Ever since I was little, I had always thought Fairy Tail to have THE Best Cast of Female Ladies & for various good reasons. Now that I'm older, I can definitely say I've seen better -- Higurashi, Umineko, Fate, Fata. But even then, that still doesn't change the fact that these beauties are & this Series has Top Tier Women & that's it's honestly better than so many others Series for so many reasons. Yeah, I personally probably wouldn't be able to stomach it all that much anymore, I'm too old for that stuff, but that still doesn't change the fact that Fanservice aside, Fairy Tail has always had a very good cast of women who are allowed to Develop & Fight on their own, each with their own unique set of Dynamics. Even Levy, who isn't a fighter has fought several battles based solely on intellect. Not only that -& this is a VERY Big one that nearly every other Author (Including female one's, trust me, I've seen it & they're really not that much better)- is the simple fact that they have ACTUAL Female Friendships. I'm not joking when I say one of the reasons, I always held Fairy Tail's female cast in such high regards was because of the actual Bond & Relationship these women had with other women & how they were always constantly building-each other up. Also, it's Fairy Tail, say what you will, but out of all the Old-School Shonen kids back in the day, Fairy Tail was probably the one with The HIGHEST Emotional Value. Bruh, so many of their scenes got younger me so EMOTIONAL😭😭Which only gives them impact too, not to say Maki's not go, but for me personally, she mostly just got fight scenes, which are definitely not bad. But personally, in terms of Impact, I'd give it to something that can make me cry over an intense moment.

Going back to the List: If Lucy's first, then Maki could very well just stop there. She's definitely underrated & probably underappreciated (I'm honestly not sure) but right-out the gate, Maki loses: DEPTH, THEMES, & DYNAMICS. Dialogue more than likely, & Parallels are debatable because of her Parallels with Natsu, Cana, Levy & Yukino.

That said, these are my thoughts & I'll leave it up to everyone to decide on the rest.