“In a land far, far away, lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic! Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace, for most, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some, however, magic is an art, and they have devoted their lives to its practice. These are the mages. Banded together into magical guilds they apply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore. But there is a certain guild in a certain town that soars high above the rest, one from which countless legends have been born… a guide that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. Its name… is Fairy Tail.”
“Fair Tail” was one of the most popular longer-running manga/anime franchises of the past decade (In fact, in a sense it’s still going on, with the 100 Years Quest manga which, although not directly written and pencilled by creator Hiro Mashima, still has his input).
As the intro suggests, Fairy Tail is about a popular, but quirky, group of wizards who take jobs at the Fairy Tail guild, mainly based in the town of Magnolia. Within the first few episodes, the core group is introduced-Natsu, who has fire magic, claims to have been raised by a dragon, suffers from vehicular motion sickness, and is often is called by the nickname “Salamander”; his blue flying cat friend, Happy; Gray, the somewhat more moody Ice wizard who has a tendency to take his shirt off; Erza, the tough but somewhat uninhibited warrior lady whose “requip” magic gives her access to tons of armors and weapons, and newcomer Lucy, a rich girl who wants to leave her pampered life to join the Guild, and who posesses Celestial spirit magic, allowing her to use a set of keys to summon beings from another dimension who can help out in a fight.
A few sagas down the road, they also add to the ‘main cast’ Wendy Heartfilla, who has wind powers, and like Natsu is a “dragon slayer” (raised by a dragon, with dragon-slaying abilities) with a feline companion, Carle/Charlie (depending on your translation).
Of course there are many, many side characters who are part of or later join the guild, all of whom pretty much get a spotlight series in the series although they’re not quite the “big five”. Among them, Gajeel, another Dragon Slayer, but whose skills involve metal; as well as his cat Lily (who joins in another arc) and who comes from a rival guild, Water-manipulating Juvia, also from the same rival guild but who forms a somewhat unrequited attachment to Gray; The siblings Elfman, Mirajana and Strauss who can turn into forms of creatures; hard-drinking Cana who has card abilities, Lightning Laxus and his group who form a rival Fairy Tail faction at one point, their master Makarov, Macao, and Gildarts (Who has a connection to Cana) who are some of the more senior members….as well as members of other guilds, such as the vainglorious but actually very competent and heroic Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, who are formerly led by Gray’s rival Lyon but eventually come to the rescue, the all-female Mermaid heel, and Crime Sorciere, a group of former series villains and dark guilds seeking redemption. (Think of them as the equavilent to comic book groups like the Marvel’s Thunderbolts or DC’s Suicide Squad), led by Erza’s main romantic interest, Jellal. Last but not least, there’s the somewhat brutal (at first ) Sabretooth, which includes two Dragon Slayers, Sting and Rogue.
Although Fairy Tail might seem episodic and goofy at first this soon changes, as there are more to each of the core members that really meets the eye, as well as the “B-teams”. This is especially true during the “Tenrou Island” arc, in which a competition within the team soon turns out to be much more complex as a dark guild infiltrates the tournament-including one member who has been pulling the strings of the first few arcs, who has a connection to Gray’s master.
Here, we’re properly introduced to the Dark sorcerer Zeref, First master Mavis, and the dragon Acoledgia, who play a major part in the series going forward (well, except for maybe one or two ‘filler arc’) This is all part of a very complex backstory involving dragons, Fairy Tail’s origins, and the mysterious origins of Natsu and his fellow Dragon slayers, as well as a by-gone age of Dragons. It’s a bit like “Skyrim” meets “Harry Potter”. There’s even an element of time travel too! Even the *cats* have a story arc devoted to their origins, although in their case it’s not quite as important to the overall story and is more akin to Star Trek’s Mirror Universe.
For a long running series, FT has it’s ups and downs here and there. Animation can sometimes be inconsistent (In fact the show shifted animation studios a few times)-sometimes really fluid, sometimes somewhat lazy (Then again this is a fairly long-running anime TV show at 328 episodes so there’s certainly a bit of a need for limited animation to save money). However, it’s always colorful and the backgrounds are especially well done. Also, since it’s a series based on a manga-which for the most part was running at the same time-some of the arcs are a bit drawn out (although not quite to Dragonball Z length, and there’s often enough characters to allow for some variety to the ‘fights’ more often)…and of course there’s plenty of filler, including several story arcs which really don’t add that much to the overall story and were not based on the manga. Also, although it has a lot of action and drama, it’s also a comedy with often absurd moments and character reactions (such as the running joke of Natsu’s motion sickness), and also a fair amount of nudity/sex jokes which might not be for everyone.
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