Review of Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail is a truly horendous series. A series where despite all of the bad I can legitimately say I liked 2 things about the series. The Sound and the World Building. I find that the world that Fairy Tail is set in is genuinely interesting and if it weren't for all of the other things, to which I will talk about shortly, I would actually enjoy the series. That being said this series is the most Horrendous piece of media that I have seen reach the top 10 in a long time. With Characters as bland and unoriginal as they come, The character Designs being"Based" off of Mashima's previous work, Rave Master, the story you swear that a writer in High School came up with it while in the middle of an improv class and the fights boil down to I won because friendship. This being said I can see somewhat of what people enjoy within this series and I can appreciate it. But these are issues that I find are huge with a manga such as this.
We can even go as far as to say that when you're characters are carbon copies of other Shoune Jump Characters such as Naruto, Luffy or Even Ichigo without any of the understanding that comes with each of these characters it becomes an issue. Let's take a look at Gon and Natsu as I find these two have very similar goals, "I want to find my dad". Gon wants to find his dad and goes as far as to become a Hunter at not only a very young age but also become a Hunter as a Rookie which very few people have done before. He wants all of the resources available at his disposal so that he may one day find him. Natsu wants to find his foster father Igneel so he joins a Guild named Fairy Tail because reasons. He then actually slows down the plot and ruins any pacing the series had going for it. Effectively ruining what could've been a decent arc.
Not only that but the Fights always seem to boil down to I won this fight because of Friendship, with the Deus Ex Machina ability never being shown ever again. Especially since the fights are what make this series so entertaining to watch it is disappointing that all the fights boil down to the exact same thing. Main Character is being beaten by villain, villain starts laughing, Friendship and then they beat the living crap out of the villain.
And the Story, I have to say the story is pretty bad as each arc is like ok we found a flute, ok the flute of death turned into a giant and is threatening to destroy the world. It is written like Hiro Mashima is trying to write the perfect improv that he can think of. But in the end the story is not absolutely horrendous due to this.
Not to mention that certain sad moments within Fairy Tail feel cheesy and stupid as they basically circumsize themselves of their full potential by taking away death as a motivator. The best scene that shows this is Erza's Funeral a seen so close to actually being a really good scene that falls flat from its own limits. Here Erza watches her own Funeral as Natsu reaches in and pulls her back to life. Had they left that as it was then it would've been perfect, but they managed to mess up even the Heroic sacrifice.
The artstyle of Hiro Mashima takes Heavy "Inspiration" from One Piece and his own series Rave Master. While Rave Master may not be as horrible as the other the issue lies with how unoriginal his art style is. He has drawn almost all of the women to look exactly like Ellie from Rave Master, Natsu and Haru are basically Identical twins with different Hair Colors and Jellal and Sieg Hart are legit the exact same character down to their personality. Not to mention with multiple scenes within Fairy Tail basically going down to the point where you just change a few facial features from One Piece and bam we have a hit new Character. While some people may find this not a horrible thing to say, Let me ask you this, if a man won an art show through his own talent, a guy then traces over the exact same thing then changes a few things so it isn't the exact same thing, and then wins the competition, did he really deserve the win? That being said certain scenes within the manga can be seen as inspiration from other manga scenes which I will agree with, but I'm talking about similarities that begin to push borderline copyright.
That being said I will never recommend this anime to anyone due to all of these issues within the series. However if you are still watching the series and still enjoy it, don't let this review stop you, you are more then welcome to enjoy it, hell more power to you, I'm just stating out what I found was horrendous about this series.