Being one of the longest-running shounen anime out there, Fairy Tail had a lot to offer, especially with its unique world-building revolving around magic and mythical creatures. Although the show started off strong, the hype and ratings soon died down as the series progressed, leaving many disappointed with how the anime turned out. Fairy Tail’s dip in popularity can be attributed to a number of reasons, yet one of the most obvious and glaring one is the oversexualization of its characters.
While fanservice is a common phenomenon in most shounen anime, Fairy Tail took this concept to an entirely new level, incorporating blatant fanservice and sexual content at every turn. The show soon went from being a battle-shounen series to a comedic fanservice show, losing its initial profundity. Much of its depth has been lost to overly exaggerated body parts and random strip teases in every single episode, taking away the focus from the actual storyline. Analyzing exactly how sexualization affects the series can shed light on how Hiro Mashima, the series author, made a grave mistake with Fairy Tail’s overt fanservice.
Blatant Fanservice In Every Episode
Being a common element in most anime, a little fanservice here and there isn’t out of the ordinary, but when it's integrated into every single element of the series, the concept can become a bit overbearing. Fairy Tail is already infamous for its running gags and comedic relegation, with characters stripping in every other scene adding fuel to the fire. The fanservice has been so deeply ingrained into every aspect of the series that no character is safe from being used as an object of sexual relegation.
Be it Gray subconsciously stripping to his boxers or Lucy losing her towel and standing bare, every single episode seems to offer some sort of comedic relief based on the characters’ sexual vulnerability. Wendy, a child aged around 14, has also been used as an object of sexual humor, as her insecurities pertaining to her small breasts are highlighted multiple times throughout the series. The concept may fare well in filler arcs or initial episodes of a major arc, yet its overuse even during intense fights and key battles makes the entire plot lose its impact, leaving behind a shallow battle scene riddled with sexual innuendos.
The Plot Revolves Around Sexual Comedy
Most of Fairy Tail’s comedy revolves around showing skin and overtly sexual gags, yet the very same humor overwhelms the plot, turning scenes that hold symbolic value into light-hearted comedy and low-stake encounters. Erza’s torture by the hands of Kyouka is a prime example, where she strips the Fairy Tail mage and inflicts pain on her bare skin. The scene carried an immensely tragic undertone, highlighting sexual abuse as a means of debilitating the victim both mentally and physically. However, fans couldn’t help but view the scene as another one of Fairy Tail’s fanservice gimmicks, since scenes such as that have been used multiple times as a source of light-hearted comedy.
Lucy Heartfilia has undergone similar maltreatment as she commonly finds herself being the target of everyone’s ridicule for her overly enlarged breasts, especially Natsu who he has been shown to poke them multiple times throughout the series. With shounen anime being targeted towards young boys, such representation is already quite problematic, yet the issue goes much further as any scene that tries to portray a symbolic undertone gets molded into the series’ recurring narrative of fanservice, ruining not just the plot but the overall theme of the anime.
Every Arc Seems Like Filler
Fanservice and sexualization is commonplace for filler arcs in most anime, clearly denoting that the episodes hold minimal value in the overall series. However, Fairy Tail fails to make this distinction over and over again, using the same narrative in almost every arc and episode, in-turn blurring the line between filler and canon. The manga is quite direct and features minimal fanservice, yet the anime adaptation has forcefully thrusted sexual content in every aspect of the series, making most parts of the show seem like filler.
Revealing clothing and sexual jokes would normally make sense if used sparingly, yet Fairy Tail’s overuse of such comedic relegation, even during intense scenes, has made the entire series seem like a superficial anime that simply revolves around the concept of overused sexual comedy, appealing to only a small fraction of the audience. Scenes that would better suit OVAs and extra chapters are thrown into major arcs quite commonly, reducing the stakes and the intensity of the battles. With such a problematic approach, scenes lose their depth and characters’ growth becomes stunted, yet Fairy Tail continues to utilize the same approach, ruining the entirety of the franchise and its initial promise.