Fairy Tail

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Intriguing plot. Unique and original world. Well developed characters. Amazingly epic and suspensful battles.

Fairy Tail is none of these. When I was first introduced to this manga, it sounded like it knew where it was going. It seemed to have a plot, interesting secrets and mysteries. So far the biggest mystery to me is how Natsu isn't the Guildmaster of Fairy Tail as well as the strongest of the Ten Wizard Saints. As I sat reading chapter after chapter, I watched how characters 10 times stronger than Natsu were defeated by apparently overpowered foes, only for Natsu to stand up, eat some random flame, ... and beat said foe because, hey, I'm the main character.
Additionally, the same happens to the at first like-able Erza. I wanted to like her, her magic was interesting and she seemed like a fun character. But her nakama power-boosts are just too overwhelming and all the Deus Ex Machina thrown around her are just too much, extremely apparent in later chapters.

Worst of all, I know that Mashima is actually capable of making good battles and interesting characters. This story actually DOES HAVE some good characters who have more realistic battle outcomes. Yet, for some reason, he decides to leave them aside and laugh at how weak they are in comparison to his godly main characters.

To finalize my hate for the main characters, we should analyze Lucy, the MC that exists for the soul purpose of fanservice. Constant, never ending fanservice. I remember a chapter in which Natsu and Grey see Lucy naked (again) and don't react, saying the novelty is over because they've seen her naked plenty of times. I was thinking around the same lines. It's just plain annoying seeing in how many ways Mashima can remove Lucy's clothes.

What else can I say about this manga? Well, the fact that no good guys ever die is always annoying, even though that just seems to be the norm for shounen anyway, with very few exceptions. Also, that the plot never seems to advance anywhere (which brings me to wonder if it even had one to start with or if I was just being trolled into believing it did as I read on) is just plain annoying.
And as I have said quite a few times, I hate how the battles don't hold any type of suspense. We all know that Natsu is gonna win, and all the good guys will survive, something that completely pulls out of the story and makes me think I'm wasting my time when I'm reading battles.


....if anyone read this entire rant, I commend thee, thank you for reading. You can agree with me or not, it's just my opinion, I'm just pointing out that I believe this series to be completely overrated, not to say it's just plain awful, and I would just not bother.
If you really want to read an epic shounen, read Naruto, One Piece or Bleach. And don't ever compare Fairy Tail to them. They aren't the greatest series, but they are the top three Shounen, and with reason, and Fairy Tail only wishes it was half as good as any of them.

Oh Fairy Tail, You could have been good, you had so, so much potential in you, but here you are, going out with barely a yelp.

Where did it go wrong Hiro? You had an immensly popular manga at your disposal to really give all your readers a satisfying manga to reread over and over again. You had the chance to make Fairy Tail something really, really great . But you wasted the opportunity. You have thrown it away by being stubborn to the end.

Of course, I'm not saying this out of no reason. There are a lot of good reasons as to why many readers, ... including me, were sooooo disappointed at how the manga turned out. However, there is one main reason that has been the biggest downfall to Fairy Tail, and that is the formula.

You see, Fairy Tail only ever has the same formula for every single one of its arcs. Meet Enemy, Fight, Get beaten up, .... activate Friendship power and win. That's it. That is the one and ONLY formula Hiro relies on to create each and every arcs. It's so ridiculous to the point that, in the later arcs, everyone could predict the outcome of the fight so easily. "Fairy Tail will win, Fairy Tail will not lose a single member because Natsu and co. will activate their bullshit asspull to overcome the enemy every single fight." This asspull was somehow most present in the damn FINAL ARC. Meet strong enemies, Fight but get pushed back a bit, then a random speech about family, friends, guild... then win. It's unbelievable how the "hyped" fights were all ended this way. This, this right here is what truly killed Fairy Tail.

There are other reasons as well. The characters were too linear and undeveloped throughout the entire story. Although some of them did seem to get development, particularly Gray, it got nullified towards the end of the story as they just became the same, dumb characters they once were. Almost all of them did have potential to become better to even great characters, but nearly all remained too same, and too much of an annoyance throughout the end.
The plot holes are also very much evident. I can't count the number of times a Fairy Tail guild member had an intense fight and just walked the injury off afterwards like nothing. Characters like Erza, Natsu, Gray... they should be out, they should have been unable to move so easily after the "intense" fights. But of course they are able to run around just minutes/chapters after.

Convenient plot devices like some bullshit returns and lame deux ex machinas did not help cover plot holes either. Oh, and did I mention that there are basically no deaths in the story? This should really have gone with the formula part I wrote, but the fact that almost every characters just come back alive or not die after "fatal" blows is infuriating. Hiro, you could have created some quite powerful moments through some deaths, all the while developing characters, but you chose to bring them back just a couple chapters later... sigh...

Another brief thing I want to bring up is the fanservice. Now, I don't mind a bit of fanservice at all, but Fairy Tail has fanservices all over the place, even in places they do not belong at all. Normal, everyday life will have some kind of fanservice and of course, the supposedly "toughest fight of their lives" will have some kind of fanservice. It really gets ridiculous and just makes light of any kind of situation, even though when the tone is supposed to be darker. *cough, Grand Magic Games, cough*

All right, so is there anything good? Anything?

First, there is the art which is very attractive to many people, including me. The character designs are pretty good, the background is nice and detailed, and overall, although a bit similar to One Piece, the art maintains a clean yet detailed complement to the series. Just unfortunate that the nice character designs didn't equal good characters in the end.

There was one particular arc that actually stood out in the midst of mediocre and bad arcs. And that was the 2nd to last (or 3rd to last if you count the Avatar arc) of the series. Without spoiling it too much, the Tartarus arc is without a doubt the best arc of the series. Contrary to just about every other arc, Tartarus actually has some emotion in it. Not only that, it brings some really surprising revelations the fans were asking for years, along with newer powerups for some characters. It still follows much of the same formula as the rest of the series, but there's no doubt that this was the arc I've enjoyed the most.

Chapterwise, The earlier chapters did give some entertainment and couple chapters midway through the story were pretty fun. Also, the last chapter turned out to be fairy good, at least better than the ending in bleach and Naruto.

That's it really. I was going to give this a higher score had the Final arc been as good as the Tartarus arc, but it was an epic failure, one of the worst in the series. I don't really recommend this series to anyone anymore, especially after the travesty that was the Final Arc. So please, if you want to save some time by not reading through something that will infuriate and disappoint you, please step away.
Actually, just go onto youtube and find the music scores for Fairy Tail. The music score is undeniably great, and most of them are worth listening to at least once. Which makes it even more shame as it was wasted on this.

Good job Hiro Mashima. Good job on throwing away a potentially great manga.

A wise man once said..."To deny Fairy Tail as absolute garbage, is to deny reality itself"

At the risk of this turning into a rant, I will be censoring myself a lot to give a genuine review. This review will contain very minor spoilers as names (except the main character slot) will be withheld because for god know what reason you still want to pick up this manga after everything I said, you won't be spoiled...you have been warned.

Well, well, well...what can I say that hasn't been said about FT? Actually nothing really. FT is what happens when you wrote 1/4 of your manga and then ... fire all your co-writing staff, go to a nursery and replace good plot with whatever those toddlers vomit on a page and there you have what FT is. Granted for a battle shounen, you shouldn't expect much when it comes story and characters but this just happens to be worse than every battle shounen I've ever watched/read. How did it fall so fast into the shitter that it actually becomes a chore to read it every week? I remember back in the day when a new chapter would come out and I would genuinely feel excited but as time progressed and the quality of work just became worse and worse, you get the feeling of apathy because your hopes and expectations have been shattered time and time again. At least I can praise FT for one thing and that is its unpredictability because it surprises you every time in how much worse it can become with every chapter.

Normally in battle shounen you see the characters train to become better but not here...no, no, no here the give friendship speeches and cringy one liners about emotions and then gain all sorts of asspull power. Battles go something like this

4vs1...villain slaughters them
*cue the friendship speech*
1vs1...badly damaged FT member one-shots
*cue the viewers tears after watching a horrible fight*

If the whole "friendship" power-up always defeats the enemy despite how powerful they may be (even GODS), what's the point of even training to become stronger? They always put so much effort in fighting the enemy, seemingly intensifying the situation they're in, then use the overused, effortless power-up known as "friendship" that ALWAYS ends it. It's not even because they are stronger than their foe. Sometimes the foes power outclasses them completely yet the 'believing in myself' and 'my friends give me power' stick always wins...I'm surprised the series hasn't ended sooner.

The characters are horrible with almost no redeemable ones among them. Character development here somehow makes the character worse, I didn't think it was possible but Hiro did it. This manga features some of the worst characters I've ever come across and the character assassinations that happen to mildly interesting characters, just because of their contact with the main cast is truly shocking. It's like they are all absorbed into the bullshittery of emotion that is the Fairy Tail guild. They lose their individuality and just like a corporate environment, become slaves in a never ending rut just going with the flow of things. At the end it's like the same characters just all wearing different faces until they just become numbers.

The Main Characters

Natsu - Carbon copy/paste of the idiot shounen male lead that thinks with his fist but somehow he's worse because instead of training to become stronger, he just spouts crap about "my friends are my strength" and one shots the opponent even though the foe was winning 99% of the fight...fucking ridiculous.

Lucy - The fanservice character with forced insertion due to her magic type to make her seem more than a massive set of tits in clothes that are clearly way too small for her. If she's not randomly losing clothes, becoming naked or falling on Natsu's face, she would hardly feature. She's not a good character but as far as FT characters go, she's one of the better ones.

Gray - At least something Hiro done right. With his unique Ice Making magic, he can construct objects and combined with his keen intellect, he uses this and strategy to defeat his opponent in a non-bs way. Then kinda murdered the characters progression to make him blend in with the rest of the mind-numbing cast. Hiro does this with a few characters but why would that surprise you...

Erza - The worst character in the series and I'm not even going to go here. I could start an entire website dedicated to my hatred of this character and how appaling she is written..."because she's Erza" oh the cringe.

Happy - Natsu's flying cat that's there to make jokes and eat fish...that's it...no lie.

The manga art also takes a major change in the middle but personally I was fine with it as it made the characters look older than they were before due to a time passing by but still recognizable. Character outlines are also thinner. I think I was one of the few people to actually like the new art as I've only heard backlash on it but meh, you either like it or you don't. It's not like it subtracts or adds much to this terrible story.

The characters don't even look that much different especially the female characters. It's like Hiro just took the same body shape for every female except for Wendy that is treated as a loli for comedic scenes about her big breast envy and a bit of fan-service for those that want that...just horriible and lazy.

The story is a linear set of events that really serve no purpose other than introducing fodder villains for Fairy Tail to bulldoze and the final arc has to be one of the worst things in digital and printed history. Even the final chapter like seriously? You couldn't give the fans a better ending than that after suffering through that mess? I wouldn't print it on toilet paper. Over 500 chapters and 11 years of work, most of it is horrible but I guess the series had to remain true to itself and remain trash to the end...wouldn't want to mess with the Krabby Patty formula now do we?

Personally I've spent 4 years following this series and it was one of the worse things I've read and now I've have nothing more to say except goodbye and good riddance.

I Advice every and anyone. DO NOT BOTHER with this series. I gave three weeks of on and off reading for this series. I got through 200 chapters, I've earned the right to judge this series.

It was recommended to me through several friends whom could be quoted with:

1) "You like Onepiece right you'll love this manga than"
2) "This might be the best shonen of the past 5 years"
3) "Erza is the best female role I've ever seen"
4) "Possibly one of the greatest starting arcs"

All of what my friends said were wrong. Upon Grey's development arc I quickly found a hatred for the main characters. Within ... 40 chapters I already lost count to how many times Lucy is used for fan service, and nothing else (Besides getting stomped and cries). Her legit reason of being written into the story is to be fan service. Something that Hiro Mashima himself admits through several character's commenting on this.

Natsu is by far the worse male protagonist I've seen too date. His first victory in the series is bullying a grunt whom Lucy could even defeat. (Please note, Lucy is PATHETIC). His second victory is won via anime physics. Which leads to the formula he uses to secure every kill afterwards. The infamous 'Nakama-punch' This punch is his closed fist chock full of the love he holds for his friends. This punch ALWAYS comes directly after some deus ex power-up. His goal since childhood is to find the dragon he calls father.. a goal he has done nothing about for 10+ years of his life, and for more than 140 chapters into the series. He literally doenst even look... He waits to be told a lead... Not only is that lazy but thats a horrible son. The only thing i even liked about Natsu was how ignorant a weakness he has. Which I won't ruin. It got me to laugh a couple times.

Erza Overrated Scarlet. Is an amazingly missed opportunity for Hiro Mashima's first good female role. "We don't die for our friends, we live for them." That is Erza quote before her character arc... were not on just one attemp. But several she tries to sacrifice her own life for her friends..... Hiro Mashima has written a female role as ignorant and deus ex as Natsu. She's basically Natsu..but smarter....

I've only written about three characters and im already mad again so I"ll just leave on this. Hiro Mashima doesnt respect women at all. He has yet to write a woman as something more than chattle. Overall this series is a 4/10. It isnt worth the read or the three weeks time spent on it. The only characters I ended up caring for are Grey, Gajeel, and Laxus.. dat it

Fairy Tail started out as a very promising comic! It threw me through some very exciting arcs, tied me in a knot with it's plot twists, and even brought on small bouts of sadness. I have seen comparisons made to One Piece, and I would agree somewhat to those points. However, after a certain arc, the story starts to drip out of it's bucket.

Given the never ending, hopped up, exciting pace of the story, one would expect the plot to develop at a rapid pace. Hopefully keeping you on your toes every week, squirming uncontrollably for the 7 days in between each instalment. If you've ... read the FT Wikia, you would realize that this story has some very incredible plot development and some things are just dying to be revealed. The author has let us down.

I would not be surprised if the author has actually died, and they've covertly replaced him with some fraud. I'm dead serious, the story progression for this manga has burnt out like a log. Plot progresses at an un-moderated pace, whipping you around like a wet rag trying to find some bear skin. When it finally makes contact, it hurts... There are times for devastating plot change. One Piece did it well, hell even Naruto did it well, but Fairy Tail did it for the sole purpose of doing it. Seriously, there was absolutely no point in it. It happened, it sucked. Life is going to suck now, oh wait they fixed everything in the space of a single chapter. (Note: The story has been terrible for approx. 100 chapters.)

I can't go into much else without spoiling it, so I'll put it simply:
Avoid this manga. Yes, it is a good story. Yes, it starts out well. But if you wish to save yourself the pain of watching a manga die, please do not read it. All we can hope for is that the story will recover in the future, and move on from it's current pig pen.

Cheers~

At first glance, Fairy Tail (FT) seems like your average shounen manga with the classic hot-headed protagonist. I'm not against Shounen manga/anime and I've even enjoyed some like Bleach, Naruto, Hunter x Hunter etc. But thinking that Fairy Tail would be as good as any of those was a major mistake on my part.

To start off with it, I'd say there's nothing wrong with the idea of having a guild of mages but it's the way that the idea is carried forward that ruins everything. Initially, I found FT intriguing but shortly after I lost the interest. Guess why? It's because of the repeated storyline ... and arcs. It's always about how some random villain shows up and messes with Fairy Tail in one way or another and how the characters fight against the said villain and win not because of their own strength, but because of the power of friendship. When the same thing happens over and over the show is no longer interesting since it becomes somewhat predictable.

Hiro Mashima also fails to give the characters a proper character development. It feels as though deep down inside, everyone in the guild is the same person since they all act the same way. Different people think differently but he's generalised the characters' thought processes way too much. Of course, there are some characters with a unique personality like Gajeel and Laxus but he never used this to his advantage and let them blend in with the crowd. I think Gray was the only one who had a serious character development but the ending pretty much ruined that since he went back to being the same guy as before.

Another problem with FT is the fanservice. Where do I start with this one? Lucy, in particular, exists for the fanservice. You don't have many chapters that DON'T include Gray unintentionally losing his clothes, Lucy wearing something skimpy or random guildmates walking around barely dressed.

Then, there's the Bad-guy-turns-good trope that you have to look out for. Jellal, Gajeel, Laxus, Ultear, Lyon, Juvia, Meredy etc were all once villains but turned out as heroes instead. Look, there's nothing wrong with this trope but that is only when it's used sparingly. Mashima used it so much that I started expecting every villain, including Zeref, to rectify themselves and become best buddies with the heroes. Zeref is one of the most interesting characters in the story mostly because this trope doesn't apply to him. Personally speaking, he was one of the few characters I was actually rooting for.

The characters were not that great, as I already mentioned and the ships were worse. I was particularly against Gruvia and you can guess why. The romance between Gray and Juvia was poorly done since it remained one-sided for a really long time and even after that, it felt a little forced. It might have been acceptable if Juvia did something other than obsessing over Gray from time to time. Yes, she's a decent fighter and she had the potential for an interesting personality but her infatuation with Gray made her talk about nothing else and that was starting to get irritating. As for Gajeel and Levy, I wasn't a fan of it either. Levy's attitude changed too drastically after she met Gajeel and she ignored her two best friends Jet and Droy and went after Gajeel instead. This is definitely not Juvia level obsession so I wasn't too against it.

In other words, FT was predictable because the story arcs were all too similar and the characters were boring. It had the potential to actually turn out as a manga worth reading, but that didn't happen because of the way Mashima went on with the story.

It's not all bad, though. The art was decent and it got better as the series progressed. Despite all the faults in FT, the fight scenes were good even though the outcomes were usually predictable.

You should definitely consider reading FT if you like fanservice, the bad-guy-turns-good trope, one-dimensional characters, fights in which the heroes win because of the power of friendship and a story in which not a single protagonist dies regardless of the situation. If you don't like any of these, don't bother reading FT.

Fairy Tail is a flawed manga is many ways, and it's a bitter disappointment as it could have been so much better. It's a really generic series, with the typical FRIENDSHIP speeches and character resolve stuff, but that's really only looking at the surface as to why this manga is flawed


-------THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS--------------------------------------------
Story: The story for Fairy Tail is an odd one, the concept seems fairly original compared to most other shonen titles and I can actually respect that. The problem with Fairy Tail's story is the way it advances. Most of the arcs have little to nothing to do with the main plot ... for the most part(stuff about dragons and Zeref, and now even something about the "one magic", though all 3 are related) but give out little hints and clues in the middle or end of the actual arcs as to these things. It's like One Piece in a way, where the different islands that Luffy and co. visit have little to do with the actual storyline, but Oda will drop a few hints as to why the arc relates to the actual story. Its a bad way of telling a story and sometimes a lot of arcs just feel like filler at times(even though they're not).
Art: The art in Fairy Tail starts off kind of bad, but the art starting from around chapter 70-90 gets decent and gets progressively better. Currently, the art for Fairy Tail is nothing short of great(for a weekly series), and the character designs are probably the best that I've ever seen in a manga and the fanservice is nice as well.
The background art is also pretty good as well.
Character: The characters are really inconsistent in Fairy Tail. Some of them like Erza and Juvia are really great characters, but most of the cast just feels generic and characters like them can be found in just about any shonen manga. Not to mention the fact that many characters are one dimensional and receive very little development.

Pacing: While the overall stories pacing is slow, the fact is, Fairy Tail goes through its arcs incredibly fast compared to other mangas. Most major arcs take about a year to actually get through. But in all honesty, I would say this is more of a bad thing at times rather than a good thing, seeing as how villains lack characterization, arcs feel rushed, etc. It just feels as though villains in this manga end up not being a big deal in this manga.

Suspense: Now this is Fairy Tail's weakest point. There is absolutely no suspense in this manga because we all know at the end of the day, Fairy Tail is going to win because anyone who isn't in the actual guild is a scrub and for the rare few who can fight against them get a surprise friendship punch to the face.

Arcs almost ALWAYS follow this routine once you get to a certain point.

1. Fairy Tail members are stupid and/or get caught off-guard and get stomped by the enemy
2. Fairy Tail members start to compose themselves
3. Fairy Tail members build up a win or 2 while losing another battle or two in order to make it seem as there is suspense.
4. Fairy Tail members start to go on a roll and start winning pretty much every fight.
5. An unexpected incident occurs and it makes it seem as though Fairy Tail is in danger again(it's just superficial though, as the problem is quickly resolved in 1 or 2 chapters).
6. Lead up to boss fight, which almost always ends up with Natsu punching the main villain in the face with the power of friendship.
Of course, this isn't the only reason why there is no suspense. Another reason is because almost nobody dies(I think 2 people did but they weren't really important). No seriously, how many times has Makarov nearly died only for him to completely fine a few chapters later?
He had a heart attack in that Laxus arc and he came out just fine. The Tenrou Island arc had Charle predict his death and yet Makarov was in no danger despite having a hole blown in his chest. Hell, there was even a chapter where the guy decided to "sacrifice" himself in order to save his guild, but he ended up living anyways. Not many things of real consequence seem to happen in this manga.

Now I'm saying saying that the manga isn't enjoyable to read, but there are a lot of evident flaws in this manga. It could stand to change it's formula up every once in a while and actually make Fairy Tail really fail against an opponent.

Do you want to read a manga filled with adventure? With likable characters whose antics make you laugh? With constantly building stakes in a well-established world, and moments that bring tears to your eyes? Want a "little" fanservice to go with it? In that case, may I direct you to One Piece, written by Eiichiro Oda.

In all seriousness, a lot of elements in Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail can be found in One Piece, and a lot of it is done much better in the world of pirates. However, I won't deny that there are reasons to like Fairy Tail.

For one, the first few arcs are ... pretty good. They all have relatively low stakes as Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and the others all go on missions together, usually resulting in hijinks, Lucy in a revealing outfit, and Natsu finishing off the antagonist with a speech about how much Fairy Tail means to him and the others. It all culminates in an arc called the "Battle of Fairy Tail," which was built up pretty well and ends with a pretty emotional moment. That is where the series peaked, and I wish it had either wrapped up there or ended soon after. Also, the very last chapter was pretty nice, and I honestly felt a little tug at the heartstrings at the last panel, something that didn't happen to me for other long series that I ultimately enjoyed more.

The art is also pretty good. This is clearly not Hiro Mashima's first manga, and that is reflected in the consistency from the first chapter to the last. As much as I like seeing how the art in a series evolves, which is very obvious in series like One Piece, Bleach, and even the legendary Berserk, I won't discredit Fairy Tail for having good designs and style and sticking with them to the end. (I know that they all got better just because of the improvement of the artists' skills over the passage of time, but still, there's a clear difference between how Guts looks in volume 1 of Berserk and how he looks in volume 41.)

Finally, I don't hate any of the main characters. Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Gray, Erza, Makarov, and those not present from the very beginning, they're all fine. I find that a lot of negative reviews tend to hate on every single character except maybe one, but I never got to the point of hating any of them. I just got tired after a while.

That tired sense comes from a lot of repetition and the latter half--actually, latter two thirds--mostly being a mess. First of all, the Edolas arc sucks. It was the first point where I realized just how rushed a lot of the arcs could be, since this concept of an alternate world gets introduced and finished in the span of three volumes, including meeting all the alternate versions of the characters, discovering secrets about some of them, and stopping a world-ending catastrophe. And after that world-ending catastrophe, the stakes never seem to go back down. Except for a single-volume adventure that helps set up the longer arc following it, just about every conflict afterwards feels the need to be about the end of the world. I'll admit, I read the series in broken chunks during school breaks, so there might be an arc that I'm misremembering. But the last three big arcs were all about how Fairy Tail's members had to stop an evil wizard or group from destroying Fiore. The earlier arcs all had stakes too, but they were all more personal, such as a conflict with Lucy's family early on. And while there are similar ties throughout, none of them worked as well as those earlier stakes.

I mentioned earlier that the main characters were fine. However, while I like plenty of the side characters and some of the villains, there are plenty of them who get on my nerves. The final big bad was annoying, none of the villains felt as much of a threat as they did in the beginning, and several Fairy Tail members and members of other guilds were pretty one-note and their gimmicks got old fast. Some of them I came around to, such as a cat named Fro, but there were plenty who were the opposite. The biggest stinker in this regard is Mystogan, a masked figure who is one of Fairy Tail's strongest members. I'm a big fan of the strong silent types, especially when they remain shrouded in mystery for most of the story. Sadly, Mystogan was not shrouded in mystery for long, and that is all I'll say in case you still want to read it. And there were plenty of others who had plot twists that ranged from head-scratching to book-throwing. (IMPORTANT NOTE: I did not throw any books.)

Finally, a somewhat big complaint of mine that came later on is that a lot of elements feel derivative of the Big Three, especially One Piece. I should note: I am not hating just because it seems like Mashima was inspired by them, or because the events show up as a coincidence. I firmly believe that an artist has every right to draw from or reference a work of art that they love. And it's not that specific plot points were copied-and-pasted from one of them, it's just the general vibe of the story reminded me a lot of them. Maybe that's just because they're all shounen series from roughly the same era, but I could never get it out of my head. I won't name specific things, since this is a spoiler-free review, but many character abilities and moments made me stop and think, "Hey, didn't I read this somewhere else?" I name One Piece in particular because it feels like Mashima is trying to take elements from earlier in the story and rework them in at later points, much like a lot of past elements in One Piece come back in a different manner. However, whether by a plan or a last-minute decision, it rarely works in Fairy Tail, whereas it rarely fails in One Piece. That, and there is a lot of fanservice in both series.

I didn't want to make this review a long rant, but one thing I do want to rant about is the levels of fanservice in Fairy Tail, because there was so much of it that I sometimes felt like dropping the series for that sole reason. While plenty of anime have moments where female characters will lose clothing or be put in suggestive positions, Fairy Tail takes it up to eleven. So many times, Lucy will be shown in the shower or bath, or get attacked by an enemy who ends up removing her clothes, and almost always her... uh... assets will be drawn front and center. One panel that sticks out in my mind (not for those reasons) is when the group is at an open-air bath, and with the exception of a few leaves on the water, you can see everything. And this also applies to just about any female character who has some relevance during the current arc. Even Wendy, who is basically a loli, gets depicted in a moment with... uh... curves. (Again, looking at you Edolas arc). I know a lot of people complain about the way Oda draws women, but honestly, the fanservice in One Piece feels a lot less egregious. Sure, Nami and Robin have literal hourglass figures, and there are plenty of moments where they're in the bath or a swimsuit, but they're rarely the foremost thing on the page. Meanwhile, Fairy Tail forces it so much, I'm surprised there are no panels where Lucy or Erza is pressing their butts against the frame like they're mooning someone out a window.

All things considered, I do not recommend reading Fairy Tail. So much fanservice, and the plot gets bad beyond a certain point. If you want to read a super long shounen series, then as I said in the beginning and alluded to in basically every paragraph, read One Piece. If the thousand-plus chapters and the fact that it's still going intimidate you, read Bleach or Naruto. If those are still too long, then look elsewhere. Sorry, I just haven't read anything beyond the 500-chapter point besides these four. But if you're insistent on experiencing Fairy Tail, then I recommend you watch it. I was listening to some of the music while writing this, and it's an absolute banger of a soundtrack.

As Fairy Tail ends, I would like to give thanks to Fairy Tail, my first anime and manga that led made me start to watch anime and read manga. I would like to thank Mashima for this work. Now onto the review.

When Fairy Tail started, it wielded the sense of wonder and mystery in a land of magic and mages. The world was quickly established, the first page of the first chapter immediately introduces the Magic Council then weaves into Natsu in Hargeon Town into meeting Lucy while it establishes the world in the background. Mages, guilds, magic council, finding draconic fathers and it quickly ... establishes the protagonists Natsu and Lucy, which are interesting characters. When Lucy joins the guild, we are introduced to a plethora of characters. We are also introduced to Gray and Erza which are gonna be part of the main crew. In the early arcs of Fairy Tail, Mashima showcases his talent in worldbuilding and character development.

Although, it follows the monster of the week formula for the first few arcs things change as we get to the Phantom Lord arc, one of the best arcs in the series. In my opinion, the series had its best arc in the Tower of Heaven. In this arc which focuses on Erza and her tragic past, I can already see the overarching story of Fairy Tail. We get some references to Zeref back in the early arcs like Lullaby and Galuna but the Tower of Heaven seemingly establishes itself as the arc that will start the main story. The Tower of Heaven is my favorite arc of the whole series because of the great characterization and development of Erza and the seemingly Aizen tier plan of Jellal. One thing I really appreciate in this arc is the symbolism of Erza's armor as the symbol of her hiding her insecurities and protecting herself from other people but when she fought Jellal she does not don her armor that symbolizes that she is not afraid and hide anymore of her past and her insecurities.

After the Tower of Heaven, things began to change. The Laxus and gang arc was pretty decent, it lets other characters to shine. My first major complaint of the whole series was the revelation of Mystogan's identity because it just doesn't make sense since it kind of lessens the impact of the last arc. Move on to Oracion Seis arc, where the cracks began to show. We are introduced to a few new characters, some more interesting than the others. Oracion Seis was kind of a decent arc but nothing really stands out. Jellal's "revival" is really redundant. Edolas arc's premise is ridiculous, the plot seems out of place in the context of the story, but it was a decent arc. At this point of the story, Fairy Tail stagnated, it did not live to the heights of the early arcs and it's turning into a formulaic shonen. Enter Tenrou arc, the S-Class trials, the entrance of Zeref into the story, Tenrou invigorated my interest in the series. The actual arc is still formulaic but it's a significant improvement of Oracion Seis and Edolas.

Fairy Tail had a timeskip, in accordance to the Shonen Scriptures. When 7 years have passed a lot changed, and Fairy Tail once again captures the sense of wonder and mystery that prevailed the early arcs. We got a tournament arc for a change and behind the curtain, a conspiracy unveiling. Things are getting interesting. But in the end, it was a huge letdown. The arc had a great hook but it didn't have a climax that deserve its buildup. The power levels doesn't even make sense anymore at that point. Tartarus arc is decent enough but it's not really enough. This is fault of bad characterization. Especially Natsu's character despite being the lead has stagnated throughout the series. Natsu is just not interesting enough to be a protagonist. He doesn't have depth and virtually no development. Natsu spouting words of friendship and flaming punches gets really old and it does not change even in the final arc.

Speaking of the final arc, it's where everything goes wrong. Alvarez Empire came out of nowhere and we got 12 characters that can easily defeat Saint-level characters. The whole arc is just a mess. The arc is supposed to be a war arc but it does not feel like one because there are no long term consequences. Deaths are reduced to cheap plot device and not used in a meaningful way and what's worse is that they are faked. Deaths in the arc doesn't hold any semblance of emotion. The power levels have been more wacked in this arc. The introduction of plot points that are unnecessary and boring, including "Why has His Majesty' son not loved?", Irene and Erza, Lacarde's existence, Anna and Neo Eclipse. The Spriggans are unmemorable considering they are the strongest mages in the series, some where just easily defeated. Chapter 536 was just a big slap in the face as Natsu defeats a guy who possess infinite magic and can instantly kill you in one simple fire punch and the hype completely collapse around Acnologia as he was conveniently defeated by something that is doesn't even exist in the series 10 chapters before.

Fairy Tail had a great start and great potential for worldbuilding. It just began to lose its sense of direction and stagnated. As the series continues, Mashima is just lost on what to do with the story and the characters. Battles are not suspenseful because there are no consequences. Some characters are over utilized, underutilized, or mishandled completely. Mashima should take time in exploring the world he created and develop his characters. In the end, Fairy Tail failed to build upon its solid foundation and was the cause of its downfall of quality.

When you first get into Fairy Tail, you obviously expect that Hiro Mashima will expand that intriguing world he has created, make interesting characters, mix up some nice comedy and battles and you will have a pretty well-done One Piece copy. Not quite there.

One manga that had immense potential is nowadays one of the worst manga to follow, and I don't know why I am still doing it.

Well, let's start. Mashima shows us what appears to be the story of Natsu, a mage that controls fire that wants to be reunited with his father Dragneel, a dragon. The big problem is that this objective is ... never moving the plot. The protagonist's dream is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT! Different from OP or Naruto, where the main character's objectives actually matter and make the plot move forward, this does not happen here. Not only that, but Mashima also makes tons of useless chapters just to make us feel touched, and that end up not affecting anything at all. Anything about the plot of Fairy Tail is bellow pathetic.

His art is quite decent, but not anything that stands out, and is quite generic

Mashima's characters are incredibly shallow, with the only one with some kind of development being Erza. All the rest has nothing. Natsu has become my most hated main character of all time. He's annoying, ridiculous and just bad. Lucy exists for the sole purpose of being the fanservice girl, and Gray the fanservice boy. Wendy is the loli that Mashima threw in the story for no reason. Bad antagonists with lack of reason make this even worse.

Last but not least. Despite all these obvious flaws, FT used to be enjoyable. However, as the time passed, jokes stopped being funny, the main cast's fights became "hey, I win because I'm the character, despite the fact that you're 10000000000x times stronger than I am" all the time, and it stopped being enjoyable at all.

Fairy Tail is not a manga worth reading at all. If you are thinking about reading it, stop at this moment and go read One Piece or whatever, because you should avoid this manga

How can I describe Fairy Tail ?
To me, this manga is like a moutain : with ups and downs.

I began to read FT just after I finished Rave, so it was a long time ago. At the beginning, the story seemed good : Natsu was stupid like a lot of shonen heroes, but not too annoying ; Lucy was cute but not totally helpless (and she was a beginner). The plot promised a quest and mysteries but, a few years after, I can't help but think that I wasted my time reading this story.

First of all : there is NO PLOT ! The author ... himself says in his manga that he improvises since volume 8/10. How can there be a plot, let alone a good one ?
I know that in a lot of shonens, plots are really random but look at Naruto : Kishimoto improvises a lot of things, but we know where the story is going. In FT, there is no such thing.

Secondly : the characters. Natsu IS more and more annoying with each passing chapter (and believe me, it cost me a lot to write that, since I really like him). He wins almost ALL his battles without any kind of logic (except the first ones).
And Lucy... Lucy, after a few chapter, became an "helpless princess who wait for her prince in shining armor (aka Natsu)" and "miss fanservice". Why did she have to be a weak girl? She was a good character at the beginning.
And I do not speak of Erza, Gray, Luxus.... They were interesting at the beginning too but now...

Anyway, this manga disappoint me and I object strongly to those who said that FT is "like One Piece". You can't compare One Piece, which had a plot and good characters, to this disappointment.

Today I will do a review on Fairy Tail and neglect my studies as I usually am, so I hope you enjoy a shitty, yet possibly good review.
This review contains slight spoilers, but it shouldn't affect the series.
This is going to be a pro and con type of review, but not much detail so be prepared since it should be a good enough reason NOT to read it.
Pros of this manga:
The art in the beginning somewhat copies One Piece's special artwork, but then gradually leans torwards it's own unique art which is actually good, since all mangaka should be like that.

The characters I will say, ... are actually not that bad.
When you have a bunch of great characters bundled together, you'd naturally think it'd be good. We have the good ol' protagonist that will go to hell and back to protect his allies (which we've always seen a lot) Erza a woman that is strong and shows no weakness, Lucy the normal fan service girl showing tits every chapter (or later on), etc.

Cons:

While it has good characters, they don't change. They just stay. Nothing else.
Character development? Nope.

The main character is always OP as hell and NEVER loses a single battle. The good 'ol cliche of YOU-GAY-HOE (Yu-Gi-Oh). And when he does (finally) even in a condition he shouldn't be able to win, he does. With no other powers, just using the same ones he used earlier, but doing even less still managing to win.
The 'power' of friendship is heavily implied here so bronies might actually like this manga.
The plot: The plot? You kidding? There is none.
The average error of shounen manga is that every arc is generally the same with no goal in mind. Fairy Tail is this: >bad guy shows up>wins. And repeat it all. And if he does lose, he wins anyways in an even weaker state. -_-
He also always 'suddenly' managed to get power ups, even on his own.
The arcs: this is aimed torwards toe ENDING of them. Every single enemy becomes a friend. Every.single.one. They even managed to turn Gajeel (one of the most badass characters possible) into a person that acts like a baby around almost anything now.


This definitely was a shitty review, but it should be good enough not to read it and waste your time reading it, when you could've worked on your educaiton, or just read a better manga instead.

There doesn't exist a low enough number to express my feelings toward this show. Maybe using Euler's I would be able to formulate just how horrible this series is. It defies reason and sense for a series so mediocre to simultaneously be so bad. I read Rave Master and liked it. I liked this series. Then I realized, there is absolutely no worth in reading this. It actively destroys your rubric of good and bad. Either everything will be good from now on or everything will be dyed in disappointment.
What is so wrong with this series? Simple. It makes you hope, expect better things from ... the author and the art. It has potential to be good and is good at hyping up every reader, but it never delivers. No logic, no reason, no consistency , no well-written characters, no attempts to take any risks at all. Not a single moment lands. Not a single hint of originality. Predictable would put it lightly. By the first chapter you realize what the series will be. It doesn't matter how strong the villains seem, the height of suspense, or the seemingly interesting concepts and mythology. It will all be resolved in the stupidest, most anti-climactic way possible. This series was designed to disappoint without fail. Pure bait. Don't get your hopes up because the moment you do, your spirit will be crushed. It's worse than the time you were trapped inside a car without air conditioning in the desert and thought you were about to get help before you realized that it was just a mirage. It's the crushing heartbreak of realizing that the girl you like confessing to you was just a prank. It's thinking you're reading something good, when you're not. It's the worst kind of mediocre. That's all I can describe this manga is. Save your time, avoid this series. Don't make the same mistakes as I have.

*minor spoilers ahead
Fairy Tail is truly the embodiment of all shounen clichés mixed into one. It's a hodgepodge mess of incoherent shounen nonsense that makes you truly believe what you read was a "Fairy tale." I've watched/read Bleach, Naruto, One piece, etc, but none come even close to Fairy Tail's extreme use of cliches.

Something that you tend to notice in a lot of shounen manga/action is that "the power of friends" is able to trump all. An extremely overused cliche, but not necessarily a bad one. I can say that One Piece does a great job of having a decent balancing act using this ... trope. That being said, a lot of shounens (including One Piece) just use it in order have the good guys win. Pretty lame if you ask me, but Fairy Tail truly makes the most use of this trope. If you ask me how many fights were won using the "power of friendship" in the later arcs of Fairy Tail, I'd say it would be around 9/10 or more. It's pretty ridiculous how little your initial power level really is, since you're going to be empowered by some sort of stupid plot device that makes you stronger, or none at all, and the "power of friendship" makes you soar to unbelievable heights of power. As a result, we see "the strongest" of the villains get destroyed by the weakest dragon slayers. Very convenient. You're going to see a lot of villains that are extremely powerful that just lose to seemingly useless characters that end up winning anyway. It makes any fight not suspenseful since you know that some sort of reversal will happen. This also applies to any war or large scale battle. A bunch of overpowered antagonists and villains, and even countries fight the few guilds in Magnolia and somehow, the few guilds in Magnolia win. How? "The power of friendship." Even the concluding fights with a lot of buildup end up just being "Natsu has feelings of friendship" and destroys the strongest villians with invincible armor, unlimited mana, the ultimate magic. Really? The biggest BS I've ever seen is how Natsu and other random characters that aren't too strong defeat very strong villains with little to no backlash, but the "strongest" fairy tail members, like Gildarts and the First, the second whom literally has unlimited mana contribute basically nothing to the plot. it's very funny to see 50 chapters ago, where Gildarts compeltely overwhelms Natsu, and then Natsu 50 chapters later, just beats an opponent Gildarts could have never imagined to beat. In fact, he is heavily challenged by even just defeating some of Zeref's lackeys. The first? From beginning to end, does absolutely nothing which is hilarious, since she should be the strongest (or one of the top at least) mage on the planet, but what do I know?

Another huge problem with Fairy Tail is how convenient everything is for Fairy Tail guildmates. The evil guys are very compliant with them. For how powerful these guys are, they could have held hostages, killed the weak ones, you know, do anything? Instead, they do one versus ones only, and usually are actually at a numbers disadvantage despite the fact that if they grouped together, they would have more numbers. They love separating for no apparent reason. In the end, there are usually a bunch of super evil guys that Fairy Tail miraculously divides and conquers. There is no semblance of strategy or reasoning. Rather than say it's an all out war between countries, it's like people are lining up to fight each other, except the evil guys always willingly fight at a disadvantage. Of course, every other villain is also "good, but went down the wrong path," so they reform, or willingly get defeated. Amazing.

Plus, you might think that the power to become strong comes at a price. You are a little bit right on that one. Sometimes, a person becomes really strong in a fight because they use a forbidden technique that raises their status, but makes them crippled forever or even death, but more often than not, this backlash just negated in some way shape or form. Of course, some people actually become crippled, but it's honestly not much to talk about. Or, let's say someone actually dies or becomes crippled, don't worry some stupid plot device will resuscitate them or revive them in some manner. The power of friendship trumps all!

Characters...You know what, I think that individual story arcs and characters can bring some trope and cliche infested shounen manga to decent levels. natsuno no taizai was one of them. Too bad that unlike natsuno no taizai, Fairy Tail has little to offer in the character department. While there are quite a variety of different characters, there is not much characterization, most have flat personalities. The story arcs that characterize them (and frankly, there ARE a lot) are not very interesting at all. Usually, they involve some stupid sob story with a tragic past. The only interesting characters are like, maybe Erza and Gray??? It's crazy how little I care about a lot of characters due to their lack of anything to be invested into. There sure are a lot of tragic backstories and a lot of different characters, and some of their personalities mgiht not even be very cliche, but ultimately, they're assigned to pet lines because there are too many characters to pass around. Lucy could have been a great character, but her personality and usefulness, as the story goes on, becomes a mere ornament to Natsu. She has no real combat prowess, and her only relevance is Natsu's emotional baggage towards her. Is Lucy as useless as Sakura. Absolutely not, she actually does some good things, but they're not in the fighting sense, but in the form of utility and other things, but just the fact that Lucy doesn't even really use celestial magic to fight at all makes me wonder why she's one of the main characters. She really is, just the damsel in distress that Natsu saves. She ends up not having much of a personality, just attaching to Natsu, and also providing of course, obligatory fan service. Fairy Tail's fanservice is quite excessive to be honest, as well.

The ending is as shounen as it gets. Natsu and his gang beat all the bad guys. Evil guy reforms and repents his mistakes, lives happy life later on.
Overall, a lackluster and terribly made manga with nothing to really sing praises for. The excessive use of "friendship beats all," lack of any sort of progression in power where weak become strong and strong become weak for apparently no reason. Villains that put themselves in terrible positions even though they have more numbers. Terribly crafted characters, especially Lucy. Cliche ridden story with plot devices to make people OP or weak. 99% of villains "reform" or have a "tragic back story" that I don't care at all for.

It pisses me off how how the minimum rating I can give is a 1. This series doesn't even deserve a 1 because it isn't good at anything. This is the only series I've seen that truly fails at every single thing it tries to do. The story started off with Natsu trying to achieve his goal of finding Igneel, not too bad right? But throughout the series, he literally does nothing to achieve his goal. I mean even the first 100 chapters of this manga, Natsu didn't do a damn thing to try and achieve his goal. That's just fucking ridiculous. That's bad writing... ... It's as if the mangaka just completely forgot about the point of the story. That's not even the worst part about it though. The entire plot is just complete and utter shit. Some of the arcs are just random dark guilds attacking the Fairy Tail guild, that's how simple it is. The phantom lord arc and the tenrou island arc is literally just a random group of dark guilds attacking fairy tail for whatever reason, and then the fairy tail guild uses their nakama powerups to beat them. That's just a horrible way to get the main characters into conflict, and also a horrible way to introduce a villain. And almost every arc I've seen in this manga is just bad... The only decent one is the tower of heaven arc. The worst arc in this series is definetely the grand magic games arc. I've never seen more asspulls and deus ex machina, and retcons. Erza getting friendship powerup to defeat minerva, laxus beating Jura so easily and quickkly, even though it was stated that he's one of the strongest mages. Plus it doesn't make sense for Laxus to be beating Jura when he hasn't even trained 1 bit, and he got beaten by Natsu. This also proves this shitty series also has terrible powerscaling. Someone that gets beaten by Natsu early in the series can become a lot stronger without even fucking training. One of the worst asspulls in this series is when Erza was fighting Akuma. That was one of the worst fights in the series. It literally made no sense whatsoever. The characters are really fucking bad. By the time I finished this series I realized for a second that there isn't even ONE interesting character. Some of the characters used to be good, but they completely got fucking ruined. -Natsu: Extremely generic protagonist. A complete fucking luffy copy. If you haven't seen Fairy Tail yet, just think of all the cliches a shounen protagonist can have, and there you go, that's what Natsu is. He gets absolutely no character development throughout this series. He was close to getting character development when he fought Gildarts, but his development literally just reset since he hasn't learned his lesson. Even after he fought Gildarts, he still wasn't capable of reflecting on his actions. He has no introspection. If an author of a manga isn't capable of making a character display ethical or psychological development, that is an absolute problem for your story. He has no internal characterization, none whatsoever. He has no fucking internal dialogue (which is actually pretty fucking ridiculous), none. He fits none of the criteria that make him a good character. His whole character is based on Nakama bullshit, which is extremely cliche... Natsu is an extremely flawed character, and I'll give more reasons to that. Another problem with Natsus character is that he only gets involved in conflicts because the "bad guys" hurt his Nakama. I know One Piece also has this problem, and it really pisses me off. Natsu only gets involved in conflicts concerning his nakama. This isn't a good way to get the protagonist involved in conflict. The reason it isn't good is because it's the cause of all the friendship bullshit. I don't think it happened in evey arc, but I know for sure it was most of them. Gray: Used to be a cool character until his character also was based around nakama bullshit. Now he's no different from the rest of the horrible characters that constantly talk about nakama. Lucy: This character is pointless, only in there for the fanservice. Most of her fights end up in asspulls just to progress the plot. I actually think she's the best (least worst) of the main cast. Doesn't make her a good character though. Erza: By far the worst character in the entire manga. All of her fights end up in asspulls, every single one of them. She used to be a badass early on, but become a damsel in distress. It's just fucking disappointing. Even the character designs are fucking lame. All the girls look the exact same, just massive boobs, and the same damn face. Most of the characters that do get developed, it really doesn't matter since they became the same sissys in the end. Their development didn't even matter at that point. Another thing that Fairy Tail does bad is the characterization. Most of the characters have poor characterization, and have little to none development. I'm going to give one example here. Elfman and Mirajane act the way they do because their younger sister Lisanna died (before the series started). But their characterization was completely fucking pointless after they find out that Lisanna is still alive in another dimension. There was literally no point to their characterization if Hiro Fagshima just brought them back. And the funny thing is, Lisanna literally had no purpose after she came back. She literally didn't do shit, she was useless, she had no purpose in the story. Basically, Hiro Mashima ruined two characters for no reason at all. And another thing that pisses me off is how characters just get brought back to life constantly, and once they do get brought back they don't get any character development whatsoever. The author of this manga fails to realize that killing characters might actually make series a bit better. Killing off characters can lead to character development, but the author fails to realize this. So pretty much none of the characters in Fairy Tail are well written, or at least decent, including the villains. There isn't a single villain in this series that's considered well written. Most of them are villains for the sake of being evil. Most of them are extremely generic. The thing that angers me about this manga is how fucking generic it is. The main character has fire powers, that's the most generic it can fucking get! It's an extremely basic battle shounen, and it has every cliche you can even think of. The lack of creativity in this manga just proves the author didn't put much work into it. I've seen other battle shounen that are quite generic, such as Yu Yu Hakusho or Boku No Hero Academia. The difference between them and Fairy Tail, is that they actually are good at what they do. Fairy Tail isn't good at anything it does. The worst part about Fairy Tail is the asspulls that happen every damn fight. Here is how it goes. Main character gets beaten up badly by the bad guy, Main character makes a speech about friendship, Main character beats villain with a random power never before seen (which is considered an asspull) That's the recipe used in every fairy tail fight. Not even a single fight is won because they train, it's all friendship powerup bullshit. Even worse, the main characters never fucking lose! fights against villains! There is no sense of danger in this manga, since none of the main characters will EVER die. At no point while reading this do I feel like the main characters will die. That's just BAD writing.. The main characters can defeat every single person they fucking want to, even if it's a god. All they have to do is yell out a friendship speech and yup, they fucking won. There isn't any suspense in this manga, when the fights are the exact same every fucking time. That's how fucking bad the power scaling is. We know damn well that some of the people Natsu has beaten are far stronger than him, but since his Nakama are involved he can completely destroy them. Another thing that this manga does bad is it's combat system. Every person has a random power (magic). The reason why this sucks is because it's so generic. Who would want to read a series where the characters have the most generic powers? It just shows how little effort the author has put into making this horrendous manga. I'm almost done with this review, but I just have to add this in. Fairy Tail doesn't have an interesting/unique world. We barely know about the setting at all. The world building is complete and utter shit. Now I'm just going to summarize some of my points. Fairy Tail has no well written characters, none whatsoever. Fairy Tail is extremely unoriginal, literally nothing about it is creative. Fairy Tail has horrible fights that aren't suspenseful whatsoever. This manga has more asspulls than anything you'll ever read/watch

Overall rating: 0/10
Absolute filth that should've never been created.

Seriously i don't hate it in fact i really, really like his other manga Rave Master... But why he make a very dreadful series like this...

One manga despite it's flaw and cliche is one of the best shonen manga out there with Yu Yu Hakusho and One Piece and the other is... well the worst shonen manga out there that only famous because of fanservices...

Well, let's start the review then.

Fairy Tail biggest flaw first is Natsu Dragnel himself. So apparently his first objective is to meet his father-dragon, but why the F*CK he didn't do anything! I mean Haru did a well job to find ... all Rave and why the hell this guy didn't do anything remotely to find his father and just doing silly job in his Guild! I know, I know that with a manga like One Piece you can't make something like this easily, but hey! Magico is doing that and it's pretty well good. So it's not a silly reason to not do that, right?

For art well it's really good. It's like a better version of Rave although i noticed that his background become really lazy sometimes, but hey! compare to Kubo's background it's nothing.

For character it's easily one of the worst with the most decent one is Acnologia and Makarov. All rest are nothing. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Happy and Erza can't handle a candle with Haru and co. The antagonists also can't make a badass moment like Doryu or King. Main characters aside, but come on! Rave main selling is it's villain and i don't understand. Mashima-sensei can make a good villain in Rave why the hell he can't make one now.

Last, but not least... It's Power of Friendship/Love that Mashima took from Rave's most badass battle Haru vs Shiba. He really ruined it into crap.

So to put it simple, Fairy Tail is not that good and i don't understand why Hiro Mashima the creator of Rave can make this crap.

This review contains no spoilers and is targeted to people wanting to read the last arc of fairy tail, which is after the Tartaros arc and thus ends the series.

I have to say that I am extremely disappointed with the last arc and I think you will be too. I liked fairy tail from the start, I knew it wasn't a great anime but it was enjoyable with good comedy, funny characters and the story was kinda interesting (although it didn't focus so much at it from the start) with bad fights (power of friendship). The part that I liked most about fairy tail ... was the change of path that the villains took, after realizing that hey have been walking on the wrong path and the life lessons that we learnt throughout the series.

After the awesomeness that the Tartaros arc was, I had extremely high hopes for the last arc, and at the start I thought that it would really be epic but the real problems start about halfway of the arc.

Story: The story was getting pretty interesting because everything started getting connected from previous arcs to this one and I was pretty impressed by Mashima, because he had thought some things pretty cleverly, but the problem is how he tried to put all those things into action which resulted into a huge mess. Major plot holes and plot armor in some cases, just for Mashima's convenience, and things kept happening without any logical explanation and completely out of the character's reach which I will explain in the fight section. Also, there were a lot of cliffhangers and bullshit moments with a lot of hype that lead to nowhere, just so people would buy the next volume, just to be utterly disappointed.

Characters: The characters play a big part in how the story of this arc was made a complete mess, and some of them were really interesting but the had such a poor and bad development. Many fake deaths just to create hype around every scene that would lead to eventually a big nothing, yes nothing I am not kidding you, either nothing happens or something that was nowhere even close to the hype that was originally build up.

Fights: I just have to include it, because it's a big reason why this arc failed. Half of the fights don't even make sense, because the power gap between the characters is just too big and the way the end is so tilting and unsatisfying. Furthermore, I would like to add that Mashima is a big fan of the one punch man and it is clearly shown by the way some major fights end, which makes you think that Mashima from some point of the arc stopped caring about the series as a whole and did whatever he could in order to not exhaust himself.

Art: The art hasn't changed and remain good.

Enjoyment: If I could describe my experience with one word, it would be disappointment, because an enjoyable series went so downhill in such a short amount of time. I would advice against reading the manga or even watching the anime that is announced to come in 2018, but if you want to see the anime or read the manga, just prepare to be disappointed,but that;s for yourself to decide.

After reading the last chapter released I finally came to the conclusion: This manga is total garbage in so many ways that I can't define only in words. It's amazing how this piece of shit makes me angrier than I've been in years. The characters, the story, the enjoyment, EVERYTHING!!
I GOT TIME OF MY LIFE AND I DO NOT SERIOUSLY CAN'T TAKE MORE! THIS MANGA IS TOO MUCH TO ME AND I ONLY WANT IT TO FINISH SOON AND THAT THE CREATOR OF THIS PUT THEIR MONEY IN THE ASS AND NEVER MAKE A WORK BECAUSE IF HE DOES AND IS LIKE THIS FUCKING ... GARBAGE I SWEAR I KILL MYSELF, BECAUSE CANCER THIS SHIT ALREADY GAVE ME!

Well, how can I start with this review...

Sorry, but this review will have some minor spoilers, you won't even notice then.

Well, Fairy Tail is basically a manga of the genre shounen and ecchi. And that's basically what he has. It has two big plots and some "cool fight scenes".

Story:
  Probably there is no story that can be more predictable than Fairy Tail. If you think for a minute, even if you are only in the opening chapters, you can already understand how the story unfolds. The story is basically focused on a wizard guild called "Fairy Tail", and we ... can say that by certain arcs of history, the guild as a whole is really the main character, having a certain variety of characters, with different personalities, but in the reality you're mistaken, everyone there is the same. As I said, a guild of "wizards," it means that history will pass in a world where there is some kind of magic system, with rules and things like that to make the world something that can be at least tangible, realistic. But in that case, the main tool of magic has no kind of rule, no kind of empediment, things literally happen because they have to happen. As an example: We have a fight between two characters, one of them has the level of power 10, the other has the level of power 4, however is weakened from other battles, so his level is around 2, but he has a lot more willpower than the level 10 character. He wins. Like a manga about adventure, action, shounen, it does not create a minimal reality nor a logical system that works. A little fight between two characters may not seem very important, but then let's go for a more gigantic example, how about the state of a country? A country that lost a gigantic number of soldiers in a total onslaught, lost its most important and powerful mages, and lost its emperor. This country has lost all its structure, and what happened to it? NOBODY CARES. We just have to forget about it and remember that all the main characters were happy in the end. Seriously, even the villain (who from villain had nothing, he had been cursed to kill those he loved who were around him) who theoretically would have died appears at the end, without any explanation. It really should be all the power of friendship.

1/10

Art:
Nothing to complain about the art of this manga, it manages to keep up with the gigantic number of chapters that exist (by the way, how do these long series mangakas keep up? Seriously, it's very difficult). My only irritation is the ecchi style she has, but I can accept this because there is a lot of ecchi in the Japanese market, and a success with this is not so improbable.

6/10

Character:
There are a wide variety of characters in Fairy Tail, but most have the same base - I like my family, my friends, my guild, but I'm mean to the others, until I get punched with a fire and start to be equal to the Fairy Tail guild. No character has a personality other than this, only a five-minute fight can change the whole character from being a villain and almost killing his relatives and out of nowhere save them and die. But neither must have died, nobody dies in that shit, they all come back.

1/10

Enjoyment:
  I think it gave you to understand that it was not very good, it is not. I laughed at every chapter that went from the mediocrity that this manga is, and I forced myself to go to the end just to see if I was wrong, but sadly, i was not.

2/10

Overall:

2/10

And I think that's it.

Why i even read this till the end... i should have stopped.

Spoilers in the review

This manga jumped the shark hard after the time skip arc. This manga started off decently. While it had One Piece vibes all over it, it was still a fun and entertaining adventure manga, filled with our band of heroes going on an adventure every arc. Each arc gave each character their backstory and interesting villains featuring opposing guilds with unique abilities, while also contributing to the overall plot.

However, things changed once the heroes defeated one of the strongest dark guilds and the author felt that the fairy tale power level was too damn high. So he wrote in a time ... skip and started doing a ton of fan service. The fan service was there from the beginning but it felt as if Lucy's, the main character, bare ass was in almost every chapter.

Also more prominent in the later chapters is the amount of ass pulls the author does which become increasingly unforgivable after the first few times. One of the worst offensives is when a main character dies to save someone, and another character reverses time just enough to where that character doesn't die. The amount of "Because their my Nakama!!!" = +100 to power level is so overdone that even One Piece had the decency to scrap that after their time skip.

Overall, a fun, lighthearted adventure/fantasy manga ruined because the author got popular. I don't regret dropping this manga because all I hear are bad things about it now (Erza vs her mom).