okay just finished og fairytail after 10 whole years, so I have to make a post about it with my thoughts and feelings cause this is a big one for me.
When I was 10 years old, one of my best friends starting telling me about a show she was watching. She said it was about these wizards who had amazing magic powers, and they were all part of a guild. She would describe to me what happened in every single episode, every single minute detail, all because the show was rated TV-14 and I wasn't allowed to watch it. Well, one day, while playing at her house, I felt a tad rebellious, and we watched the first episode together. Everything that I had imagined in my head, was wrong. I had never seen anime before, I didn't even know what it was! I had heard of Pokemon, of course, but this was definitely not that. Everything was so bright and noisy, and felt a little too grown up for me at the time, but i was captivated. I wanted to be just like that pink-haired boy, loud and rambunctious. I wanted to live in a world of magic too.
This sparked an entirely new journey for me, funnily enough. I started watching fairytail at my house, and I guess i was so adamant about it that my mom gave up trying to police my television. (At this point, I had grown into a very independent young woman, and my parents had a "fuck around and find out policy." TV-MA was still strictly prohibited and I knew not to push my luck. Thank you mom and dad for protecting me for as long as you did!) My entire friend group became obsessed with this show, and we would pretend to be our OC's at recess. All of us had taken on the roles of the main ships' children. I put a solid claim on Natsu's and Lucy's kid, how could I not?!
I began to explore other animes too, like Inuyasha, Naruto, FMAB, and Magi. I even memorized the entire first opening of AoT (in Japanese and an English translation), even though I was too afraid to watch it. I also began learning Japanese on Duolingo. My goal was to be able to understand anime without subtitles, but at 11/12, I had absolutely no work ethic and became satisfied knowing a minor amount.
As I grew older, and my tv content became more and more mature, I always found my way back to that first season of fairytail on Netflix. I would hog the TV at my aunts house because she had Hulu and I could watch more episodes. I eventually went through the rite of passage all young anime watchers go through, and found episodes posted on YouTube. They were sped up, horrible quality, and sometimes didn't even have english subtitles, but I was watching more of my favorite show! So none of that mattered.
I left fairytail behind for a long time. Around 15 or 16, I watched up until the tenrou island arc, and stopped before the key to the starry heavens. I got bored, and moved on. I didn't pick it back up again for a long time after that, but I continued to watch more anime. I also began listening to Japanese music around that time, which turned into a core part of my sense of self. Snow Fairy was one of the first songs I ever added to that first playlist, and was the song that taught me my first Japanese word all those years ago: 光り (hikari: light).
I can't say what made me pick it back up again. It was my freshman year of college, maybe I was feeling particularly lonely, (I was struggling very hard to make friends, moving is hard!), or maybe I just had a particularly strong bout of nostalgia. But I started from the beginning, and I tore through it. Ill admit, I didn't pay the closest attention to everything that I had already seen, but I didn't need to! The show was practically injected into my veins, I could list off every arc and sing each opening song in it's entirety up to tenrou. Once I reached the portions I hadn't seen, however, I made sure to watch properly. I didn't love the key of the starry heavens arc, it bored me and I almost gave up, but at this point I had the internet, and the people of the internet said push on, so I did. And wow am I glad for it, thank you TikTok and Tumblr! The GMG arc was SO GOOD, and Masayume Chasing??? INSTANT add to the playlist. I felt like I was 10 all over again, all starry eyed and agape watching on my tiny phone screen. Man, if I was 8 years younger, they would've HATED me on the playground.
I tore through the rest of the series, mourned the old art style I loved so dearly (and the magic circles, rip), up until the Alvarez arc. Ill admit, I got a bit bored again. I was also rather pissed at Natsu, you know a guy for 8 years and he up and leaves his girl??? shameful. So I set it down again, with a promise I'd come back to it when i was ready. Luckily, it didn't take long.
My life is so much different now. I was showing my best friend, (who I didn't know two years ago), anime, and decided to watch that first episode of fairytail. And I knew, I knew by the way my heart surged, by the way my best friend stopped rolling their eyes and actually watched, by the way I still remembered every word that was spoken, that I owed it to myself to finish it. Little Elysia (name reveal? haha) was on her tip-toes, looking out my adult eyes, pleading for me to see it through. And how could I refuse her?
It didn't take me long, I only had around 40 episodes left. Which seems like a lot but us long term anime fans know better, (looking at you one piece). It feels sort of surreal now. It took me 10 years to finish the first anime I ever watched, and in that time Ive seen over 50. That may be a small number to some, but hey, I do have a semblance of a life, so I'm proud! There are many things that fairytail gave me, like it's probably one of the reasons I'm gay, cause WOW, those women are FINE. On a more serious note, however, I am now in college taking Advanced Japanese Grammar. I was able to skip two classes because of my advanced knowledge, and am the youngest person in my class. I would never have self studied Japanese through my early teens if I hadn't watched fairytail and discovered anime. It's funny how little things can lead to such big achievements.
All this to say, I am so glad to be a part of this community. I'm sure many of you have similar stories, and it's so heart warming to think that a silly show about found family can touch so many hearts. A big part of who I am today was shaped by that little nerdy girl who fell in love with magic, I hope she is proud of me, and thinks I'm at least a little bit cool.
To all of us honorary fairytail members out there, good luck on your adventures, and remember to come home and visit every once in awhile ⭐🔥👆
(and go me for finally finishing it woot!!)
