The major series of my interest are Bleach, Fairy Tail and Naruto. I have no interest in One Piece, particularly the artwork, and I have no feeling whatsoever for pirate themes (sorry, One Piece fans).
I am clear that Bleach aims to attract both guys and girls. It features more hot males than females, but is a battle manga, this balances out the “Yin-Yang factor). It has beautiful animals, cool character designs, spectacular special effects, etc. The strongest characters are almost always males, except the anomaly called “Unohana Yachiru”, even she was not said to be the strongest Captain in Gotei 13. Naruto, on the other hand, seems mostly appealing to the male population. It’s simple battle manga, that’s it. Fairy Tail seems to be attempting to attract both guys and girls but with a heavier emphasis on attracting the male population. There used to be more male fanservice but now there’s almost none. There’s always a lot of female fanservice and now it’s risen to another level altogether! I appreciate Tite Kubo’s skill, without the blatant sex appeal, he was able to sway this many fanboys and fangirls to his characters. Unwisely though, he had many of those characters incapacitated and/or slaughtered. The current downward trend as perceived by me is ironically induced by his own vision of realism for Bleach.
I am clear that Bleach is for adults or at least more mature audiences, and Naruto is for children or less mature audiences. Yes, there’s blood, but battle manga on average is bloody anyway. But who is Fairy Tail for anyway? It has a bright, light-hearted background; so I thought it was for children, but as the story progresses, it turns darker and darker. The contents up till now are considered too sexual for the immature and too shallow for the mature. I don’t get how one of my close friends (someone older than myself) could believe that Fairy Tail has a better moral than Bleach. Bleach has the best philosophy out of all 3 stories. It is the most realistic and describes human psychology better than the two. However, Bleach isn’t perfect, it has made sexuality quite ambiguous. Fairy Tail is slightly more realistic when it comes to describing human sexuality. Naruto is deeper than it looks but can be appreciated superficially, so its philosophy is not force-fed into the audience like Bleach and FT. Bleach appears to be compelling its audience to confront the complex reality of Bleachverse and drawing parallels with the universe we currently inhabit.
The philosophical problem with Fairy Tail is its overemphasis of feelings and friendship (to the extent that logic is obviously defied). Is Hiro suggesting that as long as you have those, you can overcome every obstacle in your life? This is way too impractical.
On the other hand, most fans seem to miss the fact that Hiro Mashima is well-versed in mythology, especially classical symbolism and astrology. Didn’t you see how he designed all Mutable signs of the Zodiac to exhibit transformation abilities (to various degrees)? Virgo transforms the landscape and to an extent even her own appearance. Sagittarius “cosplays”. Gemini uses it as a signature technique. Pisces alternate between humanoid and fish forms. He did mess up the elements for the fun of it, but he’s been fixated on character birthdays (in Rave). He even assigned Lucy to 1/7, placing her Draconic Sun in Virgo. Yes, he has done research. He apparently knows more about mythology (and astrology) than Tite Kubo (I said apparently). Narutoverse is centred on Japanese mythology and the world of Ninjas, that’s why he doesn’t have to source eclectically.
In my opinion though, I don’t think manga is meant to be realistic, it’s perfectly ok for manga to be completely unreal. I mean, we’ve already had enough of reality as it is. I believe we grow up with Pokemon, Digimon, Beyblade, Zoids, etc. They can be too shallow for adults, but they did offer something positive to the world in terms of moral education. I personally believe that Fairy Tail isn’t as crappy as certain reviewers say it is.
Nonono, I am not some die-hard fan of FT! I hate Natsu to the core! I feel sick about him, I mean I believe him to be the worst protagonist in the whole wide mangaverse (especially with his pink hair, ambiguously gay behaviour and density of mind). No offence to Natsu fans, of course, just expressing my own feelings towards a particular character I totally resent.
As for Lucy Heartfilia, I am not sure what to make of her, she’s hard to categorise; I can’t say whether I love or hate her. However, there is one bit I feel sick about her: her crush on Natsu. Who in her right mind would fall for such a brat? Lucy is surrounded by much better candidates. She’s got Laxus, Loke and Gray! I would pick any of them over Natsu. Perhaps she’s brain-dead or something. How can she be portrayed as strong and weak at the same time? Her magic is constantly portrayed as nothing but a tool for fanservice. EWWWW…… She’s so dependent on Natsu, Erza, Gray and… ESPECIALLY NATSU! Hiro stripped her naked frequently later in the story. I don’t mind the nudity, but it doesn’t help making me like FT either (I’m heterosexual female, ya see). Maybe I dislike Lucy, but I won’t say it has reached the level of “hatred” yet.
Natsu being able to easily own both Rogue and Sting at the same time without his Lightning Dragon Slayer Mode is beyond all reasoning. Sting and Rogue got immensely hyped before the fight, they were 3rd Generation Dragon Slayers and had their Dragon Force mode on. How on Earthland could Natsu’s 1VS2 victory even be remotely possible? Is Dragon Force conveniently fodderised now, Hiro?
I have a lot to rant about Sting as well. He’s a wimp and weakling. First, he got beaten up by Natsu like that, then he surrendered to FT without even trying to fight. Wasn’t he supposed to save Lector? I thought his feelings for Lector were true, but no, he just had to make a lame excuse and cry his eyes out in the finals! He looked somewhat like a smaller, modified version of Laxus in terms of character design; but he was a total failure in terms of character personality. I refuse to see him and Laxus as comparable figures.
My favourite character Laxus Dreyar is officially ruined by Mashima, his very creator! After he rejoined Fairy Tail, he turned into a stoic, strong silent type. That’s when I started seeing a downward trend in his character development (subjectively speaking anyway). He used to be really talkative and overtly perverted, I kinda love that side of him. Could he have stayed that way after turning good? Of course! But no, Mashima just have to lead him through a “traumatic transformation”, it’s beyond my faculty of reasoning, really. He had every potential to become the greatest womaniser in FTverse, but darn this potentiality is wrecked big time! Then, even more infuriatingly, he quoted Natsu, “I’m all fired up.” I started puking. WOW! You just have to make my favourite character imitate my least favourite character!!! Good job, Mashima-sensei (sarcasm)! Ok, I get it that Hiro wants the Scorpionic Laxus to evolve at the direction of Aries, but I personally find it sickening. After that, he damaged Laxus’ character irreversibly by granting him the most boring Dragon Slayer Secret Technique ever. It’s called Roaring Thunder and looked like a simple punch… OMG! It truly made me super duper mad! That wasn’t enough misfortune for Laxus, now Hiro has put him out of commission, perhaps FOR GOOD! O NO!!!!!!
I have every reason to hate FT BUT… Why don’t I? Because I want to see it through to the end, to check if FT really is irredeemable and to practice my astrology skills (lol). In short, I am staying tuned for the sake of art and astrology. Hiro’s artistic prowess appears to be evolving, so I want to see what he’ll bring up next. The greatest edge Fairy Tail has over the other 2 stories is romance. Shipping is a main focus of this story. Who cares who dates who in Naruto? Bleach isn’t even about dating and romance in the first place. The sexual symbolism in Bleach is less overt and frequent than FT. Naruto has some pervy moments but they were pretty disposable. FT’s main appeal is in its sexual implications.
Regardless of all the cons, his manga still sells nice. This is absolutely interesting and worthy of investigation. I’m checking planetary positions on release dates to decipher why his manga sells beyond mundane reason.
I like Bleach, Fairy Tail and Naruto. They have different sets of pros and cons. Fairy Tail is still currently the best compared to the others in my opinion. Naruto has always been my least favourite among the 3. If it weren’t for Kiba and the Kyuubi, I would have dropped it long ago. Ninjutsu and the elements were cool to juggle around with, but I am not really into it as much as the other two. Bleach turned bad the moment Aizen got defeated. The Thousand Year Blood War arc seemed interesting but the new characters are far less likeable. I used to prefer Bleach over Fairy Tail due to drawing styles and philosophical depth. However, I can no longer say the same today. I hate the fact that Grimmjow is probably dead, there’s no way for him to live through all that while staying off-screen… How about Nel? Who knows? She’s a child now, I can’t care less what happens to her. My favourite characters are mostly out-of-commission: Aizen, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra… Komamura has now completely turned into a voiceless beast, another of my favourite characters taken out. The only one left is Toushiro Hitsugaya. I sincerely pray that he doesn’t end up in tragedy and I also hope that he doesn’t suffer from any character damage that causes him to drop out of my fave character list. Fairy Tail as it stands now, despite all its setbacks, still appeals more to me than the other 2.
Is Fairy Tail for adults or children? I can’t really say. It’s rather confusing, that’s probably why it has such a wide and varied fandom.
I’ve been watching/listening/reading manga and anime reviews these days, that’s why I wanna add some thoughts on the subject. All reviews, including mine, are based mostly on personal, human subjectivity. There is certainly nothing wrong with being subjective when reviewing. After all, art is essentially emotional and intuitive, it amounts to individual taste.