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REVIEW: Fairy Tail GN 1

Fairy Tail gets a lot better in a few volumes, can't wait for the anime version.

Before anyone brings it up, the internet rumor about Mashima drawing like Oda because he's his former assistant is false. Mashima never served as any artist's assistant before getting his own series (which is pretty impressive, actually.)

The fights are trading in coolness rather than tension for now, and Hiro Mashima—a self-proclaimed punk—certainly has an eye for cool poses and slow-motion fight choreography.

As always Del Rey presents a solid book, with clear art and useful translator's notes. Extras are scant—some explanations by Mashima about various aspects of his world—and there's no next-volume preview, but few will miss them. Sometimes the dialogue makes no sense whatsoever, but it's hard to tell if fault lies with the translation or with Mashima's random writing.

Carl Kimlinger wrote:

The fights are trading in coolness rather than tension for now, and Hiro Mashima—a self-proclaimed punk—certainly has an eye for cool poses and slow-motion fight choreography.

I don't know why he has to feel the need to call Mashima a punk, especially a self-proclaimed one. Unless Mashima enjoys the punkish lifestyle, this form of name calling goes a little too far in my opinion and comes off as portraying Carl as a person who has a personal axe to grind against the author.

Westlo wrote:

Fairy Tail gets a lot better in a few volumes, can't wait for the anime version.

It does get better in future volumes although the current story arc in Japan is a bit ho-hum. There hasn't been an anime announcement for this series...yet.

Wyvern wrote:

Before anyone brings it up, the internet rumor about Mashima drawing like Oda because he's his former assistant is false. Mashima never served as any artist's assistant before getting his own series (which is pretty impressive, actually.)

The guys over at Arlong Park beg to differ. They even say it's been proven that Mashima did do work for Oda back in the early days of the One Piece manga.

You think calling somebody who spends a lot of time listening to punk rock a punk is "name calling"? Seriously? Rolling Eyes

Speaking as a man who many, many years ago (in my enjoyably misspent youth - God, how I miss the '80s...) had a rather impressive foot-tall neon green mohawk, I beg to differ.

Carl Kimlinger wrote:

The fights are trading in coolness rather than tension for now, and Hiro Mashima—a self-proclaimed punk—certainly has an eye for cool poses and slow-motion fight choreography.

I don't know why he has to feel the need to call Mashima a punk, especially a self-proclaimed one. Unless Mashima enjoys the punkish lifestyle

No next volume preview? Other reviewers have stated that Del Rey did put a few pages of the next volume in each individual volume with the original kanji as a preview. Did Del Rey send you a bad copy, Carl?

That said, as someone who has read Fairy Tail, even with the typical Shonen cliches, I still found the manga very fun to read and puts me in the mood for the next chapter.