Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail (フェアリーテイル) is a Japanese manga series by Hiro Mashima. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 23, 2006 where it is still on-going. The individual chapters are being collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with 20 released. 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 wizard 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.

Plot
A young celestial wizard, Lucy Heartfilia, travels to the land of Fiore to join the magical Fairy Tail Guild. Along the way, she meets Natsu Dragneel, a teenage boy looking for a dragon named Igneel, with his best friend, Happy. 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 and has the skills of a Dragon Slayer. He offers her membership into the guild, which she accepts, they along with Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster, and Happy become a team performing various missions for the Fairy Tail guild.

Manga
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 and, 194 chapters have been serialized. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, which released the first volume on December 15, 2006. , 21 volumes have been released in Japan. A special in Weekly Shōnen Magazine featured a crossover with Yankee-kun to Megane-chan, 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. As of June 22 2010, 11 volumes have been released.

Anime
The anime adaptation premiered on October 12, 2009. It is co-produced between A-1 Pictures and Satelight. From episode 1 through 11, the opening theme song is "Snow Fairy", performed by Funkist, while the ending theme song, "Kanpekigu-no ne", is performed by Watari Roka Hashiritai. The opening theme for episodes 12 through 24 is "S.O.W (Sense of Wonder)", performed by Idoling!!! and the ending theme is "Tsuioku Merry-Go-Round", performed by Onelifecrew. From episode 25 to 35, the opening theme was "Ft.", performed by Funkist, while the ending theme was "Gomen ne Watashi", performed by Shiho Nanba. Also, the most recent opening theme song was shown in episode 36 being "R.P.G. ~Rockin' Playing Game" by SuG as the 4th opening to the series. "Kimi ga Iru Kara" performed by Mikuni Shimokawa also premiered on episode 36 as the 4th ending. The series currently has 39 episodes officially aired.

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 is being developed by Konami and slated for release on June 3 2010. A fighting game for the DS, titled Fairy Tail Gekito Mado Shikkesen will be released on July 22, 2010.

Music
So far as of July 2010, 2 Original Soundtrack CD's have been released. Fairy Tail Original Soundtrack Vol.1 was released on January 06th, 2010, containing 36 songs from the Anime. Fairy Tail Original Soundtrack Vol.2 was released on July 07th, 2010, also containing 36 songs. Music for both these Volumes were produced by Yasuharu Takanashi ,but composed by Edward Elgar for Vol.1 and Rakhmaninov,Sergei Vassilievich for Vol.2. 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. Both character song singles contained 2 songs each and an instrumental version of the same song. Yoshihiro Kusano was the composer for Lucy and Happy while FUNTA being the Lyricist. The Composer for Natsu and Gray was FUNTA and the Lyricist being Goro Matsui. For those who haven't listened to the Character Singles the voices actors Tetsuya Kakihara(Natsu), Yuichi Nakamura(Gray), Aya Hirano(Lucy), And Rie Kugimiya (Happy) actually sing the singles themselves.

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. About.com's Deb Aoki lists Fairy Tail as the best shōnen manga of 2008. 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.