Fairy Tail manga

Fairy Tail is a Japanese fantasy manga written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine from August 2, 2006 through July 26, 2017, and collected in 63 tankōbon volumes. The story is set chiefly in Earth-land, where wizards join guilds to take paid jobs. Its central guild, Fairy Tail, is based in the town of Magnolia in the kingdom of Fiore. Lucy Heartfilia, a teenage Celestial Spirit Mage, leaves home hoping to join Fairy Tail. She meets Natsu Dragneel, a Dragon Slayer wizard who uses Fire Dragon Slayer Magic and searches for his adoptive dragon father, Igneel. Accompanied by Natsu’s flying Exceed companion, Happy, Lucy is recruited into the guild. Major early teammates include the armored mage Erza Scarlet and ice mage Gray Fullbuster. Their missions and conflicts expand into a long-running struggle involving dark guilds, the criminal organization Tartaros, the Alvarez Empire, and the dragon Acnologia. The manga’s mythology links Dragon Slayers to dragons and to a conflict stretching back four centuries. Natsu’s identity as E.N.D., or Etherious Natsu Dragneel, connects him to the dark mage Zeref, whose cursed immortality and creations drive much of the final arc. The series is known for its large rotating cast, including guild master Makarov Dreyar, S-class wizard Laxus Dreyar, celestial spirit Aquarius, and the rival guild Sabertooth. The Grand Magic Games arc places Fairy Tail in a tournament between Fiore’s guilds after the group returns from a seven-year absence caused by the events on Tenrou Island. Mashima ended the original manga with the defeat of Acnologia and the disbandment and restoration of Fairy Tail. Kodansha later published Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, a sequel story by Mashima and illustrated by Atsuo Ueda, beginning in 2018. It follows Natsu’s team as they attempt the titular century-old mission on the northern continent of Guiltina. An anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures aired from 2009 to 2019, with later episodes produced by A-1 Pictures and Bridge. The television version includes the voice performances of Tetsuya Kakihara as Natsu and Aya Hirano as Lucy in Japanese. Fairy Tail also received animated films, including Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess in 2012, and Dragon Cry in 2017. Its commercial success made it one of Mashima’s best-known works, alongside Rave Master and Edens Zero. Its defining narrative principle is Fairy Tail’s repeated insistence that comrades protect one another through danger, loss, and victory.