TL;DR?
Solid 8.
This is a very well paced and easy to watch shounen anime. The chemistry between the characters is created mostly by comedy that jabs in a blunt kind of fashion. It's very easy to get caught up in this series, especially if you have not read the manga. If you have, the suspense gets taken out of it and it's not nearly as fun. The music was good, the art kind of pissed me off personally, and the story is simple and sweet. The quality may not be as good as some other shows, but it is very very enjoyable.
I think that this series in particular is spectacular at cliff-hangers. If I hadn't caught up with the manga I'm sure I would have rated this series much higher. Knowing everything that happens takes the fun out of these kinds of shows. Now that I got that out of the way:
...Enjoyment... - 9
I want to talk about this first because I think many of you will be put off by the other things I say. I know that I gave Fairy Tail an overall rating of 8, but that doesn't mean to say I didn't completely fall in love with the show. The actual quality of the show may not be as fantastic as some others I've seen, but the show really sucks you in and comforts you. It's such a pleasant story to escape into. I love the chemistry between the characters, which I'll talk more about later, and the overall satisfaction you feel when you watch this show. The comedy is always dead on and is balanced well enough to make you not take the show too seriously. Some parts get pretty heavy and hard to believe in after you see some of the endlessly reoccurring motifs, but it's not so bad that it's unbearable. I was lucky in that I started watching this show from the very beginning. In my opinion, it's much easier to keep up with shounen series when you don't have to watch it all at once. It goes down so much better when you pace yourself. I think that's the best advice I can give to someone who wants to watch this series. If you do decide to watch Fairy Tail, do so over a long period of time. Cliff-hangers can only keep you interested for so long.
...Story... - 7
The story is like that of any shounen series. There are lots of short adventures with short term goals and good conquers evil. But what's so good about it is that the adventures are paced quite well ( unless you've read the manga then it's like OH MY GOD I KNOW JUST MOVE ON ALREADY ) and are always mixed with the right amount of comedy and a sense of purpose. I don't think it'll be a spoiler when I tell you that the underlying message is almost always stick with your friends, because you know, they're your friends. Now the reason that I gave the story a 7 is because compared to say, Full Metal Alchemist, it would feel wrong to give them a score any higher. The storyline is short and sweet but not nearly as rich as some of the other animes I've seen. There are still quite a few plot twists and many of them are completely unpredictable, but most of the time you'll get a sense of "dang that makes sense I guess". Going along with the good pacing thing, the story does a good job of ending adventures but still leaving questions floating around in the air, waiting to be answered next time, on Fairy tail!
...Art... - 7
In certain scenes the artwork does get a bit sloppy, but most of the time it is alright. This particular art style just really isn't my cup of tea though. I like the kind of artwork in Samurai Champloo ( but I think that that show is quite different, at least superficially from Fairy Tail).
The colors are quite good and I always love the comedic use of art, but it really peeves me when I see just how unrealistic the drawings are. I understand that this is anime and that it's not supposed to look necessarily realistic, but seriously be just a little bit more conservative in the distribution of boobs and muscles. And because everyone has muscles and boobs, I have trouble accepting Gray because to be honest he doesn't stick out as much as the other main characters to me. I get that not wearing clothes is his thing but when the only thing he has to show for himself is his naked upper torso and overused hairstyle he just doesn't quite fit the bill for me (sorry, mini-rant). Anywho I like that the characters occasionally switch outfits. I think it adds to the idea of a new adventure and helps the story progress. Again I'd like to add that the artwork really isn't that bad I just happen to have a problem with this particular kind of artwork. That's completely on me.
...Sound...
I will say that I really enjoyed most of the music. I love the Irish (?) themed fight music that plays in a lot of the fight scenes. The OPs and EDs were also quite good. Some of them I really enjoyed and others I didn't mind but wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to listen to.
...Character... - 8
The characters of Fairy Tail aren't necessarily deep and to be honest some of them are almost like stock characters, but the chemistry created between them adds so much dimension to all of them. The story did an excellent job of using comedy as a way to bond the characters together. I did appreciate the valiant effort to give each character such a vivid and detailed background story. There's a general cohesiveness that all of the characters at Fairy Tail seem to share, and that I think also contributes to the characterization. Everyone is so endlessly faithful to their guild and their friends that it creates an enormous sense of community that I think even viewers can appreciate.
...Overall... - 8
In conclusion, I give Fairy Tail a solid eight. It is a completely enjoyable series but the rewatch value at least for me isn't nearly as high as say Ouran High School Host Club (I've rewatched that like 8 freaking times already. And that's just counting the times I've watched the entire season. I don't even know how many times I've rewatched individual episodes, like episode 8.... alsdkf). I think that Fairy Tail is easier to pick up than Naruto or One Piece or any other shounen series partially because of how well it was paced. There aren't that many grand adventures that take place, and the ones that do are easy to follow and relatively short. This is the kind of show that, if you really like it, you get completely and utterly swept up in it. You'll find yourself squealing out of joy and falling out of your chair laughing in almost every episode. In short, I personally enjoyed it quite a bit and it's pretty rare for me to actually commit to a shounen anime. Actually this is the first... Go watch it!
