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I remember the first couple of times i tried watching this back when I was a teenager and anime and a lot of the troupes of shonen were still fresh to me. I don't think I ever made it passed the first episode back then. There were so many other more catching series I wanted to watch. I never thought poorly of the series though it just didn't hold my attention is all.
Time passed and I was aware that this series existed and it had quite the following. Still I didn't really bother. I think I tried again another time as well. I don't think ... it was until I was much older and my viewing habits had changed. I had already seen much of what anime had to offer. My habits shifted towards a more casual experience. I've come to like anime as a good source of background noise. Kinda like how some people will leave "The Office" running for the same reason.
I had met a couple people that had watched the series one of which tended to cosplay as Lucy from the series that I finally gave this long running behemoth a go.

Fairy Tail does not use tension to grab and hold your attention in the same way a lot of action oriented series do. What's interesting is it's not void of fights, action and excitement but it handles these things (at least in the beginning) like a Saturday morning cartoon. It also handles itself like a slice of life series. It's a very different experience from what you get from a typical shonen and I think that's something that can put some people off but it's also why I kind of enjoyed it a little bit. It was a different experience from what I had become so used to.
Fairy Tail's more loose and low intensity way of doing things also gives itself some much needed breathing room for things that other more highly regarded series struggle with. It's often I'll watch another more intense series like Bleach or Naruto where I could be in the middle of an intense battle between two characters before suddenly one of the characters begin talking and most of the episodes is their back story/flashback that although maybe interesting it generally breaks the flow of things while Fairy Tail seems to have learned to manage such methods of story telling.

Where some of the greatest fights in shonen are ones that tell a story on their own Fairy Tail's fights are more or less a part of a greater story. The fights aren't phenomenal but they're not terrible and serve as more of a story beat than anything else. They also never really over stay their welcome. In fact I'd say some of the beast fights in this series that also some up the series as a whole are the fight's involving the two starting main characters Lucy and Natsu, usually when they are both pitted up against a single foe that they have to work together in order to beat.
Now Fairy Tail is a goofy, light hearted adventure that can occasionally take a darker turn and it never really strays from that. It's also a perfect description of any Lucy/Natsu vs. opps fight which is why those fights are often my favorite and it makes one of the best duo's I've seen in shonen. It honestly reminds me of the antics from early dragon ball. It's almost played for a joke how they have difficulties at first until the possibility of them really loosing sets in and that one or both of them could die. They sometimes overcome that foe in some clever fashion, usually after several other plans of attack fail or just by brute force.
Keep in mind not all the fights are like this but it does sum up what to expect from this series in terms of overall tone.

Fairy Tail is weird and I think knows that. Most of the time when other series attempt comedy where they distort the character designs into a much more cartoonish fashion or it looks like one of the author's doodles on a napkin. These sequences always feel out of place in most series and it's usually at these moments you start looking over your shoulder to see if anyone is judging you and you wait for it to be over. Fairy does this all the time and it honestly works. Fairy Tail knows it's a piece of animation and frankly Mashima [the author] is already kind of a weird guy anyway so Fairy Tail simply goes all in on it's weirdness instead of having it slink out of whatever hole it's been repressed into. It'd be easy to make an abridged series out of this.

Fairy Tail all things considered does a lot of the things that most people dread in long running series fairly well. If you're going to do a filler arc, this how I'd want it to turn out (it only has one in this iteration) and it doesn't break the canon and it adds to the story and characters. On top of that wile it's contemporaries either slowed down the pace Fairy tail adds things that rounds out the story and it's honestly one of the few anime adaptations that improves on it's source material in some cases. Certain things aren't glossed over like they are in the Manga and certain moments are actually given time and atmosphere for them to really hit properly. The occasional filler which might occur between story arcs kinda help the series breath a little bit. If there were a series that I'd would be to represent the Ideal experience of what a long running series had to offer (good or bad) it would be this one. The episodes are pretty well constructed and don't rely as much on cliffhangers so it's a great series to just casually watch.

Something that can be kind of a coin toss is the characterization. I personally like it but I can understand why some are put off if you're used to how anime normally handle characters. Fairy Tail goes about characterization not by immediately trying to sell us on every character that we're introduced too. At first you're presented with cardboard cut outs of various anime archetypes with a few quirks but as the series goes on and the characters are placed in varying situations and challenges where you get to see who they really are by how they deal with them. There is a lot more show than tell. We're not told that Lucy is more of a brainy problem solver, we're shown that in how she tackles problems, were also not explicitly told why she holds the values she does but shown what might have sculpted them. I think it's because a lot of people who watch anime are used to having things explicitly explained to them that these characters might seem flat but they're actually fairly rich if you're willing to read the subtext. This method has advantage of allowing you to get to know the characters in a more organic way and get you attached and invested in what happens to them. There are even some characters who start out as annoying who become fan favorites later on.
It's kinda hard to tell what the plot is in this series. It's there, and on the second watch through it's plain is day the ground work is being laid from the very start. Fairy Tail kinda disarms you; making you think it's a much dumber show than it actually is. Fairy Tail knows it's a long running series and takes the time necessary to establish it's characters and concept. you'll find your self noticing foreshadowing from 2 or 3 arcs ago coming into play and pieces set in place coming together to pay off in some of the best moments of the Series. The only time this doesn't work as well is in the one filler arc in this part of the series where although Mashima had a hand in writing it as it was an arc he wanted to originally do, it just doesn't blend as well with the rest of the series and you can kinda tell which one it is.

As for the flaws. Don't get me wrong, none of them really derail the series and it's fine if a show doesn't want to kill off it's characters but faking out their deaths with a bait and switch just feels cheap. Other than that there are some examples of missed potential and characters that could have been handled better [Juvia] and decisions that didn't really need to be made. These are problems that can be found in other prominent long runners but for the case of Fairy Tail to doesn't hinder the series enough for me to quit it.
As the grows to have a lot of fan service, not the most heinous but if you don't like that sort of thing I'm just warning ya.

All in all, this is a good comfort series. It's great for a laid back viewing experience that doesn't treat you like you're stupid. Fairy Tail has a lot of the DNA or some of the anime I watched as a kid like Pokemon and Bobobo and it's interesting to watch a sort of refinement of those elements grow up. Fairy Tail tends to shift tonally from being a Saturday morning cartoon type anime to a more mature battle shonen and the transition is buttery smooth to the point that some people don't even realize the shift happened. I think Fairy Tail was initially appeal to a younger audience and gradually grow up with them and it's really neat to watch that and I always wonder what the people who watched this as it was airing experienced. Fairy Tail is true long running series chock full of content and arcs that never really punish you for watching it. Also if you're a dub watcher this is probably one of the best Funimation dubs. You really get to see how much range some of these voice actors have as they sometimes have to voice different versions of their own characters and I think one thing that comes from a long runner like this is seeing V.As settle into their roles.

I remember when I started watching anime in high school as an edgy teenager. I was on some bs about anime needing being a mature medium that can be taken seriously and it can be. However Mature doesn't always mean super violent with lots of swearing. This show has plenty of that and at the time it was a great catharsis for my hormone pumped teenage mind. but now almost a decade later I've watched it again.

Story/Characters:
Plot wise the show is pretty basic. What really drives the series is the character development and interactions. Rock and Revy's relationship develops and evolves as they are put ... in various situations and even but heads at time and we begin to watch Rock's perspective on live change for better or worse. Most of this first season focuses on the employees of the Lagoon company. The world building is strangely subtle as the city of Roanapur feels very lived in. Black Lagoon at first seems like a fun action show but it isn't mindless.

The Dub:
Honestly if you're going to watch this subbed than don't bother watching it at all. I'm normally pretty impartial to something like this but it really isn't Black Lagoon without the dub. It just doesn't make any sense that international characters such as chinese, russian, american would all speak Japanese in port city in Thailand. The Dub is that good that hearing this show in Japanese makes me cringe. The voice performances feels so natural. I mean where else are you going to hear VA that's done Barbie movies drop the F-bomb so frequently.

So you're probably reading this to see if this show is for you because strangely, you've never gotten around to it. Or you already have seen it and are just here to confirm your thoughts on it, so here goes.

So Haruhi starts off as a slow burn. The two episodes are kind of mundane really. However that's when you first see them. You're made to believe that this a regular "Slice of life" anime set in high school. That's when this series begins to hit you with the twist that this is not what I just said so previously, this is something more.
If you were ... to ask me what genre this show falls under, I couldn't give you a straight answer. Sci-Fi elements such as Aliens, time travel and ESP are sewn in as major parts of the plot while the slice of life stuff keeps the series grounded while our main characters are dealing with some new age sci-fi stuff, without weighing it down. The dialogue keeps everything really engaging as our characters discuss various aspects of philosophy while still remaining relevant to the plot which is also a great testament to the ENG dub of the series because trust me, it could have been really easy to screw up the dialog in this show.
Speaking of plot, nothing is wasted in this series as everything that happens in it eventually gets brought up again. You're rewarded for watching the show and it gives you something to latch onto. Like I said this series plays with some deep concepts like our perception of reality and it can really leave you with something to think about long after you've finished the series.

It might seem strange but I kinda find myself feeling somewhat nostalgic when I watching this anime even though I never went to a Japanese high school. I did first see this during my latter years in High school and although like most anime it's pretty wishy washy with what high school is actually like but it really does capture the atmosphere of that particular period in life which is something I don't dee talked about much is the atmosphere of this series which is distinctly slice of life like no other slice of life anime. They really capture what it's like to stay after school without the drag of actually staying after your self.
I can't say much about the characters. Our main character is Kyon and he narrates everything with a snarky attitude. I will admit he's definably less bland than most main anime protagonists as we can see his personality in full view. If anything all the characters in this series are almost purposely made to be typical anime archetypes.

All and all this anime has become influential when it comes to slice of life shows set in high school with some emulating aspects of it to others paying homage to it. The only trouble I see people having with it is the slow start up however those first two episodes take on new meaning when you really see what the shows premise is.

I happened upon this series almost 7 years ago by accident, on tv. It was right smack dab in the middle of the series and I had no idea what was going on. A few months later I went online and started from the beginning I took the plunge.

What to expect:
Watching Bleach you'll likely pulled into the world of Bleach were it's world building and lore is given you at a decent pace as it follows a plot that goes from a supernatural monster of the week deal to super powered samurai battles. I have give it credit on how the series builds tension and ... eventually executes it's payoffs. I never really noticed this until after seeing the live action adaptation they made recently that doesn't really have this. The series runs pretty well for a little over 60 episodes after the second major story arch and then we get to the first of several filler arcs. Some shoes have filler episodes and even filler arcs but you could argue in some cases that the filler sometimes contributes to the story. With Bleach it makes the experience sluggish. My advice is if you don't want to waste your time but still want to watch Bleach is to look up which episodes to avoid. The Filler really doesn't contribute they're basically like fan fiction come to life.
The series gets a little repetitive and it finally ends in a pretty strange place. It was canceled incase you're wondering. As far as sub and dub, it could go either way.

In Conclusion:
Bleach wouldn't be the worst choice as a long running series to watch; as if I could think of a worst choice.