Do fairies have tails? Do fairies even exist? Starting with Master Mavis, the adventure never ceased to surprise us with plot twists and twinkles of friendship and feelings.Magic, Dragons, Demons, Flying cats, Friendship, feelings… How can we not love Fairy Tail?!
Basic information
Fairy Tail started airing on Tokyo Tv on October 12, 2009. An adaptation of manga written by Hiro Mashima. The series got a huge attention by anime fans because of its plot, sound, and scenes. Two studios: A1 -pictures satelight and Bridge animated the series. Fairy tail ended its initial run on March 30, 2013. However, a new series premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2014, and ended on March 26, 2016.
After finishing his previous work, Rave Master, Hiro Mashima found the story sentimental and sad at the same time. Thus, he wanted the story-line of Fairy Tail to have a lot of fun for everyone.
Fairy tail Got seven original video animations (OVAs), and two coming up on November; December of this year. Even the Manga got seven spin-offs. Another adapted as an anime (Fairy Tail Zero). Also a movie: Phoenix Priestess.
Plot
Lucy Heartfilia, a 17 years old celestial wizard. Her dream is to become a member Fairy Tail; the strongest wizards guild in Fiore, known by many legends, but destructive antics. During a daring rescue, she encounters Natsu, a Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail. He is scouting the land for his missing father Igneel, a dragon. He offers her a place to stay in. Eventually, they become teammates with his blue flying cat Happy,exceed. Then, she befriended Gray, an ice wizard, plus the armored wizard Titania Erza. The five embark on numerous guild missions, which include subjugating criminals, illegal dark guilds, in addition to revealing their sad past.
Besides Earthland, the world of Fairy tail, another jumps into view, the parallel universe called Edolas. It appears as the original world of exceeds.
Several of Fairy Tail’s members encounter the immortal Zeref on the guild’s sacred ground of Tenro-jima. A conflict between Fairy Tail and the dark guild Grimoire Heart ensues over Zeref, which attracts the attention of the wings of despair, the king of dragons Acnologia. Fairy Tail wizards survive Acnologia’s assault when the spirit of Mavis Vermillion, their guild’s founder, puts them into seven years of suspended animation with her defensive spell, Fairy sphere. All the While Zeref leaves the island to ruminate over his next course of action during this time, deciding to eradicate humanity for summoning Acnologia.
After those seven years, the Tenro-jima team discovers that their guild is the weakest. So, Natsu and his friends decide to participate in the Grand Magic Games to restore former glory. However, the competition is fierce with the likes of the current number one guild Sabertooth, and the former Dark Guild Raven Tail, seeking to crush them. What’s more, a mysterious power seems to be lurking around the tournament grounds. They discover the Eclipse project, a gate of time-space that summons dragons to Fiore. But, Fairy tail manage to save the situation.
Zeref organizes a battle between Fairy Tail and Tartaros, a dark guild of Etherious demons. Ones who aim to unseal E.N.D, the ultimate demon of the book of Zeref. As Fairies defeated the Nine Demon Gates- Kyukimons, Acnologia returns to annihilate both guilds. But it stopped when Igneel emerges to battle against him, revealing to have sealed himself within Natsu. The wizards defeat Tartaros, Acnologia killed Igneel, which makes Natsu vow to defeat and avenge his death.
One year later, Natsu returns from a training journey to discover that Fairy Tail’s master Makarov Dreyar dissolved the guild. So he decides to go with Lucy and Happy to reunite the guild again.
Enjoyment
Here’s where Fairy Tail gets itss points. Once the cast is introduced, you get into the story and its a captivating tale. You’ll find yourself laughing at Happy’s antics, Lucy’s misfortunes and Natsu and Gray’s relationship/overall attitude; Erza’s attitude. The fight scenes are interesting and eye catching, and the story is fun to follow.
Immersion
If you were to compare Fairy Tail’s story to any other anime, it would be One Piece. As the general theme of adventure, nakama, comedy and climax is there. Not to mention the definite similarities between Natsu and Luffy. Overall, Fairy Tail’s story is a classic shounen type. Fairy Tail is sticking to its story, without throwing in unnecessary fillers. The problem with the story section, is that it can be somewhat hard to get into off the bat. But once Fairy Tail enters its first true story arc, it’s almost guaranteed that if you’re a fan of shounen, you’ll love it. The arcs just get better and better.
Sides of Enjoyment
Fairy Tail appeals to anime fans, thanks to a plot that’s layered with curious characters, legends, and a story that evolves at a believable pace rather than all at once. It’s more complex than most, and the characters run the gamut of personality styles, which helps keep things interesting. Both Lucy and Natsu have positive qualities that make them decent protagonists as well.
Characters
Fairy Tail spelling is like Fairy Tale. The series insist on the whole guild, however we can see the main characters appearing and have a huge affect in the story-line.
Natsu Dragneel
Natsu Dragneel is the main male protagonist of the series and a member of the Fairy Tail Guild. He is frequently partnered with fellow Fairy Tail members Happy, Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster, and Erza Scarlet. He is commonly known to the public as a powerful mage called “The Salamander.” But this title has started to fade as the series progresses.
Natsu’s most prominent features are his spiky rosy-colored hair and his signature scaly white scarf which was given to him by Igneel. Natsu has a scar on the right side of his neck. Aside from his appearance, Natsu has a carefree and reckless nature. And despite his constant brawls with the other members of the guild, he is a fiercely loyal and protective. He has a particularly close, and competitive relationship with fellow members; Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet. With the former, he has had a constant rivalry from a young age and although they often denounce each other as not being friends, they regularly watch each others’ back even when they are enraged with one another.
He has had the same sort of relationship with Erza—the two both being scared of her since a young age—and they seemed to have a fairly good relationship in the past as, according to Erza, they used to shower together. He befriends people rather quickly too, considering Lucy a friend and willing to team up with her only after a few days of knowing her.
Natsu’s father had left him when he was young. Igneel, a dragon, found him in the forest and ended up taking care of him. He taught Natsu how to speak, and use magic. But one day Igneel disappeared on July 7, X777. Igneel left Natsu to fend for himself without so much as a goodbye or an explanation for his reasons for doing so. This made Natsu look forward to the next time that they would meet.
Lucy Heartfilia
Lucy is a mage and the main female character of Fairy Tail, joining at the start of the main story line. Lucy’s member stamp is located on the back of her right hand.At the beginning of the series, Lucy is an independent novice mage searching for a mage guild to join, particularly interested in Fairy Tail, claiming it as the strongest mage guild. Though she tells Happy she considered joining Fairy Tail’s rival guild, Phantom Lord, due to their similar outrageous nature and personality, she is content with her decision of joining Fairy Tail.
After being rescued by Natsu from the slave ship, she is invited to join the guild. Once joining Fairy Tail, Lucy becomes a member of Natsu’s team. Lucy is one of the saner and more stable members of Fairy Tail, having common sense that other members of the guild seem to lack. She consistently points out Natsu’s and others’ idiocy. Lucy is also very confident in her appearance and sexiness, exuding a certain amount of vanity. Despite this superficial attitude, Lucy is passionate for literature and is in the process of writing her own novel about her adventures with Fairy Tail.
She is a member of the Heartfilia family, one of the richest and most influential conglomerate families in the country of Fiore. However, due to her estranged relationship with her father and the death of her mother, she left home to follow her own path.
It should also be noted that she was the only other person who had ever shut Gray and Natsu up without beating them up first. Natsu and Gray seem a little scared of her when she’s under the weather, even if Lucy’s magic is not as strong as theirs and can’t force them into submission like Erza.
Lucy practices Stellar Spirit magic, a skill which allows her to summon spirits from another world using Keys of the Gates. Her Stellar Spirits have varying levels of power, with different ones suited for different tasks. According to Lucy, while there is a large number of silver keys, there are only 12 gold keys. Thus far in the series, Lucy has obtained 10 Gold Keys and 4 Silver Keys. She also summoned all of her Gold keys (5 of them at the time) and Plue at once. Although it only lasted a few seconds, it showed her to be very powerful. Loki’s previous owner was a very powerful mage, yet she could not summon more than one at a time.
Erza Scarlet
Erza Scarlet is a S-class mage of the Fairy Tail Guild, the strongest, still, active female, and one of the main female protagonists in Team Natsu.
Scarlet, a tall, beautiful young woman with long red hair, and brown eyes. She is almost always wearing an armored suit, made by Heart Kreuz. However, thanks to her re-equip magic, she can wear many magic armors, and can even re-equip swim suits, and clothes for recreational purposes. Her member stamp is on her left shoulder. She wears a standard medieval armor. She has a number of other themed armors such as Flame (or Lightning) Empress, which absorb the respected magic type, Adamantium, Samurai-style and more.
Erza is a very strict person, often criticizing the bad behavior and habits of the other guild members. It results in most them to apologize for fear that they might invoke her wrath. She is also impatient, liking people who answer her questions quickly as seen when she promptly knocks out anyone who doesn’t answer her questions, despite them not knowing anything. Also, Erza has a problem where she apparently sees everyone as guild members. However, she has a great sense of justice. Despite being a very strict person, she seems to have a clumsy side to her as seen during the Galuna arc when she fell into a pit hole.
Like most Fairy Tail members, she shows great loyalty and dedication to Makarov and the guild. She pushed herself past her limit in the war against the Phantom Lord Guild, fighting against its many powerful members. She also became the temporary leader when Makarov had to be treated because of his scattered magic.
Although it hasn’t been fully explored, it is implied that Natsu Dragneel, Erza and Gray Fullbuster are all very close to each other. While staying over at Lucy’s house, Erza revealed that the three of them used to take showers together. It is later revealed that Erza, Natsu, and Gray have all been part of Fairy Tail ever since they were children.
Erza used to be a child slave where she was forced to help build a tower called the R-system. Over time Erza made friends with other slaves, among them was Gérard (or Jellal). When she and the other slaves tried to rebel, the evil magicians overwhelmed the slaves, but it was then when Erza’s magic awakens and kills them all, setting them free from slavery. A cult tried to build this tower to resurrect Zeref. They had slaves to build it, Erza being one of them. Erza has another flashback.
In the flashback Gerard tells her they have to fight to survive now. Caught by another guard Gerard get beat and she gets sent back to her prison. No longer able to take the abuse she attacks guards, starting the revolt. At first prevailing, mages start to show up and they begin to lose. A magic blast comes towards Erza, but Rob interferes, saving Erza, but killing him. She gets very angry triggering her magic. She controls all the swords around her and wins the battle for everyone.
When everyone is on the boat to go home, Erza goes back in the dungeons to look for Gerard. Already possessed by Zeref, Gerard attacks Erza and tells her he is going to complete the R-System to resurrect Zeref’s body. He told her not to tell anybody about the tower or he will kill everyone. She then wakes up on an island crying about the events just witnessed.
After Erza escapes from the island of slaves, she tries to find Fairy Tail. She heard about Fairy Tail from an old man named Rob. Another slave that forced to work on the R-system. He also cared for her like a grandpa. Eight years prior to the beginning of the story, she found Fairy Tail and taken in as a member. Upon joining, Erza immediately developed a habit to wear armor, as it made her feel safe. It was around that time when Makarov took her to Porlyusica to get an artificial eye to replace her right eye that turned blind because of an injury.
Gray Fullbuster
Gray Fullbuster is a member of the Fairy Tail guild. He is an 18-year-old ice mage, practicing ice alchemy, the art of molding ice. Due to his training history, he is most comfortable in little clothing and often forgets to wear clothes or quickly takes it off, thus often being accused of being an exhibitionist. He and Natsu have a friendly rivalry, and can often be seen fighting one another. Lucy believes the nature of his magic is the reason that he and Natsu constantly bicker. His member stamp is on the right side of his chest.
In certain panels, Gray’s necklace looks quite similar to the Rave Stone that is a crucial part of another one of Mashima’s stories, “Rave Master.” Mashima has stated he doesn’t remember the name. He takes off his clothes because Ul made him do it as one of her teachings and now it’s a force of habit.
Happy
Happy is a cat with some magical power, which may be the reason for his ability to speak. He can temporarily grow wings on his back and fly, and is capable of carrying only one person in this form. Happy apparently can fly at incredible speed as it took Eligor less than an hour to reach Clover when Happy caught up with him in mere seconds with Natsu in tow).
This is also the only kind of transportation that does not make Natsu sick. When asked why, Natsu’s anger burst out and exclaimed that Happy and their dear friendship, not a means of transportation. Ironically Natsu later gets sick when Gray gives him a piggyback ride when he’s injured. He’s very close to Natsu and becomes friends with Lucy quickly. The three form a team at the start of the manga. Happy is a full-fledged member of Fairy Tail, and has a member stamp on his back. It’s also unknown if Happy even though being a mage and a member of Fairy Tail, can use his magic offensively or not.
Happy has a very cheerful nature. Even when facing danger, he maintains a smile. Along with Lucy, he is one of the saner members of Fairy Tail and often acts as the mediator between Natsu and Gray.
Happy’s original name was going to be named Freyr, after a Norse god. But Hiro Mashima felt it didn’t fit him, so he changed the name to Happy so it fits the character.
Zeref Dragneel
The legendary dark mage Zeref is a human wizard known to history as the strongest and most evil mage to ever walk the earth. He lived over 400 years ago, but even to the present day his legacy continues in the form of other dark wizards and dark guilds who worship Zerefs power.
In fact, most dark guilds, established and operated under the pretense of reviving Zeref, helping him to conquer the world. Not only was he an incredibly strong mage, but considered as a genius, as well. He used his immense intellect to try to research and discover new magic, regardless of his status as the most powerful human alive. He is also responsible for the creation of tens of thousands of demons by means of his living magic, and these demons continue to roam the earth, leaving trails of destruction behind them. Aside from living magic, Death Magic takes up the lead as well as one of his many skills.
Later on, it is discovered that Zeref found a way to achieve immortality and has been alive for over 400 years. However, on top of that he has also picked up the undesirable ability to kill everything around him regardless of whether or not he wants to. He has taken residence on Tenrou island to avoid contact with other humans so that he can’t kill them.
Tartaros, one of the three dark guilds of the balam alliance is comprised completely of demons from the books of Zeref. Although the leader of the guild, supposedly E.N.D (the strongest of all Zerefs demons), he has yet to be summoned. As a result, Mard Geer the leader of the underworld is the guild master. Mard Geer reveals that the reason Zeref created the demons of the books of Zeref (dubbed the Etherious) was to relieve Zeref of his immortal life and successfully kill him.
Charles
Charlés is a talking cat with the same type of magic as Happy.
Wendy found her as an egg and they have been together ever since.
They are very close and Carla sees it ,as it is her duty to protect Wendy from danger.
Her personality is strict and straight. She disapproves of fooling around.
Towards Happy she is very cold at the beginning, but starts to soften over time. Especially during the Edolas arc has their relationship improved.
Wendy Marvell
Wendy is the Dragon slayer of the Sky, which means that she has the same power as Natsu Dragneel and Gajeel Redfox, but with the ability to manipulate air. She can eat air, but can’t heal as well in polluted areas. Her magic allows her to heal people from the most serious of injuries, even those caused by a dragon, allowing her to use even a kiss to heal other people and can even counteract other magic; however, there seems to be a limit to how much she can use.
Supporting characters
Fairy tail has many supporting characters, the whole guild, like Elfman Strauss and his sisters Lisanna and Mirajane, Cana and her father Gildarts, Luxus. And other guilds such Saber Tooth and Blue Pegasus.
Art
A-1 Pictures studio,co-product Satelight, as in the first part made the animation. It did a great job in the animation. The animation provides interesting and beautiful magic circles used in every spell. They are very captivating. Yet, A-1 Pictures studio,co-product Bridge canceled them in the second part.
Sound
Any fan would fall for the opening and the ending of anime. Fairy Tail got 22 opening and 22 ending. Some of them have more than one version. The anime ended with a final ending with plenty of arc memories. As for the OVAs, own three openings and three endings, performed by anime cast members.
OST
Fairy Tail consists of five soundtrack albums released between 2010 and 2013. The catchy, outstanding music composed by the talented Yasuharu Takanashi. And then released under the Pony Canyon label. He did a great job. The OSTs just get into the character’s emotions: rage, sadness, power…
Overall
Despite being a well-known anime, like any other, it has its ups and downs. Fairy Tail has an enticing plot, however, at times, it can get rather boring. Also, although the animation is not at its best starting from the second season, it is still enjoyable. It’s a worth watching anime overall.
