Story (6/10)
As I said before, the story's there to promote action. In that regard, there's barely any depth, and you won't even really notice it with all the fighting going on.
Art (9/10)
The art is very colorful, which gives off a light feeling. This complements the light-hearted feeling of the anime very well, but at the same time it makes it difficult to take any of the serious moments, well... seriously. the environments are quite varied, since there's a lot of moving around. The art would definitely be one of the anime's strongest points.
Sound (6/10)
The sound is just there. It's just like most shonen anime- the sounds are very exaggerated and there's no real other way to describe them other than that.
Characters (6/10)
The characters suffer from Shonen-itis in that while they're entertaining and all, they're not really interesting in any way. All characters have something to know them down a peg- be it a gag, trauma, or whatever, but you have definitely seen their types before.
Lucy's the princess-ey/damsel-in-distress character. Her powers involve having others do the work for her, summoning figures such as Taurus or Cancer to do the work for her. She comes off as lazy, due to her not even walking on her own most of the time. Did I mention that she's 90% comic relief and is pretty much only there to be abused? Now, normally that wouldn't be so bad- every anime has a lazy character in it somewhere. The problem? She's (one of the) main characters. Specifically the main female protagonist. I'll give her some credit, though. She's like the only sensible character in Fairy Tail.
There's also Natsu. He's hot-headed, strong-willed, and powerful. He's your generic shonen character.
Then there's Gray. As I said earlier, characters all have something to knock them down a peg. In his case, he strips. He's proficient in Ice Magic and is always fighting w/ Natsu. They're actually really close, though, so he's basically the best-friend character. Of course, he's a lot more sensible
than Natsu, but he's still an idiot.
Erza's powerful. She's really powerful, to the the extent that her power's a running gag. She's also really oblivious to her surroundings and is very hard-headed and forgetful, as well as terrifyingly loyal to her guild.
There's plenty of other characters, just like every other Shonen. I just reviewed the main characters. That helps to offset the genericness of the characters in that they're all varied, but as a result they lack depth.
Enjoyment (9/10)
Dispite its shortcomings, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. It's fun to watch, cool, and full of likeable (though somewhat annoying characters). It's the ultimate guilty pleasure.
Overall (8/10)
Overall, Fairy Tail is a great watch. It's so by the book and generic that it's actually unique, and w/ it's crazy overblown characters and crazy over-the-top fighting that it's hard not to enjoy the anime.
