Were all part of Fairy Tail and were a family Listen when I started watching Fairy Tail when I was very young and a big fan of fantasy and action anime. I also liked the series that were very long and had this family kind of vibe to them. Fairy Tail was exactly that and I did like watching it back then However when I started rewatching the anime I asked myself: why did I like this? Im not hating on the manga or anime because I still think that the art style of Hiro Mashima the creator improved a lot over the years and I still like some of the character designs but all in all the show was meh. It felt like there were a lot of filler episodes and whole arcs I did not really enjoy watching. For example the whole traveling to an alternate dimension arc? You know the one that put the spotlight on the flying cats. Didnt really like that one. To me Fairy Tail was this happy show with too many characters and nice little ideas but it was never really more than a nice adventure. I mean it doesnt have to be but I can see why people would drop the series after the first two arcs or even sooner than that. Dont get me wrong I didnt drop the anime nor the manga because it feels nostalgic and I still hold it somewhat dear but I couldnt defend it even if my life depended on it. 300https://media1.tenor.com/images/4718d0b193616f07a6355e7c44a94b1e/tenor.gif?itemid=17133774 I dont even mind the suddenly overpowered characters like Erza but some inconsistencies were just too apparent throughout the series. Especially in the anime the characters look different in the different frames. Lucys boobs change size in like every other shot and I believe that at some point for the last season they changed studios and the characters looked completely different from before. Natsu Dragneel one of the main characters and a fire wizard is actually a pretty generic hero with his amazing powers and his good heart. Hes brave and while he often acts a little childish he cares deeply for his friends and guild members. I dont mind his character all that much because while he may not be that different from most other hero characters I did like the way he acted a bit silly and didnt just seem like the cool guy of the series. I also love that he has pink hair and was raised by a dragon. Learning magic from a giant ass dragon? How cool is that? 300https://media1.tenor.com/images/8eb40b225a32606b2ffc72713a82e6a8/tenor.gif?itemid=4608518 In my opinion Natsus pretty much the only one with an interesting background story and he was pretty much the only reason I wanted to finish the manga. I also enjoyed Natsus relationship with Lucy Heartfilia because it was both cute and funny. Their relationship was another reason for me to give this a chance because I liked how oblivious Natsu was and how much Lucy grew thanks to teaming up with him. Other than that I felt like the story was being a bit repetitive and while I liked some arcs more than others I did not really feel like I needed to actively watch what was going on. I often used the show as background noise when I was doing something else and didnt want to watch something I needed to pay much attention to. That in itself says a lot about the show though. 300https://media1.tenor.com/images/f6b8ef98b2b9e767a97b40dbdbc91617/tenor.gif?itemid=9632911 The character Lucy Heartfilia was another big problem for me because at the beginning of the series I did not like her at all. She felt like the kind of character the creator included merely for the purpose of fan service or as the potential love interest for the protagonist. But later on my opinion of Lucy was heavily changed as we learn more about her history with her father and how lonely she felt as a child. She became more of an actual character who could fight and support her friends without needing to be saved and protected every single time. Sadly she was still used for so much fan service like showing her panties or her being completely naked and while I personally didnt mind it that much it often felt a little too forced. It wasnt funny nor was it unexpected. The same goes for some of the other female characters that were involved in a lot of fanservice. The characters are drawn very similarly and dont look that different from each other. I think that Hiro Mashima did a better job of drawing them differently in his art books but Ill make a separate post about that. All in all when the characters arent colored or dont have different hairstyles most of them are indistinguishable. My favorite female character was Mirajane because her demon forms looked so cool and she was so sweet but she didnt play that big of a role. There were too many side characters I didnt really care about and I wish that some of the designs were more sophisticated. Everyone loves Happy 300https://media1.tenor.com/images/2ac82774461c95e115991916fb119e4b/tenor.gif?itemid=17644407 This little blue cat is the main supportive character in the series and while I dont hate him I never really liked him either. Honestly he could be so annoying and as I recall it his actions didnt really matter all that much. He could fly and liked fish but thats about it. I know that my opinion about him can be considered controversial because he seems so popular but I still cant bring myself to love this character. Ill just say it as it is I dont really like Happy all that much. Sorry Usually I love cats but the cat characters in Fairy Tail just werent for me and in addition I didnt like their designs at all. Except for Frosch because that cat was stupidly cute for some reason. Carla the female white cat I didnt like at all and when she suddenly was able to transform into a human I was like really? It felt like Mashima just wanted to draw a neko girl character. Despite everything I think that Fairy Tail is a fun series and I still dont think that its a bad manga or show but for a long time I feel like praised it too much simply because I was so much younger and didnt really pay attention to the details. Actually I did like some of the reveals we got to experience like Natsus past or Lucys relationship with her father and mother. I also liked how friendship and familial bonds were present throughout the story and like I said I liked seeing Natsu and Lucy interact. There were also some other characters I liked but the best thing about Fairy Tail was its charm. Some of the fight scenes were also pretty cool and I liked how all the characters used different kinds of magic. Lucys celestial magic was really cool and I enjoyed the idea a lot. 300https://media1.tenor.com/images/d1fb53a4c5670f3c3f62fa35669c4a92/tenor.gif?itemid=7263990 Anyway I feel like the ending of the series was written too quickly and quite frankly the last fight was disappointing but if you dont expect too much watching the anime or reading the manga I recommend giving it a chance. Fairy Tail is an enjoyable anime to watch with friends or when you need something lighthearted but I dont think that it was as great as I used to think it was and its no longer amongst my favorites. Hiro Mashimas art style developed nicely though and I even own two of his art books because I love the way he colors and shades his characters. Fairy Tail is a nice action adventure fantasy manga and theres no harm in giving it a try. I hope that Ive made it clear that I do not want to bash the series because I used to love it so much and it is quite fun. I still felt like I should reflect on the whole story and concept a bit more and be honest about what I didnt like that much. Thank you for reading