Fairy Tail

Ladies and gentlemen,i write this review as one who has read the manga....

As an anime,if it is to stand alone,fairy tail is worthy of a 7(at least)..but it dosn't stand alone. It is based on a manga i started reading and had to put it on hold at chapter 78 because i only had 120 chapters. I enjoyed the manga so much i didnt want to read one manga every week. I wanted it in bulk.

The anime,for me anyway,is a diff story.

Story: It sticks with manga quite well so this i actually an up side for me. And i hope it gets better and ... doesn't wind up like SOUL EATER.

Art: I personally preffer the art in the manga. the funny moments seemed a lot,well, funnier in the manga. Another thing is the attack "sequences" for the "special attacks"...they are cool the 1st time you see them,then they end up becoming obsolete as the show progresses.

Sound: That is cool. some voices sound a little not-right. An example is Natsu: i expected him to sound more "immature" like luffy (ONE PIECE) or black star (SOUL EATER).

Character: Lovable,cool,funny,....all in all they are well engineered.

Enjoyment: For me,there were too many downsides for me to really enjoy this anime due to the fact that i spent almost the whole time comparing it to the manga.

Overall: If you read and enjoy the manga, this piece of work might not live up to your expectations. If not,i'm sure you will enjoy it.

Fairy Tail is one of the best anime out there, emphasize on the word "out there" .

Before i start , i like anime/manga that has element of strategy, which means the heroes win because they find out enemies 's weakness not just because they have more friends than the enemies .
second, I dislike Anime/manga that overdramatizes things, and emotional outburst. I't's one thing to believe in something / someone, but it's a different thing when you cry it out to eyour enemies. The line between ... faith and stupidity is very thin, don't risk your lives just because you believe in someone.
Third, I dislike Anime/manga in which the enemies are what i call benevolent enemies. The enemies are too cocky to finish off the heroes, that's why they got beaten in the end.

Story 5
+To me is not a big deal that Natsu has forgotten that the real he joined fairy tail is to look for his dragon father. Because our heroes always go on exciting missions to unique area with its own unique enemies.

-unfortunately its contains points no 1 that i mentioned above. No matter how gravely injured they are, our heroes suddenly got a power up from the power of friendship. What's the point of battles and those powerful moves then .

Character 7
+ characters has unique personalities that makes this anime really fun to watch. I really like Erza because she is a strong female protagonist,. She doesn't break down like a delicate doll and need a shoulder to cry on.

She does what she does for herself and she has strong personality and doesn't mellow out. she's the real deal Unlike Natsume Maya from Tenjou Tenge and Lightning from FF 13.
She also becomes virtually everything that you want, a warrior, a samurai or maid.

- point no2, our heroes shout out their believe in friendship, lucky for them the enemies are weak minded . The enemies suddenly change their mind and say to themselves " oh this fairy tail guild is better than us blecause they believe in friendship that's why we can't beat them" .
-Point no 3. at one time the guid master was poised by his rival and still alive because his rival is too cocky to finish him off.
-Point no 2.in the past one of the guild member( i won't tell you whom because it's a spoiler) died because she was far too trusting of someone.

With so many negative aspect, i still could give a score of 7 because along with one piece is one of those rare manga who provides us with a true strong female protagonist.

Art 7
it's beautiful and looks precisely like the manga and the art is consistent. Oh if you watch Fairy Tail for ERza and and lucy's fan service, the manga has more and uncensored.

Enjoyment
I like the girls and the panoramic backgrounds but i hate the emotional outburst.

i admit i didn't read fairy tail manga cause didn't make me addicted, and if you are a shonen jump fan that's the perfect anime, cause there is everything that SJ want it, is sometimes funny, in the story all characters are simples, and you can easily make game, toys and all of that crap that make money, but let me get start.

first of all the story: is too simple, one single thing get all fairy tail members to do something, you know exactly what they gonna do, when and why, so what's the point in watch it? if somehow as a miracle they win. ... The only thing that i would say kind keep me watching was the jump of 7 years after acnologia strikes down their island, but it was it just that, this was the big innovation this story have nothing else.

art: terrible and of course just to get more attencion female main character use GG breast, and you give it as many as you can to other female character, is ridiculous, art is simple and all of them easy to draw too easy

sound: i admit that where a few song that i enjoy in it but less than 40% of it, still all those where good songs, and yes the theme song of fairy is indeed good.

Character: too simple, you know what when and why they do everything, stop wasting your time hopping that they someday do something amazing cause they won't. Same old same old, and of course what pissing me off most if that somehow, with almost no reason they get superstrong they almost never train especially the main characters natsu, gray, lucy and erza are ridiculous how strong they never get beat up, and if they did they always find a way to beat that guy somehow.


In my opinion this anime is the masterpiece of SJ have everything that they want is simple, hundred os possibility to make more history, possible to make games and all those things that's toys dolls and everything that make it profitable, but i don't like it and if you do have more time you should watch any other anime is more worth that this one

Like others have said its a great gate way anime , if your new to anime.
This was one of my first anime watches and I enjoyed every second of it but after finding anime such as FMA Brotherhood, Steins gate and other great anime, I soon realized how shallow this anime was. ... It came to a point of just being a habit of watching that I soon realized I was on episode 164 and I couldn't bear my self to watch anymore,and realized how much time I wasted watching this.

Overall I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun watching this, but it came to a point of realization of how repetitive the arcs are and how dull the anime is. And to be truthful I only kept watching to see of natsu and lucy ever have a relationship but in the end I decided to drop the anime and forget all about it.

This review may contain Spoilers!

Shall we start with the easy stuff; Art & Sound.
Without saying the best what the Anime has gotten. The themes are quite good and remain in your mind even long after you finished wathing FT. The art is nice - a huge variety of colours are given.

Characters...
Well, it's neither very good nor very bad at all. There's a plenty of characters I like, such as Jellal, Lyon, Erza or Gray. But on the other hand there's a remarkably amount of People I don't like at all! I'm going to run through both sides and let you know why I like them ... or not.

First of all, the main character, namely: Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Erza and Gray. I'm very particular with this order and soon you will know, why?!

Natsu is one of the worst main protagonists I've ever seen. He's dumb as hell, gets ZERO character development and wins all battles, all the time! Having said that, it seems that he's absolutely the only one, who could fight against the main "bad" guy. That's why the entire stories of each arc are so predictable... it's not even funny anymore!

Happy - funny and annoying at the same time - is Natsus little fellow. He keeps pushing Natsu into troubles, helps him out,... yaya, we know what he's actually doing.

Lucy, smart and sexy... she has some ups and downs during the anime and I've got the feeling she slightly enjoys getting herself into troubles - Natsu will save her either way. Because of that and the fact she seems not being able to keep herselt out of it, I did ask myself repetitively: Why? Why always Lucy? The "bad" guys are, most of the time, looking for her...

Anyway, we've got Erza. In my point of view, her past (the time in the Tower & Jellal) is probably one of the better ones in the series even tough we didn't get see how she became so stro ng as she actually is. But she shows personality - the first of the main characters who seriously does. But - let's go down to Business - and she turns into a sword-fighting monster. Still, I like her.

Gray was in the first episodes definitely one of the main characters, but as the stories goes on, he seems more and more like a supporting character than anything else. I do enjoy Gray because of how he uses and forms the ice which is he's given element. But it seems the producer "gave" him a certain limit and he is not allowed to go further than this limit - that's why he's sort of useless. And as the Serie goes an he turns more and more into a copy of Natsu... sad, but true.

Fairy Tail's "bad" guys are another disappointing fact - they're bad, because they're bad. Most of the time no reason is given. And most of them haven't gotten any background story anyway.

Well then... the last thing to talk about is the story. It actually had potential - countless times something started very interestingly and turned out to be just "another arc with another bad guy who wants to rule the world or destroy fairy tail".
To close this paragraph I must say I like the fact that after the timeskip they haven't changed at all. Some of them even not their appearance. Yet seven years have passed... *forever young*
The most ridiculous thing I found was the fact no one, except one supporting character, died - Simon. But they had to deal with enormously dangerous guys (at least they seemed so) and none of them died.

The anime would have some gread, and even memorable, moments; however, since every arc is so predicable and ends in almost the same way as the previous one did, you can already imagine the upcoming arc although you haven't gotten the slightest idea about what it might be.

Another interesting thing is that Jellal made it to become one of my favourite characters of all Animes I've watched so far. As I mentioned earlier, I like Erza, Lyon and Gray as well and I do hope they'll get more screen-time and background story.

This is a great starter anime, let me say that again. STARTER ANIME, if your looking to get to anime this is the one to watch. Since it's cliched it can introduce many tropes of anime to you. Things such as the art styles, the different faces they make in certain situations, basic fanservice and so on. I would basic recommend the first 49 episodes and find something else because by then your more than ready to find bigger and better anime. The story of each episode or arc usually revolved around a big enemy that would take the teamwork of of the main group ... of whole guild to defeat. There is usually a big speech made by each character. And bla bla bla........The characters are ok, my favorite is Happy (only because he is a cat.....), and he tends to be a very bright and cheerful person. Then we have Natsu Dragneel a wizard who can harness the power of fire the only good quality I see in him is his english voice actor sounds like (or is) the voice actor of Hikaru form Ouran KouKou Host Club. He spews the same moves on and on (at least in the first 49 episodes) and isn't very interesting. Then we have Erza Scarlet, a armor wizard with a tragic past that she fuels her fighting........ok Batman. Next is Gray Fullbuster, he likes taking his clothes off..........and that's the main joke about him. Last we have Lucy Heartfilia, a poor little rich girl who ran off to practice magic........ Ok, I understand the anime gets better down the road, but I simply don't need it anymore; I'm reviewing this so basically because you only need the basics then you can make the world of anime your own. I found Kashimashi :Girl Meets Girl and Ouran KouKou Host Club after this, the best two anime's I've seen (No I haven't seen Cowboy Bebop yet, but I'm getting there!) So this anime is nothing special, so don't waste much time on it. There is alot better (and worse) out there. Good day!

Personally not the best for me. Has some decent fights and characters are unique enough. The animation is hit or miss, sometimes good other times not so great. Characters are a standard shonen. Wasn't too into the story and eventually just dropped the series. Some may like it so I don't want to dissuade others from giving it a watch. The openings were pretty good. I did find the characters and their goals not as developed so more work needs to be done on that. The realistic aspect of the show doesn't really matter since it is a fantasy world and setting so there is ... some things that it can get away with because of that.

Lucy gets into fetal position crying.

"This sucks!"

Oh, stop it Lucy!

This anime is so predictable that it even seems to steal my lines in the subs!

The anime starts off really well... with little Lucy who is eager to join the Fairy Tail guild and gets easily tricked by an impostor. Starting with a big fight in the guild and meeting with her idol, Marijane, Lucy is able to get tattooed and become a mage celestial wizard, who has zodiac keys.

The cat won't shut his mouth and Natsu is annoying and situations concerning the characters do not make sense, I mean was Lucy trained to know all ... those defensive moves? Why can't the fights be more serious and suspenseful? Nobody in there is really memorable and Lucy was the most interesting out of the characters but she's also loud, saccharine and insecure!

The anime and even the characters get worse and it makes me want to skip to other episodes which are more serious and better. I mean, why would Lucy abuse her powers... ugh... FORGET THESE EPISODES!!!

The animation is stiff even with the flighty character, Lucy and struggles to work properly.

Too bad that this anime which DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHO ITS AUDIENCE IS is freaking aiming at little children who are impressionable! Especially the 9 and under crowd!!!

Lucy's seiyuu is annoying sometimes.

Props to the enjoyment value for making me get through this trash!

Now before I write this, let me just say that I am by no means an "anime connoisseur". Don't let my opinion decide whether you'd like to watch this show or not, watch and form your own opinion. I'm simply writing this review to vent, essentially. I'd like to ask that you don't take any of this too seriously.

Pros:
I'm not the type of guy to criticize Art, I'm relatively indifferent to this aspect as it rarely impedes my enjoyment. I'll tell you this though, if you're looking for a nostalgic One Piece feel, this should fit your criteria (art-wise anyways). Due to my personal bias, ... this definitely bumped the show up a few notches.

The music is quite memorable. It does it's job. The battle music is very "action-y", for a lack of a better term, and gets manages to get you hyped without fail.

The story as well as the lore of the of the anime were quite refreshing. It may have been that I was just craving another anime revolving around guilds and mages, but I found it quite enjoyable.

Cons:
The characters are obnoxious. Dear God do they annoy me so. Why you ask? Well let's start with the main character.
The main character is stupid. Yes, stupid. Like all shounen anime main characters, the main character has to be obligatorily mentally slow. His remarks were entertaining for only a brief moment. Then it started to hurt. I may just have a short temper, but I found it hard to not yell at my screen whenever he opened his goddamn mouth and spouted his incoherent garbage (it's not that bad, I'm exaggerating). Only when he goes into battle does his speech come off as acceptable, but even then, he's an overconfident prick. Now his gag of a weakness. His sickness on any form of transportation. This annoyed me to a horribly large degree. Why? Just why? Why the fuck would you make something like this his weakness? It's just fucking stupid like the rest of the character.
Not enough for you? Well how about the rest of the characters?
All the females give off the I'll-lay-you-for-a-dollar-and-then-leave-with-your-wallet vibe. The males are blatantly the huh-you-wanna-fight-huh-punkass-faggot-huh-fight-me-let's-go-bro-fight-me muscle-headed men.

Enjoyment? Other than the few brief moments within the first 3 minutes, I felt nothing but pain. It's overly cliché. Allow me to take a portion of the dialogue from every intense fight scene.

Bad Guy: "Huh? How the hell are you still standing?"
Good Guy: "Heh... you really are strong... But do you want to know the difference between me and you?"
Bad Guy: "...?"
Good Guy: "I HAVE FRIENDS"
Bad Guy: "DEAR GOD NO"

Overall 5/10 - Those 3 minutes along with the art and music really saved it there. Cons aside, this would be a great anime for first-time viewers. I highly recommend it. If you happen to be an "anime connoisseur" and you want to pick this up, I say to you: don't. Jokes aside, you really shouldn't decide if you want to watch or not based on my opinion. Disregard all I've and go watch it yourself you priss. I can't do all the work. It's only like 22-24 minutes per episode.

Ever since it started airing, I've felt that Fairy tail has been among the most mainstream and generic of popular anime, and specifically the shounen genre. If that type of anime appeals to you, then you could probably enjoy this, and I myself liked this anime for a long time when I first saw it.

However, as I progressed into the series, I began to question what motivated me to even watch the series, and this feeling continued with me as I proceeded to watch the 2014 continuation of the series.

Eventually, I was able to understand a lot of the major criticisms of the show ... and realized that I was forcing myself to enjoy watching it. This realization continued to sink in until the time came when I no longer found enjoyment in the series. Looking back at this, I have concluded that this anime is in fact, the most overrated long-running shounen of all time.

So what made it so bad? Here are some examples evident throughout this anime:

-Fanservice being forced into every episode way too much

Fairy Tail seems to go out of its way to shove boobs onto the screen and expect viewers to find it "funny" or "attractive" or something else on those lines. If you want to fully understand this, you'll have to go through an episode and count how many times fanservice is used. This would include parts of the episode in which a character's private parts (including the buttocks) is displayed for seemingly no reason and for that reason, is completely unnecessary.

Just to make things clear, I do enjoy some anime out there that still use fanservice, but that is often because it isn't forced and thrown at me every few minutes in every episode. I used to have few problems with fanservice when I started the series, but after watching multiple anime that use no fanservice at all, I noticed that it was because they didn't have to rely on it to attract more viewers.

Fairy Tail seems to not understand what genre it is because it seems to be mixed up between a battle shounen and an ecchi. Personally, I'd say it might as well be an ecchi if it needs to desperately rely on fanservice so much.

-Friendship being used as plot armor so the heroes always win in the end

This is definitely something that Fairy Tail has used far too many times. A lack of variation in the series is quite easy to spot since the end of every arc boils down to the Fairy Tail guild winning because of friendship. I have to be honest, that's quite unrealistic and doesn't give a very good lesson to the audience. I get it, Fairy Tail doesn't need to have morals in the end, but it does anyways, and the morals within the show are delivered poorly and are very impractical.

I could easily compare Fairy Tail to that of My Little Pony since both shows are about the "magic of friendship," but here's the problem: Fairy Tail is a series made for teens, and My Little Pony is a series made for younger girls. Why exactly is this a problem? That's because friendship is a value meant to be taught to children. Furthermore, teens shouldn't be expected to repeatedly learn about friendship through a show for teens when all they need is just one arc that could embrace the value of friendship, rather than having multiple arcs that use friendship as plot armor.

-Using filler instead of just putting the anime on hiatus

I've never enjoyed filler episodes in anime, and Fairy Tail seems to line a bunch of filler up by the end of every arc. As a result, I end up liking the series less and disliking the series more whenever I watch a filler episode. While I can skip the filler episodes, I still find them to be highly unnecessary since they have no impact on the story and will be forgotten entirely by most of the viewers.

What's even worse is that, according to my findings, Fairy Tail has a full, non-canon arc in which every episode could basically combine to make one big filler episode. This non-canon arc (Key of the Starry Heavens) was boring and stupid as heck, and I can't remember a single time I even enjoyed it. Afterwards, I don't remember any time later on in the series in which any event in that arc was even mentioned.

-Unlikable, underdeveloped characters

Instead of making an explanation on the characters in general, I'll just go through some characters who I'd like to talk about.

-Natsu is and has always been a jerk, and not a likable one. He makes stupid decisions that end up hurting other people and doesn't really do much to make up for it. After all, it's not like anyone's gonna even remember. The only seemingly positive trait about Natsu is that he's persistent, but that's about it. All of his other aspects are either forgettable or just another reason to dislike him. Among every shounen protagonist, Natsu could probably end up in the bottom tier since he's mostly just the result of bad, overused anime tropes combined to create his "personality."

-Lucy is one of my least favorite characters in popular anime, and it should be pretty obvious why, but I'll still explain. To put it in simple terms, Lucy serves mostly as a damsel in distress and a sexualized object. That's really her only two purposes. Later in the series, she becomes a bit more useful, but we're talking about a centimeter-long difference, and a lot of that development (even though it isn't really development) happens in the 2014 continuation of the series, not this one (the original series that ended at episode 175)

-Gray is probably my favorite character, but he gets little to no development in the 175 episodes of the series, and it's quite hard to tell apart the Gray from the later episodes to Gray from the earlier episodes.

-Happy is mostly just for comic relief, and he stops being funny by the first few episodes, but that's only if you even found him funny in the first place (I didn't). The primary objective of including Happy is to act like a little kid and to be Natsu's flying machine. Otherwise, there's barely anything to say.

Conclusion

In my honest, unbiased opinion, Fairy Tail isn't terrible, and it's even good on some parts (e.g. nice animation, enjoyable soundtrack, etc.). However, on the grand scale, Fairy Tail is pretty mediocre of an anime, and it's extremely overrated. I could recommend this series to people who are new to anime, because they're more likely to enjoy it than people who have developed a taste over a duration of time. Fairy Tail has its upsides and downsides, but I think you, the person reading my review could have their time better spent watching Gintama, Hunter x Hunter, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and other long-running anime out there that I'd say are great. Anime such as One Piece, Naruto, or Bleach haven't really appealed to me, but I can tell you that they're all better than Fairy Tail.

So now that you've read my review, I'd like to thank you for putting time aside to read something written by me. I should probably be doing homework right now, but I felt motivated enough to write this review for whatever reason. Anyways, I hope you can put this review into consideration for other anime that you plan to watch.

Story
The story is one of the good parts, I like the backstory and the story you follow. I truly enjoy the kind of big club with a lot of different skills and kind of having a fight with other ones and stuff. Some parts become somwhat childish when they encounter the same problem over and over and doesn't really find a way to fix it.

Art
I think it looks decent, even good at times. However I'm one of those who hasn't read the manga and therfore nothing really annoys me with how it looks.

Sound
They used a soundtrack from Heroes of Might and Magic 4 or ... 3 at one point. Which is kinda bad if you have played that game much. Kinda ruined the experience for me, but other then that they used the right tunes at the right times.

Character
Lots of fun characters with funny quirks. Everyone seems to have a rich backstory. And it might get a bit much after a while when you have to listen to the story of people you don't really care about or want to learn more about, but all in all good.

Enjoyment
This is where it hits me. The whole thing doesn't really get me going, I get the feeling that it doesn't really matter what happen. They will win anyway. Of course I watch a lot of series that allways wins in the end, but here I just can't shake the feeling from the start. That ruins the whole show for me. If not for that I'd probably be a huge fan, instead I don't even want to see it....

Overall 6/10
Good show, but gets predictable and uninspiring. And doesn't make me cheer for the characters couse they will allways win in the end.

As an anime fan i've seen some bad anime. some anime just start out with the first few episodes being pretty good, then getting better, then while at a high point of good it drops way down in the toilet like the piece of shit it turned in to. This is fairy tail in a nutshell. For those who haven't seen fairy tail, I don't recommend the anime and there was a reason why i dropped this show. This was just a very immature show so i guess that's why i don't like it that much

story 4/10
To be honest i don't see one major plot ... in this anime. Fairy tail is split in to certain arcs. Each arc contains shitty villains, annoying comedy, predictable fights, and just plain stupid logic. If shounen anime were usually like this i'd just stay far away from all shounens. Each arc just got repetitive and relied mostly on shounen cliches. Even though those were the bad parts of it there are some better parts of the story. Some of the better parts were based on enjoyment though in the first 20 episodes where the anime was actually somewhat good.

art 7/10
The art was not bad at all actually but I have seen better. The character design was pretty good overall, But animation on the other hand isn't really that good. The animation looked like it came from 2003 which is strange because the anime is from 2009 and animation was getting better. i'm not saying that anime from then had bad animation, i'm just saying it could've been better. The animation got better through out but really shined through during the action

sound 7/10
the music was OK through the parts i watched. But opening 4 was so fucking annoying. The fourth opening was fitting for the time because that is exactly where fairy tail turned in to a shit pile. while the first three openings were good the ending songs were mostly good. The english dub was pretty good thanks to Funimation and their high quality english dubs.

character 6/10
the main characters were pretty much OK. but the villains were the most unlikable villains that were straight out of the writers' asses. Plus they even tried to make a back story between one of the better villains and one of the main characters but then it doesn't work out right. The relationship between them isn't fucking their plus they're one of the most shipped. they're is no actual romance relationships in the anime even though their were supposed to be but they weren't even their. But talking about the main characters, Lucy was an OK main character but not the best their is, Natsu is actually a good character even though some people dislike him i thought he was a good character and my favorite from the series, grey was great character with an actually good back story, erza was OK she was just a stereotypical "stong girl", and happy was a cute animal character who i didn't mind.

enjoyment 5/10
The 20 episodes was overall enjoyable and had a few major flaws. But as it goes on it gets worse and goes in to the overrated shit pile of anime and just got old and got annoying fast.

overall 4.9/10
pros
good first few episodes
pretty good music (except OP 4)
good hero/main characters
ok art
some good action scenes

cons
repetitive arcs
annoying comedy
shitty villains
opening 4
shounen cliches
shitty character relationships
failed to be good through the rest of what i watched.

Overall would i recommend: it depends Fairy tail is an immature shounen aimed at an age group from 11-14 mostly if you like shounen with silliness and action then watch it. If you hate childish anime stay away from this.

I must admit something. I am so utterly conflicted as to whether I can give Fairy Tail much more than a 6. I REALLY REALLY want to. And if I had any shame whatsoever I wouldn't openly admit to writing at least 2 separate reviews and, at one point, giving a solid 10/10 score. Yeah...


So... the reason you're seeing this review now and not the overly dramatic pile of fanboy dog-shite that I had originally rolled with is simply because I cannot find any good reason as to why this anime is good. Which sounds extremely weird when put into writing. How does one even ... know if they like something if they can't directly point to what it is they're liking so much? Well. I have a theory that involves something I like to call "cool-guy syndrome". It's far from an original idea but put simply, when a character does something in a show that makes other characters go "wow", and when that action is placed behind a very iconic and well-made piece of backing track, the experience is immediately considered (by the audience) to be immeasurably better than it actually is. For example, Fairy Tail is relatively average (I'll get into that). But the one thing that elevates it so far above the line of mediocrity is the music.

FT has a very unique and iconic blend of "old-English pub fantasy" (violin, flute, guitar) and heavy electronic rock - Google calls it 'Celtic metal'. You don't know how well it works until you see it in action, and that's coming from the perspective of someone who isn't all that into metal music. "Celtic metal" has to be the perfect style to represent the personality of this show. Its rowdy, its irrational; it prioritizes fun and style, and it truely is the centrepiece of the exhibition. To top this off, there isn't really any poor judgment when it comes to when and where particular tracks are dotted across an episode. Characters have their appropriate themes as well that ties well to their personality. I have literally no experience in music-theory though, so I won't humor myself by talking out of my ass about it.
I have never seen an OST be so accurate in its interpretation of a world. Every theme represents the character perfectly; every tune sets the mood excellently and every other song there is to list has that excitement that makes everything seem SO much better than it actually is. It is what every other sound-track should aspire to be.


However, that is, ultimately, where the first short-coming arises. It doesn't matter how well executed your music is, when everything else fails to click then there's only so much of it you can save. You end up feeling a bit left out if it. I can name a few times where it felt like everybody else got the joke, but I didn't. When this happened it wasn't the fault of the sound design, but rather a lack of explanation towards key elements of the plot as well as a ridiculous tendency to be very predictable. You won't be able to count the number of times that some character comes in to "save the day" while the "fuck yeah" theme is playing in the background. It gets to the point where you can pretty much tell how every arc is going to go. The only real benefit to some COMPLETELY detached stories is that they SOMETIMES bring a minor character in, and SOMETIMES those minor characters are fun to have around. By the end of this 175-odd episode stretch, the only things I didn't see coming was the setup for the next season and the ridiculously elusive plot devices that will probably only be used in the very last arc.

Here's another thing I found to be a bit off. Friendship takes an awful amount of precedent in this show. It's almost suffocating. I almost find that I can't stand to see it be used yet again as an excuse for some random rally. Erza is the major culprit for this, but It gets much worse in the following seasons (It's kind of cheating to bring that into this seasons review but I think the issue tallies up over time so can be addressed as an issue for both seasons). I don't mind the whole "power of friendship" gimmick but every now and then you should have some faith in the characters that you've developed and allowed them to use their own strengths to just sort shit out on their own. It's nice that they all love each other and their cult but do you reckon that its at all possible that the characters work independently of each other every now and then? So that we might highlight some of their individual merits? They may be physically separated but the show dances around that as sort of a non-issue. Like they've all got some sort of psionic link similar to the Protoss.


As a separate and final point, I think it's worth noting that I had a lot more fun while watching this show than I did thinking back about it over the past few days. I hesitate to say that you should actively avoid it, just... Don't go buying any t-shirts until about a month or two have passed because, as I eluded to at the start of the review, I sort of feel dirty for enjoying Fairy Tail as much as I did, and I got really roped into it for a bit.
It is, for all intents and purposes, the ultimate "guilty pleasure" program.

[STORY: 6/10]
The story for this show is structured by multiple arcs that deal with its set of villains and threats to the members of the guild of Fairy Tail. This is a battle shounen that comes a bit above the rest. While the story isn't something game-changing, it provides us with interesting changes to the world this show is set in and the people living in it. I've made this comparison more than once, but I can tell Fairy Tail is inspired by One Piece. It isn't inherently bad to have some inspiration, but Fairy Tail just feels like a lackluster One Piece, and I ... have no other way to describe it. It has great character design and interesting lands that they visit throughout the story, but that extra emotional depth and character development intertwined within One Piece's story feels missing here, and that is really important to see. If the story has not much impact on you besides you growing in physical power, it isn't relatable to your audience. I'm not saying Fairy Tail completely lacks this, but it isn't exactly brimming with it either.

[ART: 7/10]
While the art (especially for the first part) of Fairy Tail isn't that amazing, the character designs are really what give the characters a sense of personality. They have pretty unique designs and stand out to me, which is always good when you have a show filled to the brim with different characters we need to follow and remember. The art is improved for the "sequel", which is much appreciated.

[SOUND: 7/10]
Fairy Tail has quality voice acting, though some of its themes can get old after hearing them so many times, but overall the sound department is handled well enough.

[CHARACTER: 6/10]
There characters are either great or cliché, nothing really in between. While I gave praise to the character designs, that doesn't mean they are as well designed on the inside. Alot of characters are given motivations and traits, but only a select few feel truly special and stand out in that regard.

[ENJOYMENT/OVERALL: 6/10]
While Fairy Tail has its ups and downs, it is still a slightly enjoyable battle shounen that's worth a shot if you enjoy those types of shows. Its filler may not be great, but the real material isn't as bad. Don't be afraid to give it a chance, but don't expect anything like a classic out of this series.

The only thing happy about this show is the cat named Happy. Aside from that are my eternally glazed over eyes from the "power of friendship." Fairy Tail has a boring and cliched mess of a story. The only acceptable part of this show is how diverse the cast is and their effort in making everyone relevant.

Fairy Tail starts you off with a blonde bitch who stumbles upon spiky haired anime protagonist. From there blonde bitch is welcomed to the guild named after the show. As far as the plot goes, this is where the story starts, and where it ends.

The issue with the story ... is that it is too aimless. It's less about moving toward one sole objective, and more about exploring what already exists. So the guild members just do their aimless shenanigans and you learn more about them through it. The story is driven this way, but it isn't too compelling. It just exists.

The music is fair, gets you kinda hyped. Not when it plays for 200 times. It's unfortunately overused and the hype dies out real quick. The art is ok, I'd say above average. What sucks is the animation.

Everyone takes this stiff stance before they do anything. You know, got to shout the name of their power move. Then it follows with a jarringly different style special effects, e.g. the fire breath, water spells. In general, the animation is far more stiff than you'd expect it to be in a battle. The only real, redeeming part of this show is the fact that they put effort in exploring all the characters.

There is an enormous cast of seemingly random characters, but somehow they all find a way to be relevant in the end. That's because about 100% of the time, this anime is exploring yet another character. As such, the characters are a lot more rounded than you'd find in other anime. You get to know a lot about the secondary characters simply because they devote an exorbitant amount of time on them.

I would go as far as to say that if there is anything to like about Fairy Tail, it is the investment in characters. Not character development, but characters. There is still a wide divide between the main characters and the secondary in regards to how much they change, but you at least know every character, their personality, and their life story.

Unfortunately, since they spend so much time on these guys, the pace ends up being ridiculously dragged out. That's perhaps the most exhausting part about this show. Then again, if you really are interested in these characters, then this show might just be Fairy Tail for you.

Fairy tail is one of the first anime I watched, it made me discover better anime than this. People drop this series 'cause of the op characters/storyline, they're not wrong though.

STORY- 5/10:
Anyway, FT is about a guild that treats their members like family, they beat up anyone who messes with their guild. Eh.. that's it. The storyline is predictable with every arc.

1. Throw in random villains make them look strong
2. Fairy tail gets beat up
3. Main cast say a corny speech
4. They beat up villains with the power of friendship

The first part of the series was decent but when it reached Edolas ... arc, everything started to be bad.

ART- 7/10:
It looks fine, I really liked the magic circles in the first part. Too bad they removed it. Some faces look the same.The scenery is ok.

SOUND- 9/10:
The opening is memorable to many FT fans, cuz it gives some nostalgia. Its catchy and entertaining to watch. The voice acting was really good.

ChArAcTeR- 4/10
Finally, the best part. Our main hero, Natsu has no character development in the entire 200+ episodes. I only like the backstories of Team Natsu. And for some reason, Erza gets involved in every arc there is. Lisanna gets ignored after she returns to FT. There's forgettable villains and many fanservice scenes that destroys a character for me.

Overall: 6/10

Ahh, Fairy Tail-

It was pretty much the first anime I watched, and it holds a huge sentimental value in my heart. But I'm completely aware it wasn't the best shounen anime. Including the 175 from Fairy Tail original series, I've watched all 328.

Anyway, I might accidentally type some spoilers, so proceed with caution if you haven't finished Fairy Tail yet.

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Art (4/10): I thought the art was okay, and sometimes there were really nicely shaded scenes, but it was pretty mediocre overall. The intro animations were very nice too, but as the story kept proceeding, they kind of just became snippets of the anime copied and pasted to the music.

I really enjoyed the manga art and loved seeing how the art styles changed a little bit over time.

Sound (8/10): Really loved the music, especially Snow Fairy and the intro to Fairy Tail Zero. The music they played in the background during the sad scenes was really nice too.

Characters (3/10):The Fairy Tail cast was sort of your stereotypical bunch. There is the strong guy, the strong guy's best "frenemy", the pretty girl/ fanservice character, the crybaby/ innocent character and the really strong girl that everyone's "scared" of. What does that sound like? A lot of other shows.

I really didn't appreciate the way Lucy played into the story. First of all, I dislike fanservice. I know this is a personal opinion, but it kind of just made Lucy seem like a useless character (when she is completely capable of fighting well). Second, Lucy got several power-ups in the story, such as summoning several spirits at once or summoning the Celestial King, but she hardly used those abilities and instead let everyone else do fighting. Also, I just want to talk about Aquarius's death. It was kind of unnecessary. The Celestial King didn't fight that much and just served as a morale boost, and instead of completely ending a character, Fairy Tail just has to bring them back (there is a second Aquarius key for Lucy to find).

Some other examples of almost "killing off" a character but then bringing them back include:
- Wendy and Carla disabling the Face bombs
- Chelia gaining back her magic after sacrificing it to beat Dimaria, although it was not effective at all and was just used to give Wendy a power boost
- Urtear returning several times even after she supposedly died
- Natsu dying then being revived in the Alvarez Empire arc

Enjoyment (6/10): In this section, my personal feelings about the show were very influential.

Fairy Tail was my first anime, so I loved it. But there's another side to this.

I literally stopped in the middle of Fairy Tail for a good few months because it got so boring. (Plus, I read the manga for a little bit, and was able to skip over several fillers, which was good.)

Anywho, I was pretty sad when it was over, but looking back, I never really enjoyed the show that much, like I did other shows.

Overall, I rate Fairy Tail a 5.

"Fairy Tail" was the first in a long list of anime recommended to me by my friend when I told him I wanted to get into the anime fandom. It was the very first anime I watched, so it seemed fitting to make it my very first review on MAL. Now, when I watched Fairy Tail for the first time - I loved it. I loved the fight scenes, the diverse characters, the magic, the beautiful portrayal of friendship. However, after watching a lot more anime I came to realise that while Fairy Tail is a great show to watch if you're new to anime, ... it also has a lot of flaws that impacted my enjoyment of the show. Does that mean it's a horrible anime that you should never watch? Not necessarily. Let me compare its good and bad traits in a non-bias review.

STORY
Set in a fantasy world, Fairy Tail opens with a teenage mage/wizard named Lucy who runs away from home in order to pursue her dream of becoming a fully-fledged Mage by joining the most powerful mage guild, Fairy Tail. She joins after meeting infamous Fairy Tail mage Natsu on her travels and soon embarks on many adventures while taking on jobs for the guild. Now, I haven't watched many battle shounen anime so I can't compare the plot of Fairy Tail to other shows of the same genre, but I was pretty interested in the concept at first - at first. I mentioned earlier that it makes a good beginner's show, as it contains a large mixture of things you can expect from many anime - comedy, action, romantic subplots, emotional scenes, a wide variety of characters and even some good old fan service. It provides something for everyone.

Later down the line, I began to notice a very repetitive theme - our protagonists would face up against another opponent and be badly defeated, and would naturally rise up against them a second time; only this time they'd be boosted with the Power Of Friendship which alone was enough to enable them to win despite every logical piece of evidence suggesting they shouldn't.

Now, I have nothing against friendship as a motivation. I myself have a small circle of close friends who I would be more than willing to try and fight for if I had to. However, when portrayed in a way that instantly seems to give your protagonist extra strength for no apparent reason, it gets kinda old. Of course, friendship should be your motive to fight and live - but it shouldn't awaken special powers that enable you to do so without ever losing a single battle. Of course, this is borderline Plot Armour, with them surviving unsurvivable feats (for example - being stabbed right through the stomach, stopping attacks that the character themselves say they won't be able to survive) just because they are important to the plot. This repeats time and time again in every arc. I can think of several occasions where a significant character could have (and probably should have) died, which would not only be more realistic but also lead to plot and character development - but it never happened. This leaves us the expectation that they will make it out alive every single time, which sort of takes away from the tension of the story. Had the show ended after the fourth or fifth arc as it was originally planned, it might not have been too bad but as it dragged on for over a dozen story arcs, it soon became repetitive, predictable and consequently boring. STORY: 5/10

ART
As the first anime I watched, I didn't pay much attention to the animation first time round - indeed, I barely knew what made anime art "good" since I'd never seen one before. After seeing other shows, I can confirm that the animation in Fairy Tail isn't bad at all. The simplicity of the character animation makes them memorable as the art style isn't too realistic or complicated, while the bold, solid colours and unique character designs make each character stand out. Unfortunately, the colour gets progressively less bold as the series goes on which made the last few arcs a bit less vibrant and enjoyable. This might have been done to better fit the darker themes of the last few story arcs, but I still much preferred it towards the start of the show. However, that doesn't mean the art is "bad". ART: 6/10

SOUND
Sound is by far one of the anime's strong point. Aside from having a pretty good English dub (let's face it, there are some pretty bad English dubs out there), the soundtrack is really very memorable. It provides upbeat Celtic-style music in battle sequences which, as someone who grew up in Scotland, I could thoroughly appreciate. For emotional scenes, it combines beautiful string and piano music that heightens the desired emotion. I found the soundtrack ideal for independent listening and even learned to play a few pieces on the violin. Overall, the sound in the show was very enjoyable - 8/10.

CHARACTER [*This section may contain minor spoilers*]
Character is by far one of the anime's weak points. Don't get me wrong, there is some character development, and I love me some high-quality Character Development. We see Lucy develop from an easily frightened young mage who won't hesitate to back down from fights to a strong, independent young woman who grows much stronger magically and emotionally while learning to stick to her dreams. We see Wendy develop from a timid, sheltered little girl to a tough, confident one who's as brave as she is kind. We see Gajeel (one of my personal favourites) develop from a callous, brutal individual willing to beat his own allies to a gentler, slightly dorky character who appreciates comradery. The characters have distinctive personalities and are all memorable and lovable.

Unfortunately, the one character who doesn't receive any character development is the main protagonist himself, Natsu. As the main character, you'd think he'd be the most developed, but this is not the case. Nothing challenges him or changes him, and he has only one notable goal which he rarely makes an active attempt to achieve. While he has flaws like any character (chronic motion sickness, problematic recklessness) they don't really count as flaws as they are merely a catalyst for comic relief and never get in the way of his goals or change him. Nothing challenges him - we're just supposed to love him because he is funny, loyal and "badass." He's honestly not a very good example of a good protagonist. CHARACTER: 5/10

ENJOYMENT
As mentioned before, I greatly enjoyed the show the first time I watched it. However, as I became aware of its flaws I just couldn't enjoy it as much as before - in fact, I often found myself being annoyed by its repetitiveness. ENJOYMENT - 5/10

TL;DR
STORY: A good beginner's anime as it contains lots of different aspects to the plot, but the plot soon becomes predictable, repetitive and unrealistic. 5/10.
ART: Becomes duller in colour as time goes on, but generally bold and memorable. 6/10
SOUND: Soundtrack effectively heightens the excitement and emotion of a given scene, as well as a high-quality English dub. 8/10.
CHARACTER: Some characters get adequate character development, but the main character disappointingly gets none. 5/10
ENJOYMENT: Enjoyable to start with, but gradually became less so for me. 5/10

OVERALL: 5/10
It's not terrible, but defiantly flawed. If you're new to anime, by all means give Fairy Tail a go - but if you've already watched several shows that you thought had an interesting and divers plot, I honestly wouldn't be recommending this show.

Story. Fairy Tail is your somewhat average shounen that showcase magic and guilds. Countless magic guilds lie at the core of all magical activity, and serve as venues for like-minded mages to band together and take on job requests. Fairy tail is the main guild in this whole series. This is a decent battle shounen with numerous fight scenes, overcoming obstacles and conflicts. The arcs in this series is memorable and not memorable. The first four arcs for me was memorable while the rest is forgettable. The very end of this series was bittersweet for me to say the very least.


Art/Sound. The art in this ... anime is not too bad or too good. Just average at best. Art of cities, towns, and castles in this anime is nice to gaze upon and the character designs are somewhat distinguishable. The ops in this series sounds really nice depending on your taste. Favorite ops for me would be op 2, op 6, and op 8.

Character. Characters are somewhat one dimensional with some good exceptions like Gray's story or Erza's childhood. Natsu is your cocky protagonist that use the power of getting really angry after he gets beat up. It gets tedious to endure some of the fight scenes with natsu. Natsu is not a great protagonist for his stale personality.


Enjoyment. I did enjoy this series for what it is but it feels like a chore for me to know what goes on in each arc. There a few arcs that use time travel which I'm not a fan of and boy was it confusing to understand.


Overall. I wouldn't recommend this anime to those that are not a fan of battle shounen since this one can disappoint you in the later arcs and with the same boring formula of protagonist getting really strong after one or more knockbacks. I would recommend this anime to a beginner anime viewer that enjoys fights scenes and the story I suppose.

Very simply put, this is a show that embraces the stereotypes it was born into, for better or worse, and your enjoyment entirely depends on whether you care little for cliches and just enjoy the ride, or you roll your eyes at them wanting something original. To be clear, this is a kids show. I mean, an ACTUAL kid's show, not just a generic shonen. You should think on that going in, because fights are very sanitized, language is typically sterile, and aside from some obligatory fan service, everything is pretty much intended for smaller children.

On a more personal note, I loved this series. I ... enjoyed the unbridled love for adventure, friendship, and innocent smiles because along with the boring stereotypes come a sense of nostalgia, familiarity, and belonging. It's a story of a growing family and you grow connected to these characters. You can expect the characters to not be super complex, but its still interesting to some degree to have something to latch onto as their characters develop and many of them have a good amount of screen time due to the show's long runtime. The ones that don't are typically ones that are there just to make the Guild feel more full, just to take up space - which is why you don't see much of them. The show is very conscientious in that it know that whatever or whoever, is going to take up significant screen-time, needs at some explaining and lore for.

On a more objective note, I will say that majority, if not all, of the show is incredibly predictable. It comes with the territory, but it nonetheless does nothing surprising or unique. There are a few exceptions to this, but its incredibly rare to come across these moments. If fighting or action is all you care for, just don't even bother giving this a shot because it takes forever for action to look at the very least acceptable, and even then the choreography is static and plain. Some characters, although I never really thought of them this way, I can tell can come across to others as rather obnoxious and annoying. The last character archetype you should ever use is an annoying character. Both predictable and annoying is a terrible combination.

All this being said... Fairy Tail's strength lies in its sense of adventure. I'm not sure whether the magic lies within its music, perhaps its simple, toned-down and comfortable art-style, or perhaps in the flow of the story, but anytime a new place is introduced, or the group goes to some new place, it truly gives the sense of life and wonder, a sense of immersion pulling you into the world whereas the cliches would have simply drove you back on their own. And despite its flaws, it almost seems to embrace them because its so consistent with its choices and plot structure I believe the predictability is intentional. And I feel that for some, this actually works - because I'm one of them. I don't believe carbon-copies are the way to go for anime, clearly. But I think this show is a good case-study in that, perhaps, cliches aren't always a terrible thing to have, as long as you bring a piece of yourself to the table.

And thus, I circle back to my original point - if you want something fresh, original, and tired of mundane experiences, then this is definitely not going to be a good show for you. However - if you can look past mediocrity for the sake of a sense of fun, adventure, and family, then it's definitely worth giving a shot.