Gekijouban Fairy Tail: Houou no miko

Pretty standard anime movie. Nothing spectacular, and nothing more exciting than a standard set of episodes. The animation was pretty good, but not spectacular.

The movie was fantastic. I wanted to watch this movie for a while, and it was totally worth the wait. There were so many epic fighting scenes. So many explosions! I love the new characters too, they had such cool and interesting abilities! The art was amazing! The plot for this was great! The ending was awesome and quite different from the show. Some of you might like this so much, you might like it even more than the show itself.

As a youth ,I very much enjoyed anime. Many a night I stayed up late to catch shows such as "Bleach" "Naruto" "Blood+" "Dragon Ball Z (and GT to a lesser extent)". However in the mid to late 2000s, I grew weary of anime. Some of the shows (some being the previously stated) had more than overstayed their welcome and many of the new additions to the anime medium were either more of the same story rehashed with different characters, or downright perverted. On top of that a new wave of "anti heroes" had come into play, not that there's anything wrong with that, I enjoy a good dark hero every once in a while but at that point the medium was plagued by unrelatable and sometimes downright unlikable characters. So naturally I moved on to other story telling mediums to fill the gap that anime had created.

But then, fairly recently, this little story caught my eye on the Funimation channel.I decided, despite my previous experience, to give this one a fair chance, and it surely did not disappoint! The characters are three dimensional and likable, the story (while containing some elements from animes past) was original and interesting. That being said the show is certainly not perfect, suffering from an abundance of clichés that sometimes detract from an otherwise wonderful plot, and the featuring of the occasional villain that you've sworn you've seen at least thirty times before in other shows. But that by no means does a bad anime make, and to the shows credit, the jokes are actually very clever and funny, which due to the cultural barrier that is often difficult to translate in anime, is a rarity.

What makes this a good anime id simply this, you like the characters. You want to see them succeed and you can often relate to the feelings that they have during their struggles. The characters in the Fairy Tail guild look out for each other, you actually believe that they would be friends in any given scenario. The rivalries are believable and the villains (while sometimes cheesy) have sufficient motivation at all times. To conclude, I would recommend this show to current and prior anime fans, there's something in it for everyone.

First off I'd like to say that the 2 reviews I've read are very disappointing although the film is definitely NOT. One was a review of the series rather than the film and the other was by an alleged fan who has ADHD or watched another movie altogether.

In this film you are introduced to the guild of Fairy Tail full of lovable eccentric mages. Even if you are not a fan you can pick up the storyline and quickly are given an insight into the rich tapestry of great characters. An earlier criticism from "a fan" was that this effort to introduce the characters and additional scenes could be viewed as filler in the movie. This is not my view, as in reality it was done to ensure this was not just another fanbase movie that only the fans would watch.

Within the first 10 minutes you realise that these characters are larger than life and funny as hell. Happy, Natsu's pet flying cat, always has me laughing with great offhand comments and didn't fail to deliver in the movie. Fairy Tail are guaranteed to bring havoc wherever they go but they have hearts so large you can't help but warm to them.

What Japanese anime does well,and this movie is a good example of, is combine pathos and fatality with comedy to provide a roller coaster of emotions so that you can be crying and laughing within the same breath.

Look at UP, Toy Story and even Wreck it Ralph and you can see how the influence of anime and quality anime such as Fairy Tail has had in this area.

I loved the new characters too, Eclair and Momon's story was loving and poignant and if you watch the prologue which was released after the movie as a 15 min short it just enriches the story of these two. It is referred to as Fairy Tail Movie Prolouge - Hoou no Miko aka "Sunrise" or "The First Morning"

The Fairy Tail mages I felt were a bit under powered from the series but that does happen when you translate onto the big screen. Still their hearts were just as big and the emotions evoked by fully developed characters just as solid. There are a couple of scenes where there is slight nudity for comedic purposes but nothing graphic.

As a fan I'll give it 8/10 as this is a solid example of why after 175 episodes of the series it is still going stronger than ever. Quality never goes out of style and with all the great characters in Fairy Tail there is someone there for everyone.

This story can be considered as a pleasant bonus, as an alternative history, because I noticed several inconsistencies with the plot line in the anime series. We see that many characters of the guild have aged, which gives us a hint that the action takes place after the time jump. However, according to the state of development of some characters, we see them as before the jump. Also, the Guild building itself, it is the same, although in the anime it is already different. The film itself is very well drawn, new characters are revealed, excellent new locations, a lot of magic and battle moments! As a bonus, spicy moments! The film is worth watching.