In 2006, one of the biggest new shonen franchises,
Fairy Tail, was released onto the world. Over the years there have been many fans, many haters, and people who have yet to even begin this particularly awesome fantasy adventure. As one of the big Fairy Tail fans, I'm here to help introduce this series to the misfortunate latter.
What You Need to Know
Fairy Tail is written and illustrated by
Hiro Mashima of
Rave Master fame. Initially he wanted to just make ten or so volumes before moving on, but he admitted in one of the volumes that he's having so much fun with it that he's still writing for it to this day. The series has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine since 2006 and is currently up to 21 volumes with
Del Rey currently up to volume 11 in U.S. localization. In late 2009, an anime series has been produced that is still ongoing with over 35 episodes currently in broadcast.
The Story
Team Fairy Tail, F*** YEA!!!
The world of Fairy Tail is one centered around magic. Magic is essentially the environment-friendly fuel source that powers everything from automobiles to film projectors, but more importantly, it's the source of powers that make up wizards.
Fairy Tail itself is the name of one of the guilds where magic-compatible folks go on missions for money and defend against the "evil" guilds of the world. Along the course of the manga/anime the main characters in the Fairy Tail guild go on various adventures where the powers of their magic skills and their friendships are properly tested.
What to Expect
Even with an unoriginal premise, Fairy Tail is a series with great adventures and a generous amount of heart
To the by-the-numbers critical mind, a series like Fairy Tail should've been immediately ignored. Terms like "guilds," "wizards," and especially "
magic" are the stuff that make up the generic fantasy stories that were old-hat even decades ago. But the magic (pun intended) of Fairy Tail isn't in the foundations of the society, but rather everything that happens
in the fantasy-based society. It's easy to see why Mashima had so much fun with this series that he decided to continue with it: the storylines and characters here are both overflowing with imaginative creativity and is just a ton of fun to watch. Each character has their own unique perk that sets them different from the rest, but over the course of the series the actual depth of their persona shines resulting in a cast that is lovable and very memorable. For the people out there who don't want to start a new shonen series with long story arcs, I wholly recommend that you check out Fairy Tail. Even the bigger storylines like the "Tower of Heaven" arc only last about three volumes, but each still have plenty of action and emotional weight behind them to stand out. There's plenty of humorous shenanigans that go on in Fairy Tail, but there's also some genuinely touching moments as well that never get too melodramatic. In other words, Fairy Tail has all the makings for a great shonen series, but also has the kind of fine pacing that usually turns people off from stuff like
Bleach or
Naruto.
The Main Characters of Fairy Tail
Natsu Dragneel: AKA Salamander, Natsu is one of the rare wizards who has the mythical "dragon slayer" type magic with him, particularly the fire version. He wants nothing more than to have adventurous fun with his friends in Fairy Tail, but is also looking for the dragon who raised him,
Igneel.
Lucy Heartfilia: The newcomer to the Fairy Tail guild who quickly makes friends with Natsu and the others. She is a celestial mage who is able to summon celestial beings with the power of her Zodiac keys.
Gray Fullbuster: Even though he's good friends and teammates with Natsu, the two have a great rivalry, possibly because his magic is ice while Natsu's is fire. Gray is also known to be more comfortable not wearing clothes, so he'll often be not wearing a shirt without even realizing it.
Erza Scarlet: Essentially the tough member of the group with a short temper, but has plenty of power to standout. Her magic is the ability to change her armor from a suit with great weaponry, to a sexy swimsuit depending on the situation.
Happy: A talking cat with wings who was hatched from a mysterious egg by Natsu during his childhood. Since then, the two have been two-peas-in-a-pod. Think
Scooby-Doo and
Shaggy.
Should You Read or Watch?
Whether you choose the awesome manga distribution from Del Rey, or the great quality anime, you'll get a fantastic Fairy Tail experience with all the creativity of Mashima
There's been some real bad talk going around the internet about the anime version of Fairy Tail, and I have no idea why that is. This is easily one of the finest manga-to-anime conversions I've seen in years with just as good of pacing as the manga and with only a scant few moments of filler (that's still pretty entertaining nonetheless). Of course the future of the quality in the anime is still hard to tell since it's isn't even at 40 episodes yet. For now it's a great anime to check out. The only problem for the newcomers is that the only legal way you can currently watch the anime is in a members-only form from
Crunchyroll that takes down episodes that have been around for a month. The manga on the other hand has been given a loving localization from the fine folks at
Del Rey that is honestly the best work I've seen from them. Everything from the Japanese honorifics, to the correct English-translated names from Mashima himself, to the fantastic translator's notes, makes the manga version an undeniable must-buy for Fairy Tail fans. But whether you choose to either watch or read Fairy Tail, you'll still get a fantastic experience all the same.
Overall if you've been looking for a new series to get into that has the never-ending fun and great storytelling like One Piece, but in easier-to-swallow story-arc chunks, I can't recommend you try out Fairy Tail enough. I compare Fairy Tail to how
Dragon Quest VIII was for Japanese PS2 RPGs: an entry that doesn't have the most original premise, but does everything within it so well that it stands out above most others.
I love this series. Its one of the first ones i started reading :)
It's pretty standard shonen series that is trying really hard to be the next One Piece/Bleach/etc. but I feel it does that pretty well, and I could certainly see it succeeding to that extent. I absolutely adore Grey, and how he manages to be one of the most serious and most ridiculous characters ever at the same time.
Hehe, I know my friend will go nuts when he sees there is now a beginners guide for Fairy Tail.
Nice to see your Beginners Guide was posted. I thought these were more for Staff to write. I'm interested in writing one for Negima!. I'm working on filling out some of the anime's profiles. so I have plenty of images to work with.
I'd be interested in one for Negima!. I like the anime ("2nd season" over the first) and I hear good things about the manga but have yet to look into it.
I watched the first ep of Fairy Tail and found it different in it's use of magic and the look of the characters. It's humorous and my friends like it so I'll get to watching it eventually.
This if off topic and I know this is the internet and it's the home of shorthand and the like, but is it that hard for people to type in correct sentences? There are many times I don't understand what people are saying as they have an entire paragraph as a single sentence.
Fights were finished abruptly and you really had no sense of characters progressing or even becoming stronger. The way magic was done started out interesting but soon it made the fights devolve into what were essentially Final Fantasy boss battles using nothing but limit breaks. Comedy in the show was kind of funny but it made the paper thin plots feel that much more disconnected from the art style. The show simply did not have to momentum to keep me interested so I stopped watching it. It seems like it really targets kids and maybe chicks. If you like it, all power to you but I hunger for blood! Give me blood!
"Fights were finished abruptly and you really had no sense of characters progressing or even becoming stronger. The way magic was done started out interesting but soon it made the fights devolve into what were essentially Final Fantasy boss battles using nothing but limit breaks. "
This is the critical weakness of Fairy Tail, I wish the author will correct it later.
However, I still think the fights and adventures are worth to see.
Don't really like the colors they used for the characters.
Fairy tale is awesome!
AYE SIR! :D
i just got to the part where gray and erza show up in the parallel universe place