Structuring the Pilot: Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail is an incredibly expansive series. The core group that we follow consists of seven characters, with the entire Fairy Tail guild playing important parts throughout. By the end, it becomes a story that spans not only two continents, but centuries of time.
So, how do you start something like that? Well, you keep it simple.
Prologue – Fiore’s Magic
(-) Narrator explains Fiore, magic, and guilds.
Before the episode begins in any real way, before we see any characters or get a hint as to what the story can be, a narrator sets the stage. On a practical level, this serves to explain the most important aspects of the Kingdom of Fiore: that there is magic, and that guilds are where wizards who use their magic for fame and fortune get work. As a bonus, we get our first mention of the Fairy Tail guild.
But there is something a little more than that going on. This doesn’t only deliver exposition but sets up the feeling of the show itself. It opens this series like a fairy tale, like a magical story that is about to be read to us. The statement made about the Fairy Tail guild is that it is where legends are born, building it up to this mythical proportion. It tells us we’re about to hear about this grand place and the legends that come out of it.
Pre-Episodic Title Screen – Natsu’s Sickness
(B) Natsu and Happy are looking for someone in Hargeon.
There is a quick single scene between the opening theme and the episodic title screen. It can probably just be considered alongside the rest of act one but does seem to separate itself out by being sandwiched between these moments. Essentially, it does the work of a cold open like in a lot of shows made in the west (but Western shows usually have either a title screen or an opening theme, and not both like anime tends to).
This scene acts to introduce the characters of Natsu and Happy, as well as set up their goal for the episode (looking for “that salamander”). A scene of two characters arriving in a small town to find someone could play very seriously, even ominously. But Fairy Tail instead chooses not to play up the tension, and undercuts it with inclusion of Natsu’s severe motion sickness. Placed so immediately in the episode, it not only sets up an important aspect for the climatic fight but demonstrates the show’s lighthearted tone.
Act One – That Creep, Salamander
(A) Lucy buys a gate key.
(A) Lucy sees a gathering around Salamander.
(B) Natsu and Happy wonder if this Salamander is Igneel.
(A+B) Lucy falls for Salamander but snaps out of it when Natsu arrives.
(A+B) Lucy buys them lunch; explains guilds. Natsu and Happy explain Igneel.
(A) Lucy is agrees to go to Salamander’s boat in exchange for an invite to Fairy Tail.
When act one starts in earnest, we start on Lucy in a magic shop. Lucy is set up as essentially our point of view character for the episode, as well as most of the show. By starting in the magic shop, we get a glimpse of the mundanity of magic in this world. The shopkeeper talks about how this is the only magic shop in the town, and how most people who live in Hargeon probably can’t even use magic. While it is an aspect of the entire world, it’s not something that everyone bothers with.
This scene is gives us some of Lucy’s character. Her focus in this shop is to find gate keys to buy, which gives us the first hint at what her style of magic is. But they don’t explain what the gate keys are, apart from being rare. This is important because it keeps from going too heavy into exposition about every new thing, and gives a mystery to come back to later in the episode. When the price of the gate key is too high, we’re shown the way Lucy flirts to try to get the price lowered. When her tactics barely work, she pays, but is so unhappy that she’s stomping down the street in the next scene.
Over the next few scenes, we have the introduction of a character calling himself Salamander. Crowds gather around him, and Lucy recognizes the name, calling him “the wizard who uses fire magic you can’t even buy in stores”. This is clearly the name of a character who is quite famous is this world.
Salamander at first just seems to be a guy using his fame to impress women, even Lucy claims to be falling in love with him based off his celebrity status. But when Natsu arrives (and is instantly disappointed he isn’t a dragon), Lucy snaps out of it. Through her, we’re shown that this guy is actually using a magic ring to make the women fall in love with him. Basically, he’s set up as the villain here in the same scene as the heroes all meet.
Lucy is so thankful to Natsu and Happy for getting her out of that spell, even if accidentally, that she buys them both lunch. The basic premise of this scene is one that a lot of pilots use, where an expert explains the world of the show to a newcomer (like the way Michael explains things to Ryan on his first day in The Office pilot). In this scene, Lucy plays the part of the expert, where she explains Salamander’s charm spell, and even how guilds work. What makes this extra interesting in hindsight, is that the end of the episode reveals their positions are actually reversed. Natsu is already a professional wizard who is a member of the guild Lucy dreams of being a part of, and Lucy is the relative newcomer.
The lunch scene also gets mildly deeper into the lore of the world in terms of dragons. Dragons exist but are rarely seen by the human eye. The mission Natsu and Happy are on is one that seems to be possible, but difficult. Again, we’re not getting any deeper into this, or even explaining why they are looking for Igneel. This is all about getting the audience in, not overloading them.
The next scene has Lucy alone in the park, daydreaming out loud about wanting to be in Fairy Tail. It is a scene about building out the expectation for this guild, and Lucy’s desire to be a part of it. Salamander pops up out of the bushes and invites Lucy to his boat party (one he brought up to all the women in his earlier scene). When Lucy refuses because of his creepy use of charm magic, he bribes her by claiming he is a member of Fairy Tail and can get her in.
This act as a whole is about giving the audience the three of the main characters (primarily Lucy), an antagonist for the episode (Salamander), and basic world building. All the talk of guilds is from Lucy’s perspective, which we’re shown is that of a fan or amateur, someone looking from the outside in. This keeps the exposition almost more surface level. It is getting in deep enough to start to understand what these things mean in the world, without overloading the viewer with every detail of how they work.
The act shows us some magic, but almost exclusively magic that is done using special items. Later in the series this will come to be known as holder magic. This works for opening the show, because it requires less of an explanation. How does Salamander’s charm spell work? His ring does it. We don’t need to know why (it is just magic), but it is more basic and visual than other ways he may be doing such things.
Act Two – Magic in Action
(B) Natsu overhears that Salamander is in Fairy Tail.
(A+B) Lucy is being kidnapped; Natsu and Happy save her; Lucy saves Natsu.
(A+B) Natsu introduces himself, defeats everyone, and invites Lucy to Fairy Tail.
This act might look short because it is only three scenes, but they are actually quite long. While the first act focuses on set up, this act is all about the pay off, and for Fairy Tail, that means action.
Natsu’s goal in the first act was all about finding Igneel, but that changes when he overhears someone claim that Salamander is part of the Fairy Tail guild. We aren’t told why right away, but it makes him turn far more serious than he had been shown to be up until this point.
The episode continues this turn to this more serious tone as Lucy discovers that the boat party was actually a rouse for Salamander and his gang of thugs to kidnap and enslave women. Lucy tries to defend herself with her magic, but her gate keys are stolen from her. We’re shown in this moment that her magic depends on them.
This incredibly dark tone isn’t made to last too long. Natsu suddenly drops in to save the day, only to be made sick the moment his feet land on the boat (paying off the first scene of the episode). We get comic relief both from Natsu’s failed heroics, and the way everyone reacts to the fact the Happy suddenly has wings.
The action kicks off, but it is incredibly one sided. This is all around building tension. Natsu is being beat up because he’s too sick to stand, and though Happy is able to fly away with Lucy, his magic wings give out and they both fall into the ocean.
Lucy may have been saved by Natsu and Happy at first, but when she finds her gate keys, she is able to return the favour. The reveal of what the gate keys do pays off her first scene when she purchases a new one. Using these keys, she can summon the celestial spirit of a constellation, and she uses her Aquarius gate key. Aquarius is a super powerful mermaid with an incredibly mean attitude.
While we only see one of Lucy’s celestial spirits, through Aquarius we get a strong indication of what they are like. Aquarius has only a few moments of screen time but still managers to show the audience that she isn’t like a Pokemon kept in a pokeball but is her own person entirely. She has her own life, even a boyfriend, in the celestial spirit realm. The key summoning her is a disruption from that. It gives the impression of the key being a way of calling a friend for help, and having them suddenly appear regardless of how far away they were.
When Aquarius throws the boat (and Lucy) onto land, Natsu gets to show his real strength. With the boat no longer moving, motion sickness no longer keeping him from fighting back, he comes out in full force. Throwing off his jacket he reveals his Fairy Tail guild mark, a tattoo on his shoulder, and shouts that he is fighting them because he doesn’t like people giving his guild a bad name. It turns out, Salamander is actually Natsu’s nickname, and Bora (previously known as Salamander) was a man using Natsu’s fame as a way to trick women.
Natsu’s devastating fire magic is revealed. Happy explains (for Lucy, as well as the audience) that Natsu has magic that makes him like a dragon, a kind of magic that was previously used to kill dragons, but has been gifted to him by Igneel. Again, coming full circle with bringing Igneel into this, and creating more questions as to why Natsu was given magic by this dragon who is now missing.
After Natsu effortlessly wins the fight, much of Hargeon is destroyed (calling back to Lucy reading a magazine article that said Fairy Tail destroyed seven homes while doing a job to take out a bandit clan). The town’s army come rushing to chase them, and Natsu takes Lucy by the hand, he’s taking her to Fairy Tail.
Even by the end, we only really see the magic of four characters (our three leads, and the fake Salamander). This limiting of scope, keeping everyone from using all kinds of crazy magic right from the beginning, keeps it shallow that the audience can buy in but not bored by expositon. None of the three main characters even use their magic until this act, and present them just one at a time. Regardless of if this was an intentional choice, they are also arguably presented in order of least to most complicated. Happy goes first, with the simple magic of just getting wings to fly. Then Lucy, who uses keys to summon spirits to fight for her. Then there is Natsu, who has been gifted magic from a dragon and can eat fire.
Conclusions
Fairy Tail spends its pilot laying foundation for its worldbuilding. It’s approach is to give an absolute minimum amount. Because there is so much to explain, it doles it out in such small doses as a way to get the audience on board enough to get to the action, which is important, because the action is what this show is primarily focused on.
A similar thing can be said about its use of character. Limiting the main characters to three keeps the episode able to keep moving forward rather than stopping to introduce each one.
This episode exists as a kind of one-off adventure. If the series ended here, while questions of what is going on with Natsu’s search for Igneel are still left hanging in the air, it could essentially function as a short film on its own. In a way, this pilot acts as an appetiser to everything Fairy Tail could be, enough to sample its kind of comedy, and action, and characters, even how dark moments can get, all in a single self contained morsel.
