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 25 released as of February 2011. 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 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 will continue its North American release with the 13th volume due in May, 2011. 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, now thre were released 19 volumes and it's one of the top manga series in Spain actually. It has also been published in Taiwan by Tong Li, which has released 23 volumes as of December 2010.

Plot
Lucy Heartfilia, runs away from home and travels through the land of Fiore in search of the magic guild, Fairy Tail. Along the way, she meets Natsu Dragneel, a mage looking for his foster parent, a dragon named Igneel, with his foster son, 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 foster son 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.

Anime
An anime adaptation co-produced by A-1 Pictures and Satelight, and directed by Ishihira Shinji premiered on October 12, 2009. As of February 2, 2011, thirteen DVD volumes containing four episodes each have been released, with five more scheduled to be released between March 2 and July 6 of 2011. Animax Asia started broadcasting the English dubbed version of the series on September 30, 2010, but due to lack of time, it was canceled 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.

Fourteen pieces of theme music have been used for the episodes: seven opening themes and seven ending themes. For the first eleven episodes, the opening theme song is "Snow Fairy" by Funkist and the ending theme is "Kanpekigu-no ne" by Watarirouka Hashiritai. The second opening and ending theme songs, which are used for episodes 12 through 24, are "S.O.W (Sense of Wonder)"|S.O.W.センスオブワンダー|S.O.W Sensu obu Wondā}} by Idoling!!! and "Tsuioku Merry-Go-Round"|追憶メリーゴーランド|Tsuioku Merīgōrando|"Reminiscence Merry Go Round" by Onelifecrew, respectively. For episodes 25 through 35, the opening used is "Ft." by Funkist and the ending is "Gomen ne Watashi"|ごめんね. 私||"I'm Sorry. Me" by Shiho Nanba. For episodes 36 through 48, the opening used is "R.P.G. (Rockin' Playing Game)" by SuG and the ending theme is "Kimi ga Iru Kara"|君がいるから||"Because You Are Here" by Mikuni Shimokawa. Season two premiered on October 11, 2010, with "Egao no Mahō"|エガオノマホウ||"Magic Smile by Magic Party and "Holy Shine" by Daisy x Daisy as the fifth opening and ending for the series, respectively. The sixth opening song is "Fiesta" by +Plus with and the sixth ending is "Be as One" by W-inds. The seventh opening is "Evidence" by Daisy x Daisy and the seventh ending is "Lonely Person" by ShaNa.

OVA's
An anime side-story will be released on exclusive DVD with limited edition copies of the 26th collected volume of Hiro Mashima's manga on April 15, 2011.The anime adaption of the manga side story "Welcome to Fairy Hills!,Plot Summary:Lucy notices 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 official Japanese website of Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail fantasy adventure manga has confirmed on Thursday that the 27th volume will bundle the manga's second original anime DVD when it ships on June 17. The special edition's DVD will contain the 25-minute anime adaptation of the manga side story "Yōsei Gakuen Yankee-kun to Yankee-chan."

In the story, Mashima makes a parody of another Weekly Shonen Magazine manga, Miki Yoshikawa's Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, by putting the Fairy Tail characters in a school comedy setting. The manga side story was published in the Sorceror booklet that was bundled with the limited edition of the 16th Fairy Tail manga volume.

Besides the DVD, the special edition of the 27th manga volume will include the original "Yōsei Gakuen Yankee-kun to Yankee-chan" manga side story in a separately bound booklet, as well as an exclusive alternate cover drawn by Mashima.

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

The manga's first original anime DVD will ship with the 26th manga volume on April 15, while the second original anime DVD will be shipped out being bundled along with the manga's 27th volume on June 17th, 2011.

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 fighting game for the DS, titled ''Fairy Tail Gekitou! Madoushi Kessen'' was released on July 22, 2010. Another New fighting game for the DS will be released on April 21, 2011 as well, It it said to follow the story of the Fighting Festival Arc up to the Oracion Seis Arc.

Music
As of July 2010, two original soundtrack CDs have been released. 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. The music for both these volumes were composed and arranged by Yasuharu Takanashi. Character singles were also produced. 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. Another Character Song Album was announced early January that 8 members of the cast, Tetsuya Kakihara and Aya Hirano will get another new Image song for Natsu and Lucy, where both those 2 song will be used as the Opening and Ending for the OVA. Along with cast members, Yuichi Nakamura (Gray), Sayaka Ohara (Erza), Satomi Sato (Wendy), Wataru Hatano (Gajeel), and Rie Kugimiya & Yui Horie (Happy and Charle) who get a duet, will all have a new Image Song that will be Released On April 6, 2011.

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.