So started anime weekends a bit ago. This weekend...Fairy Tail. I'm a fan of the manga, as while the series pretty much takes no risks and always picks the safe option and is very shonen in everyone studying Punch Fu...It's also reliably good enjoyable popcorn flick.
The beginning of the series (eps 1-10) is pretty much following the core crew as they're introduced. You've got Fire guy, Ice guy, Naive excited infodump with sizable chest, Bullying Older Sister and of course "The Bad Guy Who Can Be Blamed For Every Plot as the Series Continues". Huh? They have names? Whatever :3
Each episode thusfar generally involves Fairy Tail saving the day, showing good comradery, being wild, and destroying a bunch of stuff. Even when fighting godzilla tier monsters, they are blamed for being too destructive. It's sort of slice of life/slayers. "Hey, mom, today was awesome, we blew up a mansion. Well, we weren't trying to but...."
</WorstPhrasedRecEver> :3
I like that it has a nice, BIG cast that actually makes it feel like a guild. Add that they all have unique power-sets you never get the feeling they're all 'waiting for Goku'.
Panda.
Waiting for Godot/Dragonball Z.
Make it happen.
Quote from: Brian on July 18, 2011, 11:11:08 PM
Panda.
Waiting for Godot/Dragonball Z.
Make it happen.
Namek.
~
The End~
7/10
Quote from: thepanda on July 18, 2011, 09:37:21 PM
I like that it has a nice, BIG cast that actually makes it feel like a guild. Add that they all have unique power-sets you never get the feeling they're all 'waiting for Goku'.
Yeah, they do really take the Team bit even farther than One Piece does. It's not a sentai group. It's genuinely a list of like 40 characters and while the main team stars are always there, any of that list can show up in any scene to help save the day. "Now, Go Drunkard!" "Now supermodel!" "Now puppet crazy dude with the tongue thing that's stupid!" "Lightning guy!" "It's Old Timer!" "Hey the master is taking the front line" "Now everybody on the scene, sum up for great justice. All twenty five of you. Go!"
Yeah, that would have gotten you 11/10. Knowing your audience is worth points. :)
But, yeah, Fairy Tale so far is fun. Sometimes, you really just want a lightearted romp, and Fairy Tale seems to be that. Kind of like the first half of a season of Slayers, but with a wider cast. So far, Natsu is my favorite character, despite the fact that (or perhaps BECAUSE) he is shounen incarnate.
Also, he appears to be the ill-conceived son of Lina Inverse and Haruno Sakura. That's worth some lullz.
Bah! Happy is where it's at! There is something so off about that cat.
Transformation ran out.
And the arc ends on an awesome note. So much better than Negima's last arc finale.
Abrupt timeskip, ho~!
yeah very. I mean, cool scenes and all, but at least the start of the timeskip gets a *eyebrow raise*
Doesn't the guild like need to be there for that?
Man, that last chapter was just depressing. -_-
Newest chapter...not as depressing!
Timeskip still feels abrupt, but at least it didn't linger long on depressing state of Fairy Tail following the disappearance of all of its S-rank (and near S-rank) mages.
Yeah. And admittingly the reveal picture kind of makes it a little more understandable. That was like 30-40 people in that shot.
Damn. Nice to see there'll be some consequences to missing seven years. Tough luck for Lucy, though.
Celestial spirits party hard.
The only weird part in the skip is not that there are awesome chars or that everyone else leveled up, but that the level they were at (Nearly S-Rank mages) is considered 'kinda just barely adequate'. Really? Not that they don't got reason for a training arc. New badasses and the fact that they were nearly all killed in their last big fight, but they did kinda also win that fight. You'd think at least several of them would still be at 'I'm a badass' level. Instead of 'I'm kind of middle of the road' level.
Magic advances like computer technology! A 7 year gap is like going from floppy disks to blue-ray!
Except the last arc was 'crazy ancient magic > you'.
...Magic also has an uncanny valley effect? >_>
Erza is a badass.
Indeed.
The last 2-3 chapters was awesome Fairy Tail.
For all that awesomeness of recent chapters, the last chapter turned it right back to "Blegh".
Must Lucy always get used as "We must avenge/save her!" bait in this series?
First fight: Raven Tail cheats! Must avenge her! *Everyone gets angry, until Laxus defeats all of Raven Tail*
Second fight: Sabertooth is cruel! Must avenge her! *Everyone gets angry, probably Natsu will be the one avenging her*
Soon in the future: Lucy is kidnapped! Must save her!
Oh and her dad died right before all this (okay, sure, he was an ass, but still).
Man, poor Lucy. =/
Haven't seen the latest chapter, but I can agree with the sentiment. It'd be nice for Lucy to come into her own.
The little girl character really would've been quite acceptable as the vulnerable cast member for a bit.
One minute. . .
Well, that's sort of been the theme of the current story?
Retcons within retcons?
"Oh noes, everybody died."
"No wait, I'm going back to when they were all alive and I'm gonna tell them so they don't die!"
Wasn't a criticism. I actually liked the chapter.
As dark as the last chapters were getting, Ultear's 'My life was only worth one minute?' felt like a gut punch, only to be shown just have much one minute changed things.
Still a gut punch considering...
....she dies without realizing how much of a difference she apparently makes, not just for Fairy Tail but humanity as a whole.
Also, dammit, why are so many writers bad at making their principal heroine not be such a load/damsel in distress? Considering that Lucy owns so many of the zodiac celestial keys, which is SUPPOSED to be a freaking huge deal, why does she keep needing to be rescued?
Shonen manga are primarily marketed to high-school aged and younger boys, that's why.
Read seinin.
Merc:
Bad writing.
But contextually there is at least that they're constantly running into things that are challenging for the main fairytail crew, who started way more powerful than Lucy and got more powerful too. Her power set has gotten stronger, but more relevantly its gotten more eclectic. It's like:
Natsu: Eat stronger fire, improve attack.
Ezra: Gain new armor/more magic, improve attack.
Gray: Gain new insight, improve attack.
Lucy: Gain new key, get new single summon.
But it's bad writing that basically every time Lucy is set up to kick ass, it's pulled out from under her. The generic "Non-dragonslayers need not apply" rule going on here will ensure she still doesn't get to do so. It's a shame since the setup of: Okay, you've had these things, but now you finally got to train with them and master a good attack spell (Which frankly, she lacked hard), even if it got nerfed lamely in arena encounter it should've shown up here. She's also oddly not taking all tweleve keys.
Edit:
And yes, it's also that its a shonen manga and showing her getting her clothes knocked off is fanservice.