Fairy Tail (フェアリーテイル Fearī Teiru?) is a Japanese
manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It has been serialized in
Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 23, 2006, and has been published by
Kodansha in 30 tankōbon volumes as of January 2012. An ongoing anime produced
by A-1 Pictures and Satelight was released in Japan on October 12, 2009,and
has spawned three original video animations. The series follows the adventures
of Lucy Heartfilia, a teenage wizard who joins the titular wizards' guild and
teams up with fellow guild member Natsu Dragneel as he searches for the dragon
Igneel. An anime film entitled Fairy Tail the Movie: The Phoenix Priestess has
been adapted from the series and is set to be released on August 18, 2012.
The series was originally licensed for an English language
release in North America by Del Rey Manga, which began releasing the individual
volumes on March 25, 2008 and ended its licensing with the 12th volume release
in September 2010. The series was taken over by Kodansha USA Publishing, which
continued its North American release. The anime adaptation was originally
licensed by Animax Asia, which initially aired the series with a Hong
Kong-based English dub on September 30, 2010, but dropped the series in
December of that year due to time limitations;however, it resumed airing
the series beginning with its second season in Japanese on February 10, 2012
and ended on April 23, 2012. The anime has also been licensed by Funimation
Entertainment for distribution in North America.
| Fairy Tail | |
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| First volume of Fairy Tail, released in Japan by Kodansha on December 15, 2006 |
フェアリーテイル
(Fearī Teiru)
Genre Action,
Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Manga
Written by Hiro
Mashima
Published by Kodansha
English publisher Canada/United
States: Kodansha Comics USA
Demographic Shōnen
Magazine Weekly
Shōnen Magazine
Original run August
2006 – ongoing
Volumes 33
(List of volumes)
TV anime
Directed by Shinji
Ishihara
Written by Masashi
Sogo
Music by Yasuharu
Takanashi
Studio A-1 Pictures,
Satelight
Production TV
Tokyo, Dentsu, A-1 Pictures
Licensed by
Australia/New Zealand: Madman Entertainment
Canada/United States: FUNimation Entertainment
United Kingdom: Manga Entertainment
Network TV
Tokyo
English network United
States: FUNimation Channel
Southeast Asia: Animax Asia
Philippines: GMA 7, AXN Philippines
Original run October
12, 2009 – ongoing
Episodes 137
(List of episodes)
Original video animation
Welcome to Fairy Hills!!
Directed by Shinji
Ishihara
Written by Masashi
Sogo
Music by Yasuharu
Takanashi
Studio A-1 Pictures,
Satelight
Released April
15, 2011
Original video animation
Fairy Academy - Yankee-kun and Yankee-chan!
Directed by Shinji
Ishihara
Written by Masashi
Sogo
Music by Yasuharu
Takanashi
Studio A-1 Pictures,
Satelight
Released June
17, 2011
Original video animation
Memory Days
Directed by Shinji
Ishihara
Written by Masashi
Sogo, Hiro Mashima
Music by Yasuharu
Takanashi
Studio A-1 Pictures,
Satelight
Released February
17, 2012
Runtime 24
min
Anime film
Fairy Tail the Movie: The Phoenix Priestess
Directed by Masaya
Fujimori
Written by Masashi
Sogo
Music by Yasuharu
Takanashi
Studio A-1 Pictures,
Satelight
Released August
18, 2012
Plot
Lucy
Heartfilia is a 17-year-old celestial wizard who runs away from home to join
Fairy Tail, a rambunctious wizards' guild whose members are famous for their
overly destructive antics. Along the way, she meets Natsu Dragneel, a boy who
is traveling the land of Fiore together with his partner Happy, a flying cat,
in search of his foster parent, a dragon named Igneel who had disappeared seven
years earlier. Lucy is soon abducted by a renegade wizard posing as the famous
Salamander of Fairy Tail. Natsu rescues Lucy, revealing himself to be the real
Salamander and a Dragon Slayer, a wizard with the abilities of a dragon. After
defeating the imposter, Natsu allows Lucy to join Fairy Tail.
Lucy
forms a team with Natsu and Happy, along with Gray Fullbuster, an ice wizard
with a habit of stripping, and Erza Scarlet, an armored female wizard. They are
tasked with completing missions requested by people and collect money for
rewards, such as hunting monsters and fighting illegal guilds called dark
guilds. Soon after, the rival guild Phantom Lord attacks Fairy Tail, resulting
in a guild war. Fairy Tail defeats the rival guild, and Phantom Lord members
Gajeel Redfox, a Dragon Slayer raised by the dragon Metalicana, and Juvia
Lockser, a water wizard, join Fairy Tail. The guild also crosses paths with
Jellal Fernandes, Erza's childhood friend who is being manipulated by Ultear
Milkovich to revive the ancient wizard Zeref using the Tower of Heaven. Natsu
defeats Jellal and the Tower of Heaven is destroyed. Later, Laxus Dreyar, the
renegade grandson of the guild's master Makarov Dreyar, stages a battle royal
in Fairy Tail and is expelled as a result.
Forming
an alliance with the wizard guilds Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Cait Shelter,
Fairy Tail fights and defeats the dark guild Oración Seis with the help of a
reformed Jellal, who is arrested for his previous crimes. Wendy Marvell, a
Dragon Slayer raised by Grandine and the sole member of Cait Shelter, joins
Fairy Tail along with her flying cat Carla. Lucy, Natsu and the others enter
the alternate universe of Edolas when their guild vanishes due to Edolas'
powers. The group encounters Faust, the universe's king who intends to bestow a
limitless supply of magic for the universe. Happy also discovers his and
Carla's heritage as Exceeds sent to Earthland as infants on the orders of their
queen Chagot. Allying with the Exceeds and Faust's sonMystogan, Fairy Tail
defeats Faust and restores their guild at the cost of Edolas' magical power
being drained. The group returns to Earthland together with the Exceeds, one of
which,Pantherlily, forms a partnership with Gajeel.
Later,
several members of Fairy Tail, including Natsu, Lucy, and their allies,
participate in an exam on their guild's sacred ground of Tenrou Island in which
wizards can advance to a higher rank and thus take part in more dangerous
missions. During the exam, the dark guild Grimoire Heart appears and seeks
Zeref, who has been living on the island. Aided by a reformed Laxus, Fairy Tail
defeats Grimoire Heart, and Zeref kills the guild's leader Hades. However, the
incident summons the black dragon Acnologia, which attacks the island. The
spirit of Fairy Tail's founding master, Mavis Vermilion, protects everyone on
the island from Acnologia's assault with a defensive spell, freezing them in
time.
Seven
years later, the spell lifts and the returning members of Fairy Tail discover
their guild to be the weakest in Fiore. The group participates in an annual
tournament to decide the country's strongest guild called the Grand Magic
Games. Also participating in the tournament are Sabertooth, the current
strongest guild containing Dragon Slayers Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney, and
Raven Tail, a guild led by Makarov's resentful son Ivan. Meanwhile, Arcadios, a
royal army captain, plans to open a magic gateway for Zeref by stealing the 12
Zodiac gatekeys.
Production
After
finishing his previous work, Rave Master, Hiro Mashima found the story
sentimental and sad at the same time, so he wanted the storyline of Fairy Tail
to have a "lot of fun [for everyone]". When originally creating the
series, Mashima was inspired by magicians and wizards. He based Natsu's motion sickness
on one of his friends, who gets sick when taking taxis together. When naming
Natsu, Mashima though western fantasy names would be unfamiliar to Japanese
audiences. When writing individual chapters of Fairy Tail, Mashima takes a five
day process: on Monday, the script and storyboards are written. On Tuesday,
Mashima writes rough sketches. From Wednesday to Friday, he finishes the
drawing and inking on the chapters. Mashima usually begins new chapters after
completing the previous ones.For the characters of the series, Mashima drew
upon people he has known in his life. In establishing the father-son
relationship between Natsu and Igneel, Mashima cited his father's death when he
was a child as an influence. Mashima based the humorous aspects of the series
on his assistants would make jokes about things that gave him ideas, as well as
from both his work and daily life.
Media
Manga
Written
and illustrated by Hiro Mashima, Fairy Tail has been serialized in the manga
anthology Weekly Shōnen Magazine beginning on August 23, 2006. The individual
chapters have been collected and published into tankōbon volumes by Kodansha
since December 15, 2006. As of June 2012, there are 289 chapters and 33
tankōbon volumes. A special in Weekly Shōnen Magazine featured a crossover with
Flunk Punk Rumble, released in 2008. The official fanbook, Fairy Tail+, was
released on May 17, 2010 in Japan.
The
series was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Del Rey
Manga. The company released the first volume of the series on March 25, 2008
and continued until the release of the 12th volume in September 2010. Since May
2011, Kodansha Comics USA acquired the license the series. As of May 2012, 19
English-anguage volumes have been published.
Anime
The
Funimation staff and voice cast of the anime at the 2011 New York Comic Con,
from left to right:Todd Haberkorn (Natsu), Cherami Leigh (Lucy), Colleen
Clinkenbeard (Erza), Newton Pittman (Gray) and Tyler Walker (ADR director).
A-1
Pictures and Satelight produced an anime adaptation of the manga. The anime,
also titled Fairy Tail and directed by Shinji Ishihira, premiered on TV Tokyo
on October 12, 2009. As of February 1, 2012, 25 DVD volumes containing four
episodes each have been released, with two more scheduled to be released on
March 7 and April 4 of 2012, respectively. Animax Asiastarted broadcasting the
English dubbed version of the series on September 30, 2010, but due to time
limitations, it was canceled after the first season. It still airs in some
parts of Asia and in the Philippines through its sister channel AXN, where it
initially used a Hong Kong-based English dub but currently uses the original
Japanese audio. The series resumed airing episodes with the second season in
Japanese on February 10, 2012. On January 18, 2011, British anime distributor
Manga Entertainment announced on Twitter that the company would release the
anime series in bilingual format at the end of the year. On April 21, 2011,
they had confirmed that the first volume with 12 episodes would be released in
February 2012; however, they later announced that the first volume would be
released on March 5, 2012. In 2011, North American anime distributor Funimation
Entertainment announced that they had acquired the first season of the ongoing
series. The series made its North American television debut on November 22,
2011 on the Funimation Channel.
Original
video animations
Three
original video animations (OVAs) of Fairy Tail have been produced and released
on DVD by A-1 Pictures and Satellite. The first OVA, Yōkoso Fairy Hills!! (ようこそフェアリーヒルズ!!?, lit. "Welcome
to Fairy Hills!!"), is an adaptation of the manga omake of the same name,
and was released together with the 26th tankōbon manga volume on April 15,
2011. The second, Yōsei Gakuen Yankee-kun to Yankee-chan (妖精学園 ヤンキー君とヤンキーちゃん?, lit. "Fairy
Academy: Yankee-kun and Yankee-chan"), is also an adaptation of the omake
of the same name, and was released together with the 27th volume of the manga
on June 17, 2011. The third, titled "Memory Days" (メモリーデイズ Memorī Deizu?), was released together with the
31st volume of the manga on February 17, 2012, and features an original story
written by series creator Hiro Mashima.
Film
Kodansha
announced on October 12, 2011 that an anime film adaptation of Fairy Tail,
titled Fairy Tail the Movie: The Phoenix Priestess (劇場版 FAIRY TAIL 鳳凰の巫女 Gekijōban Fearī Teiru:
Hōō no Miko?), will be released on August 18, 2012. It was directed by Masaya
Fujimori, and its screenplay was written by anime staff writer Masashi Sogo. Series
creator Hiro Mashima was also involved as the film's story planner and designer
for guest characters appearing in the film.
Video
games
An
action video game for the PlayStation Portable, titled Fairy Tail: Portable
Guild, was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show. The game was developed by
Konami and was released on June 3, 2010. Two sequels to Portable Guild have
also been released for the PlayStation Portable—the first, subtitled Portable
Guild 2, was released on March 10, 2011; the second, Fairy Tail: Zeref Kakusei
(FAIRY TAIL ゼレフ覚醒 Fairy Tail: Zerefu
Kakusei?, lit. Fairy Tail: Zeref Awakens), was released on March 22, 2012. Two
fighting games, Fairy Tail: Gekitō! Madōshi Kessen (FAIRY TAIL 激闘! 魔道士決戦?, lit. Fairy Tail:
Fight! Wizard Battle) and Fairy Tail: Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidō (FAIRY TAIL 激突! カルディア大聖堂 Fairy Tail: Gekitotsu!
Karudia Daiseidō?, lit. Fairy Tail: Attack! The Greak Kardia Cathedral), were
released for the Nintendo DS on July 22, 2010 and April 21, 2011, respectively.
The characters Natsu and Lucy also appeared in the crossover video game Sunday
VS Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen as playable characters.
Music
The
music for the anime was composed and arranged by Yasuharu Takanashi. As of July
2011, three original soundtrack CDs have been released, containing music from
the anime: the first soundtrack volume was released on January 6, 2010, the
second volume on July 7, 2010, and the third volume on July 6, 2011. Character
song singles were also produced; the first single, featuring Tetsuya Kakihara
(Natsu) and Yuichi Nakamura (Gray) was released on February 17, while the
second single, featuring Aya Hirano (Lucy) and Rie Kugimiya (Happy), was
released on March 3, 2010. Another character song album, entitled "Eternal
Fellows," was released announced on April 27, 2011. Two of the songs from
the album, performed by anime cast members Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu) and Aya
Hirano (Lucy), were used for both OVAs as the opening and ending themes,
respectively. Other songs on the volume are performed by Yuichi Nakamura
(Gray), Sayaka Ohara (Erza), Satomi Satō (Wendy), Wataru Hatano (Gajeel), and a
duet by Rie Kugimiya (Happy) and Yui Horie (Carla).
Radio
An
internet radio program began airing on HiBiKi Radio Station on February 11,
2012, featuring anime voice actors Tetsuya Kakihara (Natsu) and Mai Nakahara
(Juvia) as announcers.
Manga
In
Japan, the fifth volume of Fairy Tail was ranked seventh in a list of the top
ten manga, and the series once again placed seventh after the release of the
sixth volume. Fairy Tail was in 2011 the
4th best selling manga in Japan (by series). About.com's Deb Aoki lists Fairy
Tail as the best shōnen manga of 2008. It also won the 2009 Kodansha Manga
Award for shōnen manga. It has also won the Society for the Promotion of
Japanese Animation's Industry Award in 2009 for best comedy manga.
Anime
The
anime has also received positive response from critics and viewers alike. In
Southeast Asia, Fairy Tail won Animax Asia's "Anime of the Year"
award in 2010. In reviewing the first Funimation Entertainment DVD volume,
Carlo Santos of Anime News Network praised the visuals, characters, and English
voice acting, as well as the supporting characters for its comedic approach.
However, Santos criticized both the anime's background music and CGI animation.
In his review of the second volume, Santos also praised the development of
"a more substantial storyline," but also criticized the inconsistent
animation and original material not present in the manga. n his review of the
third volume, Santos praised the improvements of the story and animation, and
said that the volume "finally shows the [anime] series living up to its
potential."
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