Review of Fairy Tail

I must admit something. I am so utterly conflicted as to whether I can give Fairy Tail much more than a 6. I REALLY REALLY want to. And if I had any shame whatsoever I wouldn't openly admit to writing at least 2 separate reviews and, at one point, giving a solid 10/10 score. Yeah... So... the reason you're seeing this review now and not the overly dramatic pile of fanboy dog-shite that I had originally rolled with is simply because I cannot find any good reason as to why this anime is good. Which sounds extremely weird when put into writing. How does one evenknow if they like something if they can't directly point to what it is they're liking so much? Well. I have a theory that involves something I like to call "cool-guy syndrome". It's far from an original idea but put simply, when a character does something in a show that makes other characters go "wow", and when that action is placed behind a very iconic and well-made piece of backing track, the experience is immediately considered (by the audience) to be immeasurably better than it actually is. For example, Fairy Tail is relatively average (I'll get into that). But the one thing that elevates it so far above the line of mediocrity is the music.

FT has a very unique and iconic blend of "old-English pub fantasy" (violin, flute, guitar) and heavy electronic rock - Google calls it 'Celtic metal'. You don't know how well it works until you see it in action, and that's coming from the perspective of someone who isn't all that into metal music. "Celtic metal" has to be the perfect style to represent the personality of this show. Its rowdy, its irrational; it prioritizes fun and style, and it truely is the centrepiece of the exhibition. To top this off, there isn't really any poor judgment when it comes to when and where particular tracks are dotted across an episode. Characters have their appropriate themes as well that ties well to their personality. I have literally no experience in music-theory though, so I won't humor myself by talking out of my ass about it.
I have never seen an OST be so accurate in its interpretation of a world. Every theme represents the character perfectly; every tune sets the mood excellently and every other song there is to list has that excitement that makes everything seem SO much better than it actually is. It is what every other sound-track should aspire to be.

However, that is, ultimately, where the first short-coming arises. It doesn't matter how well executed your music is, when everything else fails to click then there's only so much of it you can save. You end up feeling a bit left out if it. I can name a few times where it felt like everybody else got the joke, but I didn't. When this happened it wasn't the fault of the sound design, but rather a lack of explanation towards key elements of the plot as well as a ridiculous tendency to be very predictable. You won't be able to count the number of times that some character comes in to "save the day" while the "fuck yeah" theme is playing in the background. It gets to the point where you can pretty much tell how every arc is going to go. The only real benefit to some COMPLETELY detached stories is that they SOMETIMES bring a minor character in, and SOMETIMES those minor characters are fun to have around. By the end of this 175-odd episode stretch, the only things I didn't see coming was the setup for the next season and the ridiculously elusive plot devices that will probably only be used in the very last arc.

Here's another thing I found to be a bit off. Friendship takes an awful amount of precedent in this show. It's almost suffocating. I almost find that I can't stand to see it be used yet again as an excuse for some random rally. Erza is the major culprit for this, but It gets much worse in the following seasons (It's kind of cheating to bring that into this seasons review but I think the issue tallies up over time so can be addressed as an issue for both seasons). I don't mind the whole "power of friendship" gimmick but every now and then you should have some faith in the characters that you've developed and allowed them to use their own strengths to just sort shit out on their own. It's nice that they all love each other and their cult but do you reckon that its at all possible that the characters work independently of each other every now and then? So that we might highlight some of their individual merits? They may be physically separated but the show dances around that as sort of a non-issue. Like they've all got some sort of psionic link similar to the Protoss.

As a separate and final point, I think it's worth noting that I had a lot more fun while watching this show than I did thinking back about it over the past few days. I hesitate to say that you should actively avoid it, just... Don't go buying any t-shirts until about a month or two have passed because, as I eluded to at the start of the review, I sort of feel dirty for enjoying Fairy Tail as much as I did, and I got really roped into it for a bit.
It is, for all intents and purposes, the ultimate "guilty pleasure" program.