Reviews Manga / Fairy Tail

Not without flaws, but well worth the read.

How the series weighs overall, as of chapter 328,

Pros:

• Fights are fast paced. No match drags on into tedium.
• The comedy. Even as the threats become greater, Cerbus Syndrome is never powerful enough to kill the series’ sense of humor.
• The characters are well developed for a shounen.
• Fan service is fairly equal. The author does not objectify women while ignoring that some fans are female.
• Strong female characters. The girls are not left waiting for the guys to save the day and often contribute just as much (and sometimes more) to achieving victory.
• The continuity. While it’s not without slight consistency errors, the series does a good job of remembering the entirety of its cast, which is no small feat. Minor details in character design and relations between characters are never missed.
• The plot. Fights are somewhat predictable in that hero will obviously win, the twists and turns that each arc takes, especially later arcs, is always a surprise.

Cons:

• The shortage of overarching villains leads to new enemies being hyped to make them seem like a threat. Coupled with short fights, this can lead to anticlimactic moments.
• The fan service. While balanced, it can detract when it comes too frequently.
• Lack of death. While the series isn’t void of it, you will never feel like something bad could happen to anyone in the core or even supporting cast, and the loss of a minor character is so rare that it’s a shock simply because someone actually bit it.

And on the anime, up to episode 175:

It’s well animated, though not without the dips in quality that you would expect in a long running series. It follows the manga closely, with the only notable changes being aesthetic adjustments to an early arc. It also adds details to early scenes that the manga did not think to mention until later, giving certain events a stronger emotional impact. It’s had two filler arcs so far. While the first, which was fairly short, is a completely skipable nightmare, the second is impressive to say the least. Without reading the manga and knowing its filler, you may not even notice a difference in it and the other arcs. That the manga creator got involved in its writing and even made a point of referencing the events of the arc within the manga itself may contribute to this.