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FAIRY TAIL #1 -- Watch & Learn

Topic started by No_name_here on Feb. 21, 2012. Last post by Dunchad 1 year, 3 months ago.
Post by No_name_here (836 posts) See mini bio Level 11
Staff

Change of pace, lunatics. We’ll be taking a break from EUREKA SEVEN and YU YU HAKUSHO for a week or so to catch up with a number of fine, new Funimation titles that have come to my doorstep. Read my thoughts on…

First off, if this doesn’t qualify as shojo, then I’d officially be the worst mediator at any battle of the sexes. Just the worst.

Secondly, it’s gotten really amusing, watching all of these Funi titles together in such a short period of time, because Todd Haberkorn’s probably voiced more than half of the male leads. The dude does a good job, sure, but this feels a bit like watching a bunch of flicks out of the Golden Age Hollywood system where studios essentially played musical chairs when casting their contracted players from one picture to another. Again, not necessarily bad, but amusing to recognize.

Thirdly, I’ve watched so many freaking shows for this column that I’ve reached the point where I’ve honestly lost track of which show’s I’ve randomly sampled before. At first, I felt like I’d already watched something from FAIRY TAIL, but this episode’s plot wasn’t familiar, so maybe it was a later episode or one of the dozen other shows I’ve watched that riffed on fairy tales from one angle or another. There are far too many old entries for me to go through, so I’ll just leave this question unanswered and be content with the mystery in zen way.

Fourthly, this show’s cemented chibi and other stripes of super-deformity as one of my biggest pet peeves in anime. There are times when chibi works, but they’re few and far between, and they don’t spring to mind, at the moment. Even when they aren’t ruining the mood of the serious moments of a show like FMA, they have a habit of quickly escalating from simple comic relief into a critical mass that turns an otherwise entertaining show into a shrieking, flailing mess of crude drawings.

Lastly, this actually was a decent debut for. I did appreciate the more, uh… practical angle on charms and talismans and assorted spells. Not enough to stick with this, though.

Also, I'm preparing for a special Q&A edition of this. If you'd like to participate, put your questions in this thread.

Watch this episode, "Fairy Tail" below and decide for yourself.

Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Lurkero (299 posts) See mini bio Level 6

Fairy Tail is definitely bad in terms of anime tropes that get annoying fast. However, Fairy Tail is also one of the more entertaining shonen action trope shows out there so it manages to hang near the big 3 (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece) pretty well.

The chibi and exaggerated expressions are really bad in Fairy Tail, but they don't feel as out of place as they did in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by sickVisionz (3,805 posts) See mini bio Level 24
Moderator
First off, if this doesn’t qualify as shojo, then I’d officially be the worst mediator at any battle of the sexes. Just the worst.

You are officially the worst mediator at any battle of the sexes.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Daniel_Newton (2,411 posts) See mini bio Level 20
Online Now
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I have to admit, I went back to episode 1 recently to fill the episode page out and it definitely has a lot of chibi/super-deformed stuff, but it never bothered me that much and I'd argue the serious scenes don't use it, like the scene where Lucy finds out Bora is kidnapping girls. But regardless, the point is that Fairy Tail is a lot more light-hearted than most shounen anime, specifically stuff like Bleach and Naruto, which I find refreshing.

It seems a shame to me that you'd drop the show without actually getting to see the Guild and the rest of the main characters. Did you try the sub? The dub is decent, but you might prefer the Japanese audio. The exaggerated stuff probably plays better with the Japanese voices.

I know you stand by your rule that if a show doesn't grab you in the first episode you generally drop it but Fairy Tail really is one of those shows that gets better and better the more you dig into it, in fact I think that's one of my favourite things about it. It's well past 100 episodes now and I don't feel like it's taken a turn for the worst at any point.

It'd be nice to see you covering more recent shows like Fairy Tail. Stuff that's still current and popular.

Edited 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Username_Undefined (67 posts) See mini bio Level 12

It's unfortunate that you're writing this show off so quickly, but I understand that everyone's tastes are different. I'll admit, I never paid much attention to the chibi/super-deformed parts and it doesn't bother me at all. It didn't in Fullmetal Alchemist either. I just accept it as artistic style to show emotion and roll with it. I hope that I don't sound judgmental when I wonder if maybe it's your background in American comics that caused your general dislike of chibi.

I agree with pretty much everything said. You've only met Natsu, Lucy, and Happy. Their core team has two other people in it. Gray shows up in the next episode, and Erza doesn't appear until episode five. There's also the entire guild as well as late-comers who join throughout the series.

This and One Piece have become my favorite still-airing series mostly because of the general lighthearted nature of the shows, but drama is there and all of the characters are very well written. That's another thing I like; if you want to know about someone's back-story, you're probably going to learn about it. Even minor, tertiary characters like Reedus, Jet, or Wakaba I can recognize and know at least a little about their personalities or lives.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by takashichea (3,698 posts) See mini bio Level 21

I got into Fairy Tail anime when my little sister told me of a series that reminded her of One Piece and Rave Master. I tried it with her, and I fell in love with the series ever since.

The characters and their origin stories are great. For plot wise, it was great up to Battle of Fairy Tail. The Edolas arc is not that great. Natsu Dragneel's battles end the same way with him overpowering his foes. The other protagonists' battles are more interesting.

Fairy Tail is pretty light hearted than Rave Master. Both are funny. Fairy Tail has some strange comedic humor during battles. It might tick off some people who want serious fights. Fairy Tail is overall a shonen series that's comedic, teary, and has some fan service.

Fairy Tail and Alice in the Country of Hearts got me into Anime Vice and wiki editing when I was surfing for images.

I haven't watch the Funimation Dub, but I did watched the Hong Kong one and mistakenly thought it was the official dub. Fairy Tail has a lot of chibi elements in their ending songs. You hear the "Wow" a lot near the beginning of the series.

Edited 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Mezmero (69 posts) See mini bio Level 10

I tried getting into this show around it's premiere but I ended up not liking at all in the long run. I'll preface this by saying that I eventually watched the first 30 or so episodes before realizing that I probably saw 30 episodes too many to make a judgement call. It was probably the One Piece looking character designs that made me give this show a shot in the first place and it's probably the only thing that they have in common. The series also tries to give characters over the top personality affects but a lot of them feel tacked on purely for the sake of trying to make characters memorable, which they were not.

As far as I can tell this series was made to replace The Slayers as the new magical fantasy quest on TV. I remember actually kind of digging the dubbed version of The Slayers when I was younger. For some reason however the format does not so easily transfer to my more modern sensibilities. The important part of getting a show like this right is the magic. The author might have benefited in cracking open a player's handbook before building this world because the magic here looks super flat and uninteresting to me. This brings me to my next biggest problem with the show, the fighting.

I should at least remember the name of one bad guy if the fights weren't so unimpressive. All the fights end abruptly and almost all of them end with a spell. Most of the magic starts with the same animation per character making a lot of the action scenes look like a fight straight out of Sailor Moon or like a Final Fantasy summon which are infamously disappointing. The bottom line is that this show was not for me from the start. I watched a lot more than I needed to thinking that it might get better as time goes but all of this stuff I have mentioned is aimed solely at kids. Regardless of how I feel Fairy Tail has become a successful anime that passed the 100+ episode mark. So someone out there likes it, just not me.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by sotyfan16 (1,332 posts) See mini bio Level 20

That's too bad Tom. I've been really enjoying this show. I believe I'm on episode 60. I've also been sticking to the sub and have not watched the dub yet. I have to agree with Newton.

Oh, and the thread link takes you to an ANN article.

@sickVisionz said:

First off, if this doesn’t qualify as shojo, then I’d officially be the worst mediator at any battle of the sexes. Just the worst.

You are officially the worst mediator at any battle of the sexes.

Seconded. Such a thought makes me think you're joking.

Edited 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by jj_jackson (79 posts) See mini bio Level 6
To be honest. i had alot of hopes for fairy tail but it just wasn't for me. i was literally 80 episodes in and just quit. I mean for the time being it interested me to a certain degree but i could not agree with most of the villians. Most seemed like a terrible rip off of a one piece character that just didnt go for me. They were either annoying or really lame. I didnt want to mention the lack of blood in this show either because Tiger & bunny didnt have blood but i loved it. Fairy tail just seems to be aimed at a younger audience to me. On the plus side natsu, gray, happy, and ezra are awesome characters. and mostly everyone in fairy tail. I just really didnt care for the enemies. And um the only thing it has in common with one piece is the light heartedness..nothing else.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by pukol (5 posts) See mini bio Level 6

When i first watch fairy tail, it struck me as a common anime. The type that looks good but doesn't really appeal much. It aired season 1 for 5 months in television, repeating the first season 2 times but I never really grew an interest about fairy tail. It wasn't until season two that I got around my senses and actually preferred watching Fairy Tail than watch "Family guy, American dad or The Simpsons".

And yes, I enjoy watching those 3 redneck cartoons.

All in all. I pretty much enjoy watching Fairy tail. It currently sits in no.2 on my "most awaited anime to watch" list. Fairy tail pretty much amazed me because not many anime can make me curious about watching them when they give such a poor first impression to me and it's the only one that made me break my rule of not reading the more advance manga (not even One piece mad me do that). About animation, i don't really have much problems with those things as long as the anime is entertaining, enjoyable and has a great plot then I think I'll be watching this for a long time.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Top8cat (62 posts) See mini bio Level 6

@jj_jackson:

To be honest. i had alot of hopes for fairy tail but it just wasn't for me. i was literally 80 episodes in and just quit. I mean for the time being it interested me to a certain degree but i could not agree with most of the villians. Most seemed like a terrible rip off of a one piece character that just didnt go for me. They were either annoying or really lame. I didnt want to mention the lack of blood in this show either because Tiger & bunny didnt have blood but i loved it. Fairy tail just seems to be aimed at a younger audience to me. On the plus side natsu, gray, happy, and ezra are awesome characters. and mostly everyone in fairy tail. I just really didnt care for the enemies. And um the only thing it has in common with one piece is the light heartedness..nothing else.

LOL, thats exactly how I feel, however I only made it to 65....it just feels like its missing something to go with its charm.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Jonny_Anonymous (43 posts) See mini bio Level 9

is it wrong that I like Chibis?

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by PenguinDust (1,008 posts) See mini bio Level 13

I started Fairy Tail because I had run out of One Piece. It seemed very close and I wanted another series to fill the void left by One Piece. Over time, the series formed its own identity for me. It's still a comedic adventure but the focus on a smaller group allows for more diversity. Similar to the Scooby Doo Movies, the story arcs start with the main group of Lucy, Natsu, Grey and Erza but then expand to include guests teammates from other units or other guilds. The Straw Hat pirates have become a large group so there is less room for hangers-on. Fairy Tail still manages to bring a smile to my face when I catch up on the latest arc. I've seen just over 100 and I look forward to the next 100.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
Post by Dunchad (72 posts) See mini bio Level 7

Yeah, Fairy Tail is not that great - not as an anime nor as a manga. I still check up on new chapters every now and then, to see if anything interesting is going on - usually the answer is no.

Like many have already mentioned, it's indeed very One Piece-ish and Rave Master-ish. Just not as good, I feel. Though I wish you hadn't reminded me about Rave Master - god was I pissed when I hit the last episode of the anime. There's a limit to how badly you can end a series - stopping mid-stride like that annoyed the hell out of me and I don't think the manga was available in any form back then because I never found out how the story ends. Might have to look up the manga now and finish the story, so I don't have to feel so bitter about it.

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago
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