I used to be a Fairy Tail fan when I was a teenager and I really enjoyed it, so I decided to watch it again. I'll talk about some things that I've realized now that I'm older.
It's true that the author forgot where he was heading to. At some point, the fanservice got stronger and stronger, even in the Magic Games the strong Mirajane decided to do a swimsuit modeling competition against Jenny (is this her name?) and all the female characters suddenly decided to wear swimsuits too, because why not. That was the moment when I finally thought, "wow, he really forgot the main story just for that". Of course I had already realized since the beginning that the fanservice was too much, but I was still willing to let it go, since most old shonen were / are just like that (I don't know how shonen mangas are nowadays, it's been a while since I've last read manga). One Piece, for example, which is a story that I personally love, likes to give the female characters those 50kg boobs and they get bigger every episode; the author, though, didn't forget what his main story is. Bleach, a manga that I still want to finish just for the sake of finishing, also has the same 50kg boobs; the author was lost and couldn't create the story he originally wanted to, but at least that wasn't because of the fanservice.
Fairy Tail has a good main storyline. Their magic world and all the dragons and Zeref stuff were great for a nice and lasting shonen. Suddenly, though, the author must have lost his notes and memos somewhere, because the story just became full of random stuff with no endings or no correlation, and I'm not talking about fanservice yet. I won't talk much about the storyline because I haven't finished reading it yet, but that's what I've seen up to now.
Why do I still watch / read it? Some characters have really good concepts. Natsu's main story is interesting; Gray, Erza, Wendy, the cats, even Lucy have nice background stories. Though they are sexualized a lot, the women are as strong as the men. The friendship part is cool as long as it's not too much (it's exaggerated mostly, but that's another shonen troupe). The rest though is just a mess.
What does it have, then? A story to just chill and watch. If you turn off your brain and get into the "friendship, loyalty" vibe without thinking much, just like we did with Dragon Ball or Naruto when we were kids, you can enjoy it. I think of it as a childish animation (of course forgetting the sexual stuff) that I watch for fun. The women are sexualized to the point where I do feel bothered about it, but all the men are also maybe unconsciously sexualized too, because they have to keep up with the women. I am a person who hates when everything has to revolve around sex, but I think I can let it pass if I just turn off my brain.
The ships. They are obviously fanservice, some are even too much to handle. Juvia for example is unhealthy towards Gray, sorry. Gajeel and Levy, though, have a safe relationship if you forget his past deeds. Freed obviously likes Laxus. I write some stuff sometimes and I have the personal theory that, after you set up a storyline, main events, and the characters' personalities, the rest of the story writes itself. The characters act on their own and you are just the person holding the pen, just like (if you have a religion) God and humanity. That's what I owe NaLu to. Natsu isn't a character who cares about romance, but he grew up. Lucy, on the other hand, is always conscious of Natsu and dreaming about love. If you think about the characters in the real world, they make no sense. But in the world that they were developed in, even if, or because, it's a super sexualized world, they ended up maybe feeling a little attracted to each other. Attraction isn't something we can just explain with words, there are many types of "attraction". Maybe it's friendship, family liaisons, just "some" (not love, but not friendship), we don't know. Just like when we have that super close friend, and, even if it's just because other people keep teasing you about it, or because you have read it somewhere, or any other reason, we at some point, even if it's for a fraction of second, think "lololol what if we liked each other"; no matter what the answer is, "hell no, I'd never do that", or "hmm maybe?", or "I just don't know", or "let's not think about it, I don't care", the attraction is there, be it love or not.
Anyway that's all that I see with my adult eyes. I had never noticed anything between Natsu and Lucy when I was a kid. Now I see that there is something, and it might develop to love or just stay at what it is or vanish, and it might just be for fanservice, so what, if they get together or not is the fate written by that world's setup and god. So I don't agree with NaLu shippers, but neither do I disagree. I do disagree with shipping them just because they talk to each other though (Lucy says 'hey' and Natsu says 'sup' and everyone is like 'woooow NaLu!!!'), not everything is about attraction.
Wendy and Mest though??? I never noticed any weird feelings of him towards her in Tenrou Island, but I was surfing the Fairy Tail tag and found that people actually ship it?? Wtf??? That's so fcked up. I've always thought of it as him thinking "wow she's cute" but cute in the real CUTE sense, like innocent-meaning, just like I think she is a cute baby. He was horrified about her supposed death in Tenrou not because he had weird pedophile feelings, but because he felt guilty. He supposedly infiltrated Fairy Tail to destroy it, probably with the Council prejudice of "they all are loud dirty troublemakers", but he became friends with a nice kid who was just a kid and was kind to him, even helping him in the S class exam just for the sake of being kind. He felt guilty because he did nothing to save her and the guild, since she was just a gentle child and Fairy Tail was a cool place full of human beings who didn't deserve to get caught in the dark guild bullshit, not like what he must have heard at the Council. The fact that he is used for the pedophile jokes is the author's fault and sick mind, the character doesn't seem to harbor any ill perverted feelings towards Wendy.
