Review of Fairy Tail

Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed watching Fairy Tail. I know in several of my other reviews I lambasted the series for its lack of maturity when dealing with fight scenes. True, in comparison with Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece, Fairy Tail's characters don't shed blood when fighting. In all non-filler episodes of the first season (this review is only for the first season), I can only recall 1 moment when a character actually made another bleed. Otherwise, all you can see are bruises on their bodies and they are knocked out -- but rarely do they come close to death. And whenthey are on the brink of dying, it's not really visible. Watch the other three major shounen I mentioned and you will see much better examples of the shounen anime's theme of withstanding pain and growing stronger.

This is now officially the longest anime I have completed that has its own page on MyAnimeList. I started Fairy Tail a long time ago, quit after one or two episodes deterred from the frequent use of what I will henceforth dub "VEEs" (Visually Exaggerated Emotions), returned after thinking to myself "Well, it's really popular and there's a lot left to go and it's anime so it's probably good" and have been watching it sporadically until today. I will not rank it next to Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, and other major shounen in this review; I will do that in a blog entry after I finish all of those. Now why did I continue watching Fairy Tail after a brief hiatus?

Although Fairy Tail does have its VEEs, you get used to it. They sort of fade into the background as you progress further into the show, and you don't really notice them anymore. What matters is the guild, the characters, and their communal battles as they face a variety of opponents. You may have heard Fairy Tail being nicknamed the "poor man's One Piece" for being similar but inferior in its ensemble cast with many unique powers and the overarching theme of fighting with and for your friends. What a pirate crew is in One Piece is a guild in Fairy Tail. The two anime are similar, but I will not say this is worse than One Piece. Both are entertaining, touching, funny, and pleasing to the eye in their own way.

STORY. The world of Fairy Tail as featured in the anime revolves around the primary guild of Fairy Tail, with wizards including Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster, Erza Scarlet, and many others, and its interaction with other guilds both good and evil. As guilds earn money by completing missions that may involve combat, along with the inherent ill will among different guilds, you can't help but have fighting be a big part of the anime. There are many types of magic (Dragon Slayer, Transformation, Rune, etc.) and as with all shounen a wizard can get stronger and use his/her magic to a varying degree. The underlying premise concerns Natsu, a fire Dragon Slayer, in his search for his father, the dragon Igneel. Although that's brought up very early in the show, it's moved to the background as he and his fellow guild members take on various enemies -- but you do learn a bit more about the Dragon Slayers and their origins the more you watch. Regarding the fight scenes, the recurring motif is power-up from the guild, that is, knowing that your friends are with you impels you to get back up and continue fighting even stronger than before. That may sound BS but it's still poignant and uplifting each time I see it. Regarding how characters fight, usually it's a combination of hand-to-hand moves and voiced spells involving magic circles and the wizard's type of magic. I know the constant verbalization of moves may be deterring but I will give my thoughts on that in a blog entry some time in the future. Now, the fight scenes do get better as the show progresses, they do get more realistic and the characters fight better, and the content of the show gets more mature with more innuendos and hints of romance.

ART. Obviously it's not as good as Attack on Titan but c'mon, it's a 175-episode show and to give Fairy Tail as much detail and visual quality as 1- or 2-cour anime would totally wreak the studio's budget. For the same reasons other long anime can't be really well-animated. But still, Fairy Tail has its scintillating moments and overall I do like the character designs and the way Natsu's dragon fire billows in the air is pretty cool. For the most part the guys and girls are attractive, and the girls are usually well-endowed, which is always good (and it's not too exaggerated like that in Highschool of the Dead for example).

SOUND. Very Celtic. The endings start out kinda weird but get better, and the openings are energetic and youthful, which corresponds to that air of wonder and magic in its purest form that appears in Fairy Tail. The openings are good for re-listening if you download them onto your phone. As I mention under "Caveats" in my profile, don't watch future openings and endings because that will only spoil future arcs and reveal things that were supposed to be mysteries. I did the impatient thing and watched all 22 openings (for both seasons and Fairy Tail Zero) way before finishing the first season, and thus I knew stuff that if I didn't know I would actually be surprised at the big reveals. Only do so if you're really feeling unmotivated to continue watching, because doing so does give you a glimpse of the more powerful enemies coming up, but try not to. The soundtrack? It's good. It's not stellar, but it's good to hear. That "wow" sound just gets you, too.

CHARACTER. As I mentioned before, determination drives power in the fight scenes. The will to keep going for your friends, and boy there is a fantastic show of friendship in this series, is a major part of the power-up. Natsu Dragneel is a voracious eater, kinda stupid, and loves to fight stronger opponents. But those moments when he slowly gets back up and his eyes are darkened, and his body is aflame once more... That, with his cool Aladdin-like outfit and pink spiky hair, puts him on my top 10 favorite characters list (see my profile). I'd have to say, the element of fire has the most style and awesomeness when put to combat. It's so overpowering. Other than that, there were plenty of moments when I said/thought "this is so awesome" when seeing mysteriously powerful characters, you know, all shounen has that when it presents new characters whose limit of ability you don't know yet and thus you're damn excited. Laxus and Mystogan, I'll leave it at that.

ENJOYMENT. There was a time when I would watch Fairy Tail and only Fairy Tail, some time in the middle. Even with its flaws -- fight scenes honestly fall short of the caliber in, say, Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, for example -- but when you think about it flaws in anime are judged as flaws only because they are judged in the light of other anime. My first anime was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I followed up with Hunter x Hunter (2011) and the three Fate series so you can only imagine. But there was something about Fairy Tail, something about the strong loyalty to friends and the characters, something endearing, that drew me again and again to the screen. It's hard to explain. If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've seen anime with better fighting and animation and character development, but I trust that you'll find something in Fairy Tail that will keep you attached to it.

"You don't die for your friends, you live for them."
-- Erza Scarlet