Shelf Life

Fairy Complex

This block of episodes follows the main characters as they travel to a secluded island to compete in an important trial. Whoever comes out on top will be promoted to an S-class wizard, a rank that carries a lot of weight within the guild. The eight contestants and their partners go all out in pursuit of victory, but the competition is put on hold when a dark guild called Grimoire Heart attacks the island. The baddies are looking for a legendary dark wizard who's rumored to be hidden away on the island, and they plan to use his powers to wreak all kinds of havoc. In order to stop them and save the world, the Fairy Tail wizards have to put their rivalries aside and fight together.

I don't want to spend this entire review drawing comparisons between Fairy Tail and One Piece, so I'll try to fit all my thoughts on the subject into one dedicated paragraph. In visual terms, Fairy Tail has a slightly more conventional look than One Piece. Both shows feature distinctive character designs and transforming talking animals, but One Piece goes all out on exaggerated physical features where Fairy Tail tends to keep its characters a little more in proportion. From my limited experience, Fairy Tail also asks its audience to remember more from one story arc to another. It features more references to previous battles, and consequences of past actions are more likely to follow characters into the present. The final big difference I noticed is that Fairy Tail goes into a little more detail in its explanations of how different characters' abilities compare to one another. Where One Piece might say, “this guy can breathe fire,” Fairy Tail is more likely to say, “this guy can breathe fire and here's how it works when he's fighting this particular opponent.” There's a compelling case to be made for the way both shows do things, and they're both good enough at following their own styles that it's really more a matter of preference than of quality.

It took me a little while to get up to speed with Fairy Tail, partly because this storyline features a lot of characters. Between the S-class contestants, their partners, and the guild's leaders, we start off with around twenty good guys to keep track of. Adding the villains into the mix raises that total by about a dozen, and the grand total rises even further by the end. Considering that just about everyone has some kind of history or complicated relationship with at least one other person, there are a lot of dots for an unprepared newbie to connect on the fly. I ended up being thankful for the presence of the show's talkative narrator, who filled in enough of the blanks that I could follow the action as I worked on my mental notebook of how everyone was connected to one another.

After a few episodes of playing “who are you and why should I care,” I started to pick out a handful of characters that I liked, and the cast as a whole grew on me throughout the set. The upside of having a large cast is that Fairy Tail is able to include a wide variety of personalities, backgrounds, worldviews, and fighting styles. It's pretty easy to find at least one wizard who you either relate to or find amusing, and it certainly helps that the series avoids taking itself too seriously. Outside of its most intense moments, Fairy Tail is usually quick to crack a joke or pause a fight to let characters exchange some entertaining one-liners. It's really easy for fantasy shows to get wrapped up in overly serious discussions of ancient lore and magical technicalities, so I really appreciate the sense of humor that Fairy Tail brings to the table.

When the comedy transitions into more dramatic content, the show remains engaging. The animation quality is strong enough to make the fight scenes enjoyable, and the writing can handle a more emotionally intense turn when needed. Some of the battles in the latter half of this collection were able to surprise me with just how invested I became in their outcomes. There's a lot of standard stuff about good conquering evil through teamwork and compassion, but it's delivered well. Much like the characters, the many individual conflicts within the larger story arc present enough different twists and turns that something is bound to strike your fancy.

I came away from this collection with the sense that Fairy Tail is able to manage a large cast and a lengthy narrative better than many of its contemporaries. It's compelling enough to lure you into a marathon viewing session even if this isn't your favorite genre, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend following my method of jumping in halfway through the episode count. It might be possible to enjoy One Piece out of order, but I have a suspicion that Fairy Tail is best experienced from the beginning.
-Paul[TOP]