#How many more gripes does Mashima want me to have with his writing?

[yamishika]

At this point I’m just hate reading 100 YQ to see in how many more ways it will disappoint me

[eliselowingwrites]

Fairy Tail 545: My Final Thoughts

Well, “Fairy Tail” has officially come to an end.

For those who don’t know, I’ve followed this series since Episode 1.  And I can proudly say that I am a Fairy Tail fan.  Heck, I’ve got about four fan fictions about it on my fanfiction.net account.  So yeah, I can say I greatly enjoyed this series.

Now, I did have my own gripes about the series, such as what I like to call the “over-use-and-misuse” of fan service, some random power escalation (or get-out-of-plot-free cards as I call them), and plot twists that seemed like a desperate attempt to shock the viewer.  And some ideas that I think just fell...flat.  Mostly because of the fan service, but also because the story got bloated in some areas where I feel like it didn’t need to.  And the parts near the end when plot lines didn’t really go anywhere was very disappointing.

However, despite all my gripes and criticism, this is a series that is and will be special to me for many reasons.

1. It was the first long-running series that I had actually followed from beginning to end.  Most long-running series, I drop later on because they become drawn out and I lose interest.  For Fairy Tail, while it could get on my nerves sometimes, it somehow managed to keep me invested in the story, and I was never once bored while reading it.

2. I love most of the character, particularly the five core characters: Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, and Happy.  I also liked characters like Gajeel, Wendy, Carla, Yukino, Sting, Rogue, Mirajane, Elfman, Lisanna, and Makarov (there are many others, but I can’t list them all here because it would take too long).  When their character was focused on, I did enjoy their presence.

I’d have to say that Natsu is my favorite character overall.  For one, I loved his character design, particularly in his face.  I especially enjoyed his energy, his tenacity, and he shared a lot of core beliefs that I also believe myself such as standing up for the ones you care about the most, and always trying to do the right thing no matter how hard it might be.  I also tend to be little impulsive like him, so I could relate to his character more than the others. In fact, he was the main reason I kept following the series.

Not to mention, he’s one of the few guys in anime that can make pink hair look badass! XD

(Pardon my language.)

3. I loved the concept of the world.  A world where wizards are rather commonplace, and have unique powers of their own.  And Dragon Slayer Magic, just the name sounds cool.  Heck, I would’ve loved to be a Dragon Slayer, too. :)

4. I loved the relationship between Natsu and Lucy.  This is by far my top ship in anything.  What makes it resonate so much with me is the foundation the relationship is established.  It’s built upon trust and mutual love for each other.  Natsu and Lucy have a deep sense of trust with each other, and that led to them forming a friendship, and what is clearly now love.  And that love progressed over time.  While I do feel like it fermented longer than it should’ve, I feel that this was a good way to make a relationship that evolves over time into something more.  And this is something I would like to see return in another shonen series, with just a bit of tweaking and perfecting.  Because this does have potential, and it is what made me care about Natsu and Lucy as a couple more than any other ship in any other series, anime or otherwise.

But most of all, Fairy Tail did something personal for me, and something I have to share.

There was a time, during my sophomore year of college, when I fell away from drawing for a time because another series (which shall remain nameless) had let me down so much that I stopped drawing.  I had drawn fan fictions and fan art for it, and it got to a point where it let me down so much that I lost my drive to draw anything anymore.  I kept writing because I found another series that filled that void a little, but my drive to draw was gone.  When I did draw, it was for art class assignments.  But I didn’t get a lot of joy out of it.

That’s when I discovered Fairy Tail on Netflix.  I binged watched the first twenty episodes, and my spark was rekindled.  I picked up the pencil and started drawing again, and I was enjoying it.  The more I watched Fairy Tail, and read the manga, the more I wanted to draw.  It just had this beautiful simplicity that captured my attention, and made me want to strive to be the best I could be.

Especially in the setting details.  Man, I gotta admit, Hiro Mashima can draw setting really well.  I absolutely loved the setting and background details throughout the series.

What’s more, a dream that I had a long time ago, but had gotten lost somewhere in time, was found again.

That dream was to one day create a fantasy shonen manga/anime.

It was because of Fairy Tail that I found my joy for drawing again.  What’s more, I found another goal to strive for, and it inspired me to write other kinds of fan fiction.  And it got me back into anime and manga again.  Because there was a time when I enjoyed watching anime and reading manga, particularly shonen series like Naruto and Digimon.  And in some way, Fairy Tail reminded me of why that was.  And I can’t give it any higher praise than that.

Even when the series had me face-palming at times, or made me cringe because of ridiculous absurdity, I’ll still look back on it fondly.  Because at the end of the day, it was and still is, the series that helped me find my inspiration again.

And if a series can do that to even just a few people, then I say that’s a high achievement in of itself.  There’s merit to that, and I can say that Fairy Tail did have some merit.  If you asked me if Fairy Tail was worth it, I can say with full confidence that:

“For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while.”

Anyway, thank you for reading this.  I hope your enjoyed it.

I’ll just leave with this song that sums up the whole Fairy Tail experience for me.

Have a Good Day! :D