Summary: Exactly what I expected, but that's not looking down on Shonen anime. Fairy Tail is actually a lot of fun.
Either you have a stick up your ass about shonen stuff or you don't. I don't, and I loved the Fairy Tail manga, so I expected to love the anime. I do. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed it. Granted, you're not going to be blown away by the formula. You know how it goes by now: comedy and action intertwine, and the episode usually ends with some kind of battle. Stories gradually lead into plot arcs, growing casts, etc...
Fairy Tail follows Lucy, a young, perky magic user in a world where magic guilds, magic shops and wizards are the norm. Lucy is no novice, but she's looking to step up the action and join the notorious magic guild called Fairy Tail. In her journeys she runs into Natsu, a fellow magic user. They meet, have lunch, and then part ways...until Lucy later finds herself being saved by Natsu with his incredible fire-breathing (and eating) magic. It turns out that Natsu is a member of Fairy Tail himself.
Call me!
For a first episode, the story is pretty ho-hum. It does a good job of setting the scene, and it follows the manga exactly, but it probably wasn't the most exciting way for a story to start out. It gets better, though. It is pretty satisfying to see the battles play out in animated form, too. The animation is nice when it comes to said battles. Nothing groundbreaking, mind you. The animation does hit low points in places, though. It's kind of sad -- while I'm not a stickler for these types of things, you'd think that the first episode would look a bit better.
This part looked cool.
I appreciate the upbeat tone and overall cuteness of Fairy Tail, especially when compared to other shonen stuff. I like that it's not afraid to be cute. Lucy's cute. Her voice is cute (Aya-chan!). Natsu's flying cat companion Happy is cute. The exaggerated facial expressions of all the characters are cute. I appreciate this. Of course, that's not to say that the action isn't also there. It is. It was dialed back a bit when compared to the manga, but I know we're just starting out.
Lucy!
I'd say you need to stick around if the start of the show isn't doing it for you. It picks up as it progresses. You might be the type of person that looks down on this type of show. If so, I'd say skip it. If you're out for some lighthearted fun, and don't have that stick up your ass, Fairy Tail is a good watch. For now. Wait until this bad boy is 300 episodes in and has 120 cast members.
What I liked:
- Fun. Easy to watch. Stupid in a good way.
- Adorable ending animation
- Lucy is like a girl I dated once, though Lucy has bigger boobs.
What I didn't like:
- Animation is hit-and-miss.
- People are still going to compare this to One Piece.
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