Slightly Biased Manga

I love anything automatically that bears a strong resemblance to One Piece, hence my inordinate fondness for Law of Ueki.  This series isn’t ripping off the plot so much as the art looks exactly the same, but apparently Hiro Mashima used to be Oda’s assistant, so I suppose that’s all right.  It makes me think of One Piece while I’m reading it, which is never a bad thing.

I also love fantasy series a lot, especially light fantasy series, hence my inordinate fondness for things like Sorcerer Hunters.  This does fantasy quite well, and one thing that the first volume does is lay out ALL the rules for the fantasy world.  Types of magic are defined, a guild system is set up for the characters, we learn that there are magical laws, and even better, we get to see the main character’s magic, which is a key summoning system the likes of which I’ve never seen outside a video game.  I like the fantasy elements A LOT.  It also doesn’t seem overly serious or epic about its magic or fantasy bits yet, which can turn me off in fiction quite a bit.

I can’t say too much about the characters just yet.  The main character is a bit dopey and out there in the same way as… well, Goku, Luffy, Ueki, and scores of other main characters who are out of it and also insanely strong.  He was taught by a dragon how to handle fire magic, and is apparently one of the better magicians of this type.  He meets up with Lucy, and after a brief battle to introduce their magic skills, Lucy is taken back to his magical guild, Fairy Tail, which she had been dreaming of joining.  Lucy is the serious female lead similar to… Nami, who she also resembles, unfortunately.  She’s the one that explains most of what’s going on to the reader.  There’s also a cat named Happy who is a shape-shifter and hangs out with Natsu, the fire magician.  We really don’t get a feel for any of their characters since so much of the rules and background are laid out first, but I feel pretty confident the details will fill themselves in later.

Based on the strength of its setting, I’m pretty excited about this series so far.  Plot and character details haven’t been filled in yet, but with the way things are going, even if they turn out to be medicore, I have a feeling that I’ll still enjoy this series quite a bit.