Fairy Tail

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. 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

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.

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.

*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.

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).

fairy tail:- beat bad guys subordinates, make friends with them, beat the final bad guy, make friends with him/her, throw in some fanservice and flashbacks, throw in some emotional scenes where they cry over pointless crap, have some crappy comedy every 5 seconds, talk about friendship and thats fairy tail for you -_-

it was good, keyword was, but then after watching the same thing happen over and over again, it gets tiresome

I have currently watched all of the Fairy Tail episodes that have come out to this date. 165.

Fairy Tail has a ton of potential but it just loses it! The story becomes repetitive and the characters do not develop! You don't see them training hard enough, even with the 2 year time-skip. The comedy is getting less and the fan service more.

You can obviously see the anime pushing between pairings. To me, that's not something I like.

Unlike most top anime's, the endings are always predictable. Natsu mentions Nakama and suddently gains plot armor, wins and that's that. He is shown to be ... able to defeat anyone, even when it doesn't make sense how he could defeat him. After the battle, he doesn't develop nor does anyone give him recognition for what he has done. One of the worst parts for me is that he has no goal. Luffy want's to be the Pirate King, Naruto the Hokage. What is you're goal Natsu? Nothing. With no goal or actual aim for the show, it might remain longer, but with no development.

P.S He only mentiones finding Igneel, which bothers me a lot, since he doesn't even care about his REAL parents.

Story : 6/10
Art : 8/10
Sound : 9/10 (Music is nice BTW)
Character : 4/10
Enjoyment : 7/10

Over all : 6/10

Story: The story was decent but irritated me at times. For example, the many missions Natsu & Friends did that didn't develop any character or change the story, the many filler episodes, the weak characters of the, apparently, 'Strongest Guild', and mostly, the Timeskip. I really don't know what Fairy Tail was really aiming to do, their goals and whatnot but I do know that Natsu was aiming to find Igneel, the Dragon, everyone else, I don't know. The reason why my rating is 3/10 is mostly because of the many cliches in the anime. Ex: Fanservie characters (Virgo), abusive parents (Lucy), Parentless childhood (Natsu, ... Dragneel, Wendy, Erza), and mainly PLOT ARMOR. It's not even a coincidence the characters survive death so many times because there is a tree on an island that makes it so that anyone with the Fairy Tail Mark CANNOT die, ever. Another reason (my main reason) for my low score is the Time Skip. When I was watching the episode after the Time Skip when Fairy Tail returns, I was so excited to see all the characters 7 years older and how much stronger they've become but then, Fairy Tail spits in my face to tell me that the members of Fairy Tail didn't improve at all and has actually gotten weaker than before, with the remaining member of the guild just sitting around getting fat and not training at all for 7 years.

Art: the art wasn't "Oh my god, this is the most beautiful thing i've ever seen" but it wasn't the worst art i've seen. I guess you can say it's on par with the art of Naruto (Original) 8/10

Sound: I loved the soundtrack to Fairy Tail, everytime I watched an episode and heard the openings, it left me wanting to watch more episodes (Up until the Timeskip, of course.) The Voice Actors were well-picked and the battle music wasn't bad.

Characters: At the beginning of Fairy tail, (Ep 0-20) Natsu and Lucy fought Virgo. When they fought her, they struggled and had a hard time beating her. Lucy now has Virgo under her command. Currently, Virgo is a piece of crap who Lucy never uses and is not strong against enemies. From that time to the timeskip, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, none of them trained at all but you're telling me, they can fight on Par with a guild leader, let alone, Gildarts?
I don't like how none of the characters train but get stronger randomly without any sort of Shounen-type train (500 Pushups don't count)? I give the Characters, without getting specific, a 5/10 for the stated reason.

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed Fairy Tail, it was a pastime for me. I enjoyed it at a 7/10 right up until the Timeskip. When the timeskip happened, I felt like stealing the last 100 episodes back and using the time it took me to watch it on actual schoolwork that I skipped. Let me put it this way, beofore the timeskip, Fairy Tail wasn't even the strongest guild. Why the hell would they get to be frozen for 7 years while everyone else gets overwhelmingly older/stronger than all of Fairy Tail? Think of it like this, in just 2 years, characters from One Piece 5 times stronger than they were previously so in 7 years, the characters from One Piece would be blowing up continents at that point. So from 7/10, my score lowers to 4/10 just because of the Timeskip.

Overall: Fairy Tail is a 6/10, I am NOT going to finish watching/reading due the senseless timeskip.

Oh look, it's an unpopular opinion! It seems like everyone just likes to rag on Fairy Tail because it's the cool thing to do. I'm not gonna lie, I'm guilty of talking shit about it just as much as everyone else but at the same time... there's no changing the fact that I genuinely did enjoy watching it quite a bit. Is Fairy Tail the worst battle shounen series out there? No. It really isn't. You mean to tell me that in the ENTIRE history of battle shounen anime, Fairy Tail has to be the worst one of them all? Come on... try harder, people! ... I'm sure some of the older otakus on this website who've watched hundreds of thousands of animes can think of several other programmes that are objectively worse than Fairy Tail.

Don't get me wrong though, I understand WHY people like to rag on Fairy Tail. It does have some major problems and for what it's worth, even people in the fandom agree with that sentiment. At the same time, I think way too many people just focus on perpetuating the circle-jerk surrounding this series by parroting basically everything negative which has already been said about this series ad nauseum. Talk about irony. Meanwhile, I love how people talk shit about Fairy Tail and yet don't apply the same criticisms they levy to the programmes that they truly enjoy. Watching a Narutard talk shit about Fairy Tail is just as entertaining is like watching a DC/Marvel fan talking shit about manga.

***THE CONCEPT AND SETTING***

Fairy Tail takes place in a farcical world dominated by magic and follows the travels of a troupe of mages as they travel the globe on various missions and whatnot. Well, that's the condensed version anyway. One of the biggest problems that Fairy Tail has is the fact its arcs are very short, which is paradoxically its biggest strength to me (more on that in the next section). You see, Fairy Tail is one of those battle shounen animes where I'd really like to see more of the universe that this story takes place in explored but sadly it doesn't because one of its calling cards doesn't allow for it.

I see people often comparing Fairy Tail to One Piece, but I feel like that's often made by people who've only taken a cursory look at both programmes and then come to the conclusion that they're virtually identical because they look similar, the leading males are both gluttonous idiots, and friendship is a shared theme. However, One Piece's claim to fame is an infinitely expanding universe which has a remarkable degree of complexity and thought put into the writing. This is obviously the case because the arcs are just as long as they need to be in order to allow each island the Straw Hats visit make their mark on the story. Fairy Tail's short arc length doesn't allow for any of that shit to happen whatsoever which is ultimately its biggest failing.

I can forgive some of the more annoying running gags and the fan service to a large degree had there been a vast universe to explore, but from Episode 1 all the way to 175, that just wasn't the case. I'm not saying that the world that Fairy Tail remains completely stagnant from beginning to end, because there were *some* things that changed along the way, but nowhere near as much world-building as I had hoped for there to be. Really now, how could Hiro Mashima drop the ball on this one? I could easily think of several places along the way where the writing could've been improved to bring in some more insight on the world that this story takes place in but alack... another story of what could've been.

***THE STORY***

Going back to that short arc length, the reason why I think that it's Fairy Tail's biggest strength in addition to being its most crippling flaw is because this makes the programme very easy to watch. Given the fact that I'm working full-time and have filial obligations, I lack the time and quite frankly the will to keep up with continuously overarching stories like I used to. Do you think that I'm up-to-date with One Piece? Oh HELL to the fucking no. I'm still like 100 chapters behind and even further behind with the anime. It's the fact that Fairy Tail's arcs are short and yet still packed with plenty of action and comedy to spare whilst also being able to take itself seriously if only for a brief moment when the time comes for it to do so which kept me around for so long.

With that said, there are several glaring problems that Fairy Tail has when it comes down to the story writing. For one thing, a large portion of the writing feels recycled from other battle shounen anime. Rave Master, Dragon Ball, D.Gray-man, Soul Eater, Hunter x Hunter, Yu Yu Hakusho, InuYasha, Naruto, Bleach, Busou Renkin, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, etc., these are all battle shounen anime/manga which have done pretty everything that Fairy Tail does but managed to do so better whilst also bringing something new to the table or at least managed to put their own spin on it so that the story doesn't feel like the same tired-out battle shounen formula. What really irritates me is that there are individual parts of the story which genuinely did have me interested but these individual elements were discarded in favour of marketability (short arcs full of action, comedy, and fan service is what this show is all about, right?).

The second biggest problem that Fairy Tail has with its story, the comedy. Yeah... comedy on the whole is a very subjective thing and despite being 25 years old, I'm no better than an overgrown man-child. I still find Beavis and Butt-head laugh-out-loud hilarious and sexual/vulgar humour still packs the same punch for me that it did back in middle school and high school. You'd think that I'd get a LOT of mileage out of Fairy Tail given that I'm an immature person, right? Well... not exactly. Natsu's extreme motion-sickness gets on my nerves more than Luffy's stupidity. It wasn't funny the first time, and yet Hiro Mashima and A-1 Pictures by extension still chose to keep that stupid gag throughout the entirety of its run. It's really the overuse of running gags which were never funny in the first place which dampens the comedy which is quite a shame because whenever Fairy Tail manages to get a laugh out of me, I burst out into uncontrollably loud and annoying cackling.

The third biggest problem that Fairy Tail has? Fan service. I really don't know what it is about battle shounen anime and having girls with huge racks and bizarre proportioning. I just don't find that shit attractive (Book 3, Chapter 5 of Avatar: The Last Airbender is my idea of fan service done right, but I digress). Also, this is just a personal gripe I have but why does Gray always have to be shirtless at least once per episode? For the girls to fawn over? Come on... at least make them wait for that shit. It loses its impact if it happens almost every single episode. Now if you're into girls with huge racks sporting plenty of cleavage and shirtless guys that are "ripped," as the young people like to say it nowadays, I'm sure this won't be a problem for you but it is for me so too bad!

I could go on to say that the battles rely far too heavily on power-ups, but I really don't give a shit about that since they're pretty damn entertaining to watch (especially given that battles are animated rather well) Besides, if you're going to rag on Fairy Tail for using power-ups and not levy the same criticism to programmes like Gurren Lagann, you're a waste of thought. People, this is a SHOUNEN series. By the end of it all, Fairy Tail is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Xiaolin Showdown: it's nothing more than mindless entertainment for sugar-high kids on Saturday mornings. Do you really think that there would be complex and intricate battles with all kinds of strategy out of something meant to be shallow entertainment?

Speaking of which, it's time for something I like about Fairy Tail! When it comes down to its overall style, Fairy Tail knows exactly what it wants to be and it doesn't really set itself up to be anything greater than it actually is. If phrases could manifest themselves in anime form, Fairy Tail would be the embodiment of "What you see is what you get. Don't like it? Well fuck off, we don't need you here." As far as shallow entertainment goes, there's plenty of it here. If you're the kind of person who wants something along the lines of Ulysses, Paradise Lost, or In Search of Lost Time, why the fuck are you expecting it out of Fairy Tail when its claim to fame is short arcs chock full of action, comedy, and fan service? That's just like expecting a culinary masterpiece out of McDonald's.

Now, there is one thing that I have a bit of a gripe with and that's the fact that Fairy Tail basically ended on a rather nasty cliffhanger and that was basically your lot until A-1 Pictures came out with the second series which has received... let's just say "mixed reception." Now granted, the second series DID come out almost a year ago and it's still rather early in the show's run. Let's just hope that A-1 Pictures gets their shit together before more circle-jerk reviews come into the picture. I could also rag on the filler, but let's face it: filler in battle shounen anime is prone to being terrible and there's no point in bitching about shitty filler in Fairy Tail when the filler in Naruto and One Piece is just as bad if not worse (well... more like padding in One Piece's case).

***THE CHARACTERS***

I just want to get this out of the way first: I don't like Natsu, I've never liked him, and he's REALLY annoying. The only battle shonen protagonist with an insatiable appetite who's also an idiot that I have the patience for is Luffy. Everyone else can go die for all I care. Throughout 175 episodes (and ~50 more in the new series), he has not changed a bit whatsoever. He's still all talk and no walk and the only time he can actually win a battle is with a power-up. I hate battle shonen protagonists like Natsu nowadays. The English dub makes him a good deal more tolerable since Todd Haberkorn is a great voice actor, but great voice acting can't help a shit-tier character. I'm sorry, Natsu fans. Gray 5evaaaaa.

The characters of Fairy Tail barring Natsu are all likeable to me, but the biggest problem I have with them is the fact that throughout the entire run of the series, they remain static as individuals. I like to see people grow and change over time in my programmes and mangas (although that little desire of mine can be overridden if the programme I'm watching is cool enough). From episode 1 all the way to 175, there is no significant changes that occur in the entire cast we hang around. Lucy, Gray, Natsu, et al are still the same as they were when they first started out. I mean, it's not all bad because at least they HAVE a sense of characterisation about them, but at the same time... I still think it's unforgivable that despite all the time that was put into this series, NOBODY has changed for the better.

***THE ART/ANIMATION***

Art-wise, I see a lot of people saying that it resembles One Piece's art style and well... as much as I'd like to disagree on that one, it's kind of hard NOT to notice Akira Toriyama's influence over the look of both of those series. I don't really mind the art style, and hell... I actually kind of like it but again: fan service just gets under my skin. Animation-wise, Fairy Tail was done by none other than A-1 Pictures, which I was rather surprised to see attached to a long-running battle shounen series like this one. When it comes down to visual quality, A-1 Pictures is no slouch whatsoever and they have programmes under their belt which are nothing short of eye-candy galore such as Blue Exorcist, Sword Art Online, and and both seasons of Magi.

It's a common occurrence in battle shounen anime for the animation quality to fluctuate quite a bit. Anything that isn't a battle may very well be animated with the same level of complexity as a flash game you'd find in the backwaters of Newgrounds. It's for that reason alone that I was caught off-guard when I saw that A-1 Pictures did a REALLY good job of keeping the overall animation quality across 175 episodes rather consistent. Yes, there are points where the animation takes a bit of a downward turn, but the rest of the series still looks remarkable from a technical standpoint. Battles are also animated exceedingly well which makes them nothing short of entertaining to watch, and you all know how much I love a well-animated battle!

It should also be mentioned that Satelight co-produced the animation alongside Fairy Tail. These are the guys who brought us Log Horizon's first season and the first four episodes of Hellsing Ultimate among other such viewing delectations. The fact that the animation quality remained more or less consistent across 175 episodes might have to do with the fact that there was more than one studio working on it. A-1 Pictures can't shoulder ALL of the burden, now can they?

***THE SOUNDTRACK***

When it comes down to music, it's hard to find another battle shounen anime which comes anywhere close to Fairy Tail. This is something that EVERYONE can agree on. Like you can talk shit all you want about the story, the characters, and the art style but when it comes down to music... hot damn! The only other battle shounen anime I can think of that comes close to Fairy Tail would be Blue Exorcist, and even then I find myself leaning toward Fairy Tail's OST. I'm not even joking when I say that I actually had the 3rd OP saved as my phone's ringtone WAY back when I was just starting to get into Fairy Tail. Oh how I miss being a NEET living in Chandigarh. :(

***THE DUB***

When it comes down to the sub vs. dub debate, don't buy into the dub hate that you might see here on the MAL forums. Funimation did an excellent job with the Fairy Tail dub. My favourite performances definitely come from Newton Pittman as Gray and Colleen Clinkenbeard as Erza. We also get some wonderful performances from the likes of Christopher Sabat, Brina Palencia, J. Michael Tatum, and other such Funimation regulars as supporting characters as well. I understand that there are a LOT of top-tier seiyuus involved with Fairy Tail but come on! The dub itself is some pretty damn good stuff too. Seriously, why so much dub hate?

***ANIME VS. MANGA***

Oddly enough, I've never read the manga for Fairy Tail at all. I still say that if you're a manga purist, you're probably going to want to go manga rather than anime. Manga lacks filler, after all.

***FINAL THOUGHTS***

Fairy Tail is one of those anime series that receives WAY more crap than it deserves which is quite a shame. Look, I understand that it's popular and that popular series more often than not are overrated. That still doesn't give people the excuse to constantly make shitty reviews of the programme in question which basically parrot shit that's been said before ad nauseum. If you're in the mood for some shallow entertainment and nothing more that you can enjoy with your friends, Fairy Tail can definitely deliver on that front and keep you entertained for a good while. It's one of those programmes that I feel is best in small doses. If you know exactly what you're getting into, you should be fine. Hopefully, this review actually managed to sway some peoples' opinions on the programme but whatever. Chances are that it'll be downvoted into oblivion by diehard fanboys and haters alike. God, I need to pick a target audience and stick with it.

***ALTERNATE ANIME RECOMMENDATIONS***

1) InuYasha and its sequel series, InuYasha: The Final Act
- One of the most popular anime series of the early 2000s (especially here in the West), InuYasha is another anime series which consists of many small, easy-to-watch arcs. However, the biggest difference between InuYasha and Fairy Tail is the fact that InuYasha's small arcs all add up to an overarching goal whereas the arcs in Fairy Tail feel inconsequential for the most part. InuYasha is also a partially romantic story as well so there's also that. It also helps to mention that Fairy Tail is still an ongoing manga with a TV sequel which is still currently airing. InuYasha ended in 2004 and The Final Act ended in 2009. The manga also completed its run in 2008 with 553 chapters total.

2) Gurren Lagann
- The bonds shared between Team Dai-Gurren is vaguely reminsicent of the friendship between Natsu, Gray, Lucy, etc. and power-ups are a huge part of each programme's battles (can you look at me with a straight face and NOT tell me that the Spiral Power ISN'T an excuse for constant deus ex machina?). However, Gurren Lagann opts for an extremely absurdist approach where logic and reasoning get thrown to the wayside in favour of being cool (as evidenced by Kamina's infinitely extending sword and his ability to pull his signature orange glasses out of thin air) whereas Fairy Tail doesn't really go that far with its fantasy elements. Also, the fan service in both series is similar... I mean, Yoko and Lucy pretty much serve the same purpose, don't they? Dem melons...

Overview:

If you liked Naruto, Bleach, and other generic shonen titles, you could do worse than Fairy Tail!

Story: 5/10

The story takes place in an alternate world where magic is common and wizards have formed a number of powerful guilds. The strongest of these guilds is Fairy Tail, to which our main cast of characters belong. Fairy Tail is told in 10-20 episode story arcs where usually Natsu and company must complete a new mission and fight a new adversary. That or its a tournament arc. Gotta have a tournament arc in every shonen since Dragonball. The story isn't bad, but it gets repetitive and I ... have a very good feeling that it won't end for at least another decade of the same thing over and over again.

Characters 5/10

Fairy Tail has a large collection of characters. It is unfortunate that the least interesting characters get the majority of the screen time. Natsu is a very bland and generic shonen hero. Lucy and Gray are annoying as hell and I can't stand either of them! Of course the worst character is Happy, who makes me want to bash my face repeatedly against a concrete wall. Remember Puar from DBZ? Make him 10x more annoying and stick him front in center in EVERY FUCKING EPISODE! That is Happy! Some characters like Erza, Mirijane, and Makarov are actually quite fun, and makes me wish I could see more of them instead of Lucy's whining, Gray's fan service, and Happy's... just everything he says and does.

Sound: 5/10

I couldn't really say the soundtrack left a huge impression on me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorably great either. I suppose it performs adequately.

Art: 7/10

The art in Fairy Tail is pretty good for a 200+ episode shonen series. It isn't the greatest in the history of anime or anything, but it certainly is above average. Especially for a slightly older viewer like me that lived through the god awful art and animation of most 90s and 80s anime.

Enjoyment: 5/10

I realize that shonen is aimed at a 12-17 demographic and as a 26 year old I am not the prime target. That is why I am gonna go easy on Fairy Tale here. It has a few enjoyable moments, but they are few and far between for older viewers, not to sound like a jaded old man. I think if I were 12 or so years younger, I would probably like Fairy Tail a lot more, and be far more forgiving of its flaws.

Overall: 5/10

Fairy Tail is a very average series. I watched the first 40 or so episodes and don't really have the desire to watch any more. I don't dislike it by any means, but I didn't personally find it very stimulating or interesting. Maybe if it had Erza as the main character and was cut down to 26-52 episodes it would be a more memorable shonen action series. I think I would at least give it a 7/10 if it had gone that route. Alas, that is never to be.

Every arcs be like: "The dark guilds/ enemies are much more stronger! There's no way Fairy Tail's gonna win!"

OH NO NO NO. They WILL win! 'Cause they have the Powa of Friendship!

*Fairy Tail wins.
*End of arc
*repeats the cycle

Is that all they could do? Meh. The story is poorly written so I'll just give it a 3/10.

... CHARACTERS:

This is irritating. Especially with Lisanna's part! Dude, she just came back and they be like nothing happened! On the other hand, Natsu's the same old Natsu. Thickheaded dragon slayer who obviously wins a fight every arc with his friendship power up of raging emotions. And Lucy and her celestial spirits. It annoys me how she summons them and the enemy's gonna beat them into a pulp. Aren't celestial spirits strong? (And to think that I was really expecting something from Lucy and Loke's relationship. Oh well.) Gray and Erza, they just gets dumber every episode. ESPECIALLY THE FIGHTS. At first, Fairy Tail's gonna give you an emotional fight mostly pertaining about to "never give up" / "We are a family" and suddenly... THE COMEDIC STUPIDITY RISES LIKE WTH ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Give me a break. I give 2/10.


The SOUND is good. The ART is okay.

The reason why I'm still watching this anime because it has something. A potential perhaps? Fairy Tail can be unique in many ways! So I can't just drop this one since I definitely love its manga.

I think all of us, who watched Fairy Tail, could agree that it is funny. Its humor is one of its potential, yet it is also its downside when it comes to the seriousness part of every arc. But, I find the enjoyment good. I find some parts of this anime interesting so I'll give it a 6/10.


OVERALL: 5 out of 10.

Excluding its plot and character development. Fairy Tail is not that bad of an anime. Some may find it enjoyable, and some may not. And I'm still halfway through so maybe I'll edit this review if I see another significance in this anime. If you haven't watched Fairy Tail yet, please do. It is not that bad as most of the viewers think. And as for me, I'll still push through until its next sequel; Fairy Tail (2014).

Now let me preference this by saying that I have only seen 8 episodes of Fairy Tail so far, so for all I know the show could get much better. Just look at this as first impressions for the show. Maybe in about a couple of months I might give Fairy Tail another try. Now with that said Fairy Tail is one of the most generic shonen anime I have ever watched.

During the time of this review there is the BIG 3 in anime. They are shonen jump titles that have a large following not only in Japan but also in America; they are Bleach, ... One Piece and Naruto. As Bleach comes to its end and Naruto begins to slow on the breaks many shonen shows will try to take their place in the BIG 3. There is Hunter X Hunter (which I have never seen), Blue Exorcist (still, never seen), and Hajime no Ippo (you might notice a pattern now...) but the one show that has pretty much taken the spot of Bleach is Fairy Tail.

So about a year ago I got into anime. I had always liked anime shows but never truly knew that they were anime. The shows I loved were Dragonball Z, One Piece and even Naruto. I still somewhat enjoy these shows today (okay maybe only One Piece) but because of this I figured walking into Fairy Tail would be a nice fun piece of cake. So one day I searched Fairy Tail on YouTube and Funimation had about 40 episodes up so I decided to watch 10 episodes to give the show a try. I then began to watch the first episode…..

Now I remember asking myself multiple questions after the first episode. Like, were the main characters introduced at all interesting? I mean Lucy is a walking piece of cardboard pretty much with Natsu there to give the best Monkey D. Luffy impression he can do (seriously, no else notices how much he acts, talks and eats like Luffy?). Lucy has nothing going for her except tits but besides that all the female characters have this problem. In the big world of shonen anime males rule so Fairy Tail tries it's best to make Natsu and Grey look as cool as possible. There is also Erza but she is fan service that just happens to be strong. Also even though all the characters can use magic how come they only use one type of magic? I mean if you could use breath fire and summon other worldly beings you would be well off but learning other magic would not hurt right?

The story seems to so far have the problem that Bleach had and that most bad shonen have and that is that there is no real long-term goal to achieve. With One Piece it is for Luffy to become King of the Pirates and for Naruto it is for Naruto to become head of the village. So far in Fairy Tail it is threat comes up and the group solves it. How can an over 130+ anime episode show have an overall plot this paper thin? It also has a major problem that I had with Naruto. In the first episode of Naruto, the title character becomes a ninja. The problem with this was that there was no internal struggle to become a ninja. Same with Lucy in Fairy Tail, she wants to become part of Fairy Tail and boom, first episode alone she joins. In doing this we don’t see how much the characters truly want to follow their dreams because they are practically handed them in the first episode alone.

The show looked nice but nothing really caught my eyes, with characters looking good with nice looking scenery. The fights looked cool I guess but overall One Piece came out years earlier and looked much better than Fairy Tail. The opening for the first season was okay with no great animation with a generic as hell song to boot, but I enjoyed the ending only because I am a sucker for a catchy electronic tune. The overall music for the show I did not pay very much attention to, since it was just the same melody every time a fight began.

By the end of the eight episodes I frankly had no interest in watching anymore of the anime. I just started watching Baccano! And never went back. I know that the show has a large following and I don’t want to offend any of its fans but come on guys! This is popular enough to be part of the BIG 3? A five year-old could have written the show! Recently though many fans of the show have been complaining of the repetitive nature of Fairy Tail so change could happen I doubt it. I would not tell anyone that considers themselves mature anime watchers to consider Fairy Tail, but for younger viewers getting into anime I guess it's an okay starting point.


FINAL RATING: Mediocre- Fairy Tail brings nothing new to the table, but fans of shonen might like the bland but like-able characters.

Okay so Fairy Tail recently ended so I thought I might as well write a review about this shounen anime... Like any shounen anime, there is always one who is meant to be the strongest of them all... Like Bleach being Kurosaki and Naruto being "Naruto" and Fairy Tail being Natsu... And there are other supporting characters that grow strong with these strong protagonists such as Lucy, Erza, Gray and the other characters... Fairy Tail is at times hilarious and the art is, in my eyes, good, being a very popular anime, the art is heavily focused. However, there are many pin points in Fairy ... Tail which are not being focused on when they are supposed to be...
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Story: The story is very generic and simplistic like any other shounen anime. It is overrated in a sense that many people exaggerate too much about this anime... From my perspective, the story is very mediocre, the story arcs are very short and does not develop much tension and feels to the stories. I am not trying to say the arcs should be about 100 episodes long but Fairy Tail goes in this sequence:"Heres an enemy, defeats him, the team gets stronger, we win" A heavily repetitive sequence in Fairy Tail...

Art: Nothing to comment of... The scenes shown in Fairy Tail has been adapted from the manga very well...

Sound: The soundtracks of Fairy Tail is okay but does not make the audience feel as much tension as it is needed...

Character: The major flaw in Fairy Tail is the character and their development... Like shounen animes, for example Katekyo Hitman Reborn, it is shown clearly that the protagonist and the supporting characters are getting "stronger" in a way that their attacks and skills looks improved and have much more impact... However, in Fairy Tail, this is not applied... Fairy Tail has shown Natsu look too strong with its first appearance that all its fights look boring and simple with all his attacks being small fire breaths and fire punches and kicks... And according to Erza, Natsu is getting stronger but all they apply to him is more scales or darker face appearance...

Enjoyment: Comedy, one of the very important aspect of Shounen anime, as most of its audiences are young children... To appeal to these children, comedy is a must which obviously Fairy Tail has, but its comedy is no different to that of other shounen animes... It's good but it's a very generic comedy which most anime also has...

*NOTE: This is a review of my own... Views may differ as not all people have the same opinions*

Fairy Tail... Where do I begin? First, I just want to tell you not to be thrown off by the scores. After all, I did decide to watch this anime even though one of the reviews gave it a 5...!

The thing I liked most about this anime was the Music. The beginning OST, and ending OST's were beautiful, and they were by far some of the best! With that said... The second thing I liked about this anime was that the fighting scenes weren't very long. Most lasted about 2 episodes maybe 3, and the very Important ones were maybe 4. If you're ... thinking that's a lot... Go watch One Piece, those battles are SUPER long, although I was okay with it because it was interesting. It's all a matter of preference, but I felt that the short battles worked for Fairy Tail. That's the other thing I like about this anime. It doesn't really drag things around. It just cuts right to the chase, which again works out wonderfully for the anime.

As every anime has pros, every anime must also have cons... The thing I disliked THE most is originality... The writers/producers had no originality in the battle system whatsoever. By this I mean, that every fighting scene could be summed up easily. The "hero" lays the smack down on the boss, the boss "powers" up, and then beats up the hero. The "hero" talks about not letting his friends down, and then somehow gathers enough power to defeat the boss...! Almost every battle scene is like this. After a while it gets annoying, but it's something you can bear... At least for now. Another thing I didn't really like is character progression. I saw none of that, and it really upsetted me! For 175 episodes the characters BARELY progress! By progress I mean emotionally, skillfully, etc. Their's NO character progression at all, but as the Manga is not complete yet, maybe we'll see some character progression later on...

Overall, I give this anime a solid 6. While Music, and simplicity were great about this anime, what really hurt it was tthe fact that It was a little TOO simple, which led to little originality and that led to no character progression. I do urge you to try it, as it does have its good moments! Thank you, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Ive been reading the manga around since chapter 8, and i must say, fairy tail is the 2nd anime that i watched since my 2 and half year break from anime. (besides watching gundam 00 s2 and code geass r2 when it airs)

so far, till ep 11.

My list of criticism:

Sound:
- i must say, it is a disappointment to me that natsu's seiyuu is one of those who seems to have a serious tone as from my experience of reading the manga, natsu is more of a character like one piece's luffy and should therefore have a seiyuu with a lack of serious tone majority ... of the time like luffy's.

- in the first ep, when hearing happy's voice, i was totally disappointed. the aye sounds so lame here..... its too high piched however, after 5 eps or so you get used to it.... so i guess its okay

- lucy's voice is okay but not the best

- erza and gray voice = good choices

- The background music is, i must say, rather unfitting many times. it seems like they just put in some chorus out from nowhere when there's a battle scene, not to mention that the chorus didn't do a good job -- it didn't fit

Art:
- The art, i must say, is rather disappointing too. I have absolutely no idea why the heck they create those magic circles everytime the characters casts magic. And on top of that, the action scenes is a big disappointment -- Fairy Tail is obvious a action themed story, however, there is too much talking and too less action when there's suppose to be action and when there is action, it feels like im watching barely moving CG's.

- Why the hell theres a dragon that appear whenever natsu use any move?!

- As a major fan of Erza, i am disappointed by how her character design changed so much in the anime. When one compares her design from the anime with the manga, one can cleary see that her hairstyle and eyes design changed a lot! It seems like shes a totally different person -- it is too lively, shes more of a serious type. And her adult like beauty is lost... Also, her hair color is too bright crimson. It is suppose to be dark crimson....

- I am disappointed with Gerard's hair color. It is too bright! his hair color is obviously dark blue with some tones of sky blue. However, instead it became totally sky blue.

- The fairy tail guild tattoo being completely colorful is annoying me. In the manga, it is mostly shown as fully black in the color pages, and i must say, that's better than being so colorful.

- i was disappointed with the scene where natsu and happy thanked lucy for the food. It seems to that the scene in the manga is actually more funny...

- seems to me that they tried to add in the facial effects from the manga --- those totally wtf faces (with big black eyes and etc...) however, this is not a manga and they pretty much failed with it. I mean heck, they just put that in for 2 seconds and thats it.... not funny... unlike the manga... they did a bad job on that...

Story:
- This is another typical shounen type good vs. bad story. It is not as good as one piece, but the story is faster paced than one piece, which is slow as hell. However, Fairy Tail is obviously better than Bleach and Naruto. Also, it is a disappointment that Hiro Mashima's previous manga made anime Rave Master sucked. I hope fairy tail don't end up like that.


spoiler:

i have no fckin idea where in the manga did erza became known as "the knight".... it sounds so lame, i mean, her nickname erza the titania sounds way better

Fairy Tail is an anime with nothing special or groundbreaking. If a character is in a dangerous situation, power-ups come to their rescue. If they want to give a motivational speech and get even stronger, they talk about the power of friendship and save the world. Their plot armor is so thick no god can kill them. This is a sin shared by many anime, but Fairy Tail overdid it.

The anime successfully creates its own world, introduces characters with different abilities. One Piece has pirates and devil fruits, Bleach has Soul Society and bankai, Naruto has ninja villages, and Fairy Tail offers a guild system. ... Guild members work shoulder to shoulder trying to save humanity once again. Where the anime fails is the execution.

Fairy Tail’s biggest sin is power creep. Characters continuously power up, beat their foes, save the day, hot girls with boobs of the size of the moon fall for them. Any difference between characters in terms of power is sacrificed for plot convenience. In HunterxHunter, for example, we at least know the limits of characters. We know that even main characters cannot mess with certain enemies. But in Fairy Tail nothing is impossible for the main character. The reason? One of the characters says about Natsu, the protagonist: “Natsu-san gets more powerful when facing strong foes.” This means that there’s no point of enemies and other characters. Natsu just needs to face the enemy in order to defeat them. There is no point to the story.

Fairy Tail tries to compensate for its shortcomings with endless fan service. Big silicon-filled boobs embellish every scene. This is the most fan service filled shounen out there. Unlike One Piece where female characters miraculously grow fatty glands in later episodes, in Fairy Tail they are there from the very start. We are showered with lots of skin. Lots of buttock shots, lots of sexy women. The anime treats its fans like testosterone factories.

Another problem with the anime is that it has a lot of pretty-face characters that don’t contribute to the story. After watching all 175 episodes, I still don’t get why most of the guild members are there. Go and kill half of them, the story will lose nothing. Go kill the remaining half and the anime will improve.

Fairy Tail does everything in the book, throws every gimmick in the book at your face. It fails at most of them. It ends up as a caricature of itself, with lots of wasted opportunities. Plus, it has 35 filler episodes. In other words, one episode in every five doesn’t contribute to the story in any meaningful way.

Had potential, then fell into clichéd poisoned well water.

I knew going in that this was a shounan anime that would at some point become stagnant. Basically, it's just a rehash of dbz-type plots. Over and over, the difference is that there isn't any real Kurosaki-kun type evolutions and not much in the character development department. It's a good guys always win show that goes to short lengths to make it painfully obvious. So it kills what little suspense a show like naruto has in the buildup.

The story is paper thin and seemingly has no direction except when ... the bad people show up and the fight scenes take up their dominant role as the unmoved mover. The last 3 arcs are virtually identical in plot lines and yet, there hasn't been much change to the characters, and in some cases, no change. I didn't vote for Obama but c'mon, I'm not chopped liver either.

Art could be better, Sound, is there music? Guess it isn't memorable either way. Characters are semi interesting, after 100 episodes their former merit runs a little dry. The enjoyment is above average, because I'm a sucker for this type of show, even if I complain. And it's really just filler for the next installment of One Piece.

Overall, if you like the big 3, bleach, naruto, one piece, then you'll definitely like this. It's a different flavor that goes it's own way, which is exactly why it isn't the big 4.