Yeah to me of course it is. I tried to get into it years ago, and it first it seemed promising. I was pretty into it and then it rapidly became repetitive, and rip-offy and just stale. Interest in it drained rapidly with each chapter. There are times when I think about getting into it, but then I hear and see stuff(Like Laxus' character being ruined and the fired up thing) from people whose opinion's I respect and from what I've seen about it, it's just...
I mean, my opinion is pretty uninformed when compared to some people, but for me it's trash.
Well for starters a series doesn't get that many chapters nor would have such a long-running anime if it was bad. So by default from an objective point of view it's a good series as otherwise it wouldn't be so popular, only from a subjective can it be considered bad.
The reality is that FT is not the best series out there, but it isn't that worse as some people, like some in this thread, claim it to be. You need to place things within their context and that's where a lot of FT critics completely miss the ball and with all due respect that's also the direction you went into. The overall things that people complain about can indeed be considered to be not the strongest points of FT, however when they start elaborating on them, their explanations are often ludicrous, irrational and even bigger garbage than what they claim FT is. They exaggerate, twist, turn and pull everything out of proportion. I see people blaming FT for highly irrational expectations that they themselves created and consequently start complaining when they are not fulfilled.
As we say in Dutch, you have to call a cat a cat and not complain that due to the lack of manes and teeth it's a sorry excuse for a lion and that's exactly what many people do and also what you did largely too. This is no different than complaining that a horror series lacks romance or that a comedy series lacks seriousness. They are not intended to be like that, so complaining about that they aren't, is redundant, childish and unfair.
This is THE NUMBER ONE problem I have with this series. The genre of Ecchi and Loli sickens me, because it tries to rationalize and make the thought of sexualizing children a good thing. And a lot of anime fans love it, but to me, I want to throw up every time I see a little anime girl naked. It's pedophilic and disgusting.
Now, Fairy Tail does this WAY TOO MUCH! There is no way a small child is supposed to have big tits and a Nicki Minaj ass. That is what gets me. And now, we have people stereotyping anime and manga fans as virgin pedophiles and labeling ALL anime and manga as Child Porn. If you can't develop your series without the use of Fanservice then you are horrible.
This is a prime example of what I just described. Yes there's quite a bit of fanservice in the series and sometimes it was a bit too excessive and/or annoying seeing the situation. I'm not a particular fan of it either, however I'm not reading it for that and at best it's a minor inconvenience. Your reaction however is far to severe and way out of proportion. In fact at this point I think you must be wearing a chastity belt made of steel and think that you can get pregnant by kissing as in any other case you really don't have the right by saying stuff like that without being called delusional.
What you just described is in fact almost the entire manga industry, this is by no means something Hiro or FT created nor particularly encouraged. Somehow the largest part of the manga character population of all series consists out of around 14 to 16 year olds that looks like they are around 20 years old and that are reasonable good-looking to absolutely handsome. This has nothing to do with FT, this is simply how they do it in Japan as it's easier to attract a younger audience, who on their turn are more prone to look up to characters who appear much older and it's the same thing with big breasts. Asians, and certainly Japanse women, have the smallest boobs in the world according according to scientific research. So having huge, unnatural breasts is almost the standard. I mean tell me something did you complain about Hinata, Samui and Tsunade in Naruto? Did you complain about Yorouchi, Rangiku and Orihime in Bleach? Did you complain about almost any woman in the OPverse, Nami in particular?
To be honest your comments are a hundred times more disturbing than any kind of fan service Hiro ever did. You are talking about sexualizing children, child porn and what not, but the reality is that anyone who even has the slightest sexual experience would realize that what you say is laughable. That's also the entire point of fanservice: comic relief. You can't see a single nipple, you can't see anything below the belt. If you would strip all female characters and cover their faces, you likely wouldn't even see a single difference in their bodies as they would all be the same. In fact all this fanservice can be considered to be de-sexualizing the entire thing as someone who was able to end up with reading the FT manga, can reach far more and worse series that make FT's fanservice a laughable joke, which is also what it is. There are series out there where each woman that appears by default is going to be raped or is a real ***** or somehow has the innate abilities required to become a porn star. There are series out there where everything revolves around *** and that the only use the plot has, is to tie it all together and I'm not talking here about hentai manga, I'm talking about series you can find in the same lists as OP and FT. Compared to all of that, FT is laughable and its sexualization non-existing. The only people who are going to get excited about that are guys who are on the 30th day of the 30-day fap challenge and boys who just hit puberty and received their first boner.
The irony is that the people who complain the most about fanservice are the ones who seem to be most focusing on it as the reality is that if you just focus on the story, you will realize that this fanservice is only a minor convenience at best. I don't read FT for its fanservice, sometimes I find it funny, sometimes I find it annoying but as I want to read the story, I automatically blur it out. You however who hate ecchi, can only see ass and tits. You link development with fanservice while the two have nothing in common.
Yes there's a bit too much fanservice, however your explanation is complete BS.
2. Friendship/Nakama/Deus Ex Machima/Indestructible Plot Armor/Asspulls
This definitely kills Fairy Tail for me due to the fact that everyone in the FT guild wins every single fight they are in. Like this current arc. FT has been one shotting and soloing all the Spriggan with ease. It's pathetic. Brandish is the biggest disappointment of them all.
The worst moment of this concept was during the Grand Magic Games and the Avatar Arc. NATSU ONE SHOTTED A GOD WITH FRIENDSHIP! If that's not bad writing, I don't know what is. Pathetic!
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Then you have crap asspulls and plot armor to the point, you can win every single fight like Erza. Here's the point that I'm trying to make. You have to let your characters take a few loses to learn from their mistakes. This will cause them to develop the right way. The pain they face will make them stronger.
But nope. Not in Fairy Tail. It's "MY FRIENDS GIVE ME STRENGTH! ASSPULL POWER!" Instant win and not a bruise on the MCs. This includes the Third Origin BS that Ultear pulled out of her ass as well.
Example number two of what I explained. Friendship and supposed asspulls and plot armor has been the flagship for a lot of series since DBZ. Goku can go SS 1, 2 and 3 and no one will say something about it. Luffy can summon ridiculous strength for his friends. Ichigo achieved in a few days what other Shinigami had to do in centuries, this for his friends. And do I need to mention Naruto?
So it kills FT for you? One of the most recurrent characteristics in the entire manga industry and has brought forth the most popular series of all time, kills it for you and you call it bad writing, but it only applies to FT?
You are also completely lying when you say they win every fight as they do not. In the end they always. Why? Because the good guys always win. This what I mean with having unrealistic expectations and then start blaming the series for it. What were you expecting? That they would loose? Good guys always win, that's the kind of manga this is and that's how most manga are. No FT hasn't won all their battles, they have lost regularly, but they always came back and achieved victory. Somehow it's acceptable in Naruto. Somehow it's acceptable in Bleach. Somehow it's acceptable in OP. But for some reason not in FT.
They did not solo and certainly did not one-shot most of the Spriggans. That's a flat-out lie from your part. See you are making up stuff so that you can complain. How is Erza, Bisca and Natsu teaming up and employing an effective strategy together to take down Azir one-shotting and soling him after they couldn't take him down individually? How is a god-slayer like Shelia together with Ultear and Wendy taking down a time-manipulating god take-over mage one-shotting and soloing? It is not.
There was really nothing wrong with the Grand Magic Games arc. Natsu got even beaten by Rogue and Mavis even said that in the fight against the dragons, it wasn't a real victory as none of the dragon slayers were able to win. And Avatar was never important. It was extremely obvious that this was nothing more than a short arc wedged between two major arcs and to connect them and hence it was also extremely obvious you really shouldn't be giving too much worth to people like the ones from Avatar. But what do you do? You act like they were the final villains and that that god Natsu beat was an almighty beast that can level universes. It wasn't. It was strong, but also ridiculously huge, thus a big target and it's because it's huge and is called a god, it by default means that everyone else is beneath him. Gan fall was a god too in OP, but he was just an old man.
Instead of focusing on all this nonsense, why don't you focus on the story as everyone who simply read the story, would have realized that people like the ones from Avatar are mediocre villains Hiro just threw in there for sole purpose of keeping them busy. That's it, but then you start acting like they somehow were important and in return start complaining about it. Then the fault lies completely with you.
Again the overall thing you say has truth in it, however your explanation is again complete and utter BS originated from you being severely biased. You should be ashamed to even call yourself a manga reader as you are complaining about what made DB huge and consequently inspired Naruto, OP, FT, BNHA and many others, but somehow only FT can be hated for it. At least be consistent. Good guys always win in the end and FT has lost fights. The reality however is that FT is extremely quick paced with a lot of fights, hence it seems FT seems to be winning all the time, but that's why it's so popular. That makes the series to what it is, that's why I, and many other people, read it. If you want to have drawn out fights, well look at the Dressrosa arc in OP. Magnificent arc, but people were complaining it took too long. Well yeah if you want to have many fights while elaborating on them extensively, it's going to take a long time. In FT it goes fast and complaining about that is redundant as you're complaining about one of its primary characteristics and without it, it wouldn't be FT. This is part of the context of the manga and the story. There are 12 Spriggans and there was seriously never a way Hiro would start elaborating extensively on all of them. Everyone who read the series properly, would have realized that immediately. Some of them were bound to disappear rather quickly, while others would even be given flash-backs. Juva and Gajeel joined FT, Totomaru was even mentioned once later, but what about the other two of the Element Four? Meredy and Ultear formed Crime Sorcière and regularly appeared, but what about the other ones still alive from the Seven Kin of Purgatory?
I admit I am not a fan of 2nd and 3rd origin and I think he screwed Ultear's character over with that. The issue however is not so much all these supposed asspulls, but that Hiro to easily introduces abilities without explaining enough about them. For example the armor of Nakagami. Because we don't actually know what it is, it's considered an asspull, but in reality if Hiro had said something along the lines that it has anti-magic properties, it suddenly becomes much more acceptable as there is anti-magic in the FTverse and anti-magic weapons is even one of the primary abilities in the Black Clover series. Same thing with all the friendship power ups. FT is quick-paced and so are the fights, hence there is much sooner a climax which makes all the nakama stuff appear more frequently. Inherently though you really can't complain about it without sounding biased when Naruto, OP, Bleach, DB and others have done it endlessly likewise.
Now, this is another big thing that gets me. There are not a lot of character deaths when you're a Fairy Tail member. You have all these useless and irrelevant characters, who are still around without any development and are just one dimensional, and have not been killed off by the slightest bit.
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We've only seen the Main Characters fight and do anything useful, which include Natsu, Grey, Laxus, Erza, Juvia, Lucy, Makarov, Ichiryuu, Wendy, etc. But you have these other characters, who are there for the sake of being there and are not contributing to the plot. What's the point of having them there when they're nothing, but a waste of drawing space.
Then you have the lack of danger, which plays a big part with the whole Plot Armor convo. FT always win their fights, which is why there's no sense of danger for the characters. They are blowing the Spriggan away and now, Zeref is about to be taken out with the rest of them. And I bet Acnologia will be as well with relative ease.
Example number three. Tell me again how many Strawhats have died so far? How many people survived miraculously 100% guaranteed death situations in the OP verse? How is it possible that Ichigo and his friends are all still alive despite invading several times by now completely different worlds they knew nothing about and were filled with strong fighters with centuries of experience? Many mangaka don't like to kill off their characters, especially not their main ones. So it's plainly ridiculous that you are complaining about that while this extremely common. In fact, something the latest chapter reminded us of, there has overall seen been quite a few characters who died.
I mean don't even see what you jou just said? "We've only seen the main characters fights, which included *start listing dozens of characters*". That fact that you are even considering so many characters as MC, means Hiro did a good job at creating depth for so many characters. With other words this is an accomplishment, not a reason to complain about. You are contradicting yourself completely here. You can't focus on hundreds and hundreds of characters. You will always need some random people to populate the entire manga as otherwise it doesn't make sense and there are many series who fail at that because if you do it excessively, the realism of the story is broken because it seems there's only a handful of main characters and the rest are just flat, boring, common characters obviously meant to make us believe there is a huge world in the story. It breaks the illusion of the fictional world, Hiro however did an extremely good job on that as he was able to create a large amount of variated characters.
And the danger part doesn't even make sense and it is also severely contradicting your 2nd statement. They have definitely experienced danger and fear, Gildarts even gave Natsu a lesson in it during the S-class exam, more importantly why would a character need a nakama power-up if his friends aren't in danger? So your own statements conflict with one another. "Too many nakama power-ups, too many asspulls, but they don't know danger". Those power ups and asspulls originate from danger, the danger of losing a friend. Makarov even disbanded his guild out of danger.
This is the last problem I will address. Whenever FT has a terrible chapter (90% of the time), the fanbase goes on attack mode and starts attacking people, who have a different opinion on that said chapter than them. They’ll say things like:
“Ohhh! You’re just a hater.”
“Stfu! Fairy Tail is the greatest. Better than anything else.”
“Die, cancer.”
“You’re just mad!”
“Shut it, hater.”
“Well, One Piece did the same thing.”
“It was awesome! You just have bad taste.”
The last one made me chuckle a little. But yeah. Here’s the thing: Why can’t the fanbase accept the opinions of others and just attack people. FT is not the only fanbase that has a few bad apples. Almost all fanbases have its cancerous members. But FT is the worst from what I’ve seen.
People like Kieffer are the worst of the bunch, giving the fanbase a bad name. He actually said:
“NATSU IS 9x FTL!”
But anyway, I get that some people want to defend their series. Hell, I do it sometimes when it comes to Berserk and One Piece. But I don’t act as if there’s not a bad chapter or some moments that I hate about the series that I do love. All I’m saying is you’re gonna have to deal with opinions that are different from yours. And if you can’t. Oh, well.
This is a question of the type of what is first, the chicken or the egg?
Every series has go its annoying fans and haters, both equally annoying. Some HxH fans have the annoying habit of accusing every series of copying HxH. Some OP fans go way to far in their adoration for the series and Naruto fans are continuously bickering with each other over their characters. Well in regards to FT I have noticed that much of its hate is simply irrational. I mean I can understand that some people wouldn't like some things, I also don't like every series I have read, but I don't see a reason to start bashing it. I've seen many people who actively started slandering the entire series to ridiculous degrees, like they have a personal grudge against it. It's often plain irrational hate for the sake of hating as their comments contradicted continuously as they were complaining about everything.
If you have people like that, well logically there will be fans who retaliate in a similar way. So yeah who was first? The haters or the fanboys? The reality is that I'm aware of this, I can't say for certain if this is much different from other series. I however have noticed a few times that when someone asked about FT because he might wanted to read it, he already had a severe negative image of it due to all the haters and I have never seen that with people asking about other series. FT seems to have polarized people extremely where there are people who actively support a hate campaign against it.
So it really is impossible to say here who is at fault and that's something you should have known. Instead you nearly put the entire blame on the FT fans. You talk about a bad chapter where 90% attacks, but you don't mention that when there's a good chapter there are also many people who hate on it. The fact that you didn't, makes everything you said even less credible.
Now, again. I still like Ft for what it is. I like the adventure and fun that the series has. So please. No hard feelings. I just had to get this off my chest. Discuss. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. And please, be respectable and have some fun. No flaming or attacking please.[/B][/SIZE]
The truth here is that you seem to have done everything but reading the story. You have focused on tits and asses, on asspulls and nakama power ups, on danger and fanboys...but the only thing that you should have done, you neglected.
You say you had to get this off your chest, well I had to get off my chest this crap of people getting things off their chest in regards to FT. Frankly I don't even understand why I wrote all of this as it's completely futile. If anyone already would bother reading it all, it's not like if he had already made up his mind, he would change it and the chances are reasonable you, or something else, would try to counter all of this instigating a futile argument as there is nothing to counter. The difference between me and you, and most of NB for that matter, is that I judge things from a variety of perspective and place them within their context. Hence why my posts are often that long. With other words I'm grey. Most people however approach everything one-sidedly and see it in black and white and you clearly fall under that category. You isolated FT completely and then started stripping it apart, ripping everything out of its context.
FT is not the best series and it has its flaws, I never denied that nor I ever will, however I judge it for what its worth and what it is. If someone would say he doesn't like FT because he finds the fanservice too much, I would accept that as he simply states that his own personal, subjective limit of fanservice has been reached. Your explanation however was complete BS. You talk about child porn and unrealistic bodies, but in OP Nami flashed her boobs and women have the longest legs, the tiniest wastes and the biggest boobs. There are even actual mangaka of popular series who wrote real hentai manga, but you complain about FT, which comparatively seen is almost innocent. And you did this with all your complaints, double standards.
This is what I loath. You ripped characteristics from its context and act like FT somehow created them all, while in reality they are extremely common and used long before FT. If you would have any objectivity, you and many other people should be saying the same thing about series like OP, Bleach, Naruto, DB etc. Now did you? In reality these are all mere excuses to complain. You talk about how irrational some FT fanboys are, but you don't mention how irrational the haters are who change their opinions continuously: "Natsu one-shoted someone, booo", "Natsu just trained massively for an entire year and one-shotted an unimportant character, booo", "they actually used a clever strategy to beat an enemy, boo", "Hiro actually explained an ability, boo". This is really how it goes, whenever it suits them, they change their complaints just so that they could keep complaining. I mean how is it even rational to accept from a rather traditional adventure series like FT that main characters are going to die? It isn't. How is it rational to think that the good guys would lose? It isn't, so how is it possible that you people can complain about that with a straight face =/
It depends on your standard taste flexibility , Cause tbh, I like one piece for example, but I have seen multiple mangas that would shit all over it which would by some standards make it look "bad" which is quite unfair.
However, to avoid this, I decided to lower my standards to the lowest point possible when dealing with mainstream mangas, but even by that that low standard fairy tail is meh imo, but it's for different reasons than yours that I believe so. Fanserivce for example is irrelevant to how good a plot is.
I don't think FT is a bad series, it does get criticism but the complaints are opinionated for the most part. FT does have a lot of fanservice but it hasn't reached to the point where it gets in the way of the story and it never will. That was why I was so skeptical on starting the series but thankfully it was never the case.
The idea of friendship is relevant in all shonens. I like it and don't have much of an issue with it. I do wonder if Kinnikuman being Mashima's inspiration to become a mangaka has a major factor in this. (if I'm not mistaken Kinnikuman has a strong theme of friendship too)
I disagree with the sense of danger as Acnologia and Zeref are prime examples of showing a pretty good sense of danger, especially Acnologia. The lack of deaths are fine, although I think Makarov should've died a while back but that's just my opinion. The whole FT fandom complaint is not needed like a majority of your entire post.
Well for starters a series doesn't get that many chapters nor would have such a long-running anime if it was bad. So by default from an objective point of view it's a good series as otherwise it wouldn't be so popular, only from a subjective can it be considered bad.
Taste is subjective. Saying that FT or any series is good only on the basis of how popular it is, is a fallacious way of thinking.
I don't really think FT would be this long if it was in a more competitive magazine like WSJ or even reach the projected length that Mashima is aiming for (100 volumes was it?). For that reason, I believe that the magazine FT is in did help with it's length (not to say it doesn't have competition in the magazine it's currently in).
As for the anime, it's declining in success and receives poor TV ratings (lower than 1%), hence the recent break. It seems like Mashima is pushing as hard as he can for the anime to come back and it probably does come back because of his relation with A1's studio.
I agree with all the plot stuff you said. I like the characters for the most part like mystogan and how he makes characters have a strong aura. But your honestly right about the other stuff
The series suffers from piss poor execution. It relies too much on nakama power ups to succeed and there are plot holes up the ass. Characters are underdeveloped or has no development like Natsu the MC and there is no sense of danger as bad guys gets trolled 24/7. It also overuses "sad scenes" that go nowhere cause its obvious that the character is still alive(Wendy dying to face). There is also alot of false hype used as bait. Like Sting & Rouge being hyped as super powerful DS to increase anticipation from the reader only to sh*t on their expectations. Alot of scenes are used tog et a reaction out of the reader at the moment and serves no other purpose.
I don't find it terrible tbh, be it any series, I'll be hooked to it as long as I find it entertaining and interesting both of which can be found in FT. I don't really mind fan service, I in fact, never really cared about it. Only thing that I find a bit irritating about the series is the way the author handles the unusually overpowered enemies and the fluctuations in power levels. I often find myself disappointed because the villains don't usually live up to my expectations, I always thought some characters should have been dealt with more dramatically. But that's my problem not the authors. If I start calling FT a bad manga because the writer didn't make it the way I want it. Then,I'd be the most retarded reader out there. If I call OP a terrible manga because Jack was one shotted by Zunisha when I expected him to be able to kill it, I am pretty sure OP fandom would overwhelm me with their shitty excuses and bash me for calling their fav manga terrible.
What people need to understand is that there is no series without flaws or inconsistencies, FT ain't the best or a perfect series. You people are just taking things way out of proportion and make them look way bigger than they actually are IMO.
