Review of Fairy Tail

Numerically I would give the show as a whole a score of about 9/10. I personally think it is amazing and one of my favorites, but it is also extremely valid to disagree, as you probably don't need me to tell you the show has flaws. I do not believe the series needs to be apologized for, or that it is a "guilty" pleasure that one should hesitate to say they're a fan of as some might think. However, I will be writing this review geared more toward the skeptics or people on the fence to possibly help them understand a little more specifically whatFairy Tail is and is not about. So it may come across as somewhat apologetic, but that is not the intent. Fairy Tail is definitely one of the most divisive anime ever, and I would hope that whether a person loves it or hates it that they can at least see how a person could easily fall on the other side. Also, I do warn you up front that this review might come across as a little corny, but the series itself does not shy away from that, so you should get used to it if you decide to give it a try.

First of all, the title Fairy Tail has a double meaning. Firstly, even though it is spelled differently (I will get to the meaning of the spelling actually used later on) the series Fairy Tail is a fairy tale. It takes place in a magical world with wizards and guilds and dragons and demons. There are an absolute ton of characters and also an absolute ton of very unique and strong magical powers to go along with them. As a fairy tale, the author of the source material, Hiro Mashima, is not afraid to have these characters use all of their mystical abilities to impact the story. As any sane person should be able to determine based off of that, there are going to be some plot holes/inconsistencies caused by this. Or to put it more plainly, there are some ass pulls. Believe it or not, it is actually possible to write ass pulls pretty well. I will give a relatively vague example to avoid spoilers. If a plot element, or dare I even say a plot device, is explained more poetically than logically, this can actually sometimes be just as good as logical explanation. And in the context of an emotional character moment (of which there are about a zillion of in this series) it is possible it could maybe even work better than a logical explanation. Being a fairy tale, you should go in expecting at least a decent amount of the explanations to lean more to the mystical and/or emotional rather than the logical. The story can actually get very complex and nuanced the later you get into it. This is largely due to the amount of time plot elements have had to build off of each other as well as frankly the extremely large number of characters all with different stories of their own. Fairy Tail is a 328 episode anime series and 545 chapter manga series, so it is very long. This does not even count the currently on-going Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest continuation series. To put it plainly, the "magic" based power system allows the author to more easily execute the lengthy plot while providing a reasonable possibility for the audience to suspend its disbelief.

Anyway, naming the series as a fairy tale (alternate spelling here to portray the double meaning) also is a sort of clever way to provide a little more help in allowing the author to get away with the sometimes suspect logic, though of course I would never say anything is an exclusive 'get out of jail free' card. This all being said, just like probably any other series you've experienced, Fairy Tail is going to fall short sometimes, even with this flexible set up I've explained. When this occurs, it will probably be in a fight scene when two or more powers clash, but that will vary from person to person. Many if not most of the fights are done very well though, so to enjoy this series to the fullest you will need to be somewhat lenient to accept and move on from the bad rather than obsessing over it. In contrast, there is so much more that's good to focus on, and even beyond just the fights. This is a story composed of many detailed character interrelations, as well as friendship, emotion, struggle, fantasy, mystery, redemption, and perseverance. With the occasional poorly executed fight, it seems that somehow so many become blinded to all these other aspects that also make the show so great. And I'll state again, though not always, many of the fights are handled very well and can achieve some of the most hype and epic anime moments you'll ever have the pleasure of witnessing, and that is by no means an exaggeration.

The last thing that needs to be said about the fairy tale aspect of Fairy Tail that could be considered spoilery, yet I truly believe is very good to be aware of going into it if you're a skeptic (skip to the next paragraph if you're particularly paranoid about spoilers of any kind), is that the author strives for a more fairy tale type of conclusion. This includes both the several story arcs that make up the series, as well as the series as a whole. There are one or two story arcs that could be considered exceptions to this, which provides some enjoyable diversity, but definitely NOT the final story arc of the show. I really don't think this should be surprising in the slightest based on everything else I've described above about it being a fairy tale, but for whatever reason, many people (including myself actually) were originally thrown off a lot by the ending due to expecting something different for some reason.

So as explained earlier, the title has a double meaning, of which I will describe the other portion. Basically Fairy Tail is just the name of the guild of wizards that the show is about. The founder of the guild wanted to find out if fairies have tails even though nobody even knows if fairies exist. So the dream upon a dream implies a never-ending adventure making up the guild's name. The adventure of the series is not "never-ending" as you can guess, but it is obviously a really long one. That being said, you get an incredible amount of time to get to know and become attached to the wacky likable characters that make up the guild.

So being what the show is about and named after, the guild of Fairy Tail itself warrants more discussion. The first really important thing to realize about the guild is that they are a family. In a way, Fairy Tail has almost been like an orphanage to several of its members. They've grown together and become incredibly close throughout the years. Some members actually have literal family blood ties, or in other cases may have compelling romantic interests between them. There are several members of the guild and some of them are ridiculously powerful; however, many others are ridiculously weak in comparison. Unlike Dragon Ball Z, that is how the group is shown to be from the very beginning. Also, unlike One Piece, everyone most definitely does not play a specific and crucial role in the group, making the idea that they are a family that much more believable. I am certainly not the first one to say it, but the unique writing of Fairy Tail along with it's lovable guild members, as well as the challenges they face, including how those challenges are overcome, immerses you into the main group of the show excellently. Part of basically any story is going to involve the aspect of how the individual audience members can insert themselves into it, and Fairy Tail succeeds at making you (or at least myself and many others) feel like a member of the main group more than ANY other story. It invokes the feeling that these crazy bastards are people someone would really like to know and hang out with, and the show succeeds at getting you as close to that reality as a fictional work possibly can.

This whole idea is even further portrayed by who the main character of Fairy Tail is. For a long time, you might think it's Natsu and or Lucy, two members that probably get the most screen time over the course of the series. But then much later on when the backstory of the guild's formation is shown, you actually start to wonder if it could be another specific character that wasn't even introduced until after the conclusion of several major story arcs. But really at the end of it all, and many others have said this before me, the Fairy Tail guild itself is the main character of Fairy Tail. The battles aren't really going to be some super thematic clash of two particularly deep ideologies, they are for the Fairy Tail family. They are basically always going to be to defend the guild family's safety, unity, or honor. Being that you don't necessarily need to relate with one specific main character, it becomes much easier to insert yourself into the guild. This immersive aspect of the viewer into the guild of Fairy Tail itself is actually quite an interesting and phenomenal achievement of the series.

Since this is a show about wizards and magic, as well as an action shounen series, you can probably predict that there are several antagonists for the guild to contend with throughout the series. As explained before, the antagonists provide a threat to the safety, unity, and/or honor of the guild. However, they frankly do not sometimes live up to the threat of their story build-up. I personally think this can tie into the insertive nature of the story through the main guild family. Honestly sometimes you can just have a load of fun watching how badass or awesome your family can be. Again, this is NOT always the case. In addition, the villains have their own stories that often coincide with the Fairy Tail guild members', and they are definitely not always bad just for the sake of being bad. As is common in anime, many backstories are revealed after some build up portraying the antagonists as really just less fortunate or misled people, with ideals not too different from the protagonists. Also, as is common in long running shounen anime, such as in Dragon Ball for example, the villains can stick around sometimes; however, not always by exactly joining the guild in this case, but perhaps by starting their own for example. This happens to be the case with some of my favorites in the series. In fact, I am extremely disappointed there is no kind of side story or manga to go into more detail about this, and Fairy Tail DOES have a good number of things like that, but alas, I suppose that just speaks to how incredibly interesting so many of the characters and their subplots can be.

In further consideration of the antagonists, it should also be mentioned that Mashima often decides to end the battles quickly (unlike One Piece), and without obsessing over every minute detail (unlike Hunter x Hunter). I personally think this makes for some of the absolute best pacing one could ever find from a long running series. On top of this, Fairy Tail has a filler episode rate of less than 20% while consistently covering about 2 manga chapters per non-filler episode. This is considerably better than a lot of the show's most major competition, including One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach.

To truly appreciate how great the viewer's family of Fairy Tail is, we need to see the supporting cast, including the other guilds, in action. These guilds range from ones approved by the governing "Magic Council" or in contrast the unapproved "Dark Guilds". However, that is definitely not to say these other guilds and characters within them cannot be very likable themselves due to various personality traits, beliefs, quirks/running gags, or emotional/interesting backstories. The plethora of other characters can also be brought back into the story at a later time by the author in various ways. It is a really enjoyable aspect of the series to see how the characters are not forgotten about, such as is the case with many characters in Bleach or maybe Dragon Ball for example, but continue to maintain a complex web of interrelations all throughout the final story arc. This can even be the case with seemingly obscure characters, or a character's previous association with another can be relevant at a later point. This rewards the viewer for paying attention and investing to memory these interactions from earlier on. And many of these characters have very interesting and distinct, though sometimes surprisingly simple, powers as I have mentioned to further make their character stand out. After having read Rave Master myself as well, I can say that Hiro Mashima has a unique talent of taking very basic concepts and handling them in such unique and interesting ways. One example of this would be the Edolas story arc of Fairy Tail, which I'll let you go ahead and watch for yourself if you make it there. Lastly, the show's characters do tend to have quite intriguing development and character progression throughout their sometimes series long storylines, making their character moments much more impactful.

Next I'll briefly discuss animation. My understanding is that the show was originally planned to only go through episode 48, similar to the anime for Hiro Mashima's previous work, Rave Master. Because of this, it can be apparent that those episodes have the best production value; however, overall, this is maintained fairly well for the most part all the way through the 175 episode original series. For episodes 176-328 there is a slight change in art style and an eventual change in studio with an even further decrease in animation quality along the way in comparison to the early episodes. However, I do think there remained a sense of respect for the story from the creators as they continuously make small but noticeable improvements to plot execution throughout in comparison to the manga. This is not to say that episode 176 and beyond don't have their moments of visual impressiveness. In fact, the very last battle of the entire series was able to really give me those types of intense action feelings that mostly, yet not entirely, are reserved for the first half of the show.

After everything I've discussed in depth that I really enjoy about Fairy Tail so much, the possibly best thing about this entire show is the ultra top tier sound. I am not really talking about the sound effects themselves so much as the voice acting and music. The English dub for Fairy Tail is one of the most mind blowing dubs you could ever have the pleasure of hearing. This is especially true for a long running series that introduces several times more characters than a shorter anime. It absolutely baffles my mind how through even the final season, virtually every single voice fits just about every single character so perfectly, and the performances are next tier as well. I did watch a lot of the Japanese track with subtitles while going through the show weekly, and while I do think there is a big difference in quality, I do still think the casting and performances there are still really great if that is more of your cup of tea. The OVAs, which are completely extra and unnecessary content, are actually only available in Japanese, but I still enjoy many of them immensely. In addition, there are two movies available in both audio languages.

This leads me to the sound aspect that is probably even better than the voice acting, and that would be the music. I am in no way exaggerating at all when I say that I have never witnessed anything in my entire existence with a soundtrack even remotely close to as absolutely amazing in every conceivable way as the Fairy Tail soundtrack. This freaking soundtrack is the stuff of legends... and helps push the show into that legendary status for many fans. When I say amazing, I really do mean in terms of epicness, emotion, intensity, fun, adventure, and just about anything else you can think of, at least that could ever fit a show like this. If you decide against watching the series, do yourself a very gigantic favor by at least looking up these tracks.

In summary, after everything discussed here, just what is it that makes Fairy Tail so enjoyable to watch? Fairy Tail can most definitely be enjoyed super casually, but there is a really good amount of substance to the story, characters, and lore to keep one engaged as well. When these different elements come together it can sometimes be at a level beyond epic or beautiful. The series can stumble for sure, but when Fairy Tail is at its best, I would say it isn't matched by anything other than possibly Code Geass or One Piece. Like I've seen several hundreds of series and several thousands of hours of anime, and if I listed my favorite anime moments of all time there would probably be two just from Fairy Tail in my top five and maybe three or more in my top ten. And those are not isolated incidents of greatness. There is a lot of superb story build up and characterization that makes those moments possible. Of course the unique immersiveness into the group of main characters does much to invest the audience into these moments as well. To me it seems that the series really does so much so well that I actually think this is what causes so many people to have so much hatred for the series when it may not have lived up to whatever their expectations might have been. I mean seriously, separate from the countless fans, the amount of criticism this show can get from the "haters" is absolutely baffling. I think that's only a testament to how powerful the deeper and core thematic aspects of the show can really be, how interesting and "magical" the fantasy layer is, as well as how insanely likable of a cast of characters it has. By no means do you need to be the most overly sappy or illogical person to enjoy this show, since I definitely would not put myself in that category. I think anybody should be able to get the appeal of family, while probably most of us should be able to get the appeal of the abstract ideas of fantasy, humor, and adventure. All of which are abundant in this tale 👆