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In a sentence, this is one of the worst manga I've ever read but one of the best I've ever seen.

In terms of narrative- You've seen it a million times. Zombies exist now, press play on civilization collapsing. Whatever. It's fun like every other ____ Of The Dead.
But the actual prose quality on display here is ABOMINABLE. I hope I don't get haunted for saying this, but Daisuke Sato's (all jokes and criticism of his work aside, rest in peace) writing is so bad here as to be incomprehensible from panel to panel.

Once they get to the nurse's friend's house, the events we are ... shown bounce between fanservice (Excellent, because Shouji Sato's art carries this series HARD) to infodumps about guns, random, poorly-handled political screeds (regardless of your politics, admit you cringed at "leftists tend to be sick in the head, just as sick as ultra-conservative racists." He just wants to grill for god's sake.)

Add in the expected amounts of gore and at least attempted character development, and you have a certifiable clusterfuck. On any given page, you can find blood, pantsu, gun porn, someone acting unbelievably stupid and yet surviving, and probably some weird rant about politics or something. I will give it this, the dialogue does sound like the kind of stupid shit I've heard high schoolers say, so points for realism I guess.

At this point, I'm just reading it for the artwork. I wish there was some version that was JUST the art with no speech bubbles, actually. In conclusion, these high schoolers of the dead need to shut the fuck up and let the art shine, which it certainly can do.

The long-running shounen adaptation was for, the majority of my life, the gate that kept me from entering the world of anime. I never had the time, or so I told myself. I was too old, anyway, I'd get more out of a drama or slice of life or at least an action series aimed at an older audience, especially for the time commitment. Then I began to check out "New-Gen" shounen series like BNHA and Kimetsu No Yaiba, with their much less daunting episode counts, and realized this genre had something to offer me as a child at heart. I went back and saw ... seminal classics like 2011's Hunter x Hunter (one of my favorites) and 2009's FMA Brotherhood (which I liked less so). I bring this up to bring in the context that I am not a shounen veteran and I did not grow up with these kinds of stories.

In 2009, another shounen manga adaptation began, the much less beloved Fairy Tail. The general consensus is that the series relies overly on the "power of friendship" and constant asspulls, and from a surface level, that certainly is true. Fairy Tail is no dramatic masterpiece. What it is is a technically competent battle shounen with all the trappings and cliches of that genre cranked up to 11, with lovable but static characters, and at times clunky animation.

To me, this show would be at best a 6/10 that I would have dropped after the first 20 or so episodes if it were not so infectiously likable and full of heart. I cannot logically defend my love for this show in any way (and I do love it). Fairy Tail is everything anime does that would ordinarily piss me off, done with such earnest heart that I can't help but to keep watching and occasionally tear up.

Perhaps the best way to explain my feelings towards Fairy Tail is by comparing the production to its magic system. The magic in Fairy Tail is the main means by which the battles take place, but unlike similar mechanics in battle shounen series, seems to defy all attempts to be spelled out to the audience. There are no power levels, no stand ranking between commercials, no numerical value assigned to powers. Magic is a thing people do than a power or set of powers they have. This allows for the writers to use the magic to grant the characters victories through 'the power of friendship" or other such admittedly cloyingly emotional means. In short, magic can be read in this world as literally fueled by intangible emotion. Similarly, I make no delusions that Fairy Tail is anything but a cliche battle shounen series, but I happen to really like cliche battle shounen. Maybe that's because I didn't grow up with them and it's very possible as I see more Fairy Tail will appeal to me less and less, but personally I not only love this series in spite of its flaws but sometimes even because of them. What can I say, it puts a smile on my face and when I go to a battle shounen, that's what I want.