365 Days of Manga, Day 101: Fairy Tail

FAIRY TAIL (フェアリーテイル) • Hiro Mashima • Del Rey (2008-ongoing) • Kodansha (Weekly Shônen Magazine, 2006-ongoing) • 17+ volumes (ongoing) • Shônen Fantasy Adventure Battle • 13+ (mild language, violence, sexual situations)
In a fantasy world dominated by wizards’ guilds, one guild is the most infamous of all: Fairy Tail, a gang of hard-partying, troublemaking mercenary young mages. Lucy the summoner, Natsu the fire-breathing hothead, and Happy the blue talking cat-thing are the main characters, who go on missions listed on the guild bulletin boards, solving quests and fighting evil (but frequently redeemable) rogue wizards. This cheerful, wacky adventure establishes Mashima as a very capable storyteller and an excellent action artist, despite his work’s visual and thematic similarities to Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. (Mashima’s explanation is that both he and Oda are just influenced by Akira Toriyama, and the best thematic support for this claim is the earnestness which shines through Mashima’s work compared to a certain over-the-top sarcasm in Oda’s.) The monsters, characters and situations are inventive and the fight scenes are best of all, although Mashima clearly pours his heart into drawing the busty Lucy and an assortment of other curvaceous cartoon women for this unapologetically boy-oriented story. (Lucy’s Scott Pilgrim-esque facial expressions and double-takes are also entertaining.) Plue, the cone-nosed mascot character from Rave Master, makes a guest appearance, similar to the way Mokona appears in CLAMP’s works.

Today’s manga winner will be announced on the 26th — I’m doing an advance update because I’ll be away from internet access on Christmas Day. Hope you all get lots of manga as presents, for whatever reasons, religious or secular!