The story starts in a similar fashion like most shounens, a girl named Lucy dreams of becoming a wizard to join a prestigious guild. As soon as she meets Natsu her life is changed dramatically. In the process she goes on magical adventures, facing enemies with her friends along the way. The first episode gave me a quick preview of Fairy Tail, and along the way I made quick assumptions. Natsu seems to be your generic hot-blooded, brawling-fanatic main character and Lucy felt like another damsel in distress slash sidekick. I know I was making shallow judgments based on this exposure but it turns out I right. Unfortunately enough watching more episodes I was introduced to many typical character archetypes. One that stood out was Erza. Just by studying her actions and interactions with characters I could classify her with one word, "Tsundere". This is not a very good sign when you can summarize characters with one word or in one sentence. For other character archetypes you get the rival (Gray), the playboy (Loki), the all-powerful, perverted master (Makarov), manly man (Elfman), arrogant power boss (Laxus), the fangirl (Juvia), and MANY more. As soon as the "Job Posting" wall was introduced through out the plot I instantly knew that this was going to be arc based. You know the drill; the mangaka is going invent and make up the story as he goes along. The fighting is extremely predictable for the most part: Villain Team/Guild vs. Fairy Tail. Mini tournaments are emphasized because of the cluster of villains and heroes. It's usually someone from each team/guild fighting One-on-One and then leaving Natsu or Natsu and said teammates against the main boss of the arc. Side characters usually defeat the lesser villains and ultimately the one to essentially defeat the big "arc boss" is Natsu which is incredibly unfortunate. Power levels are quite confusing. For example, Natsu defeats a supposedly powerful enemy like Jellal in the previous arc but then he gets defeated in the following arc by a seemingly less powerful villain. The humor is quit entertaining but that does not account for the mediocre filler episodes. Major character development is yet to be discovered, pretty much everyone stays exactly the same. The plethora of side characters are not worth mentioning because they add so little with the plot except fight the villains in the "mini-tournaments" and add comic relief with the exception of Wendy, Laxus, Charlie, Gildartz, and Gajeel. Fighting is quite Dragon Ball Z like, this is most evident in the Natsu and Gajeel fight. Most of the time it boils down to Deux-Ex-Machina moments like constant random power ups directly (mainly towards Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Erza),"Nick of the time" character save situations and "My magical attack/technique is stronger than your magical attack/technique" sayings. Did I mention Hiro is obsessed with friends and friendship speeches? With the power of your friends and your "nakama" behind you can conquer any challenge in this universe, in other words if you see a villain who is not so pro-friendship they are for sure going to be defeated and be unsuccessful in their plans. I know friendship is amazing but don't over-saturate it to point where it's obviously forced down our throats.
Fairy Tail is a great example of an average Shounen. Perfect for people who are new to the Shounen genre but those who are are experienced will be disappointed.
Pros:
+Everything a Shounen symbolizes
+Entertaining and Humorous to an Extent
+Some Memorable Characters (Happy, Gajeel, Laxus, Ultear, Mest...)
+Friendly Environment and Atmosphere
+Fan service for both Sexes
Cons:
-No Originality
-Plenty Shounen Tropes and Cliches
-Too many Static Characters (Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel, Lucy, Master, Loki... etc.)
-Uneven Character Spotlights (i.e. Too much Natsu, Erza, Lucy and not enough screen time for other more interesting characters)
-Formulaic/Predictable Story Telling
-No Major Character Development
-Dues Ex Machina Moments
