Fairy Tail (Series)

Fairy Tail (フェアリーテイル, Fearī Teiru, romanized as FAIRY TAIL in Japan) is a Japanese manga series by Hiro Mashima. The series was first serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine on August 2, 2006, where it is still ongoing. The individual chapters are being collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with 61 released as of May 2017. An anime produced by A-1 Pictures and Satelight was released in Japan on October 12, 2009. The series follows the adventures of the Celestial Spirit Mage Lucy Heartfilia after she joins the Fairy Tail Guild and teams up with Natsu Dragneel, who is searching for the Dragon Igneel.

The series was first licensed for an English language release in North America by Del Rey Manga (a child company of Kodansha & Random House) on July 28, 2007. From March 2008 to September 2010, they released the first twelve volumes, with the first volume being released on March 25, 2008. On October 4, 2012, Kodansha and Random House announced that they will shutting down Del Rey Manga, and that Kodansha USA will be licensing and taking over publishing of certain ongoing titles. Kodansha USA took over and released the manga commencing from the 13th volume starting from May 10 of 2011. As of Feburary 2017, Fairy Tail has over 60 million tankōbon volumes in circulation worldwide.

Plot
Lucy Heartfilia, a traveling Mage, meets Natsu Dragneel, a Mage looking for his foster parent, a Dragon named Igneel, with his best friend, Happy, a blue, talking and flying cat. Shortly after their meeting, Lucy is abducted by Bora of Prominence, who was posing as Salamander of Fairy Tail, to be sold as a slave. Natsu rescues her and reveals that he is the real Salamander of Fairy Tail and has the skills of a Dragon Slayer, a form of Lost Magic. He offers her membership into the guild, which she gladly accepts. They, along with the armored Mage Erza Scarlet, Ice-Make Mage Gray Fullbuster, and Happy, become a team performing various missions offered to the Fairy Tail Guild.

Manga


Fairy Tail is an ongoing weekly manga written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. The series was first serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine on August 2, 2006. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with the first one being released on December 15, 2006. During its many years of serialization, the series has had many specials such as omakes and crossovers. In addition, the official fanbook, Fairy Tail+ was released on May 17, 2010, in Japan.

The series was first licensed for an English language release in North America by Del Rey Manga (a child company of Kodansha & Random House) on July 28, 2007. From March 2008 to September 2010, they released the first twelve volumes, with the first volume being released on March 25, 2008. On October 4, 2012, Kodansha and Random House announced that they will shutting down Del Rey Manga, and that Kodansha USA will be licensing and taking over publishing of certain ongoing titles. Kodansha USA took over and released the manga commencing from the 13th volume starting from May 10 of 2011.

Anime
An anime adaptation co-produced by A-1 Pictures and Satelight, directed by Ishihira Shinji and debuted by TV Tokyo premiered on October 12, 2009. The series went on hiatus on March 30, 2013, with 175 episodes, 41 DVD volumes, 6 OVAs and 1 animated film. The anime once again resumed on April 5, 2014, but unfortunately ended in March of 2016. However, a tweet by Hiro Mashima says that he is currently working on a new anime project. Visit the official Anime website for further information.

Animax Asia broadcasted an English dubbed version of the Fairy Tail anime starting on September 30, 2010, but only covered the first season, up to episode 48. It aired in some parts of Asia and in the Philippines, where they initially used the Hong Kong based English dub but later on changed to the original Japanese audio. The anime series won Animax Asia's "Anime Of The Year" award. Currently, FUNimation Entertainment has been licensed to Fairy Tail for a North American release in English dub and has distributed season 1, season 2 and, currently, season 3.

Music
As of March 2013, five original soundtrack CDs have been released, with 4 pertaining to the anime and 1 exclusive to the Movie. Fairy Tail Original Soundtrack Vol. 1 was released on January 6, 2010, containing 36 songs from the anime. Fairy Tail Original Soundtrack Vol. 2 was released on July 7, 2010, also containing 36 songs. Fairy Tail Original Soundtrack Vol. 3 was released on July 6, 2011 and unlike the previous albums, it contains 30 songs. Fairy Tail Original Soundtrack Vol. 4 was released on March 20, 2013 and features 2 CDs, with the CDs containing 24 and 27 tracks each. The Fairy Tail Movie Soundtrack contains 29 tracks. The music for the soundtracks were composed and arranged by Yasuharu Takanashi.

In addition, the Intro and Outro themes of the Fairy Tail Anime were released under 3 Volumes featuring all 14 Openings and Endings. Character singles were also produced, with 4 Character song collection volumes released in total. The first character song single featuring Natsu and Gray, was released on February 17, while the second single, featuring Lucy and Happy, was released on March 3, 2010. The 3rd and 4th Volume features Team Natsu, Wendy, Carla and Gajeel singing various Image Songs together.

Original Video Animations
The first anime side-story was released exclusively on DVD alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 26 on April 15, 2011. The first anime adaptation of the manga side story "Welcome to Fairy Hills!!" involves Lucy noticing a mysterious hand-written request in which the client is looking for an object located in Fairy Tail's female dormitory, Fairy Hills. To ensure that the job is not a prank, she goes to verify it. Once she reaches the dormitory, she learns that the client is Hilda, the dorm's head, who asks her to find a "shining treasure" while wearing an embarrassing cat outfit.

The second OVA released, titled "Fairy Academy - Yankee-kun and Yankee-chan!" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 27 and was released on June 17. 2011. In the story, Mashima parodies another Weekly Shonen Magazine manga, Miki Yoshikawa's Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, by putting the Fairy Tail characters in a school comedic setting.

The third OVA released, titled "Memory Days" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 31 and was released on February 17, 2012. The plot revolves around Team Natsu being sent into the past by a mysterious Magic book and must return back into their own time before time runs out, in which they will be trapped in the past permanently.

The fourth OVA released, titled "Fairies' Training Camp" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 35 and was released on November 16, 2012. The plot revolves around the Fairy Tail Mages training for the Grand Magic Games, with Team Natsu and co. training by the beach.

The fifth OVA released, titled "The Exciting Ryuzetsu Land" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 38 and was released on June 17, 2013. The plot revolves around the Fairy Tail Mages visiting the leisure resort, Ryuzetsu Land, the after the battles and events of Day 3 of the Grand Magic Games.

The sixth OVA, titled "Fairy Tail x Rave" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 39 and was released on August 16, 2013. The plot revolves around the world of Fairy Tail and Rave Master all encountering in one location.

The seventh OVA, titled "Fairies' Penalty Game" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 55 and was released on May 17, 2016. The plot revolves around Team Fairy Tail A and B Team rekindling their side bet from the X791 Grand Magic Games.

The eighth OVA, titled "Natsu vs. Mavis" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 58 and was released on November 17, 2016. The plot revolves around Erza recruiting Natsu's help in order to cheer up their First Master, Mavis.

The ninth OVA, titled "Fairies' Christmas" was bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 59 and was released on December 16, 2016. The plot revolves around some of the Fairy Tail members partying at Lucy's apartment for the Christmas holiday.

Shinji Ishihira directs the OVA's at A-1 Pictures Inc. and Satelight, just as he had for the television anime series. Similarly, the television anime and first original anime DVD's series script supervisor Masashi Sogo and character designer Aoi Yamamoto are also involved.

Films
An anime film adaptation of Fairy Tail, titled Fairy Tail: Phoenix Priestess (ＦＡＩＲＹ　ＴＡＩＬ　鳳凰の巫女, Fearī Teiru Hōō no Miko) was 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. A 12-minute prologue to the movie, Prologue: The Sunrise, was released as an extra for the DVD release of the movie, and was bundled along with the Special Edition of Volume 36 of the Manga, first released on February 15, 2013.

A second anime film adaption of Fairy Tail, titled Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry (　 　 Fearī Teiru Doragon Kurai) was released on May 6, 2017. It was directed by Tatsuma Minamikawa, and its script screenplay was written by both Hiro Mashima and Shōji Yonemura. Series creator Hiro Mashima was involved with film's story planner and rough sketch of the movie exclusive characters along with 193 handwritten drawings that will be imposed in the film.

Novels
On May 2012, the first Fairy Tail light novel was published, titled Kokoro ni Yadoru color (心に宿るcolor, The Color Residing Within the Heart). The story was written by Miu Kawasaki, while Mashima was responsible for the art. It consists of several different stories, concluding with a return to the world of Edolas. The stories are chronologically set after the Edolas arc and before the Tenrou Island arc.

On August 2014, a second novel was published, titled Dai Matou Enbu Sonogo, Sorezore no 1-nichi (大魔闘演武その後、それぞれの1日, Fairy Tail 2: After the Grand Magic Games Each Individual Day). Miu Kawasaki repeated being responsible for the story, while Mashima again was responsible for the art.

On October 2015, a third novel was published, titled Ōedo Fairy Tail (大江戸フェアリーテイル) by Ren Kanan, which Mashima was responsible for the art.

On March 2016, a fourth (and third in the collection by Kawasaki) novel was published, titled Fairy Tail 3: Trouble Twins (ＦＡＩＲＹ　ＴＡＩＬ３　トラブルツインズ), again written by Miu Kawasaki, which followed the same subtext pattern as the first two published by him.

On March 2017, a fifth (and second by Kanan) was published, titled Fairy Tail in Wonderland (不思議の国のフェアリーテイル) by Ren Kanan.

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. A sequel was also released, titled Fairy Tail Portable Guild 2 and was released on March 10, 2011. Fairy Tail: Zeref's Awakening was also released for the PlayStation Portable which encompasses the story from the Oración Seis arc arc up until the Tenrou Island arc. It was released on March 22, 2012.

Titles released for the Nintendo DS include Fairy Tail Gekitou! Madoushi Kessen and Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou and were released on July 22, 2010 and April 21, 2011 respectively, with the latter's story following the story of the Battle of Fairy Tail arc up until the Oración Seis arc.

Reception
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. 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 Awards in 2009 for best comedy manga. Fairy Tail has also won the Best Comedy of the Year in 2009.