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.

Those that are done raging between anime/manga adaptions feel free to read. Those who still don't understand why books and movies will ever be the same feel free to go away. With that being said, Fairy Tail is easily the best Shounen anime to date! Take this from a non-hardcore shounen fan. Granted, i do enjoy shounen as a casual viewer (despite me seeing over 3000 shounen eps) but I stand by my statement 100%

Sounds a little bit shallow but please let me elaborate. There have been countless shounen anime throughout the decades. Some lasting a few dozen episodes, others spanning 100's of episodes. Ever ... since Astro Boy, children all over the world have been enjoying cartoons such as these, but they all had one thing in common, countless flaws. If you are watching any of the big three, you know what they are. Long fights, long story arcs, long recaps, long explanations, annoying characters... basically tricks to extend the length of an anime series.

Fairy Tail takes all those ideas and throws them in the trash. You want short, awesome fights that does not last for weeks? Check! You want story arcs that are full of action, comedy, and a little seriousness? You got it! Most importantly, aren't you tired of characters explaining/chanting their fighting moves every time they use it?!?! I'm looking at you Bleach and One Piece~! Fairy Tail takes all the things that makes watching shounen anime great and throws out all the junk that that makes shounen ...well, junk.

In the beginning, it looks like it is an atypical shounen story of a boy/girl trying their best to improve their skills. Although it has that element, it is all about being part of a team. This team is the mages guild called Fairy Tail. A motley crew of mages with their own unique fighting styles, personalities and looks. There are so many characters in this show, one would find it hard not to like 3-5 characters out of the lot. Watching only 22 episodes, and you will be introduced to over 2 dozen members of fairy tail. Even the way they introduce all of their characters and their powers is awesome. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, such is the case here. It's a shoot first, ask questions later style, which how it SHOULD be.

Since that is the case, less time is taken to explain things you already know and actually put toward story and character development. Another amazing feat done by this anime series... episode recaps last LESS THAN 30 seconds! Talk about innovative! I know purists complain that it "doesn't follow the manga to the word!" but really, what manga does? I may sound like a broken record but if you keep an open mind, you can see this series is a cut above the rest. All arcs are told in typical anime fashion, problem arises and the team must stop them. But I'll be damned if you cant get excited seeing all the action and/or comedy that is packed in to a half hour. It will even manage to surprise you in more ways than one! "Kya!" Comes to mind.

With the sheer number of characters, you would think there would not be enough time or story for all of them. But they all get more than enough airtime considering they're not the main four characters. Natsu, Grey, Lucy, and Happy will of course, be the ones being followed the most, but you will see how much everyone else will be in the shot. My personal favorites are Mirajane and Ezra. On the topic of favorites, you will notice there are a large number of A-list seiyuu participating in this anime series as well. You might notice the voices of Ranka Lee, Taiga Aisaka, Izumi Konata, or even Saya Otonashi, are in here. Main or support, the voice cast can not be ignored.

Another thing that can not be ignored is wide screen format and overall high production value of the animation. Usually quality drops after a few episodes, but for an anime style such as this, it lends itself on opportune times to use low quality animation over high quality and for the most part works amazingly well. It sure might look like One Piece at a glance but if you compare the two, the difference is like night and day. It is actually a little more comparable to Soul Eater if i had to put a comparison to it.

I'm not saying this anime is perfect in any way. Theres a little flaws that nit pickers might see like the "reuse" of certain animated scenes namely the incantations. Or how the "quality" drops in a few scenes. But isn't that the case with ALL anime? Those problems I mentioned are so subtle and minuscule you will only notice them if you're looking for things to hate about watching this show. To be honest, from the first two dozen episodes, there is nothing overly bad from watching this shounen anime. I would normally say its bad simply because it is a shounen anime, but this has everything I wanted fixed in watching a shounen anime. I especially love how they can pull "random" (i.e. filler) episodes off of the guild message board and go with it. It almost resembles an RPG in that sense. Happenstance encounters or weird pauses in story arcs to start a different one are rare in this sense. The players are all in their place and we are there to watch everything flow nice and easy. Here's to hoping this will last a few hundred episodes.

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 an elitist tone, this was definitely not my intention and I don't consider myself to be superior or more intelligent than any of you.**

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.

This is only my third review, and im am not a very skilled english-writer, but please bear with me.

Fairy Tail itself is one of my favorite series. I will try not to compare the anime too much with the manga, since this a a review for the ANIME, but i must note that the fairy tail MANGA is my favorite shounen manga, and i have been following that series for years, also before the anime show started.

Why people should watch Fairy Tail? well if you like the shoune genre, it would really be a waste if you don't! Fairy Tail have all the good shounen ... points, amazing characters, amazing fights, comedy, and best of all; no long explanations during every fight and every attack (I am reffering to the big top 3 here).

Story: The Story in fairy tail is amusing, but there indeed is not very much plot going on here. Most of the things happening seems rather random. But the story is set up on a group of people in a mage guild named Fairy Tail, where the series main topic probably is friendship between them. With at story like this, not having any special plot actually works. Instead of plot, we have fun and interesting small arcs all the time, which never makes Fairy Tail boring! And we all have to remember that Fairy Tail is still on-going, and there is lot of unanswered questions yet to figure out, so it is possible for a deeper plot to pop up in the end!


Art: Here i must compare a little to the Manga (Sorry). The manga have AMAZING art, however the animation in the manga is not near as good. This is also the main reason why i won't give this anime a overall score on 10. To be honest, when i watched the first episode of Fairy Tail in 2009, i have been looking forward for it to air the whole day, and i was a little disappointed when i watched it. worse was it, that from episode 2 and on to episode 15-20, the animation keept being bad, well, the little animation there where! Fairy Tail, both in openings/endings and in the episodes themself like to use A LOT of non-moving pictures, which is a shame, because fairy tail haves potentiale to have some really kick ass scenes.
The fights lack a little too compared to the manga, or just other shounen series, because of the BLOOD censur (which annoys be greatly! We can not show blood in the anime, but naked girls is no problem!)

however, the anime still manages to have some good fights, where the Erza arc was animated pretty good, and so some of the other big fights.

also, a lot of people have been talking about Fairy Tail being a rip off or copy from One Piece. that is deffintly not true! Yes, the art is somewhat similar and yes both series are a lot about their "nakamas" for really, its two very different stories. Try sit down and read shojo, i can find over 10 stories with different mangakas, but with similar art and story. Fairy Tail and One Piece are NOT the same, Fairy Tail is NOT a rip off, DON'T compare them, seriously ..

Sound:

Fairy Tail have without doubt the most EPIC soundtracks! It makes you go "hell yeah, go fairy tail" everytime the main theme for their fighting scenes plays, and it makes you cry, when the sad themes are played during sad scenes.

Fairy Tail also have an amazing Voice Acting cast (In japanese) with some of the very popular seiyuu's, like Happy's voice actor Kugimiya Rie (Alphonse, Taiga, Shana, Louise, etc) and Lucy's voice actor Hirano Aya (Suzumiya Haruhi, Izumi Konata, etc) and my own favorites, Natsu and Gray's voice actors Kakihara Tetsuya (Simon, Amaimon, etc) and Nakamura Yuuichi (Tomoya, Greed, Gai, Ikuto, etc) and there are a lot more amazing voice actors, but that would be too much to list here now. Go check out for yourself!

Character: There are a lot of characters in Fairy Tail, it should be possible to at least find a few you would like. To me, all the characters are very likeable, i specially like our Main hero Natsu, because he seems bold, but he actually isn't stupid or slow or dense like other typical shounen heros are. Also with our characters, fairy tail manage to create some interesting relationships between our characters, both deep friendship, but also romantic ones, which usally is really rare in shounen. I'm sure that there haven't been lots of girls, watching series like Bleach, One Piece or Naruto and just wishing for some romantic relationships to happen. Well i will say that Fairy Tail manages to give you - maybe not fully canon - but surely lots of romantic possible relationship.

Enjoyment: Unless you really have a problem with half naked girls and breasts, which you really cannot escape from in Fairy tail however much i wish for it, it should not be possible for anyone to not enjoy this anime! It is just hilarious and funny but still have its good and serious moments, and even some complicated relationships between some of our characters, and Fairy Tail manage to surprise me lots of times too!

I will reccomend this anime to all people who like shounen, or like a fun anime with lots of comedy.
There might be some girls, like myself, who doesn't find the fan service rather interesting (Yes - boobs, huge boobs and LOTS of them) but i myself just learned to look over it, since most of the times, this fanservice is invovled with something funny, which really just makes you laugh of it anyway. For guys who like this kind of fan service.. so much more reason for you to watch it!

All in all. Wanna watch a funny, interesting and good anime? Watch Fairy Tail.

And if you like fairy tail, i would really reccomend reading the Manga too. But that would mostly be because of the fact that the art is awesome, and manga contains blood, which makes the fighting scenes look a little more badass, and characters like Gray, is often drawn very hot and cool in the manga, where he get less epic moments in the Anime. Other than that, the Anime and Manga is pretty much the same, i'm surprised to have watched 119 episodes of Fairy Tail, and there haven't been any massive fillers yet. i will believe there have been all in all 10 episodes out of the 119 which have contained fillers, and that was not BAD fillers, and it wasn't 10 episodes in a row, so it made a annoying filler arc. Also the Fairy Tail anime likes to animate some of the many Fairy Tail Special/Extra/Omakes chapters and put them into the series or create some amazing hilarious OVA episodes out of them.

Fairy Tail. You had so much potential.

The story starts in a similar fashion like most shounens, a girl named Lucy dreams of becoming a wizard to join a prestigious guild. As soon as she meets Natsu her life is changed dramatically. In the process she goes on magical adventures, facing enemies with her friends along the way. The first episode gave me a quick preview of Fairy Tail, and along the way I made quick assumptions. Natsu seems to be your generic hot-blooded, brawling-fanatic main character and Lucy felt like another damsel in distress slash sidekick. I know I was making shallow judgments based on ... this exposure but it turns out I right. Unfortunately enough watching more episodes I was introduced to many typical character archetypes. One that stood out was Erza. Just by studying her actions and interactions with characters I could classify her with one word, "Tsundere". This is not a very good sign when you can summarize characters with one word or in one sentence. For other character archetypes you get the rival (Gray), the playboy (Loki), the all-powerful, perverted master (Makarov), manly man (Elfman), arrogant power boss (Laxus), the fangirl (Juvia), and MANY more. As soon as the "Job Posting" wall was introduced through out the plot I instantly knew that this was going to be arc based. You know the drill; the mangaka is going invent and make up the story as he goes along. The fighting is extremely predictable for the most part: Villain Team/Guild vs. Fairy Tail. Mini tournaments are emphasized because of the cluster of villains and heroes. It's usually someone from each team/guild fighting One-on-One and then leaving Natsu or Natsu and said teammates against the main boss of the arc. Side characters usually defeat the lesser villains and ultimately the one to essentially defeat the big "arc boss" is Natsu which is incredibly unfortunate. Power levels are quite confusing. For example, Natsu defeats a supposedly powerful enemy like Jellal in the previous arc but then he gets defeated in the following arc by a seemingly less powerful villain. The humor is quit entertaining but that does not account for the mediocre filler episodes. Major character development is yet to be discovered, pretty much everyone stays exactly the same. The plethora of side characters are not worth mentioning because they add so little with the plot except fight the villains in the "mini-tournaments" and add comic relief with the exception of Wendy, Laxus, Charlie, Gildartz, and Gajeel. Fighting is quite Dragon Ball Z like, this is most evident in the Natsu and Gajeel fight. Most of the time it boils down to Deux-Ex-Machina moments like constant random power ups directly (mainly towards Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Erza),"Nick of the time" character save situations and "My magical attack/technique is stronger than your magical attack/technique" sayings. Did I mention Hiro is obsessed with friends and friendship speeches? With the power of your friends and your "nakama" behind you can conquer any challenge in this universe, in other words if you see a villain who is not so pro-friendship they are for sure going to be defeated and be unsuccessful in their plans. I know friendship is amazing but don't over-saturate it to point where it's obviously forced down our throats.

Fairy Tail is a great example of an average Shounen. Perfect for people who are new to the Shounen genre but those who are are experienced will be disappointed.

Pros:
+Everything a Shounen symbolizes
+Entertaining and Humorous to an Extent
+Some Memorable Characters (Happy, Gajeel, Laxus, Ultear, Mest...)
+Friendly Environment and Atmosphere
+Fan service for both Sexes

Cons:
-No Originality
-Plenty Shounen Tropes and Cliches
-Too many Static Characters (Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel, Lucy, Master, Loki... etc.)
-Uneven Character Spotlights (i.e. Too much Natsu, Erza, Lucy and not enough screen time for other more interesting characters)
-Formulaic/Predictable Story Telling
-No Major Character Development
-Dues Ex Machina Moments

To me this is the most overrated anime ever. Every episode tries to have some emotional bullsh*t and the fights are terrible, friendship power up > all

Story:
Ok, so this is the story of natsu ( lucy ? i dont even know who is the main ) and his friends. They are all part of a guild and go out on jobs. Natsu wants to find his lost dragon but 75 episodes into he does nothing to find him.....NOTHING!!!
The story never gets darker or something, its just natsu and pals vs other guilds.

Art:
Its good, the backgrounds suck tho.

Sound:
... Easily the best thing about fairy tail.

Characters:
Hate the main characters. Natsu gets zero character development and wins all battles because well, friendship power up > all, right ?!
The rest of the bunch is uninteresting, lucy is there only to show us her boobs and legs, gray is the same but for girls, always stripping, and finnaly erza which is not that bad.

The main theme of the anime is: friendship, at first it was cool but after 10 friendship speeches... oh god.

Soooo if you want something that doesnt focus on story or character development ( if you like bad animes lol ) and tries too hard to teach you that friendship is important, this is for you.

Action Shounen's are a genre im very familar with having watched more than i could possibly name so naturally i was drawn to Fairy Tail which seems to be the next big "never ending story" which as of this review has over 90 episodes. While the premise of the series is interesting being about magic and guilds, ultimatley the series fails to really break any new grounds and throughout the course of the 80 odd episodes i've seen has really left me with a reoccuring feeling of déjá vu.

Story

As you are probably aware, the story begins with a teenage girl named Lucy Heartfilia who has ... set out to become a mage of the world famous guild Fairy Tail. During her search she inadvertently meets a boy named Natsu Dragneel a dragon slayer who has a very fiery personality as well as a huge appetite and is searching for a dragon by the name of Igneel along with his flying blue cat companion named Happy. Natsu invites Lucy to be a mage in the Fairy Tail guild and the two form a partnership along with the ice mage Gray Fullbuster and s-class mage as well as team leader of their quartet Erza Scarlet and as a team embark on various quests and adventures.

The story is seperated into many arcs which is typical of action shounen, each arc is quite short, generally 10 episodes or less (although the last two have exceeded this number) with very few filler in between. This is where the feeling of déjá vu kicks in for me because over the course of the series each arc seems to follow the same basic structure. You have your main antagonist along with his or hers henchman threatening to obtain or destroy something that effects the balance of peace in the world of Fairy Tail to which of course the mage's of the Fairy Tail guild in particular Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Erza are there to oppose them. You may be thinking to yourself "hey doesn't the majority of action Shounen boil down to good vs evil?" but in Fairy Tail while there are some good ones, most arcs are told in the same bland, repetitive, unimaginative and predictable way. To start the main bad guy and his henchman tend to put a beatdown on the Fairy Tail members. Natsu vows to win round 2 at all cost and take down the main antagonist because he is the only one who can and wether its through sheer will power, friendship or some other power up thats what happens and the threat is stopped. Throw in one of the Fairy Tail members (usually Erza) willing to sacrafice themselves before being stopped at the very last moment by Natsu who delivers them a very cliché speech. Then add the main antagonists of this series following the same basic pattern of going from calculative to crazed during the heat of battle to finally either remorseful for their actions in defeat or plain forgotten about the very next arc and folks you have a Fairy Tail arc. The lack of significant consequences at the conclusion for most arcs or the feeling that the story is continously building in a well structured manner, doesn't help its cause either.

The tone of the anime is very light hearted, there's no blood and while death is explored the lives of the Fairy Tail characters or bad guys rarely feel like they are in any significant danger. Even when its insinuated, you know everything is going to turn out okay. The series is also very heavy with humor and wackiness most of which fall flat as the jokes tend to come off very forced. There is also quite a bit of fan service with girls with big boobs and skimpy clothing which really isn't a positive or negative for me.

Characters

Natsu is your typical dense, stubborn main shounen hero with an affinity for food and Lucy is your weak, smart, sexy female character. Each of the characters in the Fairy Tail guild tend to have common traits or unsual quirks for instance Natsu's motion sickness which leaves him incapacitated, Gray's always unconsciously stripping his clothes off, Erza being a tsundere and guild master Makarov being an old pervert ect. Throughout the course of the series we get a decent back story on the four main characters + Happy aswell as some of the supporting cast. While the series does well to show some of the hardships the chracters went through there really is very little character development outside of this and for the most part there is even a lack of explanation for what motivated the characters to join the fairy tail guild or what their goals are while there.

Art and Sound

While it doesn't stand out in any big way, the art is clean and vibrant and the character designs are very similar to Hiro Mashima's other series Rave and is typical of what you would come to expect from a shounen series in this day and age. At the beginning of the series the animation was quite poor and there was an overuse of magic circles and still frames but as the series progresses this gets toned down dramatically and there is a notable improvement in the animation. The sound is another good aspect of the show it borrows heavily from old english folk music which really works well with themes of magic and festival that inspires Fairy Tail. A warning to those reading you may want to skip over the openings and endings of Fairy Tail they usually spoil alot of whats going on in a upcoming or current arc.

Final Words

Fairy Tail is a series with alot of potential that a lack of creativy, originality and at times pacing stop it from being anything more than another generic action shounen anime. Its a show i could reccomend to someone who is new to the genre, enjoys generally short arcs with little filler, a younger viewer or someone who is a big fan of the whole magic and guilds theme. To those who have already 'seen it all' in this genre, particularly an anime like One Piece, there's really is no good reason for you to be watching this series unless you have time to kill.

Sometimes there will be shows that will make you laugh and cry. Sometimes the shows will raise realistic questions, and sometimes shows will leave a bitter scar in your heart. Shounen genre is the champion of genre when it comes to long running, and it is infamous for its action, and known for exploring an interesting specific topic, whether it is ninja, samurai, pirates or shinigami. Most shounen develope from the Japanese myths and culture, while some (recently even more) decides to tell the story of distant land. Fairy Tail is one of the rare shounens that tells the story of magic, set in more ... of European style with guilds and magicians and mage and magic with theme of "friendship" and "victory".

The most reputable part of the series is its music. Sountracks are top-notch, opening and ending songs are high quality and voice acting is decent. For most and any shounen, this trait is same. Fancy opening to uplift the mood with calmer endings, accompanied by some better soundtracks, music definitely is a strong point of the show. But how many people watches the show for music?

To put it simply, Fairy Tail is about a magic guild called "Fairy Tail". The story begins when Lucy Heartfilia joins this guild and finds how welcoming, fun, anti-evil, powerful, and loving it is and together, they take on missions, and fights other evil guilds. (does it remind you of a ninja village from some show?)

Originality is not present in this show. Everything is recycled, reused and replaced from every other shounen presented before. Lacking originality isn't bad, infact many great series weren't as original, but what Fairy Tail lacks is a genuine delivery and attention to details. Clichés can form a decent story if used correctly, however, eveything was thrown out in the stage, "we must protect" "we always win" "we are friends", lengthy dialouges of why friendship is imortant all are thrown out there, and that is what grabs the attention of sleeping audience. There is no form of suspense, everything is predictable, dialouges are from the third-grade diary, protagonists are typical and not to mention the Dragon Ball complex, you know, fight enemy then make them friends, is present in this shounen too.

Protagonists are loud, seen as patriots (as every other typical shounen), girls are for some unknown reasons portrayed as either absurdly strong and obnoxious or extremely helpless, and villains are agian, your recylced evil guys doing things with no ulterior purpose. There wasn't any development but more like a boost change in personality. One time they are bad and next episode, poof, they are good guy. The change is like skipping steps and can't be called development, more like sudden changes to characters. One time the character is weak and the next scene they somehow are the strongest character with power with unsatisfying explanation.

The most significant things, which applies to most audience, is the character art. Gray stripping, nicely drawn out "cool" guys, and EVERY SINGLE FEMALE has a voluptuous body with exaggerated top. However, you don't see audience complaining, because, there is fan service for both ends, sadly, we are in an era where normal figures are considered ugly and to promote story, shows draw out exaggerated body parts.

The art, beside that, is fantastic. Details are good, backgrounds are reputable, and the concept of mage and guilds are drawn fairly well. Borders are done well, and there colours are vibrant. Animation for any shounen, as always, is good too.

Fairy Tail had a little potential. Perhaps some fixing of plot, presenting some unique character could've enhanced the enjoyment. However, the show borrows so much from other shounen that you can't remember anything significant of it, beside the music. As someone who have seen One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball and some other major shounen, the similarity and lack of orginality is too obvious to enjoy. There are even major characters (Gildarts), stroy arcs that were completely taken from other series and inserted in this show, with minor changes.

Overall, I respect Hiro Mashima's ability to draw fast and draw some good scenes, but when it comes to plot I pity these pathetic plots and characters. From my perspective, Fairy Tail is like those action anime with super fan-service, except there is no nudity, but exaggerated males and females with the given explanation for fighting ends with "cuz we b frndz"

If you're into beautiul females, typical shounen, and are half-wake when watching shows, this is definitely your anime, If you want something serious, deep, and a thrilling shounen, you may run away before wasting any time.

To conclude, Fairy Tail left a bitter scar in my heart. I have wasted one summer, looking for change, unfortunately, it was pathetic.

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'm going to be continually updating this review as the show continues. Currently, I've seen 20 episodes of Fairy Tail and I'm extremely pleased to say that they've upped the artwork and animation. In the first few epi's, things felt a bit below par, animation was re-used in some fight sequences, and overall gave you the feeling of a resounding "meh." Over the last few episodes, Fairy Tail's animation, it's soundtrack, and it's storyline have all truly begun. Character introductions are over, and the true Fairy Tail of the manga is showing through. All I can say is watch until episode 13 (a half series ... worth) and if you're still completely unsatisfied with Fairy Tail, then drop it. But keep in mind, this is a shounen anime, and sometimes the beginning is nothing like the show, or simply lacking.

Story:

Fairy Tail appears to follow Lucy, a Stellar Spirit Mage, and Natsu, A fire breathing/punching/kicking/eating mage who is on a search for his old master Igneel. As the story goes on however, the focus shifts and really embodies all the characters. If you were to compare Fairy Tail's story to any other anime it would be One Piece, as the general theme of adventure, nakama, comedy and climax is there, not to mention the definite similarities between Natsu and Luffy. Overall, Fairy Tail's story is a classic shounen type, but from what they've done in the manga, and how the anime is so far sizing up, Fairy Tail is sticking to it's story, without throwing in unnecessary filler (not just episodes, but the time spent in episodes). The problem with the story section, is that it can be somewhat hard to get into off the bat, but once Fairy Tail enters it's first true story arc, I can almost guarantee if you're a fan of shounen, you'll love it.

Art:

The one big complaint that comes to mind as someone who has read the manga, is the magic. They've gone with this whole "summoning circle" approach, and though I suppose I'm getting used to it, I still know it would be better without. Now, most pilot episodes have sketchy animation. And Fairy Tail is no exception. But what I was extremely pleased to see (while watching the series) is that the animation budget seems to have kicked it into high gear upon the first story arc, and animation quality is not top notch. Don't let the first few epi's fool you, the animation in Fairy Tail is actually pretty good.

Sound:

The background music does a nice job actually, it's upbeat and helps you get a feeling for the mood in general, cause when they drop the flutes, you know something's going down. This is something more recent, but for the first time in Fairy Tail I felt a real union of plot, character and background music to truly bring together a scene. It was powerful, it was invigorating, and very encouraging. Watching the show it feels like it's on a learning curve, starting from episode 1-13. 1-3 it's getting C's in school, 4-9 it's picked up to a B-, 10-12 It's rocketed up to A-, and by 14 I'm seeing real quality work come from Fairy Tail in all aspects. Honestly, if you've dropped this series, I need to say give it another chance and continue watching.

Character:

Fairy Tail's Character scene is diffiult to sum up. I'll start off by saying, they don't do a great job of introducing them. They just bring most of them in, and expect you to like them. And it doesn't really work. Everyone just comes off as being uninteresting or stale at first. But as the show goes on, the characters were developed, and you can start to enjoy them. (This happens around ep. 11-14). After that, you can begin to really appreciate Fairy Tail as the manga has been built up to be. It's running on 160+ chapters, the story's got no problem going for it, you might just have to trust me that the characters start out shallow, but build into being lovable.

Enjoyment:

Here's where Fairy Tail gets it's points. Once the cast is introduced you get into the story and it's a captivating tail (see what I did there? ;D). I find myself laughing at Happy's antics, Lucy's misfortunes and Natsu and Gray's relationship/overall attitude. The fight scenes are interesting and eye catching, and the story is fun to follow. Fortunately 161 chapters in, and I've yet to see Fairy Tail's story turn for the worse, like many shounen manga/anime fall victim to. So here's looking forward to an anime that can go strong for years to come.

Overall:

I give Fairy Tail a 9. The story is solid, and it's very enjoyable, and that's really all you can ask. If you want to complain about art, sound, and character, all I have to say is keep watching. My old review said "you'll just have to trust me that things will get better" and I'm glad to see that that premonition came to pass. In my opinion, an anime is all about how much you enjoy it, and Fairy Tail is one to enjoy.

I had heard of a legendary manga called Fairy Tail, and when an anime version of it was announced, I was really happy. I wanted to watch a mainstream shounen (as in.. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) from the very beginning, since those three aforementioned series have way too many episode for me to catch up on, anyway.

I was sorely disappointed.


==[Pros]==

- Great idea. The setting is very imaginative... but that's to be expected when you're dealing with a series like this.

- Music. The ED is very catchy, and the OP isn't bad.
...

==[Cons]==

- Characters. They are static. Very static. To the point where I wouldn't be surprised if they could make an appearance in Zetsubou Sensei's class of stereotyped characters. Gray is just "rival of main character with running gag." That's all we know about him after five episodes.

- The pacing. Introductory episodes are usually used to flesh out characters. The four introductory episodes here are totally pointless. The characters are just the same people we see in episode one. I found myself asking "why?" to every episode. There's no reason why these episodes should even exist.

- The animation. Look at the ground beneath Natsu's feet in the opening sequence. Bad art and animation is sprinkled everywhere.


==[Conclusion]==
Good concept, but the static characters, mediocre animation, and nearly episodic way to storytelling make for a slow (five epiosdes) and useless introduction that makes me not want to watch any more.

One of those shows that starts out really good but then gets worse as it moves along yet you continue to watch hoping that it returns to its original greatness but sadly it never does. Fairy Tail in a nutshell.

Reasons why it gets worse:
The arcs are very predictable and similar.
The female characters lose more clothing as it continues.
The gags are overly done.
The main character doesn't train to get stronger they suddenly get stronger in the middle of a fight.
Happy doesn't say "Aye Sir" anymore.(big reason, unforgivable)

So go ahead and watch it its not bad nor is it great. And who knows maybe it will suddenly ... get stronger in the middle of an arc? lol

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

*THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE FIRST EPISODE*

Lucy is a young wizard who wants to join the magic guild Fairy Tail. During her travels she meets Natsu, a fellow wizard, and his mascot pet Happy. Together they travel the world and get into lots of fights, presumably, in her quest to join Fairy Tail. This is, after all, a shonen series, so that's to be expected.

The characters are standard fair for the genre: plucky, but slightly air-headed, girl, awesome fighter guy who's also an idiot, and a cute mascot pet that explains everything to the air-headed girl. Really nothing here to make them stand out ... from any of the other series from this genre.

Outside of the CG from Bantorra, this is probably the cheapest and blandest animation I've seen in the Fall '09. It's flat, has a low framerate, and minimal movements. Background characters are embarrassingly undetailed. Spell effects are mainly just some CG plastered on the screen.

It doesn't really help that everything Fairy Tail does has been done before and better by a lot of other shows like One Piece or Rave Master.

The only real saving grace of the first episode is that it has a smattering of genuinely funny moments and some nice looking backgrounds in a few place.

'Bland' is the word for this series. Art is bland, animation is bland, story is bland, characters are bland. Inoffensive, but tasteless.

I guess if you really, really like these sorts of shows [shounen] then you might enjoy Fairy Tail, otherwise you can probably avoid it and not feel as though you're missing out on anything.

This is my first review!
I’ve heard of an anime called Fairy Tail becoming part of the legendary animes out there. I've watched it, and to my surprise it’s not good as I expected it to be.

Art:7
Well to be honest, I really don’t pay attention to the art when it comes to anime. I think anything goes well. However, compared to other animes out there, it has a good artistic look. Very cartoony and joyful feeling.

Music:7
It actually has very good music. The soundtrack is epic, sounds like medieval time music, and its good. It also has a lot of classical music, like Can-Can, Pomp and ... Circumstance, A on a G string, and a lot more.

Characters:4
I’ve seen a lot of Shounen animes, and well this is your typical characters you find in an anime. Natsu is your average energetic guy who loves eating, and always pumped up when going into battle. Similar to Naruto and Luffy. Lucy is also your average wacky girl who is very clumsy and not very powerful. Yet she has a very nice body, like the rest of the girls in Fairy Tail. Gray and Natsu are always competing about power and constantly fighting with each other. Finally, Erza is like the babysitter in the group; she is serious, strong, and intelligent. In other words, the characters are not really that unique.

Story:5
This anime is about this teenage girl names Lucy Heartfilia whose goal is to become a great mage. On her way, she meets this boy about her age named Natsu Dragneel , and Natsu invites her to be a member of Fairy Tail. In there, they form a group along with Gray, Natsu’s friend/enemy, Happy, Natsu’s pet, and Erza. All 5 do jobs in Fairy Tail in order to earn money. Its not a very unique or exciting storyline. When fighting, Natsu ‘natually’ gets to fight with the final boss, and wins epictly, like in a typical Shounen anime.

Enjoyment:6
I have to be honest, but the anime does have a lot of humorous scenes. The gang is always fooling around, Lucy always wants to get guys attention but fails, Natsu and Gray are always fighting, Happy always thinks about fish and says the most hilarious stuff, and much other things. Inside the guild is a joyous feeling. However, this is not the reason I don’t like it. When it comes to fighting, the battles are always predictable. Natsu always fights the boss, and wins naturally. Also the good guys always win no matter what. If everyone is in peril, they somehow win by an ultimate attack, or something miraculously happens. In other words, its dull. The battles are not epic or fun to watch. Additionally, not a lot of deaths occur. Everyone always survives to be good and dandy. Not much blood is spilled either.

Overall, I give it a 5. It isn’t exciting and so typical. The storyline is typical, the characters are common, fights are dull and predictable. A lot of people seem to like it because of the humor and cause it has a joyous environment. I like humor, but not all the time.

When I first picked up Fairy Tail, I had heard much hype from friends -- that it would pose a challenge to the big four kings of shonen anime, e.g. Naruto/Bleach/One Piece/Fullmetal Alchemist. After watching the first few episodes, I could not decide whether I hated it or loved it. I gave it a 6 for many reasons, but I personally have started to follow it and hope it develops.

Story: 8

The story is one of interesting concept, not over-done in anime right now: a world of magicians and wizards, where everyone has the ability to do some form of magic. At the start, I was ... confused whether Fairy Tail was a shonen or a shojo. We start off with an adorable, innocent looking girl aspiring to become a great wizard. Each wizard belongs to a guild, sort of an organization that gathers people together as allies (think Squad in Bleach, Hidden Village in Naruto, or crew in One Piece, etc.).
The story progresses as you are set up with your protagonists being very under developed but having an interesting(at first) plot. Lucy, the main character, is the aspiring girl who was thrust into the guild Fairy Tail. She is quickly taken under Natsu's wing, one of the strongest wizards in Fairy Tail. Of course, given this, Natsu is incredibly powerful and can wipe the floor with any normal opponent, reminiscent of Bleach's Ichigo and his godlike powers. Other equally-god-like characters are introduced to create what attempt to be fair battle sequences, but fail as it is obvious through some "I-WIN" method that Natsu and Lucy are always going to win. The one redeeming factor of the story is the little change found in Lucy as well as the occasional good moral or funny scene.

Art: 5

The art almost made my eyes bleed. It was so blatantly attempting to fanservice people it almost made me cringe. The art would go from intense battle sequences, with at least some effort put it, to some low quality form of joke with little to no imagination. The art seemed mediocre at best, being bested by many 90s anime(see: Rurouni Kenshin / DBZ). While older anime may not have been as "clean" as a new one like Fairy Tail, the art is clearly sloppy and the episodes made to be a cash cow.

Sound: 6.5

Sound is a decent factor in this. None of the tracks are memorable (see: Lena Park's rendition of "You Raise Me Up," found in Romeo X Juliet). It can be fitting at times, and the OP and ED are not too bad. It looks as though the creators of Fairy Tail actually tried to find some appropriate music and settings, though it cannot save the anime.

Character: 5

Static. Static static static bland boring static. You are introduced to the main few characters within the first two or three episodes, and then from there, besides Lucy, there is no development. Each of the characters has some rivalry or funny quirk that attempts to make them seem less Mary Sue, but basically all of the characters short of Lucy are godly powerful and make others worship them. The one aforementioned, Natsu, was trained by a dragon and can utilize fire to deadly possibilities. The line is even said that he could reduce an entire city to rubble...which implies how incredibly unbalanced it seems. Likewise, the characters seem to jump in power from average to within seconds godlike, having a decent battle sequence followed by an overly-powered God-like maneuver performed by a protagonist. The only worthwhile watch here is that of Lucy, who seems to progress and gain some depth.

Enjoyment: 6.5

For the first two episodes, I was IM'ing a friend saying "This can't be a legit anime. It's like Fruits Basket and One Piece had a baby which was then hit over the head with a waffle iron." But the anime slowly grew on me, regardless of the low quality of animation, lack of character development, or general idea of plot. Being such a shonen sucker, I keep watching Fairy Tail hoping it can at least turn out to be something similar to One Piece, Bleach, or Naruto -- something at least watchable. For the new viewer of anime, it is a good easer into the more intense stuff, but overall I would give this anime a 6.5 / 10, solely for its lack of effort, when it was hyped to be a very good anime and manga.

Well, first of all, I would like to start by saying that this is my very first review so forgive me if I fail to do a proper one. I'll try my best though.

Anyway, let me say that I started watching Fairy Tail by mere curiosity. I had never heard of if at the time, but the Freeze fansubs, group that was doing Dragon Ball Kai (as I big fan of the DB series of course I watched it) had it among its projects and it caught my eye. There were only about 30 episodes or so released and I thought that if the ... group thought of if to be a good series to work on, that I should give it a try. At first I was skeptical because I never really liked fantasy animes that had magic involved, and from the little research I made around the web, Fairy Tail was just a clone of One Piece (a series that I have yet to watch - too much to catch up with). Yet, after a handful of episodes it had me grabbed. It was a very nice surprise. I had finally found a typical shounen series that really satisfied me. Obviously, after catching up with the anime I started on the manga and kept following both ever since. But long story aside, let's go to the actual review of the anime, shall we?

Story - 8

I won't lie, there is nothing of really new and innovating about Fairy Tail story wise. It's your typical shounen anime and all the clichès that the genre entails. It portraits the adventures of your typical carefree shounen hero and his group of friends. The main theme of Fairy Tail is of course, friendship, and therefore good always triumph over evil, not because the good guys are stronger, but because the good guys have friends who support them and that protect each other. As I said, nothing new here. If there is something that may, or may not be kind of new, is that we are not exactly sure who the main character is. At first glance you say, Natsu. He's the strong, cheerful guy with cool powers - the obvious choice. But soon you notice that it's the heroine, Lucy, who's in charge of introducing the story to us, and she's often the center of the story. I find that very refreshing.
The story arcs follow the manga faithfully, and throughout them we are presented with a bit of everything: drama, humor, bits of romance and of course lots of fighting and cool powers, everything in the right doses and well timed. The often dreaded fillers are rare, and when present don't really disappoint, keeping the same spirit of the series and not interfering with the flow of the main story.
One could say that the story is one of the weakest points of Fairy Tail. Yet it is far from being bad. It's the opposite actually. It's simple, straightforward but interesting enough to keep you hooked and far from being bored. You don't need to pay extra attention to be able to follow the plot. Most events are predictable in all good shounen style, but at the same time you won't be able to figure out the story's biggest mysteries until the due time comes.

So while it is true that there is nothing of really outstanding about the story of Fairy Tail, there is nothing of wrong about it either.


Art - 7

Fairy Tail's art is in my opinion the weakest point of the show. There is nothing about it that stands out, neither good or bad. Everything is as expected in a long ongoing series such as this. The animation can vary from fairy decent to something more blend and flat at times. But at least in key scenes of the story the anime staff seems to put extra effort in the art and its animation.
All in all, even if the art in Fairy Tail is not anything worth of jaw-dropping awe, it is good enough not to make you cringe. It's on the same quality level of any other long series anime show currently airing.


Sound - 9

I'm giving 9/10 mostly because of the OST (background music). I may not understand much about music, if it's well composed or not, if it's rich or not, but I just know I like what I hear. The music always suits very well the moment which is playing, being varied enough to suit whatever moment is playing. The music has a particular significance during emotional scenes. It helps conveying the feelings of the characters.
The sound effects are neither bad or good. Most of the times you don't really notice them. But that's a good thing. It means they are well timed and serve their purpose. But there is one sound in particular that I particularly like. I call it the "ecchi" sound. It that little "ahhhh" you hear in every scene where there is any sexual reference. It's hilarious really. It's not unique to Fairy Tail, but it's in this anime that I've seen it being used better.
The voice actors also seem to know what they are doing pretty well. All characters sound good and befitting of their personalities. i would say the cast was perfectly chosen and they make such a good job that you tend to forget that what you are seeing and watching are animated characters.
The opening and ending songs are nice too. I personally prefer the ending songs mostly because they are usually more on the slow side. But the openings songs always have that hype that really say "look, this anime is cool and very fun to watch" .


Characters - 9

Here is one of the points that I think Fairy Tail has of best. There is good number of characters, suitable for all kinds of tastes, all of them interesting and likable, both main characters and supporting characters. Every single character is unique in their own way. It's normal to have one character or two that you like best, but in Fairy Tail you will find yourself having trouble electing one. They are all so cool and/or funny. Throughout the series most of them have a good share of development an focus. Even minor characters are important. Even if they don't do much by themselves, they are an important part of the whole.
As I mentioned earlier, it's not easy to define who the protagonist of the show is. I guess we can talk about a main group instead of a particular character. Which, in my modest opinion, is a good thing. I get tired of anime of this same genre that talk about how important is to work as a team but that in the end everything is put in the hands of one main character while the others stay in the sidelines, being useless or getting in the way.
There is another thing that I really like about Fairy Tail characters - the female characters are not there just for fan service. Most of them are strong and can put the male characters to shame.

Enjoyment - 10

I'm giving such a high note to 'Enjoyment" because in all sincerity, Fairy Tail is, above all, fun to watch. There have been several occasions where I was brought to tears, both from laughing or from getting emotional. And Fairy Tail does a good job at balancing all those good and happy emotions with the sad and bittersweet ones. It's curious how you will find yourself laughing even when the characters are at a particularly difficult situation. It wouldn't go as far as calling it comic relief though. Comic relief usually is only present in between "heavier" scenes or when a particular character is present. But in Fairy Tail it looks like every moment is a moment of comic relief.
It's not just the comedy that is enjoyable though. As any good shounen, Fairy Tail provides laughs and tears. And although most of the fights are resolved quickly [that's right, in FT fights aren't dragged on forever] you will feel "pumped up" even after they are finished.
All in all, Fairy Tail has a happy vibe about it that will put a smile on your face every time you watch it.


Overall - 9

Fairy Tail is not the perfect anime masterpiece, not at all. It has its flaws and its qualities like any other anime. But if you let yourself go with the flow you will find yourself really enjoying it, independently if this is your kind of show or not. I highly recommend you try it. I'm convinced you will not be disappointed.

Story: 5 (Mediocre)
Fairy Tail is a shounen anime that revolves around a Mage Guild called 'Fairy Tail'. Each arc in the anime revolves around 4 main characters; Natsu, Lucy, Erza and Gray.

The first few arcs in the show have varying plots that slowly unravel these characters' pasts. Later arcs have plots related more-so to the guild's history, but the show never fails to ruin a good plot with the addition of random bad guys used purely for battle-scenes, so characters can power up with the power of friendship. yay.


Another downfall to the story of Fairy Tail is that is had no direction it is ... moving in. Okay, so Natsu has his ultimate goal to find his trainer and guardian Igneel - the dragon that raised him and taught him Dragon Slayer magic - but the anime is over 150 episodes long and we haven't seen even the slightest trace of a dragon.

Art: 6 (Fair)
The art and animation are also very average, but they do increase in quality as the show progresses. The show is a very colourful and vibrant one, with settings that are always very visually appealing, and characters that have nice attire and yes, the good ol' anime hairstyles we've all come to kow and love.

The reason I gave the Art category a 6 is because the animation of characters is hardly ever fluid, even in fight scenes, the frame rate skips, the punches aren't actually punching, they are just posing in front of diagonal lines... It's just, for an anime that has so much fighting, I expect good quality animation, and it's simply not there (don't get me wrong, there are some good fights, but they are scarce).

Sound: 9 (Great)
Finally, something Fairy Tail has that I find are lacking in other shounens; a good soundtrack!

I believe there are three soundtracks released to date and they are what make the many prevalent fight scenes so damn epic. I would not have watched Fairy Tail past the first few arcs if there wasn't some awesome electric guitar riff going on while Natsu was punching his way to victory.

Characters: 5 (Mediocre)
The story and the characters are a crucial part of a shounen, and should come second to nothing. The main characters in Fairy Tale are given a whole lot of backstory, terrible pasts, shock twists etc etc.
Most character's pasts are cliche and overly dramatic, and these only apply to our main 4 protagonists, and a few side characters (The Elfman, Lisanna, Mirajane trio for example).

Another downfall for characters is that they remain very static throughout the show, and hardly ever budge from their niche. What I mean by this is that every character's past defines who they are in the show, and who they pretty much always will be. There are no moments in the show that change the characters behaviour hardly at all, and I find that very unfortunate.

Enjoyment: 7 (Good)
Obviously there was something that made me gat over 100 episodes into this show. That my friends, was purely because I enjoyed myself.

The comedy in the show is a major highlight, with crazy characters, funny one-liners and silly situations all mixed into one another to make us laugh and smile. And that's what Fairy Tail is; it's fun! Sure it is serious when it needs to be, but you can always count on someone to brighten up the mood almost instantly.

Overall: 6 (Fair)
Okay, so there's the final verdict; a solid 6. Fairy Tail is a shounen anime that shines in its comedy, its soundtrack and a few decent fights along the way, but it lacks in unique and original story and plot, character development, and animation at times.

If you are just starting off on anime, its a great gateway anime, but if you're a seasoned anime fan, there are better shounens out there, and there are better comedic shows out there, so its not really worth the length the show goes for (with no end in sight as of yet).