User blog comment:Omega natsu2/Chapter 362: Natsu vs. Jackal, Predictions./@comment-174.113.47.178-20131125214846/@comment-3987368-20131126182720

I think it's really down to preference which one people like. On one hand, you can make the arguments that Fairy Tail has better and more refined character designs, mainly because Rave's are quite generic to a large extent while Fairy Tail had a chance to really work things out and give everyone a unique look. Fairy Tail is probably also better at building its wider working, by which I mean things like the Dragons, Lucy's mother and the One Magic being present relatively early whereas Rave had to invent things as it went along for more scale in its story such as Makai and Endless.

On the other hand, Rave Master is the one with the better romance stories like Haru-Elie and several others. Mashima clearly knew where he wanted to go with those. On the ground of character development, particularly in the area of bad guys turned good, Rave stomps on Fairy Tail. The early (and admittedly generic) example of a certain Dragon Race aside, Rave has a serious villain turn good via several factors such as a built-in backstory, individual goals and connections to a main character which develop into "something more". What was best about this is that it was so completely believable due to how well it was written, unlike the similar cases in Fairy Tail. As you may have guessed, I'm trying to avoid spoiling too much but this is one area where Fairy Tail can't compete with Rave.

If you like one more than the other, it's a matter of preference but for me, though I've yet to complete Rave entirely, I have my mind made up.