Fairy Tail

In the enchanted Kingdom of Fiore, the lively Lucy Heartfilia has one wish: to join the renowned Fairy Tail—one of the many magical wizard guilds scattered around the continent. Luckily, a chance encounter with Natsu Dragneel, the "Salamander" of Fairy Tail, whisks her into the legendary guild.

From Natsu's rivalrous antics with ice wizard Gray Fullbuster to the frightening presence of the unmatched combat goddess Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail's powerful mages have a slight penchant for trouble. Through all the lucrative odd jobs and adventures to save the world from destruction lies an absolute and unyielding trust stronger than family that has formed between each guild member.

Teaming up with Natsu, Gray, and Erza, Lucy finds herself amidst the guild's most misfit wizards. But as they constantly stand in the eye of every danger, there is one name that never ceases to resurface: Zeref, the feared master of dark magic.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Dragneel, Natsu Main

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Scarlet, Erza Main

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Heartfilia, Lucy Main

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Fullbuster, Gray Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Happy Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Marvell, Wendy Main

Satou, Satomi Japanese

Charlés Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Lockser, Juvia Supporting

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Fernandes, Jellal Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Redfox, Gajeel Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ochikoshi, Tomonori Producer

Beniya, Yoshikazu Producer

Yamanishi, Tahei Producer

Reviews

Aug 6, 2013

Manglex

Recommended

It just sucks the way it ended…
Not that it ended badly, it just sucks that it ended at all.

Fairy Tail is, for lack of a better term, your generic shounen. You have a group of teenage wizards running around fighting bad guys and all the while they get stronger as Natsu Dragneel looks for his father… who is a dragon. Shounen clichés come with the territory, and Fairy Tail is no exception. Think about it. If you make a shounen, no matter how you make it, it is going to have some generic components. What makes Fairy Tail so unique is that it is ... good in spite of all the clichés the plot may have.

You have to remember something that so many people easily forget. Not every part of a generic shounen is bad, and Fairy Tail actually does a really good job capitalizing on the things we love in a shounen. It has great humor, consistent arcs, short recaps, nice fight scenes, and most importantly nice character development.

The members of the Fairy Tail guild are an interesting bunch to say the least. Since they can all use magic their fighting styles are extremely diverse. After the first season you will feel like you know the members of the guild personally. There are dozens you are introduced to and you will most likely remember their names because the show does that good of a job at giving the characters a long lasting impression. When something happens to one of the members of the guild it will probably make you sad, maybe even bring on some tears. You won’t even realize you have an emotional attachment to these characters until something happens. It is almost as if you are blind-sided a bit by the connection you have with the Fairy Tail guild members, and you will most definitely have a connection with the members as you will most likely see yourself in one of them. I guess it doesn’t hurt that this anime had an all-star voice cast to help with making you like the characters.

That’s right; you’ll definitely recognize at least a few of the voices in this anime. The first one that I noticed was the voice of Toradora’s Aisaka Taiga, but the show itself has many more notable voices than that including Alphonse Elric, Hanekawa Tsubasa, Miki Sayaka, and Amane Misa. A voice cast like Fairy Tail’s does not come around often and is something that must be acknowledged when going into this anime. Not only does the show have an all-star voice cast but the score for the show is also pretty over the top. Normally it would be hard for a show to get the soundtrack just right but Fairy Tail managed to do it extremely well.

The art and animation should really go without saying. It is extremely well done, and fluid allowing for really awesome fights to be had. The style of the art is a little strange though, and not unlike One Piece it may put some people off at first, but after a few episodes you will find yourself really loving the art, just as you will find yourself loving the anime as a whole.

I myself really love Fairy Tail. I love the jokes that I used to see, the characters that I got so attached to, the fight scenes, the soundtrack, the art, and you know what? I even love all the generic shounen aspects that came with it. If I had to describe the show in exactly five words I’d tell you “Fairy Tail is really fun.” Because it is, it is just plain fun to watch.

That’s why I’m sad that it had to end.
I didn’t want it to have to end.

---BREAKDOWN—
Story – 5
Art – 7
Sound – 10
Characters – 9
Enjoyment - 9
Overall - 8

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 2, 2013

vedatsvet

Mixed Feelings

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.**

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 27, 2013

Aryaragi

Not Recommended

Fairy Tail ~ Another battle shounen anime to join the glorious world of anime. Adapted from the manga written by Hiro Mashima of the same name.
Now before you continue reading I must warn you that if you haven't seen all the episodes or are a huge fan that can't take criticism please refrain from reading this review. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
For those yet reading this review please keep an open mind about what you are going to read.
Initially I did enjoy fairy tail but in the end i started disliking the series. Here are a few reasons why

First of all the arcs are short. ... Which means there's a lot of things they can't do, bigger story, adventure or exploring, showing more of the side characters, etc. Every arc ends up boring to me and not memorable. The arc size also makes it so predictable. They have to go there without knowing much, be beaten by the enemies easily, get back up and run after them, beat them, a little talk afterwards, then go home.

The fillers, Fairy Tail has horrible fillers. Like the Daphne arc and the Starry Key filler arc. Just unbelievably bad. ABove that the filler arc is the second longest arc in the whole series. For those who might argue that fair tail has "less" fillers let me point out that FT has 38 filler episodes out of a total of 175. That's 21% filler, which is quite a lot.

Lisanna~They took a nice little cute backstory that helped multiple characters and ruined it. Brought her back without a good explanation and then afterwards nothing has changed. She barely talks to Natsu, she isn't important in the story. It was better when she was gone. Her being back and doing nothing basically ruins the whole flashback which was supposed to show how much she thought of Natsu, he thought of her, how Elfman decided to get stronger after losing her, Mirajane changed to be nicer, etc.

There's no training neither any foreshadowing. None of them really change. They were only going to train once but then Mashima said screw you, they're going to instead get powered up in 5 minutes. Natsu had a chance to grow with his powers near the beginning. He learned that he could use his flame to hold things or whatever. He forgot right after, lost a good chance and it hasn't showed up again yet.

Natsu's a horrible character. He's a main protagonist of the worst type, cocky yet can't prove it. Always runs ahead and gets beaten easily by the enemies, then he gets up and is able to beat the main boss of the arc. He needs a power up every fight or he loses, he sometimes has to get insulted until he's angry enough to beat him. Why the hell can't they give him a fire lacrima to use in a fight, he always has to get fire from some inconvenient ways. He even forgave Gajeel after he beat Lucy for like an hour, talked to him all nicely about dragons after their fight.

I couldn't even care about any of the characters. They are contrived, one dimensional, stereotypical and lack even the little bit of depth that the story sometime requires.

Natsu's power is supposed to be unique. Yet, every arc they run into a new dragon slayer. And then they run into god slayers that's powers are even stronger than their dragon slayer counterparts. It's like he's making it up as he goes.

The comedy is annoying. Natsu's vehicle sickness got boring when it screwed up his chance to fight, which was by like the 8th episode. After that it's just been used way too much and has messed with his fighting multiple times since. Gray has to strip every god damn episode, they haven't thought of giving him a jumpsuit or whatever. Everyone elses comedy is boring. The only person who ever says something funny is Happy.

The action sucked, all the fights weren't interesting and of course were full of random powerups and bad comedy. The animation of the fights were mediocre and most fight end in Natsu consuming fire in some convenient way for the plot or getting help from his "nakama" and magically beating the enemy who seemed overpoweringly strong till now.

Story is nothing special. Nothing has really changed since the beginning.

Oh the time skip. I totally forgot about mentioning that. It was horrible, a 7 year skip. They didn't even let the mains train or whatever. They came back and were easily able to beat enemies that had almost beaten them 7 years ago and had been training the whole time they were gone.

All in all Fairy tail happens to be one of the worst battle shounens i have ever seen and this is coming from a guy who has seen a fair amount of shounen.
With this I end my rant.

To those rating this review as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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