Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is a rare anime that can compete with the longest running shows and in a lot of cases, win. I read the shit out of this manga and loved every second of it. I couldn't put it down. The anime is equally awesome, despite some questionable changes from the manga. With 175 episodes, you will have to invest a fair amount of time to complete it.

Natsu is an awesome fire magician, not many people can beat him.

Lucy Heartfilia is a young girl whose dream is to become a part of one of the greatest magical guilds in the world. She sets her heart on Fairy Tail, a guild with a rowdy reputation but one of the most powerful. Luckily she meets Natsu Dragneel, a member of Fairy Tail. Lucy and Natsu hit it off because both of their goals align; they want to become strong mages.

Guilds are a group of mages working together, often given tasks by the local community to deal with monsters and various problems. There are hundreds of guilds throughout the land, some prestigious and law abiding, others notorious and dark. Fairy Tail is known by almost everyone, and while they have a lot of allies they have just as many enemies.

Fairy Tail, and several of its members.

The plot starts out pretty simple, fighting a new monster every week. However, it quickly develops into something better, with battles between guilds and opposing mages. If you like the initial premise and the idea of lots of magicians with different abilities fighting it out, this anime only increases in quality all the way through. Plus with 175 episodes, there's barely a scent of filler.

Every anime has dull moments, a lull in the plot, badly animated scenes, horrible filler and fanservice. If you watch anime you are guaranteed to be subjected to some of these awful moments that make you question why you're watching it at all. In Fairy Tail, I barely noticed the bad bits at all. It's a fluent anime, that wasn't dragged out longer than necessary. Some of the magic is innovative and pretty interesting.

Erza is a badass, she has countless types of armor.

As shounen this show is slightly above the rest. It has plenty of stereotypical moments, cliche, and slapstick. That doesn't make it bad, because it still manages to stand out with a colorful world and some surprising twists. You will recognize many of the voice actors from other popular shows, most of them are well known.

Another interesting feature is the spells and abilities that magicians can use. There are many different types of magic and some pretty cool abilities. For example, Natsu was trained by the great fire dragon Igneel. Thus, his abilities are increased by consuming fire. Erza specializes in Ex-quipping, which is the ability to summon different armor and often magical weapons onto her person. While a lot of the magic in Fairy Tail is your standard Magic Missile stuff, there are some unique and cool spells.

Lucy is the main character, but it quickly becomes about the guild instead of just her.

Fairy Tail's strongest selling point is the characters. The guild has many members, all of which have amusing perks and personalities. Take Gray for example, he seems like a perfectly normal mage. Except he has a strong penchant for taking all his clothes off at random. You get to meet the entire guild within the first dozen episodes, and you'll find yourself attached to at least a couple of them.

Initially the animation is lazy for the first 30 episodes, it does get a little better after that. It's a shame though, because the fights had the potential to be amazing. Sadly, the blood is also taken out. What I'm trying to say is; this anime is fun to watch and enjoyable. However, it's not without flaws. Watch Fairy Tail if you feel like you'll enjoy it, or if you like One Piece.

Accel World

I never managed to finish this Anime, so my article might be slightly inaccurate. Accel World is a typical shounen. Kid gets bullied, he is given power by a mysterious girl that he has to fight for, and suddenly women all over the world are dropping their pants for him. Even though it's easy to shun this anime for playing the stereotype, it's not a bad watch. The action is nothing special, but the story and dialogue is entertaining enough.  If your list of shows to watch is getting short you might want to toss Accel World in there.

Kuroyukihime is adorable, but she uses Arita like a tool.

The setting is 2046, where the world is essentially the same as now; aside from one huge piece of technology. Neuro-linkers have spread throughout the world, a computer that interacts with the brain allowing you to access the virtual world. Neuro-links have all the functions of a mobile phone, MP3 player, computer, or gaming console. In other words, Neuro-links are used for everything. Work and play.

Accel World is about a young student named Arita, who is bullied for being under height and over weight. He spends his time playing games on his Neuro-link, because of his fast reflexes and desire to avoid confrontation. One day, a girl beats his highest scores with ease. She is Kuroyukihime, one of the most popular and attractive students in school. She introduces Brain Burst to Arita, a program that allows you to boost the functions of the brain to temporarily stop time. Brain Burst is not only a great tool for success in the real world, but also a virtual reality game that involves battling other players for points. If your account runs out of points, Brain Burst uninstalls itself from your Neuro-link and disappears forever, so some of the players value it as high as their lives.

Arita feels indebted to Kuroyukihime, so he follows her on the quest to complete Brain Burst, and put the game to an end. However, with an army of people to stop them, that's no easy task. The Six kings of pure color are all determined to stop them, and keep the game running. Luckily, Arita has a rare avatar, the Silver Crow. It's a shame he's hilariously afraid of everything and anything. So the anime consists of Arita, hopping between the real world and the game world. He makes friends and enemies on the journey, and it starts to change his outlook on life for the better.

Arita plays as the Silver Crow when he's on Brain Burst, a special avatar that can fly.

The art is pretty standard for modern anime. Nothing stands out, but the visuals are acceptable. It's common practice for people to use the same frames repeatedly in a cartoon or anime to save time and money. When this effect is used too often, it can ruin an entire fight scene. In Accel World this is definitely an issue. It feels lazy. Especially when there isn't much action going on in the first place. The sounds and music are mediocre at best, but they hold up in court.

I think the biggest letdown of Accel World is the characters. You always get to see the same type in every anime. There's tsundere, yandere, the perveted guy, and many others. Accel World has many generic characters, they don't stand out in any way. They obey the rules of their stereotype, and don't do anything unexpected. It makes most of the plot too predictable. I liked listening to some of the dialogue, it was inspiring. But it wasn't good enough to keep me addicted until the end, like every good anime should.

This is Arita, the protagonist. He's the reason I couldn't finish it.

Personally, I have no attraction to any anime with a short fat kid as the protagonist. Hell, I have no idea what got me to Accel World in the first place. As I said earlier, it's not a bad anime. But I can't quite place it in the good category. As far as shounen goes, there are better shows to watch. Try Gintama or Bleach first. Although Accel World has a more direct storyline, I still enjoyed watching many other shounen more.

Accel World is worth watching if you really love anime. But it shouldn't be on the top of any list. There's a lack of character development, some lazy animation, and lack of real motivation. I don't want to offend anyone, but this anime just feels lazy. Seems like it's trying to ride on the coattails of Sword Art, which wasn't anything special either. To summarize, watch it if you can tell you would like it. If not, just give Accel World a pass.