Fairy Tail Review     Oct 11, 2008     reviewed by ChocoMilkTea    

A replica of One Piece? Seems like it Worth reading? Yes

Fairy Tail undertakes another fantasy setting. I have always been skeptic of fantasy anime's as most of them is always obscure, and prone to be uninteresting as the story progresses. But that mistake isnt repeated here in Fairy Tail as Hiro Mashima performs excellent on making his own fantasy world out of thin air.

In this manga, all sorts of mages roam about the world. Some of them even bond together and form a guild that takes requests from people in exchange for money, there are even such guilds that are dark, who are not among the law-abiding. Fairy Tail is among the hundred of guilds out there. But unlike the general they, to quote their master do what you think is right. Yes, they do what they believe they should be doing, all for the sake of just finishing a job. Whether its wrecking a house to turning a whole town into a scrapyard, it doesnt matter for them, as long as they get the job done.

Fairy Tail tells the story of Dragonil Natsu, a Fire Mage who was raised by an ancient fire-breathing dragon. and his newfound friend Lucy, a Spirit Mage who's pretty much new on the world of guilds. Together they and the rest of the members of the Fairy Tail guild goes through all sorts of adventures.

At first glance, it may sound lame because of how it follows the monster-of-the-week formula. And yes it does. But dont let that stop you from reading this. Sure it is pretty much follows a shounen formula. But to my surprise, the plot twists were variable. I am constantly impressed on how detailed the arcs were. They start out as something terribly cliche then suddenly turn out to something unexpected. Furthermore, each character is connected to each other and each of their past is no exception either. I love how every character is significant to further progress the story.

The art during action scenes is very impressive. It is comprehensive. You can understand what is happening to the characters and around them. At some climactic parts, I even got around to get my Ipod to listen to some One Piece Soundtrack while I was reading. Surprisingly, the music pays off. It gave a better atmosphere and it invigorated me. Another plus is it doesnt fill the panels with unnecessary captions. But it never forgets to show the reaction of each character in the scene. And most of those reactions are just plain humorous. And each character design is likable, as every male boasts their six-packs and every female shows their cleavage.

Fairy Tail will not fail to deliver its action packed, slapstick comedy to its readers. If that sounds good to you then dont you even dare to miss out on Fairy Tail.

ChocoMilkTea also recommended: One Piece,
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compelling drawing, interesting story     Jun 19, 2008     reviewed by dreamlogicc    

The first thing i noticed about Fairy Tail is the very refined drawings. There are interesting angles and points of view, and there are a wide assortment of 'extreme' face and look drawings that are both creative and hilarious - - Im a sucker for those hilarious 'panic', 'frustration', 'anger' drawing interpretations. The style is definately a step up in a great direction from 'Rave Master', a previous series by Mashima. The Character 'Plue' from Rave Master returns... im only through book two, but i hope that concept is fleshed out later...

Its a story of wizards and old-skool fantasy technology. While I don't normally like the fantasy genre, this one has me hooked, and I'm looking forward to every new volume.

dreamlogicc also recommended: rave master, bobobobobobo,
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Another Fun Adventure, One Piece hungry?     Aug 17, 2010     reviewed by SimonL.    

As a big fan of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece, I really thought he also created Fairy Tail just by the similarities in the artwork, and I was really eager to see what other stories and world he came up with. I was honestly disappointed when I found out I was wrong, but after reading a couple of volumes in I regret having been disappointed. Hiro Mashima does a bang well job on making Fairy Tail, and I might even becomes obsessed like I did with One Piece.

Manga: Fairy Tail does a lot of things that made me fall in love with One Piece - facial & body expressions, comedy cues, emotional cues, and the vast world with a lot of potential. It has great pacing, cracking up a few memorable comedy moments while taking itself seriously at serious moments. Even if there's a few jokes during emotional moments, it isn't enough to ruin the mood. Characters, however, does feel like they are heavily inspired from One Piece with a few twists just so enough they have their individuality. Big plus is how the characters interact with each other.

As mentioned before, Fairy Tail's world has a lot of potential. The world is filled with guilds where people band together under a common ground. People within the guild can group up and take on requests from people in exchange for rewards, like questing. While this story focuses on the wizard guild Fairy Tail, it is hinted that there can be other types of guild that focuses on other aspects, like martial arts and physical strength. And the requests themselves can be anything, from fishing a certain fish to saving the world with the possibility of cliche to surprising conclusion. Even then the story doesn't need to progress just on the quests the guild takes up, but by personal adventures also.

Anime: Weak. Seeing as how the Fairy Tail manga is similar to One Piece's manga, which is a really good thing, I expected the same from the anime version. Weak! One thing I am damn proud of is that I read the manga first, otherwise the anime would have completely killed it. Terrible pacing, the flow isn't good, I question the background music and other sound effects, just plain nightmare. It feels total amateurish, someone trying way too hard to be funny. Emotional parts are lost and some of the deeper meaning's value is just disregarded. It feels as if they rush things or that they don't have enough time slot to fit everything in an episode. Ahh~Hhhh, total mood ruiner. Some things are changed a bit to keep it fresh from the manga version, but whether that is a good thing or a bad thing falls heavily one sided towards the negative side. Keep it to the manga before watching the anime episode part.

Overall: I'm not gonna comment on the anime. Thumbs up buy for the manga. 3-4/5 compared to One Piece, 4/5 on its own accord. Why not 5/5? Simply because it isn't One Piece which I have a high opinion of.

SimonL. also recommended: One Piece,
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