Ever since it started airing, I've felt that Fairy tail has been among the most mainstream and generic of popular anime, and specifically the shounen genre. If that type of anime appeals to you, then you could probably enjoy this, and I myself liked this anime for a long time when I first saw it.
However, as I progressed into the series, I began to question what motivated me to even watch the series, and this feeling continued with me as I proceeded to watch the 2014 continuation of the series.
Eventually, I was able to understand a lot of the major criticisms of the show
...
and realized that I was forcing myself to enjoy watching it. This realization continued to sink in until the time came when I no longer found enjoyment in the series. Looking back at this, I have concluded that this anime is in fact, the most overrated long-running shounen of all time.
So what made it so bad? Here are some examples evident throughout this anime:
-Fanservice being forced into every episode way too much
Fairy Tail seems to go out of its way to shove boobs onto the screen and expect viewers to find it "funny" or "attractive" or something else on those lines. If you want to fully understand this, you'll have to go through an episode and count how many times fanservice is used. This would include parts of the episode in which a character's private parts (including the buttocks) is displayed for seemingly no reason and for that reason, is completely unnecessary.
Just to make things clear, I do enjoy some anime out there that still use fanservice, but that is often because it isn't forced and thrown at me every few minutes in every episode. I used to have few problems with fanservice when I started the series, but after watching multiple anime that use no fanservice at all, I noticed that it was because they didn't have to rely on it to attract more viewers.
Fairy Tail seems to not understand what genre it is because it seems to be mixed up between a battle shounen and an ecchi. Personally, I'd say it might as well be an ecchi if it needs to desperately rely on fanservice so much.
-Friendship being used as plot armor so the heroes always win in the end
This is definitely something that Fairy Tail has used far too many times. A lack of variation in the series is quite easy to spot since the end of every arc boils down to the Fairy Tail guild winning because of friendship. I have to be honest, that's quite unrealistic and doesn't give a very good lesson to the audience. I get it, Fairy Tail doesn't need to have morals in the end, but it does anyways, and the morals within the show are delivered poorly and are very impractical.
I could easily compare Fairy Tail to that of My Little Pony since both shows are about the "magic of friendship," but here's the problem: Fairy Tail is a series made for teens, and My Little Pony is a series made for younger girls. Why exactly is this a problem? That's because friendship is a value meant to be taught to children. Furthermore, teens shouldn't be expected to repeatedly learn about friendship through a show for teens when all they need is just one arc that could embrace the value of friendship, rather than having multiple arcs that use friendship as plot armor.
-Using filler instead of just putting the anime on hiatus
I've never enjoyed filler episodes in anime, and Fairy Tail seems to line a bunch of filler up by the end of every arc. As a result, I end up liking the series less and disliking the series more whenever I watch a filler episode. While I can skip the filler episodes, I still find them to be highly unnecessary since they have no impact on the story and will be forgotten entirely by most of the viewers.
What's even worse is that, according to my findings, Fairy Tail has a full, non-canon arc in which every episode could basically combine to make one big filler episode. This non-canon arc (Key of the Starry Heavens) was boring and stupid as heck, and I can't remember a single time I even enjoyed it. Afterwards, I don't remember any time later on in the series in which any event in that arc was even mentioned.
-Unlikable, underdeveloped characters
Instead of making an explanation on the characters in general, I'll just go through some characters who I'd like to talk about.
-Natsu is and has always been a jerk, and not a likable one. He makes stupid decisions that end up hurting other people and doesn't really do much to make up for it. After all, it's not like anyone's gonna even remember. The only seemingly positive trait about Natsu is that he's persistent, but that's about it. All of his other aspects are either forgettable or just another reason to dislike him. Among every shounen protagonist, Natsu could probably end up in the bottom tier since he's mostly just the result of bad, overused anime tropes combined to create his "personality."
-Lucy is one of my least favorite characters in popular anime, and it should be pretty obvious why, but I'll still explain. To put it in simple terms, Lucy serves mostly as a damsel in distress and a sexualized object. That's really her only two purposes. Later in the series, she becomes a bit more useful, but we're talking about a centimeter-long difference, and a lot of that development (even though it isn't really development) happens in the 2014 continuation of the series, not this one (the original series that ended at episode 175)
-Gray is probably my favorite character, but he gets little to no development in the 175 episodes of the series, and it's quite hard to tell apart the Gray from the later episodes to Gray from the earlier episodes.
-Happy is mostly just for comic relief, and he stops being funny by the first few episodes, but that's only if you even found him funny in the first place (I didn't). The primary objective of including Happy is to act like a little kid and to be Natsu's flying machine. Otherwise, there's barely anything to say.
Conclusion
In my honest, unbiased opinion, Fairy Tail isn't terrible, and it's even good on some parts (e.g. nice animation, enjoyable soundtrack, etc.). However, on the grand scale, Fairy Tail is pretty mediocre of an anime, and it's extremely overrated. I could recommend this series to people who are new to anime, because they're more likely to enjoy it than people who have developed a taste over a duration of time. Fairy Tail has its upsides and downsides, but I think you, the person reading my review could have their time better spent watching Gintama, Hunter x Hunter, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and other long-running anime out there that I'd say are great. Anime such as One Piece, Naruto, or Bleach haven't really appealed to me, but I can tell you that they're all better than Fairy Tail.
So now that you've read my review, I'd like to thank you for putting time aside to read something written by me. I should probably be doing homework right now, but I felt motivated enough to write this review for whatever reason. Anyways, I hope you can put this review into consideration for other anime that you plan to watch.
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Mar 7, 2018
Fairy Tail
(Anime)
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Ever since it started airing, I've felt that Fairy tail has been among the most mainstream and generic of popular anime, and specifically the shounen genre. If that type of anime appeals to you, then you could probably enjoy this, and I myself liked this anime for a long time when I first saw it.
However, as I progressed into the series, I began to question what motivated me to even watch the series, and this feeling continued with me as I proceeded to watch the 2014 continuation of the series. Eventually, I was able to understand a lot of the major criticisms of the show ... |
