Anime Forum

[Manga] Fairy Tail

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash

Active member
Elite
Joined
Dec 9, 2012
Messages
9,703
Kin
32💸
Kumi
0💴
Trait Points
0⚔️
Awards
General Info
You must be registered for see images

Series Name:
Fairy Tail

Year of Serialization:
2006

Author:
Hiro Mashima

Artist:
Hiro Mashima

Genre:
Action, Adventure, Friendship

Current Status:
Ongoing

Moment of Reviewing:
Chapter 356​


Series Summary
The kingdom of Fiore, a nation with over 17 million people. This is a world of magic. Magic is bought and sold in this kingdom just like anything else and is deeply connected with people's lives. There are those who even use magic to make a living for themselves. Those people are called Mages. Mages go on jobs or quests or whatever you want to call it, and they get rewards if they complete the mission correctly. There is a certain guild of mages, the most popular guild in Fiore: Fairy Tail.

The story starts off with with a young girl named Lucy, who is in search of a guild. She wants to be in a good guild, so she strives for the best. She really wants to join Fairy Tail. She eventually does join Fairy Tail, but it wasn't what she expected. She thought Fairy Tail was just a guild, but she then later finds out that this guild is not your average guild. It's pretty hectic with all the fighting and drinking going on inside of the guild. Lucy meets a guild member named Natsu Dragneel, who is a Dragon Slayer. He is the main reason why Lucy got into the guild so easily. There was a conflict between Natsu, Lucy and this other character in the beginning of the story.

After Lucy joins the guild, they form a team. This team is stated by the guilds bartender to be the strongest team Fairy Tail has ever had. This team later goes on various missions together and ends up completing them for rewards. This might sound like a happy story, but it's not what it sounds like that all.​
Critical Review
The beginning of Fairy Tail was outstanding. The first 3 arcs; Galuna Island, Phantom Lord and Tower of Heaven. These arcs are definitely the best arcs this story has to offer. Each chapter will make you want to read more. Within these three arcs, the 4 main characters of Fairy Tail; Natsu, Lucy, Gray,and Erza get a good amount of character progression. The story was very solid, and was very promising. The next three arcs, did not revolve around the main characters. Mashima decides to input supporting characters; Laxus, Mystogan and Wendy, as the main focus of the next two arcs. However, the amount of character progression that the arc gives these supporting characters was still great. Summing it all up, Mashima developed his characters greatly within the first six arcs. Lets talk about interest. For me personally, I've always had a fantasy since I was a kid. Magic was one of them ever since I've seen Harry Potter. The whole magic concept of this story truly peaked my interest. Mashima really does know how to get the reader hooked into the series. Those are the good things about Fairy Tail.

Moving on to the bad things about this story, the next two arcs after the six I previously mentioned. The first of these two arcs, was not up to my expectations. I expected a well written, paced story much like the previous arcs. However, things in this arc were rather fast paced. For me, the biggest problem in this arc is the plotholes. There are numerous amount of plotholes within this one arc. It drives me crazy when I think about them. The main character Natsu also defies logic in this arc. He does something that makes absolutely no sense. The next problem is the convenience to the main characters. They had a guardian to protect them from dying. My problem with the guardian is that it makes it obvious how the arc will conclude. We know that non of them are going to die, so there was no surprise at all when the characters won their fights. This arc was also the beginning of Mashima's road to the power of friendship. The next arc after this was even worse in my opinion. This arc is a tournament based arc. First off, the first bad thing about this arc is that the fights are not good at all. The fights either started bad but ended good, started good but ended bad, or started bad and ended bad. The fights never started good and ended good. Second, the main villain. The main villain of this arc is such a bad villain. If you think Obito from Naruto has bad reasons for becoming a villain, wait until you see the main villain of this arc. His reasoning and psychological complexity for becoming a villain is downright terrible. I have never seen a villain as terrible as this one. At least the arc that just ended wasn't bad like the GMG arc. During the latest arc, Fairy Tail has officially been regarded by several manga sites as Ecchi. That can be a good thing, or a bad thing. I only like it for Erza, the rest of the girls I don't really care about.

To sum this review up, Fairy Tail basically starts off very good. It was very enjoyable to read at first. But as time goes by, the series gradually falls. I would suggest reading it. Though the series hasn't been as good as it used to be, I still have large hope for Hiro Mashima. Mashima was the writer of Rave Master, which is an excellent manga. I just don't know what has come over Hiro these past couple years. I have hope for Mashima because there are two particular mainstream shounen authors that made a huge comeback arc after writing a bad arc.​

[video=youtube;wSEB12BuPsA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSEB12BuPsA[/video]​
 
Caliburn

Caliburn

Supreme
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
20,770
Kin
2,805💸
Kumi
525💴
Trait Points
0⚔️
Awards
You say way too much the word 'arc'. People who read the manga will understand it, but for people who didn't it will just appear confusing and it sounds like a broken record arc...arc..arc.

You are also talking about stuff, but you don't explain it. I mean 'it's full of plotholes', 'Natsu does something that doesn't make sense' etc. Then you are just telling half the story. Or you keep general or you explain it completely, but don't stop somewhere in between.

Also you are wrong with your 'road to friendship' comment. That has been as much prominent in the first chapter as it was in the last. Already in the first chapter Natsu went berserk just because some people were tarnishing the name of Fairy Tail. That's also the reason as why FT reminded me from the start of OP, who shares that characteristic. Hiro didn't went on a road to friendship, the entire series is build on it. Without it, it isn't FT anymore. It's just that type of manga.

By now it's obvious that or you love or you hate The Grand Magic Games arc. I personally loved it. In all of the manga series I have read, the only arc I read more than that one is the Marine Ford one of OP. Bad fights? Most fights weren't to the death and had no stakes other than winning a 'sport tournament' and they had a time limit on them. Hiro never drags out his fights, which once again I personally find a good thing as series like Bleach continuously drags them out. Not all fights were even that important.

You're also attacking 'the villain', but I think it's not so much that the character was bad, but more that you are making him/her appear way more important than he/she actually was and then start criticizing him/her for it. Reality is that it was very difficult during the course of the arc to understand who was now the real 'villain' and I doubt many people expected that in the end it would be that person. On top of that people keep seeing the underlining story that was told during the Tournament as a separate plot, but no that's wrong. You should not see this as something separate, but as the introduction to future events and for that he/she did just fine. The point of all that the things happened at the end of the games was to make the reader aware of what is yet to come, something far bigger and menacing then what they just faced.

Obito was one of the most important villains of the current manga era and his identity was one of the biggest secrets and Kishi blew it. This villain was not a major one, probably just a passerby, and what that person did was enough for what the character was meant for. Comparing them together is in fact already severely wrong.

FT is by now spoken of in the same breath as the Big 3, Rave Master never came so far. You are talking about bad villains and plotholes, something Rave Master was also quite good at. At some points the plot of RM looked like a chicken without a head running randomly. At the end the story just got blown out of proportion. Hiro overdid it a bit with the fanservice sometimes and plotwise he messed up a few times during the Grand Magic Games, but I still liked it and IMO he doesn't need something like a come-back. A while ago I read that originally FT was supposed to have ended quite a while ago, but it was so popular they decided to keep the series going.

-CURSE- said:
Fairy tail is getting boring. Every boss fight Natsu wins.
Click to expand...
Sure and most other main manga characters lose all their boss battles or what?

Okami the butcher said:
It's called Deus Ex Machina.
Click to expand...
Not really. It's a Deus Ex Machina when the story is supposed to be completely 'stuck', but then miraculously a solution comes dropping down like 'divine intervention' that solves everything. Even though there might be some situations you could divine as a Deus Ex Machina, most of the time it was within the realm of Natsu's potential.
 
Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash

Active member
Elite
Joined
Dec 9, 2012
Messages
9,703
Kin
32💸
Kumi
0💴
Trait Points
0⚔️
Awards
Caliburn said:
You say way too much the word 'arc'. People who read the manga will understand it, but for people who didn't it will just appear confusing and it sounds like a broken record arc...arc..arc.

You are also talking about stuff, but you don't explain it. I mean 'it's full of plotholes', 'Natsu does something that doesn't make sense' etc. Then you are just telling half the story. Or you keep general or you explain it completely, but don't stop somewhere in between.
Click to expand...
You have a point. But if I go into more detail, I feel like I will give out far too many spoilers.

Also you are wrong with your 'road to friendship' comment. That has been as much prominent in the first chapter as it was in the last. Already in the first chapter Natsu went berserk just because some people were tarnishing the name of Fairy Tail. That's also the reason as why FT reminded me from the start of OP, who shares that characteristic. Hiro didn't went on a road to friendship, the entire series is build on it. Without it, it isn't FT anymore. It's just that type of manga.
Click to expand...
You are misunderstanding me a little. Sure, FT has been about nakama from the start. But the point I'm trying to get at is that currently it's a lot more dependent on friendship than it used to be. Never have I seen the badass of a particular story resort to such things. Laxus, I used to like this character a lot because he was different than the rest of the guild. When Laxus defeated the quote on quote "strongest human alive" through Natsu's ways, it ruined the character for me.

By now it's obvious that or you love or you hate The Grand Magic Games arc. I personally loved it. In all of the manga series I have read, the only arc I read more than that one is the Marine Ford one of OP. Bad fights? Most fights weren't to the death and had no stakes other than winning a 'sport tournament' and they had a time limit on them. Hiro never drags out his fights, which once again I personally find a good thing as series like Bleach continuously drags them out. Not all fights were even that important.
Click to expand...
The problem with Hiro is that he doesn't use his usage of screen time very efficiently in fights. Natsu and Gajeel were getting beaten up by the 3rd generation for 2 entire chapters, only for Base Natsu to destroy the 3rd generation easily. There is no point to extend a fight for 3 chapters only for it to be a low difficulty victory for Natsu. If it was a low difficulty fight, it should end in a few pages like Tobi vs Orga. Another good example of this is Ichiya vs Bacchus. What was the point of spending an entire chapter on that fight? Sure it may have been for comic relief, but it wasn't funny at all to me. That's my next problem, Hiro skipped the fight between Kagura and Lyon so that he can showcase Ichiya's fight. That was a huge disappointment to me considering that both Kagura and Lyon are top tier within their age group. He also likes to put Mavis during the middle of a fight so she can make a speech. What's up with that?

You're also attacking 'the villain', but I think it's not so much that the character was bad, but more that you are making him/her appear way more important than he/she actually was and then start criticizing him/her for it. Reality is that it was very difficult during the course of the arc to understand who was now the real 'villain' and I doubt many people expected that in the end it would be that person. On top of that people keep seeing the underlining story that was told during the Tournament as a separate plot, but no that's wrong. You should not see this as something separate, but as the introduction to future events and for that he/she did just fine. The point of all that the things happened at the end of the games was to make the reader aware of what is yet to come, something far bigger and menacing then what they just faced.

Obito was one of the most important villains of the current manga era and his identity was one of the biggest secrets and Kishi blew it. This villain was not a major one, probably just a passerby, and what that person did was enough for what the character was meant for. Comparing them together is in fact already severely wrong.
Click to expand...
Rogue not being an important villain does not justify his reasoning. You say that the events that happened after the tournament ended was an introduction to the future. But Rogue himself was from the future. We know exactly what happens going by what Rogue said. He killed his best friend because his cat died. The way that the dragons were defeated was not very surprising either. Natsu conveniently destroys the Eclipse gate by ramming Motherglare into the gate, thus causing a time paradox. I first thought that since there are dragons running loose, there would be development for the dragon slayers. But it turns out that they didn't defeat a single dragon. Which was one of my gripes.
 
System001

System001

Active member
Legendary
Joined
Apr 15, 2011
Messages
19,385
Kin
6,209💸
Kumi
10,911💴
Trait Points
0⚔️
Awards
Not really, all you need to mention is Art, Characters, plot, what it does well, what it doesn't do well, and keep it as chronological as possible so that it's easy to follow. You jump around to much in your review, you refer to specifics, skirt around the wider picture, and overuse briefs statements, e.g, 'the first part was amazing', and 'good character progression' how so? Etc etc Overall making your review...not that insightful for a reader. The point of a review is to attract or discourage someone from reading, therefore you at very least need to give a clear point, evidence and explanation so as to attract or deter readers.

Anyway, I actually hate Fairy Tail. I don't think it has anything special. Don't get me wrong, it has great execution, and great art, which in essence gives it the entertainment factor, but other than that I feel pretty safe in saying that it's a pile of garbage.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top