Fairy Tail

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Fairy Tail is about Lucy, a stellar spirit mage who wants to join the well-known mages guild named Fairy Tail.

The story in the manga is good, this first episode followed the manga carefully. The manga contains some good arcs but also some bad arcs (in my opinion). It will probably a 100+ ep. series.


The art is similar to one piece. I didnt think it was bad, but the spell casting could have been better. I expected a bit more from that, but I will get used to it.

The sound was good. I liked the background music, it fits this anime, the opening was ... weird, but perfect.
Voice acting could have been better, I expected Natsu to have a less mature voice and Happy to have a less girly voice but again, I will get used to it. The voice acting of Lucy is ok.

The manga contains some cool characters, Natsu is a typical Naruto/ Black star, but he is still funny. It contains some other cool characters but I wont tell u about them.

Im sure you will enjoy this series, but probably not as much as the manga. If u like shonen with a sense of humor, Fairy Tail is the anime u should watch.

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.

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.

Story: 5/10 The story is okay. I prefer more interesting & original story-lines, thrillers, anime with a strong plot and anime with a strong message behind it. Fairy Tail has neither nor any of those qualities. Instead, it has a very weak and repetitive plot. The story is also really cliché and you can predict everything that will happen.

Art: 6/10 The art is fair. It's not the best art I've seen and it's not the worst either. I think the art is very colourful and vibrant with visually appealing backgrounds and settings. I personally think that the character art have dropped the overall mark.

Sound: ... 10/10 This is one of the anime with the best sound, sound effects and background music I've seen. The background music totally harmonizes with the contemporary theme and the sound effects clicks in at the correct time. The character's voices are clear and the voice actors have clearly done an excellent job. The openings and endings aren't really my thing but other than that, I don't have any complaints.

Character: 6/10 I liked how the characters have their own personality. However, I find their personalities to be too static and have very plain and simple personalities. I personally think that Fairy Tail characters will need more character development.

Enjoyment: 10/10 It's not one of the anime I've enjoyed most but I quite liked watching Fairy Tail. I especially liked the humour in it... not to forget about the sound. I personally think Fairy Tail is a very s***ty anime but I really enjoyed watching it.

Overall: 8/10 Overall, I've rated Fairy Tail a 8 out of 10. The sound is outstanding and it's a great comedy, magic and adventure anime.

* Few general things added from manga *
If you like One piece you will definitely love this one, because it has similar characters and the same kind of funny action.
The story is about a mage guild named FAIRY TAIL. This guild is " infamous " for its special way of solving their jobs, always destroying something.
The world is totally original and has nothing to do with reality. The action happens in a country which contains more guilds, these guilds are ruled by one man, and this man takes responsibility for his guild at the 10 great mages.
Most characters are inspired from One Piece.
Its graphics are ... good, in compare with the manga, the anime adds some great special effects to every spell and the sound is very interesting.
This anime contains: humor, magic, fantasy, dragons, friendship, party, massive destruction, superpowers...
Even in the manga nothing is know about the true story, things are rather starting to get interesting at the moment, more is still to come.
This is gonna be a long ongoing anime.

Ok, I watch Fairy Tail because everybody say it's similar to One Piece or FT is ripping off One Piece. Here are my thoughts from a One Piece fan point of view.

Story: 6
When I just start Fairy Tail, I was REALLY excited. A world of magic where everybody (mostly) have unique magics (just like One Piece Devil Fruit ability). Then they are in a guild with lots of colorful characters and a request board where they can do quests and earn money. I thought, wow, that's a really good base for some creative and unique story. But unfortunately, their adventures are kinda lacklusture compared to ... One Piece's. One Piece really had some amazing adventures (Sky island, desert kingdom, haunted island, fishman island under the sea etc). But I understand Fairy Tail is a lot more condensed. Each arc normally last only about 20+ episodes. One Piece is focused on Luffy's ambition to become the Pirate King. Fairty Tail's main objective is.. Natsu's search for Dragneel?? (I'm really not sure).

Art: 8
The art is Fairy Tail is pretty conservative and stick to those typical modern anime. It'll appeal to wide range of audience. I know a lot of people are turned off by One Piece's unique art. One thing that really bugs me is the amount of fan service in the later part of the story. Lucy just happen to get her shirt torn off in every battle. I'm ok with fan service, but when it happens in a battle, it's hard to take it seriously.

Sound: 8
This is not my forte. I don't really research much on voice actor/actresses. My impression of the music is good, the celtic style music suits the whole magic theme.

Character: 7
There are lots of colorful characters in this anime. And their interactions are funny. Most if not all of the major characters have their background story. And Mashima had a lot of planning put into this, when you will find out how he/she got her name, or why he/she act that. But maybe Mashima put too much effort into this when one of my reaction when knowing how Erza got her name I was like.. "Come one..". However, the characters are not that wacky or as distinct as in Once Piece. And Erza's background is similar to Nico Robin, but Nico Robin seems so much stronger becuase Erza dwell too much about her past. It's sad because she should be the tough one.

Enjoyment: 9
The fighting in Fairy Tail is not really intense. Since most of them will be done within an episode. My favorite battle is when Mirajane is fighting =). It really eclipse even Natsu's battles. The jokes in FT is pretty funny, and the huge number of characters are fun to watch.

Overall: 8
Overall, I had high hopes when starting this anime, my enthusiasm slightly wane during the middle. It's a good anime, don't get me wrong, I even read the manga after I caught up to the anime since I want to know what happen next. Just don't predict this anime, because there are too many "ohh.. ok.." moments, like the author making up his own rules along the way. But that's to be expected in "magic" world right??

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'

Okay, so I wanted to write a review about Fairy Tail for a while, and here it is.

Honestly I nearly dropped the show after a few weeks. The story is just your average shounen, nothing really outstanding yet. The art is only slightly above average, the magic circles look kind of weird and the fights aren't as intense and well animated as they could be. So normally this would have been dropped by me, as many other average to slightly good shounens.
However there were three things that kept me hooked, and these are the main things I want to talk about here.

First, and this is ... only for the fanboy in me, this show does not only have Hirano Aya, but also Kugimiya Rie. That alone was enough for me to keep me interested for a while, and if your a sucker for their voices like me, then you'll probably really like the interaction between Lucy and Happy. As for the other voices, they are generally quite good too.

The second thing I really enjoyed about Fairy Tail are the characters. Most of the mages in Fairy Tail and especially the main characters are either awesome, funny or both. They are not to deep characters, but Erza, Lucy, Natsu, Grey and Happy as the main bunch are really enjoyable, so are the others like Juvia or Makarov.

But what really kept me watching the show is the music. This anime has one of the best background music I've ever heard. Nearly every piece of music is memorable and extremely well down. From Irish Folk like pieces over Pop/Rock themes to pieces with influence from Symphonic or Power Metal the soundtrack is simply perfect. They could probably show a few stick figures doing their laundry and I would still watch it just because the music is so great. They could even air a discussion of your local parliament and with this music it would seem like an awesome battle. Almost everytime a new piece of music starts I can feel shivers running down my back. The music in this anime is just outstandingly good.

So if you are interested in shounen I would suggest at least trying Fairy Tail. It is a fine show, with a few flaws and an unbelievable awesome Sound.

To begin with, I don't usually watch action-packed and long animes because it's just too time consuming and I'm not a great fan of fights but when i watched Fairy Tail, i began to question myself about my tastes.

Okay to begin with, I find the story plot of fairy tail, very unique and original. Unlike Harry Potter and other fanatsy based animes, they don't use wands for once! Like you just get so sick and tired of wands after a while. Anyways, the plot is excellent because it has comedy, action, fantasy, a tad of romance which is a very good combo. So 10/10 for ... that.

Second of all the characters are all different and have a wide range of personalities. I would say, even the antagonists of the story are very well portrayed. It's easy to make you hate the villan but in Fairy Tail, you will come to sympathise or even begin to like (like me) the villans. All of the characters in the story have some kind of tragic past which just peaks your interest. So i would say the characters are described much in depth. (10/10)

Another wonderful thing about Fairy Tail is the character design. They all look stunning because most of the guys are hot (including the villans) but the down side is that the girls look pretty average. However, their outfits are quite nice and it usually changes every season or so (at least for one character). The most spectacular thing about the art are the backgrounds. They just look beautiful. (10/10)

Okay, the best thing i think which makes Fairy Tail stand out is their OST. Their background music always fits the scene and is very catchy. Everytime i listen to their battle theme music, it just makes my blood boil and it just feels so epic and cool. Fairy Tail has one of the best and most unforgettable OSTs out their. Though the downfall is that the opening and ending themesongs aren't that great.

Anyways, Fairy Tail is by far the best anime I've watched. It doesn't lose to Bleach, Naruto or KHR who all have heaps of filler eps. FAIRY TAIL DOESN'T HAVE FILLER EPS! So a great anime, with great music and great plot. My final word: A must watch.

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.

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.

For the longest time, I was very reluctant to watch any Fairy Tail. The reviews I read were incredibly polarized, either praising it to high heavens or dooming it to the thrash heap. But no one can deny the huge popularity of the show, so after I was done with binge-watching many serious seinen/josei series, I needed some dumb fun, so after all these years I gave Fairy Tail a chance. After 130 episodes, I'm still not sure I made the right choice. Let me explain...

Right after the first episode it was obvious Fairy Tail was designed by a committee to be TNBT (The Next ... Big Thing) in shōnen anime. Taking up the mantle from Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Bleach, One Piece and especially Naruto, Fairy Tail is the same "fun for the whole family" type anime. It uses the same exact recipe, one main protagonist, many typecast side-characters, all part of the same group, and they go on adventures, defeat evil in spectacular eye-candy fights, for justice and camaraderie, etc. We all know how it goes.

But Fairy Tail brings a few twists into the mix. First of all, it tries a new format. Instead of incredibly long, drawn out arcs and fight scenes to draw out the run time, it operates with a machine gun for content. The story arcs are short but there are an incredible number of them. This eliminates boredom, but does get a little old after while, when it seems Natsu and gang saves the world from some new apocalypse five times a week. Same goes for fights, which are "short and sweet", never get boring or outstay their welcome. They do repeat things a lot, but at least we don't have to watch the protagonist "gather power" for twenty episodes for that one special attack, grinning through the exertion like he is about to soil himself. When Natsu says "you're gonna get it now!", he really means NOW, not four months later, which is kind of refreshing. It seems the creators really did their best to come up with new stories, enemies, arcs and fight sequences for every episode, without reusing much of them, which is very commendable, but I wonder how long they can keep this up...

One thing that helps this process is the incredibly lax laws of Fairy Tail's concept. This is an anime where literally everything goes, from easy going adventure, happy fun times, heated and serious battle, unimaginable evil, crying, death, pain and suffering, oh, and also dragons, flying cats, flamboyant wizards, fan-service boob parades and The Butt Jiggle Gang. There is practically no limit on the imagination here. This makes the series less boring than any shōnen adventure series I watched so far, but also a little inconsistent and sometimes hard to follow.

The other thing is the series tone. In short, it's all over the place. Fairy Tail is incredibly self-aware when it comes to humor. Sometimes it's smart and witty, but largely it's goofy, slapstick and low-brow as far as kids anime gets, uses lots of pop-culture references, tons of fan service and it breaks the fourth-wall so frequently it might as well not be there. This makes the series largely really fun, and makes for some great "laugh out loud" moments. The only problem is, the creators don't seem to know the biggest secret of humor is TIMING. They frequently ruin serious or emotional moments with jarring slapstick bits, bad puns or just pathetic scripting.

It's not just the humor, though, but the way the series never really takes itself seriously. Yes, it's not a bloody, gory, cursy seinen series, but sometimes Fairy Tail takes "family friendly" a little too far. All the characters are wearing "plot armor", even the antagonists, so no one dies in fights, or gets hurt worse than a few boo-boos. This makes for some very anti-climactic fights, when you know just how low the stakes are. When the enemy gets "defeated" it only means they get knocked out for a while, after which they usually come to and grumble about being defeated. That said, the biggest hurdle for me is when the enemy turns out to be a good guy in disguise, which happens with alarming frequency. Many times during big, epic fights, the antagonist gets something hidden revealed about their past or the situation at hand, and they instantly turn into good little puppies, stopping everything in it's tracks, which is the cause of some the most jarring anti-climactic endings I've ever seen. "Me trying to murder you all and take over the world, it was all just a misunderstanding, I'm not evil, I'm actually a good guy, honest!". Worse yet, many of them turn out to be flat out heroes. And the protagonists just go along with it EVERY TIME, without question. "Oh, no biggie, you didn't manage to murder EVERYONE or destroy EVERYTHING, so I guess we forgive you. Hey, now that you are not evil, how about joining us?". And that happens more times than I can count. This releases the carefully built tension with a wimpy fart-noise instead of a BANG and makes many of the story arcs really lackluster and unsatisfying in the end.

The characters serve their purpose. That's about the best thing I can tell about them. The protagonist, Natsu Dragneel, is a Naruto wannabe, with a lot less personality and a lot more annoyance. The typical absolutely clueless, but incredibly powerful adolescent manchild, who is incredibly high-strung, always rushes into battle without any amount of thinking, gets his ass kicked, then gets up heroically and defeats the enemy with one last spectacular attack with the power of friendship/love/family/courage/cookies/refrigerator/whatever. Rinse, repeat. BORING! Same goes for the rest of the pathetic cast, which are all typecast trope-factory rejects, fan service bimbos, prissy tsundere, cutesy moe and talking chibi animals. The cliché-meter is so off the charts, it's insane.

BUT!

And this is a big but, because with all that said, surprisingly enough, Fairy Tail is...FUN! A huge amount of fun, in fact. I can't really put my finger on it, because if I look at the individual parts, the story, the characters, the world, etc, it SHOULD be a huge trainwreck, a bad flop. Fairy Tail should have crashed and burned before if even started. And yet, somehow it works! The incredibly cheesy and pretentious story, the goofy, slapstick, fourth-wall-breaking humor, the huge amount of low-brow fan-service and the characters, kings and queens of Cliché Mountain, it all somehow comes together to form something really fun and entertaining. The fast paced, varied, no-nonsense story and action is very captivating, and the weird humor somehow does work, despite ruining many of the serious and emotional moments. As I said before, Fairy Tail is very self-aware and seems to wear it's faults and shortcomings like a badge of honor, with a knowing wink to the audience.

Most of all, what makes this series for me is THE MUSIC. It's simply incredible! And I'm not talking about the OP or the ending, but the backing tracks! I always liked metal music, but Fairy Tail's background music is simply awesome! The celtic-style flace-flaying heavy metal suits this series incredibly well and elevates what could've been a mediocre schlock to a really enjoyable experience, at least for me. Fairy Tail's OST now dominates my favorite anime music top list, and with good reason. Most anime series have one or at most a few good songs, but this time THE ENTIRE OST is pure awesome, which is very surprising for me. The thunderous, shredding metal makes every fight scene at least twice as epic! Huge thanks for the musicians who made these!

All in all, Fairy Tail is a weird mix of utter nonsense, that somehow comes together to form a very enjoyable experience and it's so immensely popular with good reason. On paper, it shouldn't be. It's pretentious, pedantic, goofy and a huge amount of dumb fun that never seems to end. If you are ever tired of high-brow, intense and meaningful seinen/josei series, give Fairy Tail a spin to clear your palate or just take it as something to watch on a boring afternoon.

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).