Yeah, OK. I usually try to lull you in to reading my review, kind of disguising until the end as to whether I liked it or not. For this one, I’ll save you the time: I no longer like “Fairy Tail”. I have abandoned the show.

Now, I gave it a good damn run: 60 shows (“Case Closed” has taken me for longer at 130 and I still watch that. I would have watched “Inuyasha” and “Ranma ½” more, but foul circumstances took them away from me. And I am still working through “Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood” but that ends at 51). But I felt it treated me badly, like other long-format shows.

So, what got to me? It’s just that it took me that long to see the repetitive nature of the overall show. I had read the first five manga and really liked what I read (since I check them out of the library, someone borrowed Books Six through Eleven forever, so I had to give up. And I don’t read manga on the internet). When I heard they had done the show, I watched it with eager anticipation, but I started to notice a trend.

The Evil Folks show up. The Good Guys arrive on the scene, but are soon put to flight. The Good Guys regroup and through some personal effort, defeat the Bad Guys and send them packing. Then, we have beers all around for a Job Well Done. The next day, the Evil Folks show up. The Good Guys arrive on the scene, but are soon put to flight. The Good Guys regroup and through some personal effort, defeat the Bad Guys and send them packing. Then, we have beers all around for a Job Well Done. The next day, the Evil Folks show up. The Good Guys arrive on the scene, but are soon put to flight. The Good Guys regroup and through some personal effort, defeat the Bad Guys and send them packing. Then, we have beers all around for a Job Well Done. The next day, the Evil Folks show up. The Good Guys arrive on the scene, but are soon put to flight. The Good Guys regroup and through some personal effort, defeat the Bad Guys and send them packing. Then, we have beers all around for a Job Well Done. The next day, the Evil Folks show up. The Good Guys arrive on the scene, but are soon put to flight. The Good Guys regroup and through some personal effort, defeat the Bad Guys and send them packing. Then, we have beers all around for a Job Well Done. The next day, the…you get the point.

Now, I certainly do not want to have episodes like ‘Lucy Shops for Shoes’ or ‘Natsu Goes to the Dentist’, but to go from the Tower of Heaven arc, to Laxus’s Revenge epic to the Oracion Seis storyline without even ONE filler show just got a bit much. Adding to that is the idea of ‘you were my enemy, but now we are friends’ part is a bit hard to swallow. And why is it that a key person is always knocked out from all of this fighting, just when we need them the most?

Another thing that got me is why Dark Guilds were allowed to exist at all. I had this problem with the Harry Potter series. People who do magic seem to be the most arrogant lot of folks out there, feeling that they can do whatever they want with little or no intervention and the evil ones are doubly so. It also appears that no one really ever dies (I am still holding out hope for Simon, but not even Jellal bit the Big One and he got crushed with Etherion magic.)

It may be a good show. There are certainly enough side stories about to keep things interesting, but with the constant battles, I got worn out. I had this problem with Dragonball Z. I REALLY had this problem with Naruto. I’ve encountered this with other shows, like Bleach, Kekkashi, One Piece, Linebarrels of Iron, even Air Gear! There is a way to do this and not have it get boring. “Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt” is endless fighting with ghosts, but they are so carefree and reckless (or perhaps even tasteless) with things, you give them a bit more room to operate.

This is anime, so you can tinker with the rules. It doesn’t have to be “This Week’s Villain” or “The Battle of the Month”. Or maybe this is a problem endemic to long-form animes. You have to eventually reach a point where you run out of stories to tell, or run out of interesting ways to tell a story or just run out of creative stories. And when that happens, it really shows, so you have to make the decision to fish or cut bait. Should I stay or should I go? I opted for the latter. I may go back, but not for some time.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           5 (Better than ‘One Piece’ but still the same arc)
Plot                  6 (Initially good, but got tired and worn out)
Pacing              7 (Runs a bit chock-a-block)
Effectiveness    7 (Again, it wears itself out)
Conclusion       PASS (I stopped, so I don’t know how it ends)
Fan Service      4 (A similar show would “Gurren Lagaan”)

Overall            6 (There needs to be something more than endless fights)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Or read it.