Review of Fairy Tail

I am so thankful that Fairy Tail wasn't my introduction to the world of anime, because if it was, I probably would never have given any anime a shot ever again out of fear that the other shows would be just as bad as this. Never in my life have I watched such a shallow, vapid, humorless, tension-less, cookie-cutter, generic show in my entire life. This show should be considered a crime against humanity for existing and there should be some special award for anyone that managed to wade through every single episode. I first watched this show when I was at the heightof my One Piece obsession, and hearing how this show was "just as good", I decided to give it a shot. Needless to say, I felt cheated. This show isn't even a pale shadow in comparison to One Piece, despite OP having abundant flaws itself. As a side note, this review will encompass ALL of Fairy Tail, including the 2014 and the Final Series. I do not have the energy to make 3 separate reviews for them and anything that could be said about them will be said here.

Welcome to the show that started the joke of "Nakama Power" where instead of going through training or any meaningful development, all they have to do is THINK real hard about their friends and they suddenly have the power to one-shot an enemy that was previously capable of one-shotting them. Every arc is the exact same, with the only difference being the name of the villain or the number of them. The guild is made aware of some bad guys, fight and lose, think real hard about their friends, then victory. From the first arc to the last, it never once changes. This show also has the extraordinary feat of being the only Shonen series to present a time-skip where none of the characters have any meaningful growth in that time. They are the exact same in power, appearance, and personality. 7 years or 5 minutes, it doesn't matter. The result stays the same. It's not interesting or exciting in any way, it's just tedious and boring, like playing a video game where you do the same thing over and over again for 20-30 hours.

The tension is nonexistent. There is not a single instance where you feel anyone is in danger. The few times where they had the guts to actually deal harm, or daresay a DEATH, it's immediately reversed in a few moments. I try my best to avoid spoilers, but I would like to save you the trouble of watching this shit, so would you like to know how many guild members die throughout the series, excluding flashbacks or former members? Negative 1. Yes, throughout the series there have been a few deaths, and each of them have been reversed. Gray died but Ultear used time magic to reverse it. Makarov died but somehow he returned (I already forgot how), Juvia supposedly died but nope, she was saved as well despite suffering massive blood loss. The worst is easily Lisanna, who was established to have died several years before the beginning of the series. Nah, she was just transported to an alternate dimension because they tried to replace their own Lisanna who died. So instead of 0 deaths from the beginning to the end, it's -1. The power system is wasted potential to the max. Magic in this show is pretty unique and if it was in the hands of a competent writer, could've been extremely complex and maybe even rival something like Nen in versatility. But nope, the only ones that get more than a few episodes of screen time are the main character's magic.

Almost all of the characters are annoying in a way that I cannot describe in words. Natsu is my least favorite anime protagonist of all time. He's not charming or witty, he's just loud and obnoxious, and gets his ass kicked in every fight until the titular Nakama power takes over. Why couldn't he be like Luffy? Luffy is the same in that he's dumb outside of combat and he's loud but he's funny and charming. As for the others, if their names are not Lucy, Erza, or Gray, then they are stereotypical one-dimensional characters that barely get any development at all. It's a shame because the voice actors are extremely talented but the characters themselves can never be taken seriously because none of them feel real, sympathetic, or even remotely interesting. It's just "oh it's the blue hair girl with huge tits" or "oh it's the green haired girl with huge tits." And speaking of tits, there's the fan service. If you've watched a lot of anime then you probably know what to expect. And yeah, you might find the girls attractive but take away their sizable "assets" and they lose 90% of their charm because they lack any personality or depth and none of them are badass in any way. See, a show like Hunter x Hunter has female characters that are attractive without the need for over-sexualizing them, and they have actual personalities and depth. On the other hand, One Piece might sexualize characters, but again, at least the female characters have personality and depth, and frankly, they are super badass in a fight. The humor is bland and awful, I did not laugh at any jokes and didn't find any quirks like Dragon Slayers getting motion sickness funny at all, and it only got continuously annoying as I watched more. The villains are extremely generic and one-dimensional as well, especially the Spriggan 12, who was hyped up to be the greatest threat in all of FT. Nah, most of them get one-shotted when the characters got angry enough and Zeref even killed one of the strongest ones himself, what a genius! They are a poor villain group, like honestly, if you introduced these fools to the Phantom Troupe, the Shichibukai, or the Akatsuki, they'd all piss themselves laughing.

The art and sound are the only things that aren't complete garbage in this show, at least in the beginning. As time passed, the art and sound degraded into One Piece Post-Timeskip levels by the time we got to the Final Season. But hey, mediocrity is still better than garbage, right?

So uh... Please don't watch this show. Whatever you think this show has to offer, I guarantee that it doesn't. You want humor and fan-service? Watch Grand Blue instead. You want an anime with great worldbuilding and characters you can love and cry with? Watch (well more like read) One Piece. You want a good battle Shonen with exciting action and tension and a complex power system? Watch Hunter x Hunter. 1/10.