Despite reading the manga, I dropped this (for now, maybe I'll continue once it's finished airing) because so many things were wrong with this it wasn't funny anymore.
Story:
Pretty much not existing at all. The characters lose sight of their goals and every 10th / 20th episode (This includes the "old" Fairy Tail as well) they suddenly remember it. "Oh, right, we were looking for our dragon parents who vanished."
The "story" is made out of single arcs which almost always don't have some kind of connection at all. One of the most serious problems Fairy Tail has, is seriousness. Of course, comedy is nice and all but sometimes the comedy is misplaced. "Oh, we're trapped here and might die because we can't get any food - How about the girls strip and wear bikinis / sexy underwear so that the men will release us." I know Fairy Tail is infamous for its fanservice, and I am a fan of it as well, but Mashima should know when he should add fanservice and when not.
Battles:
The most important part of a Shonen anime and I almost always enjoy them.
But not here. I am a tolerant watcher that can tolerate minor logic errors or slight friendship power-ups since nearly every Shonen has something like that. But Fairy Fail is overdoing it. Let me take one of the fights from this series as an example:
Rufus:
"I can use ancient magic, no one can beat me, I have all the magic in this LIBRARY and can even use ANCIENT / LOST magic nobody else can use. OH, I can also dissolve the magic of my opponent so that he can't use his magic anymore. I am SOOO gonna win this fight."
Gray:
"I was being pwned by but thanks to my nakamas I can now counter the magic that screwed me up 2 seconds ago."
This is just not okay. In the end it all comes down to opinions here but this fight was the pinnacle of stupidity.
Characters:
The characters are almost always stereotypical (Shounen) characters that can mostly be summed up with one or two words. They also don't get any major character development (If we exclude Gray and Erza, that is. (Then again, we only learned about their pasts. I doubt this can be called "character development", Mashima just seems to like these characters so he decided to give them some depth.)) which is very important in a Shonen anime. After 170 episodes Natsu is still the same idiot as in episode 1 that likes to show off. Nothing changed at all.
Sound:
Outstanding / Awesome / Superb.
Easily the best part of the whole anime. The medieval soundtrack fits perfectly and is one of the best out there.
Art / Animation style:
Many people complain about it but just as many people like it. The new animation style resembles the manga and is pretty damn good in my opinion. The character designs are now much better.
Enjoyment:
I wouldn't have dropped the series if I enjoyed it, right?
Despite having enjoyed the first season, I can't bear to watch this one. I don't know what happened but it pains me to watch it.
Conclusion:
It's probably a good Shonen anime if you didn't watch many animes yet, good thing for newcomers. If you just like me prefer animes with some depth this isn't a series for you.
