About

Fairy Tail (Japanese name: フェアリーテイル Hepburn: Fearī Teiru) is a manga and anime series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima and published in the magazine Weekly Shonen. The series has gained a large fan presense on the Internet and in the anime fandom as a whole.

Premise

Fairy Tail takes place in the kingdom of Fiore, a magical world where magic flourishes and mages are a common sight. The plot revolves around Natsu Dragneel, a "Dragon slayer"^[2],accompanied by his loyal companion "Happy", a blue cat with the ability to fly. Natsu is on the search for his father Igneel who, ironically, is a dragon himself. Natsu then bumps into an 18 year old girl named Lucy, whose dream is to be a mage in the famous mage guild "Fairy Tail". Natsu, being a member of the guild himself, helps Lucy to fulfill her dreams by assisting her to become a member. From then onwards hilarity ensues.

History

Fairy Tail's first volume was released on December 15th, 2006, and an anime adaptation for the series began broadcasting during 2009. Fairy Tail's timeline is interlinked with another one of Hiro's manga series known as Rave Master^[1], though Fairy Tail is overall more well known. There was also a special crossover episode in the anime where both protagonists of both series met each other. The manga has been published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 2, 2006, and has been published by Kodansha in 49 tankōbon volumes.The series was originally 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 in September 2010. In December 2010, Kodansha Comics USA took over North American release of the series. Animax Asia aired the english language version in 2010, and were able to keep it running for three years before funimation took their place.

On July 22nd, the final chapter of the manga was released and its Author announced a new Fairy Tail anime for 2018.

Reception

Both the manga and the anime were given praise, as Fairy Tail had started to become more popular. It's fifth volume was considered to be the best of the series, and had placed seventh place in a list of top ten manga. By 2011 Fairy Tail had become the fourth best selling manga in Japan. The anime also had it's share of glory, because in 2010, it had won Animax Asia's "Anime Of The Year" award. The show is overall a hit with the public, and the manga is currently 400+ chapters with more to come. The anime has also earned an 8.3 rating on imdb^[3]. The anime is often praised for it's OST, and fight scenes, as fans say that the fight scenes are "just as they imagined".

Fandom

Fairy Tail has many tumblr pages, which are either dedicated in making ships, and posting some NSFW type pictures, due to the show's ecchi-esque nature. Urban dictionary ^[4] also describes Fairy Tail as "a relatively new anime that has become popular due to its great humor and action sequences". Typing "Fairy Tail" on the DeviantArt^[5] search would bring up over 200,000 gifs and fanart dedicated to both the manga and anime.

Related Memes

"I'm All Fired Up!"

"I'm all fired up!" Is the catchphrase of main protagonist Natsu Dragneel. He usually says this line whenever he is enjoying the thrill of a good fight, or is just excited. This catchphrase became so popular that there are boards on both Pinterest^[6], and Tumblr^[7] dedicated to showing off Natsu's excitement.

Gray Can't Keep His Clothes On.

One of the anime's character "Gray Fullbuster" is an ice mage that just can't seem to keep his clothes on, although he doesn't seen to be doing it deliberatily either. His stripping reflex started when it was part of his training to strip down with his teacher "UL" during harsh blizzard like climates. He got so used to stripping in cold climates that he just randomly, and unintentionally strips down in public. Either way it was a good way to keep the female audiences enticed to the "plot".

Fairy Tail's Fanservice

Fairy Tail has notoriety for its excessive fanservice scenes, especially on the anime series. It has often been used to criticise the series, along with being source from various jokes.^[8][9]

Search Interest

External References