Fairy Tail

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 know 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 wrote 1/4 of your manga and thenfire 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 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 the give friendship speeches and cringy one liners about emotions and then gain all sorts of asspull power. Battles go something like this 4vs1...villain slaughters them *cue the friendship speech* 1vs1...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 in 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 foes 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 done 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 characters 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 here. I could start an entire website dedicated to my hatred of this character and how appaling 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 a 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 horriible 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.

*Review contains minor spoilers* Fairy Tail is the titanic of manga, it starts out on a great voyage and ends up sinking. That’s how I would describe it. Honestly the amount of potential this manga had when it started was enormous, but at somewhere along the lines it just became a drag to continue reading it. As you were waiting for each release the thing that went through your mind was “can’t this manga end soon?”. The story of this manga is honestly good, it’s an interesting concept about mages travelling the world to complete quests for a reward and the more quests the guild members completethe more prestigious the guilds becomes, etc. but everything starts going south with the characters. The source of the characters power are basically their nakama (companions), if they’re at the brink of defeat but suddenly one of their nakama shouts their name it gives them the ultimate boost to take down the enemy. Although this could be said about most shounen manga. After a few hundred chapters in you also starts to notice that there’s suddenly a large amount of fanservice. Some hot springs scenes where they accidentally grab some boobs and spank some buttocks along with some naked (but not actually naked, their nipples and genitalia is hidden with hair, objects, and whatnot) scenes during a battle to the death. It almost felt like the author was pushed to implement this because they were losing readers. I said “battle to the death” previously but there’s no actual deaths… Not during any battles anyway. One of the things that pissed me of was that this one (important) good guy used a spell that would kill himself but save his nakama so he wholeheartedly does it, and honestly if that would have been it that would have been good, but no, a few chapters later he miraculously comes back to life. The author basically wants a happy ever after ending. All of this is basically the core ingredients for a shounen manga though, so no huge surprise. But while it does have its bad points I would say that it also has some good points, more specifically its humor. While the fighting scenes may be cringe from time-to-time, Fairy Tail has a great sense of humor which makes it stand out from other shounen manga. Although the biggest reason you may want or may not want to read this manga is the ending. It leaves some plot holes but honestly it’s just purely unsatisfying to read 545 chapters of a manga and then you get such a plain happy ever after ending. But I will not lie, I do not regret reading this manga, it has some great moments and its brought me many laughs; not worth a re-read though.

Most of these long shounen Manga (Anime) have it rough. I think that a lot of stories (Manga in particular) always have to go through 3 very important stages throughout its respective running periods. these stages are: 1- Opening (Buildup) 2- Middle (Execution) 3- End (Ending) Lets first briefly start breaking down each one of these and define them then lets see how mighty Fairy Tail did in each stage. Opening:- this stage includes the plot, story, charatcers, their relationship and the setting of the whole Manga including mysteries, backstories, a goal for every important character, basically everything you need to have in your head as a mangakabefore you start writing! which means you dont have to really add or change anything else once you have passed this stage because this might lead to potential plot holes and unnecessary contradictions in the story. when everything is set and ready to go you start advancing to the second stage! Middle:- This is when things start clearing up. mysteries are revealed, plots executed, everything becomes prepared for that long awaited climax! End: this is the most critical stage, one bad move and everything will fall apart so expectedly 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 is quite relevant. also it's always cool to quote cool people like machiavelli. Now that i'm done defining and breaking down each stage, lets openly talk about how fairy tail did in each one of these. building up a story or a manga or whatever is not really that hard, you just need a bit of imagination and a bit knowledge because you will have to see where others started and kinda do the same, Fairy Tail did just that. a by the book setting, main character & story. which is absolutely fine since you dont really have to be so different to be successful specially in the first stage! Building up everything was pretty successful in my opinion, we were provided with exiting arcs & great battles and amazing development in the first hundred chapters or so. and Since Fairy Tail provided a lot of good build up and we were expecting to witness at least a decent execution of all of that tension and mystery, For me i wasn't disappointed. Fairy tail didn't fail to impress me with the execution as it was able to add new mysteries right after revealing previous ones and was able to keep me hooked until the very end! until, but as it progressed, disappointment started to mainfest as each arc became weaker and weaker in terms of execution while providing enormous potential at the beginning which leads to a huge letdown as nothing met its expectation. but the reason why Fairy tail got shut down by a lot of 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 which resulted 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 a manga, you can't give something a good score if the ending was awful. I only wrote this review to remind people of how good fairy tail used to be and that we shouldn't judge it by that ending and give some credit to the first two stages which fairy tail did amazing in. Thats all. Now finally i'm going to rate all the aspects soundly and give my fair and final judgement on why fairy tail isn't as bad as people make it out to be and also why it is kinda still acceptably bad. Story: 7 classic story, nothing much to be said here. One negative thing i might say about the story is how most things are absolutely forgotten along the way, you might find this in other shounen cause its pretty common but that doesn't make it welcomed in my dictionary, natsuu has no idea where the fuck he is going as he doesn't really have any dream to achieve or any status he would want to be like that felxible hat guy or the other ninja retard as 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 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 any relevance to the story anymore but whatever. also 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 you wont 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 includes poor conception of time travel, pointless characters, thought projections that have emotions and shit, enormous build up that makes your thing throbs with excitement but ends up disappointing you everytime, a warrior who is able to fight even after getting every nerve of their body destroyed because they love their friends (emotional) i wont say more To avoid anymore 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 the jokes aside, Fairy Tail is quite decent for those who want to see exciting battles, Heartwarming moments, funny characters and most importantly: Fanservice.

No Spoilers If you have been immersed in the anime and manga community for around, let’s say a week, then you have at least heard the name Fairy Tail once or twice. One of the most divisive series in the entire medium, Fairy Tail has garnered a massive fan base that defends it to the last man and equally large legion of haters who will fight and die on their desire to see it burn in the fiery pits of hell. This ridiculous conflict between the fans and haters has created an extremely toxic environment surrounding the series, which severely discourages newcomers from even seeing whythis has escalated to such a degree. For me, I am a bit more in the middle of the conflict. As a series, I appreciate what it did well, but I can’t just overlook the flaws either. This manga is known for its extensive and awkward mix of childish storytelling and adult fanservice, which is one of the biggest points of contention. However, this was heavily exaggerated by the first anime adaptation, which censored most of the more violent scenes and somehow made the fanservice more in your face. The manga of Fairy Tail gives the reader a much greater sense of gravity to each situation, especially during the second half. At the same time however, this is contrasted by the lack of a specific story arc in the anime that covers important material related to events in the second half. While not a dealbreaker, it is certainly debilitating. For starters, the story is a big dividing point in the fandom. The story moves at a considerably fast pace from the get go before slowing down around the halfway point. However, most of the story arcs are disconnected in the first half, usually for the purpose of introducing a new character or story beat for later. This brings up an interesting issue. Hiro Mashima wrote the story for Fairy Tail on a week-by-week basis. He would get ideas when out drinking with his friends and try to incorporate them into the greater story. The only thing he had preplanned was the backstory of Natsu, the main protagonist, while everything else was just added as the series went on. Fairy Tail was never meant to run for as long as it did, which is likely the reason for its incredibly odd pacing and story writing, especially with how some plot points are either introduced and fade into obscurity, or are barely foreshadowed at all until their execution. Despite this, the strong points of the story stand tall with fantastic highlights that carve out an interesting identity for Fairy Tail. The first half is far more geared toward the adventure theme of the series, while the second half takes a more focused approach around the evolving narrative. While some pieces of the story are relatively predictable, whenever it takes a sharp turn it does so in an unexpected manner that adds a more flare and interest to the growing story. The most interesting stretch is by far the middle section, which brings together all the different moving parts of the story into what feels like a well oiled machine with how it is executed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep momentum into the final stretch, but the upswings are a blast. One of the biggest complaints about Fairy Tail is the lack of character development, which is just a completely false statement. Most of the cast gets substantial development throughout the story, but Mashima’s own fear of killing off the wrong character and relying on the power of friendship archetype gives a bad impression and execution in places. Still, the characters are an interesting bunch that bring together all sorts of emotions and styles, with a crazy amount of different designs that reflect their personalities well. The Fairy Tail guild serve as our main heroes with Natsu taking the role of protagonist. Natus as a protagonist is not one of my favorites, but he is serviceable. He has strong ideals and a basic, but well defined power set with some added quirks that give him more personal depth. Still, most of Natsu’s development in the first half is extremely subtle beyond some clearly big moments, and it is difficult to wade through his over-energetic personality sometimes. Lucy is initially a damsel in distress who gets more competent and relevant with each story arc. She can be a bit disappointing, but when she shines it is certainly entertaining and heartwarming. Gray is my personal favorite character with his interesting story and hilarious dichotomy with Natsu. Erza is called the queen for more than just one good reason, and Wendy is precious and must be protected at all costs. The supporting cast is separated into major and minor characters. Most major characters are the other members of the Fairy Tail guild with some others from different groups or locations. A pretty good chunk of the supporting cast get strong development of their own, however their personal stories become more disconnected from the main story after around the halfway point. Despite this, most of the characters still are heavily involved in most of the story arcs. Each of the major characters feel like more than just a simple side character, oftentimes having moments in the peak of the story that enhance the already emotional highlights. Emotions are the focus here, and while the story itself doesn’t always work with the characters, the resonance of each personal journey they experience still hits home more often than not. While you won’t be seeing many of these characters dying throughout the story, it is important to note that the scarcity of character death enhances the few times in which it does happen. This works both to the series benefit and detriment depending on the scene at hand. The antagonists are a mixed bag that feels like both an incredible accomplishment and heap of wasted potential. The main antagonist of the story is one of the few pieces of the story planned from start to finish, and is executed especially well throughout the series with an impact in almost every major story arc, to the point where I would argue that regardless of the series quality as a whole, they should be regarded as one of the best villains in shonen. Despite most of the other antagonists not being planned throughout the manga, a multitude of which are brought into the fold early on to become major players throughout the rest of Fairy Tail’s run in a positive way. At the same time, this cannot be said for one of the primary overarching villains. This is a character that lasts until the end of the story, and while his status and strength create a strict and constant power ceiling to measure other characters against, he is very one-dimensional personality wise, and by the time we understand why it is too little too late, at least for me. Some other villains that feel like they could become major players in the story turn out to be less impactful than previously thought, which is a pretty big letdown. Another major complaint of Fairy Tail is that a large number of the story’s villains end up turning over a new leaf, which diminishes the gravity of both their actions and quality as an enemy. This is actually not as big of a problem as the fandom has made it out to be, mainly because of how villains that do end up turning good are given a proper story-basis for their morality change, or have been influenced by the protagonists to a degree that it feels reasonable or at least acceptable character-wise. To compensate for this, there is still a plethora of villains that remain evil to the core from start to finish, specifically in the second half. Even with the large emphasis on the ‘Power of Friendship’ archetype that Fairy Tail is famous/infamous for, the second half of the story brings out those that are as disconnected from that concept as possible to contrast them against our heroes and their own values, or sometimes the way it has been twisted into something of their perspective on the archetype. The action is one of the consistently strong points of the series that never really drops in terms of quality in the manga. Complemented by Mashima’s own fantastic talent and skills with drawing, the action is presented with beautiful panels that show a strong understanding of the page and two-dimensional space. Combined with the manga’s willingness to showcase the gore of a scene and the spectacular art, the fights always feel properly grandiose in execution. The magic system and each character's individual powers are all taken into consideration for the large majority of the bouts, especially the fights with a heavier focus on tactics and outsmarting opponents. Despite a consistent weekly serialization, the quality of the art and action never seems to drop and is one of the few aspects of Fairy Tail that remains consistently fantastic from start to finish, although it would be more than a stretch to say there aren’t some… controversial choices on Mashima’s part for the way some fights end, but that is more up to the individual reader to decide. This has been a fairly mixed review overall, which is pretty much how I feel the series is meant to be seen by each individual person. The highs of Fairy Tail are immensely high, but the lows are some of the lowest in the shonen genre. It is a mix of good and bad that leaves more up to the reader than some might find comfortable. It really depends on whether you think that the positives outway the negatives or the other way around. While my personal rating for this series is an 8, that is my own biased opinion, and as such, I don’t feel comfortable rating the series quality that high when the ending is such a controversial one. Instead, I will give it a relatively middle ground, but somewhat more positive rating due to the series having one of the best antagonists in shonen manga, a lovable (and sometimes infuriating) cast of characters, and some story arcs and action scenes that stand tall in terms of both quality and visual value despite all of these problems that the series suffers from. Anything else is your own conclusion.