Fairy Tail Review

Lucy Heartfilia wants to join Fairy Tail, the most notorious guild of wizards in the kingdom of Fiore, and gets her wish when she falls in with Natsu Dragneel, a fire dragon slayer looking for the dragon who raised him, and Happy, a flying blue cat. The guild takes jobs, levels buildings and treats itself as a family, and Hiro Mashima draws all of it with an energy that is the series' best argument: clean, legible fights, elastic faces and some of the most confident action layouts in the magazine.

The cast is likeable in broad strokes. Erza, an armour changing swordswoman, Gray with his ice make magic and Gajeel's reformed villainy give the guild a real bench, and arcs like Tenrou Island and the Grand Magic Games are genuinely exciting. The criticism is consistent and fair. Friendship decides nearly every climax, death rarely sticks, villains are forgiven and recruited at a rate that drains the tension, and the fan service is frequent and tired.

The final war with the Alvarez Empire resolves an enormous setup through a string of convenient revelations. It won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2009 and passed seventy million copies in print, which says more about its warmth than its writing.