Fairy Tail

So I just binge-read this entire manga, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. The main arcs were somewhat formulaic, but honestly, repetition is something that many fairy tales often include. Even though you know "the power of friendship" would triumph in the end and that "everything will be okay," I still couldn't dismiss it as cliché enough to stop reading. The entire manga had a certain charm that kept me hooked.

I feel that Mashima planned this story out pretty well. There weren't any elements that felt half-hearted. He was dropping hints many chapters before anything significant happened. Even the things that seemed too convenient (abilities, modes of transportation, etc.) were welcome because they sped up the story. There weren't any useless chapters where the group was just moving from one place to another; there was always something happening. It never felt like it was dragging.

I liked all of the characters and can't say there were any I hated. I think all of the main crew experienced some good development. I guess a lot of people weren't happy with the ending, but I didn't see it as a problem. Not everyone has to have a resolved relationship, and Mashima left it open-ended enough to revisit later.

You can definitely tell that Mashima was inspired by the greats. Plenty of shenanigans and ridiculousness abound. This is a shonen manga if there ever was one. Boobs, butts, bath scenes, crude humor, and all XD

Very Minimal Spoiler

My wife first discovered Fairy Tail, and after hearing her laugh numerous times and listening to her talk about what I was missing out on, I decided to join her in watching the series.

The anime centers around the team of Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Happy, Erza, and Wendy. However, you get to know a lot about the supporting characters as well, and often find yourself wishing that the story would occasionally follow some of the other guild members since they are well-developed but could benefit from more screen time.

Overall, Fairy Tail is a shounen anime that is technically focused on battles, but it also has many comedic elements. For the older audience, there are some really heavy and emotional moments that make you wonder if the young male audience in Japan is more in touch with their feelings. Yes, there is plenty of fan service, although it frequently serves as a point of comedy that the characters themselves acknowledge. Of course, some instances result from questionable camera angles and wardrobe malfunctions.

I would have rated this show a 9 or 10 if it weren't for the ending in the manga (which hasn't been released in the anime yet). As other reviews have mentioned, the ending just fizzles out. The potential was there, the setup was doing really well, but in the end, it turned into a very predictable and overly optimistic solution to the problem. It felt rushed and didn't satisfy.

My favorite arcs to rewatch are the Battle of Fairy Tail and the Grand Magic Games. They remain entertaining, and in the case of the Grand Magic Games, it could have been a lovely recurring event in the series.

Firstly, I would like to express that Hiro Mashima is an exceptionally dedicated mangaka who deeply values the feedback from his readers. It's evident that he invests a significant amount of time in crafting this manga.

Though Fairy Tail holds a special place in my heart, I acknowledge it isn't without its flaws. Here are my thoughts on both the positive and negative aspects of this long-running series:

The characters truly resonate with me, especially after following their interactions, development, and growth throughout the series. Even without the magic and jobs, they come across as a close-knit group of friends whose bonds strengthen over time. If I had friends like these, life would be far more exciting.

I'm one of those people who appreciates a slow-burn relationship, whether romantic or platonic, and Fairy Tail delivers on that front — which is a good thing. Some characters stand out more than others in my opinion, mainly due to their over-the-top plot armor and friendship speeches (think Erza and Natsu). However, some characters are quite relatable, like Lucy for example: she faces regular setbacks but always gives her best effort, isn't overpowered, and tends to be logical and tactical in her fights.

The humor in the series is quite effective, and certain chapters and omake have made me laugh out loud. The art progression is simply astounding (seriously, compare chapter 1 to chapter 420), and I admire Mashima's artistic style. The character designs are decent, but what makes them memorable are the unique motifs and quirks.

Now, addressing the elephant in the room — yes, there is considerable fanservice in this manga, sometimes to an excessive degree. This can detract from moments meant to be dramatic, such as during fights where female characters often lose or rip their clothes, or when there are numerous panty shots, which can be somewhat annoying. However, it's important to note that this is indeed a shounen manga, and fanservice is common in this genre.

In summary, I love Fairy Tail and it will always hold a special place in my heart, especially knowing it's coming to an end soon. I hope more people give it a fair chance and understand that it's genuinely good. It's not just another cringey manga/anime trying too hard to emulate One Piece. It carries deeper meanings and has genuinely made me happier over the years. I sincerely hope you'll give it a try :)

Hmm... let me get this straight. Fairy Tail has quite a good premise. The fantasy world where almost everyone can use magic, mage guilds that consist of quirky, reckless characters who share bonds just like a family. It might be somewhat cliché, but almost everyone in the Fairy Tail guild has broad personalities and distinct physical traits. The story starts off rather commonly, with a good-versus-evil scenario. The main characters are almost always good-to-the-core types. This isn't an issue if the author can maintain a good storyline flow alongside character development. Now, this is where the real problem started to emerge.

In the initial chapters of this series, it was intriguing to see how the world looked, the character interactions, and the battles against evil mages and guilds. The main characters began by taking easier quests, then fought weaker forces of evil, and gradually took on more powerful adversaries. However, the story started to become stale when the author kept using the same formula (Fairy Tail guild takes on evil forces, gets beaten up, rises up, and defeats the evil). Initially, I became quite bored with the repeated use of this formula, but not enough to make me drop the series.

The problem wasn't solely with the story flow; character development was also an issue. The characters (mostly the good guys) are your typical "friendship-is-power" and "I-don't-need-training-to-defeat-my-enemies" types. They almost never train yet still manage to defeat the evil forces. Oh, and the characters had almost no development except for their power. The art was good but didn't really evolve throughout the story. Female characters all look alike, as do male characters, with some exceptions for buff, obese, or out-of-this-world characters. It was evident that the author lacked the skill to create distinct looks without relying on hairstyles, hair colors, and outfits.

MINOR SPOILER FROM THIS SECTION!
I kept waiting for the author to introduce different plot progressions, but it seemed I was wrong. The author wasn't very creative, so they kept pushing the same story, only with different enemies. The only time I found entertaining after many boring arcs was when they went to Edolas and met their alternate selves. The 7-year time skip was quite refreshing, as was the tournament that soon followed. Unfortunately, once the tournament arc ended, the story became boring again. At that point, I convinced myself that I needed to drop this series, and so I did.

To conclude my journey of reading this linear manga, I give it a total score of 3/10.

This review covers up to chapter 415, nearing the end of the Tartaros arc.

Honestly, I'd rate the manga an 8 or 9 until chapter 253. After that, the arcs really suck...

Up until chapter 253, the story was more reasonable and touching, unlike the senseless actions, power-ups, plot holes, and missing characters later on.

Story: 6

Fairy Tail is severely lacking in story depth. It's not that there's no story. Like Bleach, it has a main villain who keeps showing up indirectly or directly. But in Fairy Tail's case, there are two, and incredibly, their appearances and disappearances are absurd. The two strongest villains cause less damage than the cliched "I want to gain power/destroy the world/resurrect the strongest evil" villains? This is the first time I've seen such weak-willed villains. In One Piece, at least there would be an explanation for why some villains leave after defeating the protagonists. In Fairy Tail? Nope. It's logical for the strongest villains to just leave after "defeating" them. Which is vague since the protagonists seem stronger after being injured, more so than at the start of every difficult battle.

Another issue is the MIA and illogical appearances of some characters. For example, after chapter 253, some characters appear out of nowhere and then disappear without reason.

The most absurd thing about the story is how guilds and dark guilds are associated. Three guilds in an alliance fight the light guilds one by one. One fights against a TEMPORARY alliance of light guilds. What's the point of an alliance if you fight one by one?

Art: 9

The art is really good, consistent, clear, and the character designs are mostly unique.

Character: 5

The quality of the characters is debatable. Most personalities are consistent, but there are inconsistencies in minor characters' appearances and disappearances. The power-ups of main characters and some villains make reading chapters 1-415 painful. It seems like the author forgot some minor characters' behaviors or even that they existed.

Another flaw is that some characters becoming main characters changed too much. Like a spell turning villains goody-goody, but without the spell.

Enjoyment: 8

Till 253 it's a 10, then till 415 it's a 6. This sums up the enjoyment level. It has much to do with the direction of comedy and fanservice before and after 253.

Overall: 7

If you enjoy shounen, adventure, action, and friendship, look no further. It's also a fantasy genre, so enjoy the over-the-top power-ups!

P.S. This would be a fantastic example of power creep in games.

Notice that I have only read the first volume of this manga, and I still can't wait for the second one to be released.

Story: The story follows the adventures of Natsu, a fire-based mage and member of the renowned mage guild, Fairy Tail. He gets easily sick from any form of transportation. Accompanying him are his talking cat, Happy, and a girl named Lucy who practices 'key' magic. Natsu is in search of his great master, Salamander, and along the way, he joins forces with Lucy as they embark on various guild missions together.

Art: The artwork is quite pleasing, featuring typical shounen style with nicely drawn characters, both male and female. The costumes are detailed. The only downside is how the characters' eyes are drawn when they are surprised; their huge black eyes take up most of their faces.

Characters: As mentioned earlier, the main characters include Natsu, who has a very humorous personality and engages in witty dialogues with other characters. He is also quite strong in magic. Lucy, described as 'a bit of a tsundere,' is a pretty girl seeking to fulfill her dreams. Happy, the cat, is also quite funny.

Enjoyment: This is a fantastic fantasy shounen-comedy series filled with adventure and action. From what I've read so far, it deserves a 10 out of 10.

Intriguing plot. Unique and original world. Well-developed characters. Amazingly epic and suspenseful battles.

Fairy Tail is none of these. When I was first introduced to this manga, it seemed like it had direction, a plot, interesting secrets, and mysteries. So far, the biggest mystery to me is how Natsu isn't the Guildmaster of Fairy Tail as well as the strongest of the Ten Wizard Saints. As I read chapter after chapter, I watched characters ten times stronger than Natsu get defeated by apparently overpowered foes, only for Natsu to rise up, eat some random flame, and beat said foe because, hey, he's the main character.
Additionally, the same happens with the initially likable Erza. I wanted to like her; her magic was intriguing, and she seemed like a fun character. But her nakama power-boosts are too overwhelming, and all the Deus Ex Machina surrounding her are just too much, especially in later chapters.

Worst of all, I know that Mashima can create good battles and interesting characters. This story actually does have some good characters who experience more realistic battle outcomes. Yet, for some reason, he decides to sideline them and laugh at how weak they are compared to his godly main characters.

To finalize my disdain for the main characters, let's analyze Lucy, the protagonist existing solely for fanservice. Constant, never-ending fanservice. I remember a chapter where Natsu and Gray see Lucy naked (again) and don't react, saying the novelty has worn off because they've seen her naked plenty of times. I was thinking along the same lines. It's just plain annoying seeing the countless ways Mashima finds to remove Lucy's clothes.

What else can I say about this manga? Well, the fact that no good guys ever die is always annoying, even though that seems to be the norm for shounen anyway, with very few exceptions. Also, the plot never seems to advance anywhere (which makes me wonder if it even had one to start with or if I was just being misled into believing it did as I read on), which is just plain frustrating.
And as I've mentioned several times, I hate how the battles lack any suspense. We all know Natsu will win, and all the good guys will survive, something that completely detracts from the story and makes me feel like I'm wasting my time when reading battles.

....If anyone read this entire rant, I commend you, thank you for reading. You can agree with me or not; it's just my opinion. I'm merely pointing out that I believe this series to be completely overrated—not to say it's outright awful—and I would just not bother.
If you really want to read an epic shounen, read Naruto, One Piece, or Bleach. And never compare Fairy Tail to them. They aren't the greatest series, but they are the top three shounen, and for good reason, while Fairy Tail only wishes it were half as good as any of them.

I enjoyed Fairy Tail, but it has numerous flaws that prevent it from being a masterpiece. Let me explain what I liked and disliked.

(For context, I started watching the Fairy Tail anime in 2014 on TV, viewing the first 150 episodes out of order. In 2021, I restarted it from the beginning using the manga.)

As a child, I truly enjoyed Fairy Tail for its fantasy vibe and humor. I also appreciated it as a teenager, but certain flaws detracted from the overall experience.

For instance, the plot holes and the "Power of Friendship" concept: Initially, the power of friendship didn't bother me; it's a manga mechanic and acceptable when balanced. However, it became disproportionate later on, especially in the Tartaros or Alvarez arcs.

SPOILER

There are no real challenges throughout the manga, making it seem like a serious work that avoids addressing serious themes.

For example, nobody dies or faces significant issues. Makarov should have died twice but survives, just like Gray and Charles. The moment I started liking Fairy Tail less was when Lisanna inexplicably returned to life with a weak explanation. Indeed, there are no meaningful deaths in the manga when there should have been at certain points.

Regarding the power of friendship, I disliked how every villain either becomes kind or simply dies, such as Jellal, Silver, Minerva, Eileen, Sting, Rogue, and Gajeel, among others.

The fanservice is another issue. It's worse in the manga than in the anime. No, Mashima, we don't want to see panties during every fight between females.

On the positive side, I liked the universe-building, the fantasy moments, and the humor. Additionally, the art and drawings are very good.

Most of these lengthy shounen manga (anime) face tough challenges. I believe that many stories, especially manga, go through three critical stages during their run. These stages are:

1- Opening (Buildup)
2- Middle (Execution)
3- End (Ending)

Let's briefly break down each one and then see how the mighty Fairy Tail performed in each stage.

Opening:

This stage involves the plot, story, characters, their relationships, and the setting of the entire manga, including mysteries, backstories, goals for every important character. Essentially, everything you need to have in your head as a mangaka before you start writing! This means you don't need to add or change anything once you've passed this stage, as doing so could lead to potential plot holes and unnecessary contradictions in the story. When everything is set and ready, you advance to the second stage!

Middle:

This is when things start to clear up. Mysteries are revealed, plots executed, and everything becomes prepared for that long-awaited climax!

End:

This is the most critical stage; one wrong move and everything falls apart. Understandably, this is also where most writers fail miserably. As Machiavelli said, "A battle that you win cancels any other bad action of yours. In the same way, by losing one, all the good things worked by you before become vain." What does that have to do with anything? Well, it's quite relevant. Plus, it's always cool to quote influential people like Machiavelli.

Now that I’ve defined and broken down each stage, let's openly discuss how Fairy Tail fared in each.

Building up a story, manga, or whatever isn't really that hard; you just need some imagination and knowledge because you'll have to see where others started and kind of do the same. Fairy Tail did just that. It had a textbook setting, main character, and story, which is absolutely fine since you don't really need to be different to be successful, especially in the first stage! Building up everything was pretty successful in my opinion. We were provided with exciting arcs, great battles, and amazing development in the first hundred chapters or so.

Since Fairy Tail provided a lot of good buildup, we expected at least a decent execution of all that tension and mystery. For me, I wasn’t disappointed. Fairy Tail didn't fail to impress me with its execution, as it was able to add new mysteries right after revealing previous ones and kept me hooked until the very end. However, as it progressed, disappointment started to manifest as each arc became weaker and weaker in terms of execution while providing enormous potential at the beginning, leading to a huge letdown as nothing met its expectations.

But the reason why Fairy Tail got criticized by many reviewers and fans wasn’t because of that. Remember that cool quote at the "End" stage? Yeah, that. Fairy Tail failed miserably at that stage, resulting in everyone bashing it and giving it a low score. They can't be blamed even if it might be unfair to judge it all by how it ends, but that has been an ironclad rule in judging a TV show or manga: You can't give something a good score if the ending was awful.

I wrote this review to remind people of how good Fairy Tail used to be and that we shouldn't judge it solely by that ending. We should give some credit to the first two stages, which Fairy Tail did amazingly well in. That’s all.

Now finally, I’m going to rate all the aspects soundly and give my fair and final judgment on why Fairy Tail isn’t as bad as people make it out to be and also why it is still acceptably bad.

Story: 7

A classic story, nothing much to say here. One negative thing I might mention about the story is how most things are forgotten along the way. You might find this in other shounen manga because it’s pretty common, but that doesn’t make it welcomed in my book. Natsu has no idea where he’s going as he doesn’t really have any dream to achieve or any status he would want to be like that flexible hat guy or the other ninja retard. Everything happening in the story leads to absolutely nothing; he just finds stuff to do along the way, which is kinda ridiculous and weakens the essence of the story.

Art: 8

The art was suitable for the atmosphere of the manga. Also, an amazing talent at drawing erotic female characters, so maybe this guy isn’t so bad.

Character: 7

Most characters are kinda pointless except for the main ones. I think this guy thinks as long as he dedicated an entire arc for a supporting character, they have no right to complain about not having relevance to the story anymore, but whatever. Fairy Tail is keen on following the rule of "if you are a bad guy, don’t switch sides as you will turn into an utterly useless sidekick for the hero and won’t have any value anymore" for some reason.

Enjoyment: 8

To be honest, despite all the bullshit, I really enjoyed it, and I think anyone can as long as they disregard the few negative irregularities, which include poor conception of time travel, pointless characters, thought projections that have emotions, enormous build-up that makes your thing throb with excitement but ends up disappointing you every time, a warrior who is able to fight even after getting every nerve of their body destroyed because they love their friends (emotional). I won’t say more to avoid spoilers. So, if you are fine with these things, I think you will quite enjoy the Fairy Tail ride as it’s not all about logic! You will soon learn how friendship is way more important.

Overall: 7

All jokes aside, Fairy Tail is quite decent for those who want to see exciting battles, heartwarming moments, funny characters, and most importantly, fanservice.

A wise man once said, "To deny Fairy Tail as absolute garbage is to deny reality itself."

At the risk of this turning into a rant, I will be censoring myself a lot to give a genuine review. This review will contain very minor spoilers as names (except the main character slot) will be withheld because, for God knows what reason, you still want to pick up this manga after everything I said; you won't be spoiled...you have been warned.

Well, well, well...what can I say that hasn't been said about FT? Actually, nothing really. FT is what happens when you write 1/4 of your manga and then fire all your co-writing staff, go to a nursery, and replace good plot with whatever those toddlers vomit on a page, and there you have what FT is. Granted, for a battle shounen, you shouldn't expect much when it comes to story and characters, but this just happens to be worse than every battle shounen I've ever watched/read. How did it fall so fast into the shitter that it actually becomes a chore to read it every week? I remember back in the day when a new chapter would come out, and I would genuinely feel excited, but as time progressed and the quality of work just became worse and worse, you get the feeling of apathy because your hopes and expectations have been shattered time and time again. At least I can praise FT for one thing, and that is its unpredictability because it surprises you every time in how much worse it can become with every chapter.

Normally, in battle shounen, you see the characters train to become better, but not here...no, no, no, here they give friendship speeches and cringy one-liners about emotions, and then gain all sorts of asspull power. Battles go something like this:

4 vs. 1...villain slaughters them
*cue the friendship speech*
1 vs. 1...badly damaged FT member one-shots
*cue the viewers' tears after watching a horrible fight*

If the whole "friendship" power-up always defeats the enemy despite how powerful they may be (even GODS), what's the point of even training to become stronger? They always put so much effort into fighting the enemy, seemingly intensifying the situation they're in, then use the overused, effortless power-up known as "friendship" that ALWAYS ends it. It's not even because they are stronger than their foe. Sometimes the foe's power outclasses them completely yet the 'believing in myself' and 'my friends give me power' stick always wins...I'm surprised the series hasn't ended sooner.

The characters are horrible, with almost no redeemable ones among them. Character development here somehow makes the character worse. I didn't think it was possible, but Hiro did it. This manga features some of the worst characters I've ever come across, and the character assassinations that happen to mildly interesting characters, just because of their contact with the main cast, is truly shocking. It's like they are all absorbed into the bullshittery of emotion that is the Fairy Tail guild. They lose their individuality and, just like a corporate environment, become slaves in a never-ending rut just going with the flow of things. At the end, it's like the same characters just all wearing different faces until they just become numbers.

The Main Characters

Natsu - Carbon copy/paste of the idiot shounen male lead that thinks with his fist but somehow he's worse because instead of training to become stronger, he just spouts crap about "my friends are my strength" and one-shots the opponent even though the foe was winning 99% of the fight...fucking ridiculous.

Lucy - The fanservice character with forced insertion due to her magic type to make her seem more than a massive set of tits in clothes that are clearly way too small for her. If she's not randomly losing clothes, becoming naked, or falling on Natsu's face, she would hardly feature. She's not a good character, but as far as FT characters go, she's one of the better ones.

Gray - At least something Hiro did right. With his unique Ice Making magic, he can construct objects and combined with his keen intellect, he uses this and strategy to defeat his opponent in a non-bs way. Then kinda murdered the character's progression to make him blend in with the rest of the mind-numbing cast. Hiro does this with a few characters, but why would that surprise you...

Erza - The worst character in the series, and I'm not even going to go there. I could start an entire website dedicated to my hatred of this character and how appalling she is written..."because she's Erza" oh the cringe.

Happy - Natsu's flying cat that's there to make jokes and eat fish...that's it...no lie.

The manga art also takes a major change in the middle, but personally, I was fine with it as it made the characters look older than they were before due to time passing by but still recognizable. Character outlines are also thinner. I think I was one of the few people to actually like the new art as I've only heard backlash on it, but meh, you either like it or you don't. It's not like it subtracts or adds much to this terrible story.

The characters don't even look that much different, especially the female characters. It's like Hiro just took the same body shape for every female except for Wendy that is treated as a loli for comedic scenes about her big breast envy and a bit of fan-service for those that want that...just horrible and lazy.

The story is a linear set of events that really serve no purpose other than introducing fodder villains for Fairy Tail to bulldoze, and the final arc has to be one of the worst things in digital and printed history. Even the final chapter, like seriously? You couldn't give the fans a better ending than that after suffering through that mess? I wouldn't print it on toilet paper. Over 500 chapters and 11 years of work, most of it is horrible, but I guess the series had to remain true to itself and remain trash to the end...wouldn't want to mess with the Krabby Patty formula now, do we?

Personally, I've spent 4 years following this series, and it was one of the worse things I've read, and now I've have nothing more to say except goodbye and good riddance.

This manga is one of those that stumbles occasionally but then astonishes everyone the next moment. It's undoubtedly one of the best out there.

Story:
Its uniqueness cannot be overstated. The author's approach from start to finish is mind-blowing, and it hits you right in the face without anyone seeing it coming. As you delve deeper, it just keeps getting better. The romance aspects are particularly noteworthy; based on my knowledge, this series has the most fan ships online. The fights could use a bit less nakama speeches, which would earn it a 7 in that regard, but the mangaka makes everything better, especially from the Tartaros arc and the Alvarez Empire arc. It's mind-blowing even just four chapters in.

Art:
The art is clean, beautiful, and scrumptious, with a unique style that stands out.

Character:
Character development has been a significant issue in this manga, but the mangaka finally addressed it in the Tartaros arc. I won't spoil anything, but if you think this manga isn't good due to character development, just read the Tartaros arc and bask in Hiro Mashima's glorious writing.

Enjoyment:
This is one of those series where comedy is done right. This manga could easily be a slice-of-life rom-com and still sell like pancakes.

OVERALL:
FAIRY TAIL is one of those mangas that gets better with age, and right now, it's mind-blowing. My only complaint is why Nalu hasn't happened yet. Just go and read a couple of chapters or watch an anime episode, and I guarantee you'll fall head over heels for this series.