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Fairy Tail Vol. 1 – Manga Review

fairy-tail-1-cover.jpg

Fairy Tail commits some kind of language crime by way of a bad pun. A really bad pun. In the title!

fairy-tail-1-cover.jpg

Fairy Tail commits some kind of language crime by way of a bad pun. A really bad pun. In the title!

Book Blurb:
Cute girl wizard Lucy wants to join the Fairy Tail, a club for the most powerful wizards. But instead, her ambitions land her in the clutches of a gang of unsavory pirates led by a devious magician. Her only hope is Natsu, a strange boy she happens to meet on her travels. Natsu’s not your typical hero – he gets motion sickness, eats like a pig, and his best friend is a talking cat. With friends like this, is Lucy better off with her enemies?

Review:
So the first thing I noticed right off the bat is that the art for Fairy Tail is um… unique. I thought it looked a lot like One Piece and so I figured the artist is the same. But One piece is still running, and will probably run forever, so how could that mangaka keep up with two super long running manga, right? Apparently Hiro Mashima did Groove Adventure Rave, which I liked a lot. Also, it’s said he got his inspiration for his art style from Eiichiro Oda who actually is the author of One Piece.

As far as the plot goes, there really isn’t much right now. Unlike other manga where the protagonist will go on adventures in order to reach their goal, Lucy sort of joins Fairy Tail after the first chapter. So much for epic journeys. Actually, a lot about this manga seems unconventional. You’d think Lucy would be an underachieving, flat-chested heroine, but instead she has a huge chest (a plus) and she might actually be a bit powerful as well. Granted, a lot of her summons talk back, but she can sort of defend herself.

This first chapter basically introduces the characters. Natsu is the ultra powerful wizard who acts carelessly but still gets the job done. Lucy is the newcomer who gets to learn about the weirdness of Fairy Tail. Happy is the flying talking cat that mostly says “aye.” All pretty generic characters (minus Happy, I guess). The other members of Fairy Tail are all fairly generic as well. But I guess the important part is how the manga actually plays out.

The humor in Fairy Tail is fast and weird: just my type. For example, one of Lucy’s summons is Taurus. But Taurus happens to be a totally built male cow (with multiple nipples) who seems to be obsessed with Lucy’s udders. Yeah, okay, the humor isn’t quite highbrow but it works. Fairy Tail seems to borrow a lot of cues from various gag manga, complete with the bulging eye jokes. It’s not quite at Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo levels, though.

Conclusion:
Overall, Fairy Tail is pretty enjoyable. I’d probably label it a shounen-ish gag-ish random-ish manga. I guess Rave was sort of the same way, huh? As a bonus, Plue shows up in one of the chapters, but I’m not sure how much of a presence he’ll have. We can’t possibly have a cat sidekick AND a dog(?) sidekick too, right? Apparently Fairy Tail is getting a 2 volume release so I could totally just read the second volume right now. If I had time.

Thanks to Del Rey Manga for sending me a review copy of Fairy Tail Volume 1!

7 replies on “Fairy Tail Vol. 1 – Manga Review”

My sister brought me a chinese copy when she came back from her chinese college trip last year. I never learned how to read chinese… So it’s good to know what’s going on, finally. So, you think it has a lot of potential?

@Doomfest: I dunno, I see it being capable of going on forever, much like One Piece, actually. Whether that’s good or bad depends on what your tastes are.

I could also see it getting kind of drawn out once the jokes have been used up. I mean, there’s not a hell of a lot of plot development going on between Lucy and Natsu. I guess there’s potential though. It’s just the first volume, after all.

I think it’s such a nice new comic. But I feel kinda read Rave again. It has the same taste, really. Even I have only read three volumes of this comic.

Dude! This series ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!! I’m completely in love with all the characters, and honestly it’s hard to pick a favorite when all the guys have such amazing personalities and well….. looks. ^^’ It’s hilarious and gives nudges in the ways of relationships, but leaves enough room to dream about who might end up with who, but that’s if you actually care about the love/like part. It’s got a healthy dose of action and magic, but I’d say it’s all perfectly balanced enough to make any decent manga lover fall in love. X3 This series ROX!!!!!!!!!

i totally agree with BLoop81. this series is amazing, and like they said, there are hints at relationships but they aren’t really like, official. its really funny and there’s a lot of magic and TONS of action. ive read a bunch of volumes [i forgot up to which x_x] and i cant get enough of it.

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