I imagine the conversation went something like this.
Editor: Hi there Hiro Mashima the creator of Fairy Tail!
Mashima: Hi there Mr. Editor!
Editor: Boy I tell you, your readers absolutely love your Tenrou Island arc. Every character including Erza and Gildarts are being pushed beyond the breaking point and their struggles to survive the onslaught of such powerful enemies makes for some exciting reading. So tell me, what do you have in store for us next?
Mashima: Well I was planning on a time skip between Tenrou Island and the rest of the series.
Editor: Oh that makes sense. Give our heroes time to train after barely scraping by. So are we going for the One Piece two-year time skip or the Naruto two and a half/three-year time skip?
Mashima: Ha! Those kind of time skips are for pussies! I’m doing a seven-year time skip!
Editor: Uh o-ok. I thought something like seven years was more of an epilogue kind of thing, but you’re the creator not me. What do you plan to do with the characters? Are we still going to have our “can do” wizards go on quests and discover new and interesting lands while learning about themselves and each other along the way?
Mashima: Nope! Actually I was thinking about making Erza an unbeatable God, making Lucy mostly useless, Natsu will never shut up about the power of friendship and turn Gray into an almost emotionless robot. Oh and I’ll be focusing WAY more on fan service than actual character development.
Editor after a long awkward pause: So Fairy Tail is going to become insultingly generic and utterly fucking pointless then?
Mashima: Yep! incidentally have you tried these “Loco Donkey” brand crazy pills? My favorite flavor is “led based paint!”
It’s funny you know, after my Star vs. The Forces Of Evil review I was planning on reviewing another series but then realised that I should let it continue just a bit more before I write about it. So I was scratching my brain trying to figure out what to write on, but then it hit me. It was staring at me right in the face, the Fairy Tail manga just ended and far be it from me to avoid that particular elephant in the room. I mean Fairy Tail was once a very promising series, loaded with adventure and interesting characters with depth, not a ton of depth mind you but enough depth to make you like someone. But at a certain point Fairy Tail ran out of the make up that made it look pretty and vibrant and we realized just how much it started looking like an over ripe avocado. I remember when I first got into Fairy Tail, it drew me in because it was basically One Piece but with wizards, Mashima even going so far as to draw his early chapters entirely in One Piece’s style. I’m serious, if you read the first chapters and don’t draw some kind of line between Lucy, Natsu and Gray with Nami, Luffy and Ace respectively than I’m sorry that you still refuse to get your eyes examined. Even Gildarts is a magical version of Shanks but at that point it was more homage than actually ripping off since Mashima had his own style for his characters at this point. Which I don’t really blame him for, when you’re trying to etch out your own artistic style it’s a good place to base it off work you like or admire as long as you develop your own style at some point. But if anything I would’ve loved for Mashima to bite off a bit more from the One Piece style of storytelling because at least then I wouldn’t have such a sour attitude for about an entire half of a series.
Fairy Tail is like the ex who started out with good intentions but after a bump in the road started to lack a purpose in life. We stayed in hopes that things would get better and that someday it’ll go back to the way things used to be, but the final chapter came and went and didn’t go out with a bang so much as went out with an annoyed sigh and now it’s safe to say that we’re all back on the dating market. It’s a very bitter-sweet feeling to have for a series that you loved for years only to be torn apart by the very creator, a similar feeling that most Star Wars fans have I suppose. Especially since I was quite the fan back in the day, but the series became so bogged down with predictable outcomes, tired clichés and just all around lazy writing that I stopped being a fan and only kept reading cause I was pot committed and just wanted to see some fucking payoff. So the question is, what made Fairy Tail spiral down into oblivion and when did it all start? Keep in mind that I’m only going to discuss what was wrong with the canon cause just about all the filler episodes were a load of bollocks and the person who decided to have that fucking “jiggle butt gang” in there should be hung, drawn and quartered and fed to the jackals! Well I think the latter is easier to answer, it happened with the now infamous words “seven years have passed.” First off, what the fuck? Why did it skip ahead so far? So much can happen in seven years that we’re left out of. In all that time a person can graduate from college, buy that house that they’ve been scraping pennies for, or bear witness to a fucking horrid presidential election. What I’m trying to say is seven years is way to long to bridge the narrative of the main story. Seven years is an epilogue or a second series. Shit I’d be interested as hell in a second Fairy Tail series, showing the next generation of wizards being trained by their now familiar parents. But instead we get rushed through an arc of the Fairy Tail cast that got locked in the time bubble catching up on the events that happened since their departure. As I said when I took a tour of the Heinz ketchup factory “That’s fucking weak sauce.”
Now to move on to the question of “how did this happen?” To answer that I’ll have to remind people what was actually good about the series. In the beginning Fairy Tail followed Lucy Heartfillia and her adventures with the wizard guild Fairy Tail. Her first friend Natsu is the one who scouts her and we start to see a nice familial bond between the two begin to blossom and throughout their adventures they begin to learn more about each other and support each other, not in a romantic way but as actual friends. Fairy Tail the guild was introduced as a rough and tumble joint but filled with people with good hearts and vibrant energy. Our heroes would go on quests that took us to interesting places and required more than just brute force to complete them, their was a certain mystery about them that kept us hooked. Erza was tough but fair, when she showed up you were like “Oh shit Erza showed up, things just got fuckin’ real!” she wasn’t an unstoppable force that never loses ever. It’ like when Batman shows up you’re like “Oh shit Batman showed up, things got fuckin’ real!”compared to when Superman shows up and you’re more like “Aw shit, Superman showed up. Well this will be over soon by the next bloody page with little to no fuckin’ effort…” Most of the characters weren’t just background fodder either; well except Lisana. Natsu makes a big deal about her, the series makes a big song and dance about her and then she’s kind of chucked to the wayside to be used as fan-service every once in a while, every character in the guild had something bout them that made them unique and made you want to root for them. At some point Mashima just went and said “fuck it I’m tired of trying to make these characters relevant here’s some boob and panty shots.” Cause by the end any moment that should have a deeper meaning or some sentimental value is reduced to utter redundant fan-service that sucks all the emotion from my already barren heart like a vacuum or a rather affectionate leech. But what I think what made the first half better is that it’s more memorable. I remember all the good times I had with the Phantom Lord arc, the Battle for Fairy Tail arc, Tower of Paradise and of course my favorite arc Tenrou Island where the fights had some weight behind them because they well fighting for their lives and it’s also the first time Natsu has a significant arc in his character. What started out as a headstrong, shoot first ask questions later battle hungry hot head was humbled by the overwhelming power of Fairy Tail’s strongest member and he realized that he still has a long way to go before he could get to that level. It was this fun and adventurous spirit that I admired about the series and looked forward to like a once a week hand job.
So what made it go from good to bad to fucking gut wrenching? Where to start? I’ve already covered the fucking awfulness of a seven-year time skip, Erza being more broken than Gary’s Mod, and the unnecessary fan-service so I won’t dwell on that too much. So I’ll just talk about how convenient everything is and how there was no such thing as tension or excitement until the dragon slayers faced off with Acnologia which was the single only bad ass thing to ever come out of the second half of the series. See when the main mages break out of their little time bubble they want to enter a big magic tournament (my least favorite arc that lasted about two fucking, agonizing years!) so they have to train for three months straight in order to get back into fighting shape. Lucy’s celestial spirits invite them to a party in the spirit world but afterwards they find out that time spent in the celestial world moves slower so they spent the entirety of three months partying over the course of a few hours. They seem kind of fucked right? Well you’d be wrong! Because plot convenience shows up and tell them that there’s a special procedure to unlock their hidden magic potential to make up for the three months they missed. Well gee wiz, isn’t that nice. Here I thought we’d get some cool training montages but nope just a magic MacGuffin that absolves all consequence and gives them all time to kick back and go out for lemonade or something before the tournament. Also Mashima has no guts. By that I mean he can’t ever seem to kill off a character, even when their death seemed un-avoidable or even expected to drive the plot. In the final battle between Fairy Tail and some prick country led by a prick immortal named Zeraf; the Master, Makaróv used Fairy Law, an all-powerful spell that can wipe out entire armies at the cost of their life force. He decided that in order to turn the tide of battle and save the guild and the people he loved that’d he’d sacrifice his life to use the fullest extent of Fairy Law. Now I’ll admit when Makaróv “died” I was heartbroken. Here’s a character that has been with us since the beginning. A warm father figure that was always gentle and stern when needed and was a good and honorable man. I almost teared up when his body was held lifeless in his grandson’s arms but I felt it was the right thing to do. His sacrifice was necessary for Fairy Tail’s victory. But then a few chapters later, poof, alive, no heart breaking sacrifice, no tear jerking funeral scene, where’s the meaning of “self-sacrifice” if you’re just gonna be revived like you’re a character from the fucking DC universe?
But then the biggest question of all and the only reason I stuck around as long as I did. What was the fucking pay off? The answer is there fucking wasn’t one. Spoiler warning because I hate this last chapter and I need to go into depth why. See I was waiting for the characters to have learned something or accomplished a long-awaited goal or see what I’ve always wanted to see and that’s Gray and Juvia fucking and making beautiful babies, after all this rubbish I felt I’ve earned my favorite character getting together with her love interest. But none of that happened, in fact let’s go through some of the characters in the end. But if I may digress for a moment, let’s take a look at the payoff from another magic series Little Witch Academia. In the beginning Akko knew nothing about magic and had delusions of grandeur but she never gave up on her dream of becoming a great witch who could bring a smile to people’s faces. What did she gain of the course of the series and at the end? Her hard work paid off in that she’s skilled in transformation magic, she helped save an entire country, revived the very essence of magic and was able to bring smiles to the people of the world and just as an added bonus she was finally able to fly something she was unable to do the entire series. What did Lucy learn or gain from the series? She got a book published. What did Natsu learn or gain? Nothing he’s just the guy who beat Acnologia but that fight was fucking boss so I’ll let him slide. Nothing happens with Erza other than her learning that her bizarre love interest has been pardoned and she has a better chance of fucking him. Gray realizes his feelings for Juvia, kinda, sorta, not really but sure. Gajeel and Levy are expecting a baby so that’s something at least. Makaróv is wheel chair bound like fucking Guy-Sensei in Naruto and we’re shown some of the romance with characters we never really fucking cared about and was about as annoying as that guy who never shuts up about his new girlfriend and of course the most patronizing thing of all is that Zeraf and Mavis are still alive and was basically given a Mulligan after the actual touching scene of them being finally able to die in each other’s arms only to find themselves at a party with new memories or some shit. If the events following directly after the time skip was fucking weak sauce this is no longer sauce but distilled water. What bothers me the most about this chapter is that this was the first time in years that I felt Fairy Tail going back to its roots. A scrappy group of wizards celebrating life and treating the world like it’s their oyster and just having fun which to be totally honest was rather bloody insulting. It was like being bullied by someone who used to be a friend and then tries to patch things up with you with a half eaten candy bar and a straight to video Disney film.
But overall I think I’m more disappointed at Fairy Tail than angry. Remember Fairy Tail Zero? The story of how Mavis founded Fairy Tail? How she went from the only inhabitant on an island to traveling with treasure hunters who’d later be the first members of her guild? How her talent for magic got them out of tight spots? How she met Zeraf in his only tolerable appearance fell in love and learned forbidden magic? How she saved the city of Magnolia from a disaster? The sadness she felt when she realizes that her best friend died years ago and the person she was always talking to was just an illusion she created subconsciously and the scene that actually made me cry, when Makaróv was born and Mavis was so happy and full of love for this new life that was brought into the world in her guild only to have her curse steal the life of his mother shortly after giving birth and the horror of her realization that his mother’s death was entirely her fault. This proved to me that Mashima has talent as a writer, he just didn’t seem to care about the main story enough. I recall some reviewers saying something along the lines of “I was crying as I was reading through the last chapter.” What for? Every single person got their cakes and ate them too to the point of them developing diabetes and cancer and nobody learned a fucking thing and no one sacrificed anything to get to this point! I suppose they would’ve been tears of joy but I highly doubt it, fans will cut off their own arm before they admit something is bad as if it’ll hurt their chances of getting to sleep with the creator. All and all the series ended like a drive to Nebraska, a whole lot of effort to end up fucking nowhere.
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