Fairy Tail: A Ode to My Favorite Anime

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Fairy Tail is and will probably always be my favorite anime. It’s not like I think it’s the greatest anime of all time or anything like that. I know it’s not a perfect anime. It’s long. It can be formulaic, heavy on the “power of friendship”, and does have a lot of fan service too. But it’s fun, makes me laugh, and it got me through some rough times. 

I started watching it when it began airing, back when it was still only in Japanese and I had to watch the fan subs. It’s honestly crazy to look back and realize how long it is now. I watched it as it was coming out, so it never felt really long to me. I can understand how it might be intimidating to try to watch now with an episode count of over 300, but I will always recommend it and encourage other anime fans to check it out. 

Not everyone is going to like it. Like I said, I don’t find it the perfect anime. The main cast usually gets beaten really easily by a new enemy at first, then will come back later and defeat them, usually because of some link to friendship and wanting to protect their guild.  

But I like that kind of story. It’s more lighthearted to me. It’s an anime I don’t have to stress over because I know everything will work out in the end. And chances are someone on the enemy side will become a friend too. 

I’m really sensitive to anime that have heavy or dark themes, or deaths, tend to upset me easily. Then I’ll be depressed for an entire week or more because of it. So, I just really like that I don’t have to feel that way from Fairy Tail. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean Fairy Tail has no heart and soul to it. It does a lot actually. The whole concept is built on friendship and love, after all. There were sad scenes that made me cry, but I knew that everything would be okay in the end. 

And I needed that. I needed to know everything would be okay in the end because that just made me happier. Its comedy made me laugh. It made me feel good mentally and emotionally.  

While I was watching it, my brother left for college. That was the first time I didn’t have him around regularly in my life, and I missed him. But we watched Fairy Tail together, and even if we weren’t watching the episodes at the same time, we could still talk about it. Not having my brother around made me sad, but Fairy Tail gave me something to laugh about and I would feel better. 

The same thing happened when it was my turn to leave for college and I was feeling homesick. That feeling in my stomach was hard to get rid of, but Fairy Tail was always there when I needed something fun and happy. 

I watched other anime, of course. But if I was having a particularly rough time, and my anxiety was really affecting me, I always knew that I could pick Fairy Tail to cheer me up or reduce my anxiety. Sometimes I was afraid to watch an anime because I didn’t always know what might go on in it and if it would make me more sad rather than help me. But I knew how Fairy Tail would make me feel. I knew I would laugh because of it.  

And yeah, some of you are going to complain about the fan service, but so what. It does have it, but at least it’s actually pretty equal in regard to gender equality. After all, Lucy might lose her clothes often, but let’s not pretend that Gray isn’t a serial nudist. That guy strips his clothes so much he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.  

I love all the characters in the anime, but of course, the main group stands out to me the most. They’re all funny lovable goof balls that can also be badasses when they need to be. Lucy kick, anyone? Just kidding. Just kidding. Or am I?  

But Lucy is also one of my most favorite anime characters in general. There’s just something I really like about her. I love her personality, her cute outfits, and her reactions to everything else around her. Plus, she loves to write and wants to be a writer just like I do. 

But Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy, and all the others I love too. In fact, I’m taking the time to get each of their English voice actors autographs. I was able to meet and get Brittney Karbowski’s autograph for Wendy last year. And my brother had gotten Todd Haberkorn, Cherami Leigh, and Colleen Clickenbeard for me in the past. I was able to meet Colleen and get her autograph for a different character last year as well. Hopefully, sometime I can meet the others myself still as well as get more autographs.  

I know none of them will see this blog post. I’m just a random person writing on the internet after all. But I’d like to thank all the cast, English and Japanese, everyone who worked on the series, and Hiro Mashima for making Fairy Tail. It’s my favorite anime and I will always love it.  

I’m not going to call Fairy Tail the greatest anime of all time. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s perfect for what I needed at the time. It’s that friend that will always be there when you need someone to cheer you up. I just recently watched 100 Years Quest, and all those fond memories and feelings instantly came back. The series will always be there for me to rewatch and enjoy. I will never stop getting more merchandise for it either, even though I definitely have a lot already. And I do hope to meet more of the voice cast in the future. Still, I also hope that I’ll soon see more 100 Years Quests episodes again because boy did I love watching new stuff from it again. 

If you’re interested in watching Fairy Tail, you can buy the collections on Amazon or watch it on Crunchyroll.

Read some of my other opinion pieces.

What’s your thoughts on Fairy Tail? Is it an anime you really like? Would you ever consider watching it despite it being really long? Also, please like, share, and subscribe to my blog.