Hiro Mashima

Hiro Mashima is a Japanese manga artist born on May 3, 1977, in Nagano, Japan. He became widely known through Rave Master, an adventure fantasy serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1999 to 2005. The series follows Haru Glory after he inherits the sword Ten Commandments and meets Elie, a girl searching for her lost memories. Its central quest concerns collecting Rave stones to oppose the Demon Card organization. Rave Master won the 2001 Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga and concluded in 35 collected volumes.

After Rave Master, Mashima launched Fairy Tail in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2006. Set chiefly in the kingdom of Fiore, it centers on the wizard guild Fairy Tail and the partnership of fire dragon slayer Natsu Dragneel and celestial wizard Lucy Heartfilia. Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, and Happy became core members of its ensemble. The manga ended in 2017, after 63 volumes. It received television anime adaptations from A-1 Pictures and Satelight, later with Bridge, and inspired films, games, and a sequel. Mashima provides the original story and storyboard work for Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, illustrated by Atsuo Ueda and serialized from 2018.

His next long-running magazine series, Edens Zero, began in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2018. Protagonist Shiki Granbell leaves the robot-inhabited Granbell Kingdom aboard the spaceship Edens Zero with video creator Rebecca Bluegarden and her cat Happy. Blending space travel, robots, and time-related plot devices, the story gave Mashima another weekly serial shortly after Fairy Tail. Konami adapted Edens Zero into a 2021 video game, while J.C.Staff produced the television anime, whose first season aired in 2021 and second in 2023. The manga ended in 2024.

Mashima has also created shorter or collaborative projects. Monster Hunter Orage, published from 2008 to 2009, was a manga based on Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise. He supplied character designs for Square Enix’s 2021 action role-playing game Gate of Nightmares and handled its original concept and story. In 2023, he started Dead Rock in Monthly Shōnen Magazine; its setting is a school for demons, and its lead, Yakuto, enters it intending to defeat the Demon King. Across these projects, Mashima’s publication record is closely tied to Kodansha magazines, but his work also extends into licensed games, anime adaptations, and franchise collaborations. His official social-media presence has additionally made his drawing process and rapid production schedule visible to readers around the world through posts and livestreams.