Fairy Tail (Japanese: フェアリーテイル Hepburn: Fearī Teiru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from August 2, 2006 to July 26, 2017, with the individual chapters collected and published into 63 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The story follows the adventures of Natsu Dragneel, a teenage wizard who is a member of the popular wizards' guild Fairy Tail, as he searches for the dragon Igneel.
Official Fairy Tail Sequel is CONFIRMED
The manga has been adapted into an anime series produced by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc., Satelight and Bridge which began broadcasting in Japan on October 12, 2009. Additionally, A-1 Pictures has developed seven original video animations and two animated feature films. The series ended its initial run on March 30, 2013. A second series premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2014, and ended on March 26, 2016. A third series of the anime series is scheduled to air during Fall 2018.
Fairy Tail 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. In December 2010, Kodansha USA took over North American release of the series. The Southeast Asian network Animax Asia aired an English-language version of the anime for seven seasons from 2010 to 2015. The anime has been licensed by Funimation for an English-language release in North America. As of February 2017, Fairy Tail has 60 million copies in print.
Fairy Tail is set in Earth-land, a fictional land where wizards coalesce into guilds to apply their magical abilities for paid job requests. Novice wizard Lucy Heartfilia runs away from home to join Fairy Tail, a guild famous for its members' overly destructive antics. She is invited into the guild by Natsu Dragneel, a dragon slayer[c] wizard who travels the kingdom of Fiore in search of his missing foster father, the dragon Igneel. Lucy forms a team with Natsu and his cat-like companion Happy, which is later joined by ice wizard Gray Fullbuster, armored wizard Erza Scarlet, and dragon slayer Wendy Marvell. The team embark on numerous guild missions together, which include subjugating criminals, illegal dark guilds, and ancient Etherious[e] demons created by the immortal dark wizard Zeref.
Following several adventures, Natsu and his companions encounter Zeref living in isolation on the guild's sacred ground of Sirius Island. A battle over Zeref ensues between Fairy Tail and the dark guild Grimoire Heart, which attracts the attention of the evil black dragon Acnologia. The Fairy Tail wizards survive Acnologia's assault when the spirit of their guild's founder, Mavis Vermillion, casts the defensive Fairy Sphere[g] spell that places them into seven years of suspended animation.
Shortly after the missing wizards return, Fairy Tail participates in the Grand Magic Games, a tournament held to determine the strongest guild in Fiore. In doing so, they prevent an unwitting government conspiracy to ravage the kingdom with dragons brought from the past through Eclipse, Zeref's time travel gate. After observing these events, Zeref decides to eradicate humanity for their continuing conflicts. Later, Fairy Tail wages war against Tartaros, a dark guild of Etherious that aim to unseal a book believed to contain E.N.D., Zeref's ultimate demon. Acnologia returns to annihilate both guilds, prompting Igneel – revealed to have sealed himself within Natsu – to emerge and battle Acnologia. However, Acnologia kills Igneel before a helpless Natsu, who departs on a year-long training journey to avenge Igneel.
Natsu returns to discover that Fairy Tail's master, Makarov Dreyar, has been staving off an invasion by the Alvarez Empire, which Zeref governs. Zeref and his forces assault Fiore, intending to acquire Mavis' physical body preserved beneath Fairy Tail's guildhall, which houses a wellspring of infinite magic power known as Fairy Heart. During the battle, Zeref reveals Natsu's origins as his younger brother, as well as the true incarnation of E.N.D., whom Zeref resurrected as a demon with the intention of being killed by him. When Natsu fails to do so, Zeref extracts Fairy Heart from Mavis to relocate himself to a new timeline where he may prevent the atrocities he and Acnologia have caused, destroying the present timeline in the process. Natsu incapacitates Zeref, and Lucy rewrites the book of E.N.D. to make Natsu fully human. Mavis, who is revealed to be Zeref's estranged lover who shares his curse of immortality, is then able to lift their curse by reciprocating his love, allowing both to die.
Meanwhile, Fairy Tail and their allies attempt to imprison Acnologia within a space-time rift discovered by Lucy's ancestor, Anna Heartfilia. Acnologia is instead empowered by the rift's properties and escapes, while his disembodied soul traps all of the present dragon slayers in the rift to maintain his new, immeasurable power. Using the accumulative magic of the other dragon slayers, Natsu destroys Acnologia after Lucy and the other wizards immobilize the dragon's body within Fairy Sphere, freeing the dragon slayers from captivity. In the following year, Lucy publishes an award-winning novel based on her experiences at the guild; the award ceremony is attended by two strangers resembling Mavis and Zeref, who fall in love. Afterwards, Natsu and his team depart on a century-old guild mission,[6] continuing their ongoing adventures together.
PRODUCTION OF FAIRY TAIL
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]". His inspiration for the series was simply sitting in bars and partying with his friends, the community aspect. Having always loved magicians and wizards, he imagined what it would be like if he and his friends were magicians.[8] But it is also about young people finding their calling, such as a job. He stated that while he tries to consider both his own interests and the fans' on what will happen next in Fairy Tail, the fans' take precedence.
Mashima described his weekly schedule for creating individual chapters of Fairy Tail in 2008. Script and storyboards are written on Monday, rough sketches the following day, and drawing and inking are done Wednesday through Friday. At the time the weekends were for Monster Hunter Orage, a monthly series Mashima was writing at the same time as Fairy Tail. He usually thinks up new chapters while working on the current ones. Mashima had six assistants in 2008 that worked in an 8,000 sq. feet area with seven desks, as well as a sofa and TV for video games. In 2011, he stated that he worked six days a week, for 17 hours a day.
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.[10] He based Natsu's motion sickness on one of his friends, who gets sick when taking taxis together. When naming the character, the author thought western fantasy names would be unfamiliar to Japanese audiences, so he went with the Japanese name for summer; Natsu. Mashima based the humorous aspects of the series on his daily life and jokes his assistants would make.
If you haven't watch this Japanese manga series, then you better start watching now. You will not regret it because it's really amazing. I promise.
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