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. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 23, 2006 where it is still ongoing. The individual chapters are being collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with 38 released as of June 2013. 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 manga was 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. The series was taken over by Kodansha USA Publishing who continued its North American release with the 13th volume. It has been published in France by Pika Édition who have released 5 volumes as of April 3, 2009, in Spain is published by "Norma Editorial" from March 15, 2008, who have released 19 volumes. It has also been published in Taiwan by Tong Li, which has released 23 volumes as of December 2010, and in Brazilian Portuguese by JBC, which has released 30 volumes as of June 2013.

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 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.

Main Characters
Natsu Dragneel

Natsu is the main male protagonist of Fairy Tail. He is a member of the Fairy Tail Guild and when he along with his best friend Happy, go looking for his foster father Igneel in the town of Hargeon, he meets the Celestial Spirit Mage Lucy Heartfilia. They create their own team and later join up with Erza Scarlet, and Gray Fullbuster.

Lucy Heartfilia

Lucy is the main female protagonist of Fairy Tail. She ran away from home due to the neglect she felt from her father. In her quest to find a Mage guild to join she meets Natsu Dragneel, and Happy. He invites her to the Fairy Tail Guild, and these three create a team and are later joined by Erza Scarlet and Gray Fullbuster.

Happy

Happy is one of the main protagonists of Fairy Tail. He has been with Natsu ever since his birth six years ago. He accompanies Natsu to Hargeon in search of Igneel, and meets Lucy Heartfilia. He is a current member of Team Natsu.

Erza Scarlet

Erza is one of the main protagonists of Fairy Tail. She is a former slave who joined the Fairy Tail Guild when she was younger. She is a current member of Team Natsu, and holds the title Titania, Queen of Fairies and is one of the S-Class Mages of the Fairy Tail Guild. Despite her strict and unwelcoming appearance, Erza is kind-hearted and dedicated to her friends.

Gray Fullbuster

Gray is one of the main protagonists of Fairy Tail. He is a long time member of Fairy Tail and has been the rival of Natsu since they were younger. He is a member of Team Natsu, and cares deeply for his fellow team members, and his guild mates.

Manga
Fairy Tail was written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima, the Fairy Tail manga premiered in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in the August 23, 2006 issue. The series is still ongoing. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, which released the first volume on December 15, 2006. 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. Kodansha USA Publishing took over the series and will continue release starting with the 13th volume due for an estimated May 2011 debut under the Kodansha Comics brand name.

Read the Fairy Tail manga online - Fairy Tail Manga

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. As of June 5, 2013, 41 DVD volumes containing 4 episodes each have been released. Animax Asia started broadcasting their English dubbed version of the series on September 30, 2010, but due to lack of time, it was cancelled after the 48th episode. It is still airing in some parts of Asia and in the Philippines, where they initially used the Hong Kong based English dub but are now using the original Japanese audio. The anime series won Animax Asia's "Anime Of The Year" award. On January 18, 2011, British anime distributor Manga Entertainment announced on Twitter that the company will release the anime series in bilingual format at the end of the year. At Sakura Con 2011 and Anime Boston 2011, Funimation Entertainment announced the North American license for the first forty-eight episodes of Fairy Tail and will release them bilingual in 2011 and 2012 on DVD and Blu-ray. twenty eight pieces of theme music have been used for the episodes: fourteen opening themes and fourteen ending themes. The anime also used adaptations of classic pieces such as Offenbach's, Bizet's and such.

The anime has been licensed for a North American release by Funimation Entertainment who began releasing the series in Fall 2011.

OVA's
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" will be bundled alongside the limited edition copies of Volume 39 and was released on August 16, 2013.

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.

Film
Kodansha announced on October 12, 2011 that an anime film adaptation of Fairy Tail, titled Fairy Tail: Priestess of the Phoenix (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.

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 Fighting Festival arc up until the Oración Seis arc.

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 Sondtrack 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.

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.