When I heard that the mangaka who did Rave Master had created another manga, I immediately checked it out...which, of course, led me to the anime version, as well.
Fairy Tail is unique, yet repetitive. I'm going to try to be as unbiased as I can in this review, but I'm afraid some of my love for the series will leak through.
Story
It starts out with a girl named Lucy Heartfilia who wishes to join the infamous Fairy Tail guild...and gets even more incredible from there.
Really, I can't go into details on the story without spoiling the entire thing, as even though each arc seems independent of one another, they're all actually connected by a similar undercurrent (which is revealed later on in the story, and even more so in Series Two).
This first Series has a multitude of arcs:
The "Lullaby Arc" is the first one to occur, and happens after all of the main protagonists are introduced (Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and Erza). This arc spans episode 5-10, and all in all, I'd rate it a 7/10. It does a great job in introducing the characters and showing them off a little, but we mostly just get to see Natsu with the exception of the fight against Lullaby.
The next arc is the "Galuna Island" arc, and is one of the couple "character study" arcs. This arc mostly revolves around Gray and his past; him being my favorite character, this is my favorite arc out of all of them. I'd give this arc a 10/10, as it also starts to foreshadow some future arcs.
The next arc occurs immediately after Galuna Island, and is the "Phantom Lord" arc. This was another arc done extremely well, and touches upon some of the backgrounds of other Fairy Tail members (such as Elfman and Mirajane) while it divides up the battles evenly between all of the characters (no "main protagonist fights the boss" in this arc, either). It also highlights Lucy's past, so again, another character arc which is a major plot point as well, so 9/10.
There's a mini-arc afterwards which involves more character development, this time with Loke. This is short (only 2-3 episodes long), but is also one of my favorite arcs due to the emotional impact is has for such a short arc. It's a solid 9/10, and only due to how short it is. However, it also sets up the next arc.
The "Tower of Heaven" arc is Erza's backstory, though she takes a backseat in the final battle in the tower. Although the arc makes up for that a little by including some mini-bosses the characters have to go through (and includes a former Phantom Guild member now trying to be in Fairy Tail), and though I can understand why Erza couldn't go all out in the final "boss" fight, it becoming the "Natsu show" during Erza's character arc was something I could not forgive; 7/10.
The next arc is the "Battle of Fairy Tail" arc; another character arc on a guild member named Laxus. While this arc drops hints to something which isn't revealed/explains until the Tartaros Arc in Series Two and I have to give it props for that, the arc on its own becomes the "Natsu show"; aka, main protagonist gets the boss fight. The ending makes me cry every time with how emotional it is, and between that and the set-up for how far back the plot of Fairy Tail really goes...that bumps this arc up to an 8/10.
Oracion Seis is the next arc, and is probably one of the most well-developed arc. There's a new character who appears in this arc and has some character background, and other guilds get involved in the struggle which shows the return of a couple characters and introduces some new ones, the majority of the "main players" (aka, the Fairy Tail members) have been established by now. Though Natsu does get the boss fight again, this is probably one of my favorite arcs next to the Galuna Arc, including emotions. 10/10
There's an anime-only filler arc here called the "Daphne Arc". To be honest, the only point in watching this is if you can't get enough of Fairy Tail or plan on reading some fanfiction (as some fics are based off of the events). 2/10; not even worth time to write about.
The "Edolas Arc" is the next huge arc, and if Natsu is your favorite character, you're going to love this one because it pretty much follows his journey through Edolas for 3/4 of the arc. Probably the best thing about this arc is that it explains the origins of Happy and Charle, and Happy shows some great character growth (which, unfortunately, isn't often seen ever again). It also explains something very important with a particular character, and explores Mystogan. Putting my annoyance aside that it mostly centers on Natsu with a side dish of Happy, I'd say it's a 7/10 arc.
The true final arc is next with the "Tenrou Island" arc. This is the arc which brings together a lot of the events which has occurred up until this point (but still leaves an air of mystery about them, and introduces two even bigger mysteries). An S-Class exam for Fairy Tail turns into more than meets the eye as origins are uncovered, and a dark guild sets their sights on something wicked. This is one of the most complicated arcs, and though it leaves more questions than answers them, I'd give it a solid 9.5/10.
After that is a seven year time skip into a huge filler arc which is quite honestly worse than the Daphne arc. It's called the "Key of the Starry Sky" arc, and spans a ridiculous amount of episodes and isn't even really worth watching. 1/10; just skip to episode 151 after watching 124...you'll thank me later.
While I don't know why they decided to divide the "Grand Magic Games" arc by putting half of it in this series and the other half in Series Two (Fairy Tail 2014), episodes 151-175 are the first half of the games. This is quite possibly the longest arc to be created thus far, even in the manga. If I can be honest, it gets a little confusing since there are often about four battles happening at the same time, so until it starts more on the 1v1 and the like in Series Two, it can be a little disorienting. Not the best, the decision to divide it between two seasons was rather poor, and I didn't even like how multi-tasking it was in the manga let along the anime (though, this series wasn't sloppy with it, at last; Series Two, on the other hand...).
In any case, because the anime was divided up in the middle of the arc and had an overwhelming amount of characters, battles, and plots all occurring at the same time, I have to bump the rating of this to a 6.5/10. It was still good, but some things just cannot be overlooked.
Characters
Whew...finally got past the "story" section! Fairy Tail has an overwhelming amount of characters, between the mages of the Fairy Tail guild to the mages of other guilds...and many of them with their own circumstances and backstories!
The main characters we see the most often are:
-Lucy Heartfilia; whom the anime/manga starts out with and uses Celestial/Summoning magic.
-Natsu Dragoneel; your typical shounen protagonist with fire Dragon Slayer magic. He is accompanied by Happy, who is a flying blue cat (whose origins are explained in the Edolas arc).
-Gray Fullbuster; an ice mage who has a bad habit of taking off his clothes (often too quickly for anyone to see him do it).
-Erza Scarlet; a no-nonsense yet quirky woman whose bite is worse than her bark...or perhaps they're about equal, and equally harsh when directed at an enemy.
Overall
What to say, here?
Fairy Tail is an emotional rollercoaster. You'll be laughing at the funny moments, and sobbing like a baby during others. Some episodes, no matter how many times I watch them, always makes me cry.
This series managed to pull emotional scenes from the manga and intensify them (something which, unfortunately, Series Two seemed to lose somewhere along the way) to the point where a scene which makes you tear up in the manga will have you literally sobbing in the anime.
The constant "friends/nakama" theme might get annoying to some people, but it's where the guild gets its strength from (literally, as explained after the seven year gap). People who have ever been part of a "family away from family" might understand a little better, as Fairy Tail is more of a family than just a guild.
The music is what really ties it together; it builds dramatic tension, and adds to both happy, touching, and sad scenes.
The visuals are wonderful...but there is a huge complaint in terms of the visuals, and that can be summed up in one word: Blood.
As in, there is none.
Now, Fairy Tail has some rather lewd moments; it has big-chested women and clothing getting ripped and torn. It has swimsuit specials, and it even got a label of "ecchi" and though it isn't as bad in this season, Series Two might even surpass anime like Ranma and Negima with how raunchy it gets.
With a rating like that, one would think that battle scenes where characters are getting sliced, cut, bruised, and even impaled would show some blood.
Not even a drop.
One character does, indeed, get impaled at one point. There was blood in the manga, but none in the anime...just some lines to mark where he had been hit. It honestly took away from the "realism" of the battle scenes.
I get that this is a work of fiction, but fiction still needs to retain some realism. I'm not saying that it should be gushing blood and gore like Attack on Titan or Saiyuki Gaiden, but at least a little bit of blood to make the battle scenes really stand out would have been better than the lines we were given to indicate there's supposed to be a wound there.
My other complaint is the filler arcs which caused me to dock points from the story, characters, and overall scores; those filler arcs were not in the manga, and I would certainly give the manga a higher score than the anime.
If they hadn't made the filler arcs, I'd give the Story either a 9 or 10/10, the Characters a 10/10, and the Overall a 9/10.
Screenshots
Add to list