is only reason why Fairy tail is popular is because its enjoyable. The fight scenes are fun and show is sometimes funny. People (not me) also enjoy the fanservice. Overall - (4/10) Overall, Fairy Tail is a gigantic messed that looks like bad fanfiction. I recommend it to those who have no real taste in anything.

There is a specific mindset required to watch long-running shounen anime, if u have that mindset and perseverance to watch an 100+ episode long-running show with Magic, Fight scenes, great characters, humor and epic moments then my recommendation is Hunter x Hunter 2011 because its the best of its kind only comparable to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. If you haven't watched those showa, get to them, if you did and you aren't willing to invest in 700+ episodes of One Piece then FAIRY TAIL is a must watch and you're sure to like it if u had any pleasure watching, say, Naruto or Bleach as it's likely better although everything depends on personal taste. It takes place in a magical world like any other with the FIRED-UP (natsu) protagonist the COOL-EMO rival (grey) and the ANNOYING protag/narrator (lucy), seems dumb? well, the highpoint of the series is the camaraderie in the wizard guild Fairy Tail with its 20ish main members and their challenges and individual growths. The character development is great but the guild's development is awesome and makes you feel like you want to be a part of it and join their battles. It's also surprisingly very funny, and every character has his/her own shine that add to the series' completion. Even the villains and rival guilds don't go to waste, with every character quirk milked for all it's worth. Unfortunately the fight scenes are weaker then the average long running shounen and the clear-cut story arcs sometimes stand out as being a "WTF just happened" moments, and the arcs are sometimes quite repetitive. I actually made a YouTube video FAIRY TAIL ABRIDGED IN A NUT-SHELL it's a minute and a half long and basically sums up most of the story arcs. And as a final note: There are epic, heart wrenching and badass scenes backed up with some of the greatest anime music of all time that will make you laugh, cry and scream with conviction. If you've watched the classics and you know your taste FAIRY TAIL is definitely a solid recommendation for you (I'd catch it before it becomes One Piece length and you lose your chance XD).

Fairy Tail is one of those animes that start off really well but then turns to.. err... shit. Or at least borderline shit I should say? What first attracted me to Fairy Tail was it's lightheartedness, humor, cool action, decent plot, and cool adventures. Watching it was very entertaining. But after awhile, everything became predictable. The humor is still there, but the plot and fighting scenes turned childish. Without those two elements, the whole series practically fell apart and it felt as if everything in this series had NO REAL MEANING to it. Every battle is won with the "power of friendship." No one dies. Everything always works out fine and no one is harmed. Same characters always win. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. That is Fairy Tail. There are a bunch of rage-inducing moments that I have watched in this series. But in all honestly, had the series ended before the Oracion Seis Arc, I would have given it a 10.

I think one thing people need to keep in mind when watching Fairy Tail is that it is an adventure shounen. There will not be much character development. Nobody will die. This is literally made strictly for people who like watching action fights, interesting arcs, and the occasional emotional outburst that may or may not make your heart melt, depending on the type of person you are. That being said, Fairy Tail is one of my favorite animes. Many people like to compare it to One Piece, because they are similar. In my opinion, I like Fairy Tail better, but only because I just recently started catching up on One Piece, whereas many people have been watching it for years. I understand that can make one attached to an anime, so understand where I'm coming from when I say I like FT better, because I've been watching it for a much longer time. Now, for the actual review. The animation is alright to be honest. I've seen animes with much better animation, and I've also seen some with much worse. This is in-between, and it's not a deal breaker. I still love the show despite it's flaws. The characters are probably my favorite ever. They all share deep bonds and would naturally die for each other. Over the years I've grown emotionally attached to them, because they're over all just good people. Their unity is in friendship, which can solve all problems in this show. If you're someone who does not go for that kind of stuff, don't watch this. You'll hate it. The sound is pretty good. I have grown to love Fairy Tail's OSTs, so I am very biased when writing this. I've enjoyed this anime a lot. I've gotten a lot of feels from both reading the manga and watching the episodes. I'll admit that one of the arcs (Starry Heaven) was a bit dull for my taste, and the fact that it went on for so long makes it worse. Other that that, this anime gets a 9/10 for me.

So fairy tail's anime has come to a sudden end and thus i find myself with the urge to give out my thoughts on this series. i hope you enjoy it! and i hope you understand that my English is not the best and what i'm saying is merely an educated opinion ^^ also all of my review should be spoiler free. Story: 6/10 The story is driven by arcs and its structured so each of them features a big boss. the reasons i gave a 6 are: weak development and consistency. weak development comes into play when i think back to when i started the series. 175 episodes have passed and if you look back to the start how much has the character changed? what about what events have changed drastically the plot? for a 175 episodes, not enough in my opinion. consistency comes into play when i think about all the things they make up. some spells look so overpowered and end up being weak later on. (rune magic for example) there are many spells that feel that they are just there because the author wanted to create this type of scenario rather than being consistent. Art: 9/10 No complains here but still not my favorite. The animation is well done and the art has a good style to it. Sound: 10/10 One of the best soundtracks i have heard in a while. they are many memorable songs and they really give an awesome mood to the show. definitely one of the reasons that made me stick to the show. Character: 7/10 characters are fine. they is little development in the 175 episodes that i have watched as i said before. however this is not a big deal. my biggest complain about character is that they are over ridiculed. by this i mean they tend to exaggerate certain ridicule characteristics like Natsu's inability to ride vehicles or gray stripping (and everybody overreacting to it). i mean they are fun and all it just that sometimes it is too extreme. Enjoyment: 8/10 my main problem is that often a very serious and epic mood is broken by a bad placed joke (the scene cut animation also help in this). don't get me wrong i really enjoy comedy i just think that placing comedy in the middle of the climax is really mood breaking. other than that the series was pretty enjoyable. i have to admit that i watched some of it fast forwarding some parts because of redundancy but that was ok. overall: 7/10 A series that you can enjoy but not a masterpiece at all or something i will put in my favorite list.

If there was ever an anime that you could just watch mindlessly and enjoy, Fairy Tail is probably it. I'm not going to delve too deeply into any of the criteria, because frankly, Fairy Tail doesn't really excel in any of it. It's another run-of-the-mill, "good guy overcomes the odds without really explaining why or how he got there", "friendship conquers all" anime. Are the characters very deep or develop well? Not really. Does the story progress? Yes. Does it feel like any progress is being made? Nope. However, if there is one thing that Fairy Tail is, it's enjoyable. As cliche and underdeveloped as the characters can really be, they're fun and lovable. As simple and underwhelming as the story can be, it's easy to follow and doesn't take much if any effort to follow or get in to. Fairy Tail is what I'd love to call my "chill" anime. I'm always looking for something new to watch, but when I can't decide on something, I default back to Fairy Tail and catch up. Can't decide between action or comedy? Fairy Tail. Bored at home and want something to do? Watching Fairy Tail. Overall, just watch it. If you're super into story or character development, it won't be your cup of tea. If you have any other opinion on anime, though, I'll bet you $5 that you'll love it.

From what I've heard and seen, many think that Fairy Tail is a very "mid" or even bad shounen. It is a basic shounen, almost like a starter, and in fact, this was my first shounen and action anime ever which drove me deeper into watching action animes. Because people tend to look at the flaws of fairy tail, they ignore the good parts of it too. Aside from the fan service, it is an amazing series that i recommend watching. There may be a lot of episodes, but every single episode is SO WORTH IT. I found myself binging this nonstop. the characters are hilarious, the fight scenes also great, and the theme that fairy tail delivers best - the theme of friendship and not giving up. It almost makes you want to teleport to that world and live there, surrounded by a crazy and fun guild that supports each other during hard battles, and constantly think of each other. The animation, considering 2009, is quite good for the year. and you cant ever forget the music - the main theme is so hype, along with so many soundtracks that just gives you a rush of adrenaline. and of course, there are cute moments too! Personally, as someone who watched this during pre teen, this anime is quite nostalgic and warm to me as my first action anime. Regardless of what others say, I love this anime a lot. Fairy Tail forever.

PROPER MINDSET Ah, gotta love the masses and their love for mediocrity. Fairy Tail (FT) is from the pilot chapter/episode an average shonen series and yet it is loved by many for being just that. I guess rehashing notions from Naruto or One Piece can make a success out of anything. Because just like those shonens, FT has superpowers, adventure and a big cast of colourful and eccentric characters that occasionally get focused upon and fleshed out. Nothing we haven’t seen before but, hey, if it worked before why wouldn’t it work again? Because it’s WORSE! It is hard to talk about anything in this show without feeling like I am just stating the obvious or just describing a different shonen. For to be honest, there is approximately zero innovation in this work and it just walks upon the path others paved before it. It can work alright but it will never stand out on its own; it will forever be just a rehash of already established formulas that have been attributed to others at least a decade earlier. Not only that, but the show rehashes them in a watered down way to the point it becomes a Saturday morning cartoon. THE STAFF - Animated by a collaboration of studios A-1 Pictures and Satelight. The first usually have very good production values and the later have low. What they have in common is how most of what they have made over the years is mediocre and forgettable. - Directed by some nobody who never made something significant in his whole career. - Based on the manga by Mashima Hiro, whose only previous major work was Rave Master. In case you didn’t watch that show, I advise you not to do so; for it’s a completely generic, aimless, boring, and incomplete series. Plus you can easily see that Fairy Tail is basically its improved remake, reusing the same character archetypes and feeling. In all, the mangaka is not much of talent for anything past creating mediocrities. PRODUCTION VALUES - Art and animation are rather crude for the time the show was made. The most obvious fault is how they use repeated footage during summons and attacks, an element that is in fact absent from fighting shonen and better affiliated with mahou shojo or mecha. It is a very striking weakness that alone makes it seem lazy compared to others shonens. - The initial episodes had really jerky motions and many complained how the characters didn’t look or behave at all like in the manga. For an adaptation that is NOT trying to be a spin off but a direct adaptation, the first impressions they offered was the middle finger. They improved it later on a bit but the damage was already done. - The setting lacks characterization. It doesn’t seem to stand out from the lot like others do, which again makes it hard to be remembered in the long run. Unlike other famous shonens like Naruto or One Piece, there is no theme in the FT world and it passes by as a generic fantasy realm. - The character figures are again nothing memorable; most are basically counterparts of people from other shonens, so again it has a problem being remembered for anything. As for the more eccentric-looking ones, they are somewhat original for their looks but they are all minor characters that are defined by a quirk and are defeated and removed from the show in just a few episodes. And of course we have most of the girls running around half naked and acting like they are in permanent heat. So this is a cast you will be staring at for the bizarre or sexy way they look and not because they have any special charisma in their personality. - A minor thing that irritated me a lot. They placed Plue as cameo, a creature from Rave Master. Now what did that manage to accomplish other than annoying the average fan? Is that their way of telling us even clearer that they are rehashing other works INCLUDING their own? That is really tasteless. I hear he was placed there to please the fans of Rave Master but I don’t believe that. Who still likes that boredrome? - The music part leaves me with very little to write about. The OST is fitting for such a series but I don’t find any memorable songs in it. Voice acting is ok too with what is going on in the story. No amazing performance though. SCRIPT The story is completely generic stuff and easily the weakest part of the show. It plays out like some MMO game, where you join a guild and take seemingly irrelevant to one another missions, while at the same time leaving a few openings for character colorization and world-building. It all plays out quite childishly and there isn’t even an objective for anyone in this show; they just take missions and hope to find something that interests them in the process. For example, we know Natsu is looking for a dragon but did he actually look for him? No, he is just fooling around in his guild and takes part in whatever mission comes along. The scenario ends up driving the characters and not the other way around; and even that happens in a bad way since the heroes are not actively doing anything. They just fool around until a villain or a mission appear out of nowhere (no foreshadowing at all) and just decide to take part in the whole thing for money or to save some girl. That makes the protagonist and his gang completely boring since they have no goals in life to go for without some world threat standing in the way. Heck, they would probably be sleeping all day long if they had no obstacles. Now it is true that many events lead to character immersion and reveal more aspects of the world, but all that don’t add anything significant to the show. It’s like drawing more hearts around a short love letter; the contenct is the same but just looks cuter. The plot is always predictable, since it repeats in the exact same way all the time with no interesting plot twists or memorable events. Some character’s past is revealed, some old enemies of him appear, some sinister plan of mass destruction takes place, and then the heroes storm in and win with the power of friendship. Thank you very much; I have seen it all before and in a more mature form. They also add nothing to the show besides more cardboard characters with no significance or moe sancy areas you will never see again. As if that wasn’t enough, just like with all perpetual on-going shonen the anime reached the manga at som point and the creators had to turn to slower pacing, fillers, and eventually to cancel the show prematurely in the middle of an arc. Not that it would be any different if they did what the Big Three do to bust our balls with 10 fillers followed by 2 canon episodes of snail fast plot but the show is left incomplete. Not that there was much of a plot to care for... If there is something good to say here is how all the arcs are relatively short and with a fast pace to the most part. Unlike most shonen, FT does not try to stretch each arc too much. Of course technically most battles are dead time, since they offer nothing to the plot, plus are predictable and repetitive. So to the most part you are still watching a show which repeats itself faster than the average of its kind and is mostly canon filler. CAST The cast is eventually the meat of the show, since the plot is mostly about somebody’s past creating problems in the present. This way you feel like everything is revolving around them and that they are not irrelevant to the main problem of each arc. Some of them count as cool and fleshed out to bother paying attention to but don’t try to find unoriginal characters because you will be disappointed. They are all following a rather typical demeanour but at least they do it right to the most part. There is variety in personalities and powers and most have a rather basic but sufficient backdrop to work with. Of course they are still shallow as heck; their personality can fit in two lines including their signature move. So the mangaka had to resolve to keeping all the girls half-naked and in constant heat in order to keep the viewers/readers from realizing that. For a show that …

Oh look, it's an unpopular opinion! It seems like everyone just likes to rag on Fairy Tail because it's the cool thing to do. I'm not gonna lie, I'm guilty of talking shit about it just as much as everyone else but at the same time... there's no changing the fact that I genuinely did enjoy watching it quite a bit. Is Fairy Tail the worst battle shounen series out there? No. It really isn't. You mean to tell me that in the ENTIRE history of battle shounen anime, Fairy Tail has to be the worst one of them all? Come on... try harder, people! I'm sure some of the older otakus on this website who've watched hundreds of thousands of animes can think of several other programmes that are objectively worse than Fairy Tail. Don't get me wrong though, I understand WHY people like to rag on Fairy Tail. It does have some major problems and for what it's worth, even people in the fandom agree with that sentiment. At the same time, I think way too many people just focus on perpetuating the circle-jerk surrounding this series by parroting basically everything negative which has already been said about this series ad nauseum. Talk about irony. Meanwhile, I love how people talk shit about Fairy Tail and yet don't apply the same criticisms they levy to the programmes that they truly enjoy. Watching a Narutard talk shit about Fairy Tail is just as entertaining is like watching a DC/Marvel fan talking shit about manga. ***THE CONCEPT AND SETTING*** Fairy Tail takes place in a farcical world dominated by magic and follows the travels of a troupe of mages as they travel the globe on various missions and whatnot. Well, that's the condensed version anyway. One of the biggest problems that Fairy Tail has is the fact its arcs are very short, which is paradoxically its biggest strength to me (more on that in the next section). You see, Fairy Tail is one of those battle shounen animes where I'd really like to see more of the universe that this story takes place in explored but sadly it doesn't because one of its calling cards doesn't allow for it. I see people often comparing Fairy Tail to One Piece, but I feel like that's often made by people who've only taken a cursory look at both programmes and then come to the conclusion that they're virtually identical because they look similar, the leading males are both gluttonous idiots, and friendship is a shared theme. However, One Piece's claim to fame is an infinitely expanding universe which has a remarkable degree of complexity and thought put into the writing. This is obviously the case because the arcs are just as long as they need to be in order to allow each island the Straw Hats visit make their mark on the story. Fairy Tail's short arc length doesn't allow for any of that shit to happen whatsoever which is ultimately its biggest failing. I can forgive some of the more annoying running gags and the fan service to a large degree had there been a vast universe to explore, but from Episode 1 all the way to 175, that just wasn't the case. I'm not saying that the world that Fairy Tail remains completely stagnant from beginning to end, because there were *some* things that changed along the way, but nowhere near as much world-building as I had hoped for there to be. Really now, how could Hiro Mashima drop the ball on this one? I could easily think of several places along the way where the writing could've been improved to bring in some more insight on the world that this story takes place in but alack... another story of what could've been. ***THE STORY*** Going back to that short arc length, the reason why I think that it's Fairy Tail's biggest strength in addition to being its most crippling flaw is because this makes the programme very easy to watch. Given the fact that I'm working full-time and have filial obligations, I lack the time and quite frankly the will to keep up with continuously overarching stories like I used to. Do you think that I'm up-to-date with One Piece? Oh HELL to the fucking no. I'm still like 100 chapters behind and even further behind with the anime. It's the fact that Fairy Tail's arcs are short and yet still packed with plenty of action and comedy to spare whilst also being able to take itself seriously if only for a brief moment when the time comes for it to do so which kept me around for so long. With that said, there are several glaring problems that Fairy Tail has when it comes down to the story writing. For one thing, a large portion of the writing feels recycled from other battle shounen anime. Rave Master, Dragon Ball, D.Gray-man, Soul Eater, Hunter x Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, Naruto, Bleach, Busou Renkin, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, etc., these are all battle shounen anime/manga which have done pretty everything that Fairy Tail does but managed to do so better whilst also bringing something new to the table or at least managed to put their own spin on it so that the story doesn't feel like the same tired-out battle shounen formula. What really irritates me is that there are individual parts of the story which genuinely did have me interested but these individual elements were discarded in favour of marketability (short arcs full of action, comedy, and fan service is what this show is all about, right?). The second biggest problem that Fairy Tail has with its story, the comedy. Yeah... comedy on the whole is a very subjective thing and despite being 25 years old, I'm no better than an overgrown man-child. I still find Beavis and Butt-head laugh-out-loud hilarious and sexual/vulgar humour still packs the same punch for me that it did back in middle school and high school. You'd think that I'd get a LOT of mileage out of Fairy Tail given that I'm an immature person, right? Well... not exactly. Natsu's extreme motion-sickness gets on my nerves more than Luffy's stupidity. It wasn't funny the first time, and yet Hiro Mashima and A-1 Pictures by extension still chose to keep that stupid gag throughout the entirety of its run. It's really the overuse of running gags which were never funny in the first place which dampens the comedy which is quite a shame because whenever Fairy Tail manages to get a laugh out of me, I burst out into uncontrollably loud and annoying cackling. The third biggest problem that Fairy Tail has? Fan service. I really don't know what it is about battle shounen anime and having girls with huge racks and bizarre proportioning. I just don't find that shit attractive (Book 3, Chapter 5 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is my idea of fan service done right, but I digress). Also, this is just a personal gripe I have but why does Gray always have to be shirtless at least once per episode? For the girls to fawn over? Come on... at least make them wait for that shit. It loses its impact if it happens almost every single episode. Now if you're into girls with huge racks sporting plenty of cleavage and shirtless guys that are "ripped," as the young people like to say it nowadays, I'm sure this won't be a problem for you but it is for me so too bad! I could go on to say that the battles rely far too heavily on power-ups, but I really don't give a shit about that since they're pretty damn entertaining to watch (especially given that battles are animated rather well) Besides, if you're going to rag on Fairy Tail for using power-ups and not levy the same criticism to programmes like Gurren Lagann, you're a waste of thought. People, this is a SHOUNEN series. By the end of it all, Fairy Tail is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Xiaolin Showdown: it's nothing more than mindless entertainment for sugar-high kids on Saturday mornings. Do you really think that there would be complex and intricate battles with all kinds of strategy out of something meant to be shallow entertainment? Speaking of which, it's time for something I like about Fairy Tail! When it comes down to its overall style, Fairy Tail knows exactly what it wants to be and it doesn't…

“Alone, you feel nothing but insecurity; that’s why we form guilds, that’s why we have friends. We walk together in order to live a strong life.” Makarov Dreyar, 3rd Master Fairy Tail centres on the unity of souls, so to speak, and it emphasises how the bonds between friends can be worth more than blood ties. The masters of the guild, Fairy Tail, all share the same belief that everyone has both light and dark in them, they need to be shown the right path. Stringing from this, many of the mages of darkness are affected by insecurities and their past. The producers actively contrast them with mages of light (such as those in Fairy Tail) with similar insecurities. In turn emphasising the importance of trust and friendship. Another reason as to why some of the “bad guys” just cannot be hated, in fact some of them have slid their way into my many favourites. The contrast made me rethink my outlook on life and the judgment of others. One thing that many like about Fairy Tail, including me, is the manner in which these depths of life are hidden and entwined with scenes full of emotions- sadness, hatred, love and not to forget indignation. The last of the four is the most prominent theme of this anime, and is revisited with every arc. However, the producers have done an excellent job with lightening the mood every-so-often, with the characters and their personality, mainly featuring those of Fairy Tail. The character most in focus is Lucy Heartfilia, who at first seems an add-on but as the story progresses you really get to understand her as a person and how strong her character really is, despite the ‘blond moments’. She is one character who shows the least anger and resent out of most characters and its surprising how she manages to do so (but I shall expand no more, otherwise I’ll be bordering spoiler-zone and we don’t want that do we, now? :p). The anime itself starts off with our dear Lucy getting trapped in the most absurd situations and a Fairy Tail mage saving her…you can find out who yourself when you watch it. They seem like her knight-in-shining armour and ironically she is a Princess herself! :p yup! You’re in for a ball, my friend! Having said that, although this character is always there, Lucy doesn’t always act as the helpless person, you would expect. This leads me on to character development… The character development is by far the best bit of Fairy Tail and each and every character is fully explored, the main ones more so, but that is to be expected. The director has certainly done his part with making Fairy Tail a success with this aspect. However, I’ll have you know, that this anime is 175 episodes long so you are, no doubt, in for repetition. Fortunately, I didn’t find this a problem until quite a decent number of episodes in i.e. if you’ve been told that Fairy Tail is just a mush of different arcs with the same storyline, or thereabouts that’s not entirely true. But of course, it’s not a cup of tea for everyone! The more detailed overall story is pretty obvious but there are times where the fillers take the spotlight and you might be lost as to what’s happening. Personally speaking, this was one of the greatest flaws of Fairy Tail alongside the fan service that frequents as you near the end. But you get used to it! Personally I felt, that once you get into the anime and start admiring and understanding the characters, then you seem to enjoy the fillers more and more. The art style is something that is given divided opinion, since it is very bold and the details are present, although are not emphasised. This compliments and shines a spotlight on Fairy Tail as a guild, because they are notorious as a troublemaker guild, however they are the most welcoming and possibly the most forgiving. The fighting style is also influenced greatly by the art style and the underlying motives of the anime. Talking about creativity, the OPs and EDs are plentiful and are well suited to their arcs and some have even entered my list of favourites! They begin and end each episode making it complete and finishing the ideas that were started off, kind of like tying up loose ends. So with all that blubber, my review about fairy tail comes to a close. Its such a huge series that being able to cover each and every aspect has been difficult, but hopefully I have wrapped it all off in my very first review! Beware of the over the top fighting scenes, though they really do get me going and some of them leave me laughing, the characters have a knack of doing that! The very last, incomplete arc leading to the second season will give you a very good idea of that! ;) ENJOY! Overall Rating: 8.5 thecookiemonster