The fairies and the Catharsis
Let me say this.
Fairy Tail is a good anime.
I liked it. I loved it!
It would seem like an unpopular and cringe-y opinion, but I’ll justify it.
Probably, Fairy Tail should’ve been the anime I should’ve watched in my earlier stages of my otaku life. I watched the first 5 or so episodes of Fairy Tail after finishing One piece (Before Starting Naruto Series). It didn’t intrigue me. Probably I was not in the mood to watch any anime at that point of time.
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| Naruto Cover Art |
I tried watching yu yu hakusho and failed to complete it. It was back in 2014. In fact, I completed yu yu hakusho in the March of 2020 before started watching the Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Finishing Dragon Ball Series, Bleach and One piece in a row created a saturation point of watching anime for me.
If I have watched Fairy Tail at the time, then I would’ve liked it more. Because, I had a mindset that I would like only Shonen animes. I was not a great concentrated guy at that time. I just wanted to enjoy my time in immersing in a world of anime, without thinking about anything, back then.
Later, I started hating Shonen because, it was beginning to feel like more cliché and less plot. Then I shifted my attention towards other types of genre in anime and I loved seinen shows (mainly manga) like Gantz and Samurai Champloo.
Fast forwarding to 2020, I suddenly decided to watch Fairy Tail on a whim. My hate towards Shonen was broken by One Punch Man and then after a long hiatus, I watched Boku no hero academia and Katekyo Hitman Reborn. This was when I determined myself to finish Yu Yu Hakusho and I did it.
Continuing that streak, I stumbled upon fairy tail without giving it any thought. I just wanted an anime that could help me to utilise my escapism. After a day of work, a good way of less concentrated yet enjoyable anime was all I needed.
My new PG was surprisingly nice. It has a shower and it was possible for me to take a nice hot shower any time I needed. It also had lift that worked and a nice terrace for my midnight song listening sessions.
It was the third week of June when I started watching Fairy Tail.
As I was promised to, FT didn’t need any concentration to
watch. It was easy to guess the plot. I usually keep an open mind while
watching any Shonen anime. Because, I don’t want to guess anything and ruin my
moment of mystery. As I said before, I had a low attention syndrome.
Even for a guy like me, the plot was so detectable, and I even guessed some of those twists. Moving forward the show, this fact was starting to annoy me because, this kind of structure starts repeating itself.
Every arc in a Shonen anime follows a certain structure. Like the three acts in Screenplay.
2. The Crisis
3. Sudden Mystery
4. Antagonist and the Motto (About the antagonist but the his/her intro)
5. Final Twist and the Lead for the next Arc (Optional)
Almost every arc follows this same pattern. But the catch here is, usually, great arcs would never make the viewers to identify this cliché.
For example,
The Gotei 13 Arc (the 2nd arc in Bleach) was a classic example for this pattern. Ichigo and Rukia continue to do their Shinigami business (the initial happy days) and suddenly her brother and her childhood friend comes from this other world called The Soul Society to execute Rukia (the crisis). There was already a tension lingering in the shadows of the soul society (Sudden Mystery). The reveal of Aizen and his ideology (Antagonist and the Motto) and at last, Twist with a lead for the next arc.
This same pattern was used in every arc of Bleach and it was very difficult to find it. The one-time bleach failed to make up this tactic was during the Arrancar Arc. But it was balanced by its awesome fight scenes.
Coming back to Fairy Tail, this same pattern was used throughout the series and it started feeling repetitive. Be it the Tenrou Island Arc, the Grand magic Games Arc or even the Final Arc, all follows this same pattern and all of it feels the same.
It was like claying a skeleton figure poorly. When I think about it, it was because FT lacked any character development and the fight sequences were downright boring and silly to the core.
Logic should Rest in Peace during every fight sequence in FT.
Then Why I love Fairy Tail?
Before answering that question, I must confess something here.
I am (was) an anime Kanni.
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