It's hard to resist calling Farmagia a “dumpster fire” when the show starts with a giant fiery monster wreaking havoc on the landscape. Granted, the anime does creep into that territory on more than several occasions, but it doesn't quite land there. For me, dumpster fire-ness implies a sort of so bad it's good quality to it. Sure, some moments are baffling, but most of Farmagia plays out as just plain bad.

Farmagia revolves around mages who spend their days peacefully farming in the underworld of Felicidad, with their crops turning into magical creatures once harvested. All is fine and dandy when the supreme magus of the realm, Diluculum, suddenly dies, leaving his right-hand man, Glaza, to seize control of the realm and transform the social landscape into a Darwinian survival of the fittest. Naturally, this inspires our main cast to take up arms against Magus' plans for domination. Other characters are met along the way, rivals turn into allies, big baddies are thwacked on the head, twists and turns unveil themselves, and everything about this three-act plot plays out exactly like you'd expect it to.

The original character designs of Farmagia are penned by Hiro Mashima, which results in Fairy Tail bleedover leaking all over the place. This works against Farmagia altogether. I am admittedly not the most avid reader or watcher of Fairy Tail, but the bits and pieces that I do know about congregate here in Farmagia in a way that makes it feel more like a condensed parody of Fairy Tail than a worthy spiritual successor.

Mages make their way into the frame, and they call themselves the Dragons of Cenvalt. Fights are resolved through the power of friendship. Many attempts at verbal and slapstick humor are made, with none of the jokes landing (and often appearing at inappropriate times). A flying sidekick that's undoubtedly a Happy surrogate appears in the form of a flying chibi-fied cyclops that lacks the same charm. Our lead looks like Natsu, although he sports red hair and his arm tattoo is black this time around. Farmagia even has the gall to christen our Not-Natsu with the name of...Ten. I'm going to assume this name is supposed to echo Mashima's Edens Zero since other characters refer to him as “Zero Ten” at times. Because get it? Ten rhymes with Eden, and Zero because, well, can't have Eden without Zero, can you?

Even stranger are the other creative decisions made on this show. A lot of the designs of the show look too goofy and zany to be taken seriously on any level. On the minor end of things, there is this bizarre Yoshi-esque creature that pulls a cart like a horse, but it's poorly drawn, holds a sign for no reason, and shakes its head uncontrollably while standing in place. On the more major end of things, some monsters raze towns to the ground while looking about as intimidating as the cast of Winnie the Pooh, and the villainous Magus Glaza seems so odd and derpy-looking that his presence invokes farce rather than evil.

Another slight I have against the show comes from the magical creatures I mentioned a bit ago. The show could have named them, maybe something like “harvest summons” or “farm beasts.” But instead, it prefers to call them “buddy monsters,” which sounds so awkward and off. It rings out like a misnomer your out-of-touch dad uttered when you were six, simply because he didn't realize the one video game you liked was called Pokémon and not Buddymon.

Alongside what I just mentioned, everything else you can expect from seasonal refuse like this is here. The still animation leads to bogus fight scenes that, despite filling entire episodes, lack any theatrical gravitas. Some of the...ahem...“buddy monsters” are clad in CG that look distastefully dated, almost like they were culled from a Nintendo DS game from 2005. The music doesn't do these fight scenes any wonders either--a fight between Ten and a giant monster has exciting music placed in one of the more boring parts of the fight, while one of the fight's biggest moments, where such music would be more appropriate, doesn't play at all. Whatever fun and thrills that could be culled from this fight are made muted and boring instead. Another moment has a character fainting at the very end of the fourth episode in the lamest excuse to end the episode on a cliffhanger, and the way the ED rings in as this is happening is so awkward and forced that it unintentionally becomes a thousand times funnier than any of the jokes this show has to offer.

From what I've gathered, nobody has been clamoring for this show, and you can tell. The Farmagia anime was based on a video game that seems to have garnered mixed reviews and might have been entirely ignored had Mashima not been involved. Since the key aspects of Fairy Tail are so watered down here in Farmagia, you can see the show's clumsy plotlines coming a mile away. I'd like to say that this show only works if you were already a fan of Mashima's work or Fairy Tail, but it is a hard claim. I would imagine that they're better off reading a Fairy Tail fanfic. Even though it is penned by a different author with no official connections, there's still the chance it might feel more like a genuine recreation.