Story: 7
Fairy Tail has a fairly solid story, however, it relies heavily on a repetitive system - new bad guy threatens the family (the guild), they work together, Natsu beats the bad guy, bada bing bada boom. However, the story itself isn't bad and it has some real shining moments. The Tower of Heaven Arc is especially brilliant - it was both very gritty and emotional and very well written and it wasn't as "standard" as many of the other arcs. The Fairy Tail Battle Arc was also brilliant and you got to see the anime which relied heavily on friendship have inner fighting and conflict, which was refreshing. Fairy Tail does employ some cliches and it relies very strongly on it's theme of family and friendship - which is constantly repeated throughout the series and as mentioned before most of it's arcs have a similar system to how they are made and developed. It gets a bit corny at times but I think people judge this series far to harshly - it did bring some wisdom to the table, it DID have something to say and said it well and though the quality of the plots and arcs range (as it does in many large shows, save for, IMO, One Piece) it is an entertaining and highly relateable series.
What does set it apart from other shounen's is it's fast pacing - choking down tons and tons of filler and slow, dragged out pacing in several other of the "big shows" gets so old and I appreciate both Fairy Tail's lack of filler and the fast pacing that doesn't drag on like so many others do. The setting is well developed as well and I do love the world in which Fairy Tail is set.
Art: 8. Fairy Tail has an appealing art style - nice but fairly basic characters designs, good use of detail (though not at the level of Guilty Crown or the Fate Series) and a nice use of colour that really made the style "pop". It was very well suited to the series.
Sound: 10. The OST is brilliant - the WIDE range of pieces are not only brilliant but were used brilliantly in the series to add layers of enjoyment and depth to the scenes and convey the emotions the scenes were delivering. Though a few pieces were used a lot, the OST is actually huge in scope and it's pieces were very versatile. Fairy Tail also boosts one of the best collection of Opening and Ending themes which perfectly suited the series - and the arcs they were geared towards and were the type of OP/ED themes you race to get copies of. Great music and more importantly, Fairy Tail USES it's music brilliantly. The voice cast for both the subbed and dubbed versions (I've seen all of both, more than once) is very talented and did a fantastic job with the series - some fan favorites are in here so you'll probably here more than a few voices you know well amongst the cast of characters.
Characters: 7. Fairy Tail uses very basic, been-there-done-that types but I admit, it does use them well. Where it needs help is in DEVELOPING these characters a bit more and even more importantly, not dropping the ball after you have started to develop them beautifully - ie, Erza. This isn't a problem with all of the characters - but with some, there is limited development and it really does take away from the characters quality. Characters like Lucy, Laxus and Gray were really beautifully developed - as was Mirajane and Wendy, while others, like Natsu and Erza, where either painfully underdeveloped or the development that was started was never followed through. I personally really enjoyed Lucy as a character - she is sometimes used too much for fanservice but this is NOT a weak or underdeveloped character. I found her brilliant, her growth wonderful to watch and as I struggled with many things she did throughout the series, she was incredibly relateable. Fairy Tail's characters may be from a rather basic foundation of character types, but it is a really enjoyable cast of characters whose interactions and relationships are not only entertaining but do drag you into feeling that concept of family and friendship the series spends so much time focusing on. These characters also made me laugh on my darkest days and for that, I am grateful. It's a great bunch of characters but more development across the board is needed to really bring the cast full circle - having caught up on the manga, I can say this problem is addressed for quite a few in the future.
Enjoyment: 10. Fairy Tail HAS issues - it employs a lot of cliches, the fights are very enjoyable visually but often really on last minute power ups a little too much and characters need to be more development across the board but Fairy Tail ENTERTAINS. It is the show I turn on and binge watch when I'm down or just stressed and it peels away all that, entertains me and makes me laugh. It's characters are entertaining, it's storylines are entertaining, it's music is enchanting and I am never bored when I turn it on. Despite it's faults, I enjoy it - every minute of it and having watched the series 4 times (to the current episodes) I can say that hasn't faded with time. Sometimes I want to be blown away by deep stories, perfectly developed characters, etc and sometimes, I just want to turn on a television, be entertained and enjoy every second of what I'm watching and faults and all, Fairy Tail never fails to deliver.
Overall: 7. Fairy Tail is an enjoyable series that needs to dig a little deeper with it's storylines (like they did with the Tower of Heaven), not rely so heavily on the "pull it out of a hat" style of battles and develop ALL of it's characters, not just some. It's brilliant ost, appealing art, relateable and entertaining cast and brilliant use of magic is however very entertaining and the series - faults and all - is very enjoyable. If you're wanting deep, thorough-provoking and mind-blowing originality - this isn't the series for you, if you want magic, battles, fun, life lessons and an entertaining bunch of nuckleheads to make you laugh - then turn on your TV and let Fairy Tail do just that. Fairy Tail is just one of those series that does have problems, I acknowledge all of them but I love it anyway and I won't make any apologies for it.
A tip, don't judge it by it's first ten episodes, like many shows of this length, the first few episodes weren't it's best and it took a few for it to figure out it's pacing.
