Fairy Tail is one of the anime that are either hated or loved by majority. It got the same treatment (or even worst) than Sword Art Online in the anime community. But why people hate this anime while some don't?
This anime started to air on October 12, 2009. And to be honest it is a big part of my childhood. Just like how Sword Art Online started the Isekai popularity, Fairy Tail also make the name of fantasy anime into the spotlight. So let's talk why do people hate or love this anime. And let's start with the bad part first.
Why do People hate Fairy Tail?
Too Much Fan Service
Edgy fans might like this but seriously it ruins the anime. Its so annoying to see that everytime there are fighting scenes (especially to girls), is it required to torn away their clothes and started to get naked? I know it is common to other anime but when you look into its genre online, you can't find ecchi in it. So it just clearly fanservicing and people don't really like fan service that much. It is one of the main reason why people hate this anime. And if it happen that someone ask me why you should hate Fairy Tail, then this one is definitely the first reason I answer.
Too Much Use of "Power of Friendship"
When you look at peoples feedback, you will always see this reason why they hate Fairy Tail. And to be honest hating power of friendship is just stupid. First, this show is shounen (another reason why I hate fan servicing more). It clearly made for kids and friendship is a more suitable theme for them. You can see power of friendship almost in every shounen anime like Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. But the reason why Fairy Tail gets bad treatment is because they overdid it. Its unreasonable to see friendship power in almost any scenes. So yeah, power of friendship isn't bad. It's just Fairy Tail overused it.
Unbalanced Power Level
This one is really funny. Even Dragon Balls have a decent power levels than this one. Imagine a thousand year old Immortal who studied and knows variety of magic but have been defeated by a teen equipped with the power of friendship. Too much characters with great potential are ruined because of this. An example of that is Rogue and Sting. Their fights agains Gajeel and Natsu in Grand Magic Games is just overhyped. I actually expect some good fights between the four until Natsu singlehandedly defeated the two. Another one is God Serena. He is a dragon slayer with the power of 8 dragons. After showing incredible power, he is defeated with just one attack from Acnologia and Gildarts. This series could be better if they just balanced the power of characters and gives us a good fights.
Author Afraid of Killing Characters
Another Fanservice? Hiro Mashima should take advice on Hajime Isayama. I don't know why he is afraid of killing characters. Even some great shounens did this like the death of Neji and Ace but why not in Fairy Tail. I think it would be dramatic and give an unforgettable moment for the anime. Either way its not a big deal though.
Now that we know the bad stuff then lets move to good stuffs.
Why do People love Fairy Tail?
Good Story
To be fair, the story in Fairy Tail is actually better than most of the shounen anime. It has a good backstory that can be easily understood and didn't ruin the show by a long filler episodes. I really like the backstory of Mavis and Zeref. For me it has a good backstory that if you don't care about all the stuffs you should hate about this anime and just focus on the story only, then you should enjoy Fairy Tail more.
Good Character Design
Although the design isn't my all time favorite in shounen (I like Magi more) this anime isn't that bad. The transformations of Erza is just magnificent. Zeref, Mirajane and Jellal just got the most beautiful design for me. Fairy Tail just got an Art Style that can be easily identified in anime. If they just focused more in animations and improve it more, then this character designs will not just go to waste.
Genius Use of Magical Fantasy Genre
The truth is I'm not a fan of magical fantasy. I usually got bored with this genre because it always revolved around plain elemental magic and just that it. But Fairy Tail offered more. With the introduction of wide variety of magic like Zodiacs and Dragon Slayers, it makes this anime more interesting. It actually goes well with the story and didn't put the good character designs to waste.
For me, I can't say that I hate Fairy Tail or like it. Maybe I'm just neutral towards it. Yes there are stuffs that I don't like about this series but there are good stuffs that cancel it out. And not to mention that it is a part of my childhood, Fairy Tail is just one of the shows I can't just hate of.
Mashima is so scared to kill his characters he would reuse them in his other works (a.k.a Jellal). I am pretty much in the middle but leaning towards the liking part. I loved how it started but the ending season was just a quiz of "who is who's child?". It was really meh but I'm glad it ended. Mashima is notorious for not continuing (or maybe he has a good story plot but sucks as continuing them)