Where Fairy Tail truly shines is getting you to sympathise with its characters. Do keep in mind that Fairy Tail's PROTAGONIST is Lucy, the female lead, and not Natsu, the male lead. From start to finish it is Lucy's thoughts we hear as the narration and not Natsu's. We also see things from Lucy's perspective. In other words despite Natsu being a powerhouse, the view of the world we get is from a 17 year old very vulnerable girl, for whom we naturally feel more sorry when she gets her a$$ kicked (aka every episode). Do keep in mind that no Shounen has ever had a female protagonist before (even if all the main beating is still handled by the male lead). Naturally other characters attract our attention equally (ok not equally, more like 50% of the feels we get for Lucy), who all must make sacrifices, have tough decisions to think over etc etc.
Say Sakura was in danger. Are we afraid? No, because she's a woman, we already know she's not going to get hurt. Chichi? The same. Nami? Well duh... Rukia? ... Ok she might actually get hurt but she's no female, she's just a male who happens to be more focused on agility than raw strength, Kubo needs to work on that a bit. But when it is Lucy that's about to be hurt (and believe me, that's the rule rather than the exception) we're all hanging from the edge of our sits (specifically I'm hanging from the edge of my 380 dollar leather revolving armchair while you're hanging from your IKEA furniture that your mom bought for your birthday). And since the women in Fairy Tail are in fact subjects to their mortality we actually are worried and feel for them.
And here's another shining moment of Fairy Tail: Constant danger. When Mashima got our awesome mythology he got the whole package, including warlocks, necromancers, dragons, demons and all sorts of other monstrosities. Ignoring how plain AWESOME having these things animated properly is, the villains also usually display the cruelty and ruthlessness you would expect of them, and despite almost everyone having a final goal, you will soon notice that most are in it for the kicks, or are just plain sadists. This is especially true when it comes to women, who usually display the most cruelty (specifically when beating the crap out of Lucy) and to be honest, I'm perfectly ok with that. With the whole plot revolving around wizards known as "Dragonslayers" and the creations of the ancient necromancer/warlock Zeref, you can expect some epic fantasy situations to start hitting the fan almost from the start. Oh and before I forget:
-Dear Asia, I want you to describe what dragons are like.
-They are wise ancient serpents with no wings that symbolise the power of nature, the inner peace of water and the harmonic balance of the universe while their mustaches just add to their natural wisdom.
-Good Asia, now I want you to tell me what you see Fairy Tail doing.
-W-W-Wild r-r-rampaging...
-WILD RAMPAGING BEASTS THAT WANT TO STOMP, BURN AND EAT US ALL, BECAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU MAKE MOTHERF$%^ING DRAGONS! And f$%" your g@! a$$ mustaches!
"Cough" Lets just leave it at "ep 192 was freaking awesome."
And since soundtrack is the Alpha and the Omega in my book, naturally I can't help but say Fairy Tail gets 10/10. With a wide variety that starts from tear-jerking dramatic tracks (usually when something horrible scars Lucy for life) to the techno-beats that play during battles, Fairy Tail knows has an awesome soundtrack that it uses almost perfectly (ok not Bleach levels, but still...). Listening to "Black Wizard's Wicked Heart" and others is one of my favourite ways to get hyped when playing dota or making games (that and drinking Monster Absolute Zero). The voice acting follows right away with the voice actors not-about-to-die "cough, One Piece, cough", and for the most part fitting perfectly. The openings are almost all amazing, with many of the endings deserving applause (especially ending 18: "Don't let me down" and the one right after that, "Chasing" were both 10/10). The visuals naturally follow through, with the style slightly reminding of One Piece only better.
Well, not much to say about it, by far one of the best settings in shounens, amazing soundtrack that gets you hooked up, plenty of things you've against in MMOs in all their deadly glory and touches of romance every now and then to spice things up. Definitely worth its time.
