During the time of this review there is the BIG 3 in anime. They are shonen jump titles that have a large following not only in Japan but also in America; they are Bleach, One Piece and Naruto. As Bleach comes to its end and Naruto begins to slow on the breaks many shonen shows will try to take their place in the BIG 3. There is Hunter X Hunter (which I have never seen), Blue Exorcist (still, never seen), and Hajime no Ippo (you might notice a pattern now...) but the one show that has pretty much taken the spot of Bleach is Fairy Tail.
So about a year ago I got into anime. I had always liked anime shows but never truly knew that they were anime. The shows I loved were Dragonball Z, One Piece and even Naruto. I still somewhat enjoy these shows today (okay maybe only One Piece) but because of this I figured walking into Fairy Tail would be a nice fun piece of cake. So one day I searched Fairy Tail on YouTube and Funimation had about 40 episodes up so I decided to watch 10 episodes to give the show a try. I then began to watch the first episode…..
Now I remember asking myself multiple questions after the first episode. Like, were the main characters introduced at all interesting? I mean Lucy is a walking piece of cardboard pretty much with Natsu there to give the best Monkey D. Luffy impression he can do (seriously, no else notices how much he acts, talks and eats like Luffy?). Lucy has nothing going for her except tits but besides that all the female characters have this problem. In the big world of shonen anime males rule so Fairy Tail tries it's best to make Natsu and Grey look as cool as possible. There is also Erza but she is fan service that just happens to be strong. Also even though all the characters can use magic how come they only use one type of magic? I mean if you could use breath fire and summon other worldly beings you would be well off but learning other magic would not hurt right?
The story seems to so far have the problem that Bleach had and that most bad shonen have and that is that there is no real long-term goal to achieve. With One Piece it is for Luffy to become King of the Pirates and for Naruto it is for Naruto to become head of the village. So far in Fairy Tail it is threat comes up and the group solves it. How can an over 130+ anime episode show have an overall plot this paper thin? It also has a major problem that I had with Naruto. In the first episode of Naruto, the title character becomes a ninja. The problem with this was that there was no internal struggle to become a ninja. Same with Lucy in Fairy Tail, she wants to become part of Fairy Tail and boom, first episode alone she joins. In doing this we don’t see how much the characters truly want to follow their dreams because they are practically handed them in the first episode alone.
The show looked nice but nothing really caught my eyes, with characters looking good with nice looking scenery. The fights looked cool I guess but overall One Piece came out years earlier and looked much better than Fairy Tail. The opening for the first season was okay with no great animation with a generic as hell song to boot, but I enjoyed the ending only because I am a sucker for a catchy electronic tune. The overall music for the show I did not pay very much attention to, since it was just the same melody every time a fight began.
By the end of the eight episodes I frankly had no interest in watching anymore of the anime. I just started watching Baccano! And never went back. I know that the show has a large following and I don’t want to offend any of its fans but come on guys! This is popular enough to be part of the BIG 3? A five year-old could have written the show! Recently though many fans of the show have been complaining of the repetitive nature of Fairy Tail so change could happen I doubt it. I would not tell anyone that considers themselves mature anime watchers to consider Fairy Tail, but for younger viewers getting into anime I guess it's an okay starting point.
FINAL RATING: Mediocre- Fairy Tail brings nothing new to the table, but fans of shonen might like the bland but like-able characters.
