Fairy Tail...
What is there to say about it? A lot actually. I think since the very beginning it was considered a One Piece ripoff. But after seeing its title page, I just had to take a look at it. So I read the first chapter and...I liked it! I kept reading it and reading and liking it even more.
Personally it does draw from One Piece, but it draws in all the elements that made One Piece good, and makes its own stories out of it, with mages, guilds, dragons, summoning. Similar art style and a similar humor, but different enough to enjoy in its own light.
Among the things I like is the way we're given many characters to work with in the Fairy Tail guild, however, we bring our main focus on a specific team, mainly Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray and Happy. Other characters join in for the ride such as Gajeel, Wendy and Juvia, and there are even other people in Fairy Tail who get their moment to shine in the spotlight. There's a good number of people out there, and although they can't be given the same attention as the major characters they're still pretty developed.
Another thing I like is the arc structure. Under normal circumstances, the mages see a mission request and take the mission and a great adventure ensues. Of course something unforseen could happen to them such as their guild getting attacked by a dark guild. A lot of the arcs we see indirectly pertain to the major story, but are very good by itself; it tends to either delve into: 1) the Evil Mage Zeref or 2) the 777 Incident. Of course we also get plenty of bonus stories as well and while tons of arcs slow the plot down, it does tend to paint a larger picture of the World of Fairy Tail.
On another note this was how Naruto's Ninja clan also did things...take mission, go on an adventure and kick ass...and I think it would've been better if it had continued doing that. Naruto and his team should've taken a few smaller missions to establish what is normal in the Naruto World, develop the characters, and make things exciting when something big like the Chuunen Exam pops up. Unfortunately, Kishimoto tends to focus on the BIG plot rather than smaller arcs, thus just about everything practically REVOLVES around Sasuke, Naruto or Akatsuki (and his pacing is as SLOW AS MOLASSES, especially during battles). Fairy Tail doesn't make these same mistakes.
Fairy Tail feels like One Piece in every way except one...FANSERVICE! Hiro Mashimo is willing to do what Oda is not and that is, give us some occasional strippage, panty shots and even some bare ass! Mind you, Fairy Tail is not a fanservice story but when it happens it's good. Hell he even did a special involving a Girls Dorm which actually turned out to be a very good story to boot!
The battles are intense! In any given arc, you're guaranteed to see Natsu and Lucy doing a battle. But like One Piece, each character has their own chance to shine in the spotlight, they fight with their own set of special moves (Natsu uses fire, Gajeel uses metal, Wendy uses air) and they get stronger as time progresses, meaning you'll see new abilities and cooler moves. Thankfully, just like One Piece THERE'S NO TRAINING ARC! (Hold it! Stop the Plot! Before you go any further in Bleach we need to teach you
The Final Getsuga Tenshou!!)
Eventually, though, I had to go and see the anime. It's pretty good and faithful to the series. The voices are spot on too, but nothing like I expected. Where I envisioned Luffy, I instead got Simon (Guren Lagann), where I expected Nami I got Nanael (Queen's Blade) and where I expected Chopper I got Shana (Shakugan no Shana). I'm EXTREMELY thankful that they decided to push past the 26 episode barrier that most unpopular anime fall prey to. Once it gets past 52 episodes (currently on 37), it will become OFFICIALLY cool, and ongoing. There will be no turning back!
I do have a few gripes though...First off, there's stock footage galore for most of the attacks, transformations and summonings that occur in Fairy Tail. It's something I can generally overlook, but what bothers me even more is that for some reason the anime decided to spam the series with MAGIC CIRCLES every single time a character uses magic. It's intrusive, and annoying and sure as hell doesn't belong in Fairy Tail! Fanservice...is also generally lacking. It's not as bad as something done in the Negima anime, but it is noticably toned down...I mean, who the hell takes a bath...in their own bathroom...WEARING A TOWEL?
My biggest gripe would have to be all the shit they pull with the Tower of Heaven arc. This arc has LOTS of changes in the anime as compared to the manga. It's wierd to see because changing shit left and right in an ongoing series can ruin some things later on according to the laws of cause and effect. The One Piece anime made several noticable changes in the Longring Longland arc, however, that arc was small and not nearly as significant, plus they were padding things out so that the following arc, Water 7 could be done PERFECTLY. The Tower of Heaven arc in Fairy Tail is a MAJOR TURNING POINT in the Fairy Tail story...yet several changes are instilled on it...
The story flows normally, Erza gets captured and She, Gray and Lucy still take on Trinity Raven just as they did in the manga. But what gets the brunt of the changes are the following:
1) Sieglein and Jellal are said to be twin brothers straight from the getgo. In the manga we only get to see Jellal's face during the flashback AND HE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE A YOUNG SIEGLEIN. We the audience somehow knew that they were the same person and yet they were in two different places. What was the deal? As it turned out, Sieglein was Jellal the whole time...and since this was really no surprise I'm guessing that the anime decided to use the whole twin thing to mask something which was clearly not a surprise to us at all.
2) The Tower of Heaven. It looks like a nice normal tower in the manga...but in the anime, it's like a gnarled, black, twisted root of evil! Who the hell wouldn't notice this and sense danger from the mere sight of it? This was totally unnecessary!
3) SEVERAL changes made in the flashbacks! For one, the Cultists are all wearing masks to cover their face whereas they just show them normally in the manga.
4) Japan is apparently afraid of depicting children getting whipped. The prisoners are placed in cuffs instead that are magically linked to some floating idol which shocks them if they're disobedient. Also, at the part where Jellal should've been getting whipped, he is instead getting his energy drained by a lachryma. For shame!
5) Wierd monsters got added in to keep the slaves in line. We're given Xenomorph dogs which growl at the prisoners (seriously they look just like they're from Aliens, who the fuck WOULDN'T be scared of them?), also the "mages" that try to quell the rebellion are Zombies which shoot magic from their mouth instead of cultists that fire magic out of their staves making it look nothing like a scene from Tianamen Square.
6) Zeref's motif is skull based. But when Jellal is infused with Zeref's powers, we're instead given focus on the creepy eye motif instead. Either one is creepy depending on your tastes, though I think the Skull motif will come to play later on. Also, Zeref speaks to Jellal in a female voice. Those who are already caught up with the manga will already know why.
7) Violence of course is less graphic. We get no signs of blood, and when Erza manages to escape her clothes aren't a bit tattered! I guess that sorta stuff comes with the territory when marketting to a younger audience.
We're still not finished with the Tower of Heaven arc yet and from the 4th OP we will be getting the next arc as well. Fairy Tail isn't a journey the way One Piece is, so there's really no telling where or when the story will end. But I know that I'll enjoy it to the very last chapter and I hope you do too!
Q: "Who are the other students that graduate with Negi? What jobs do they get?"
