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''Fairy Tail Zero'' (stylized as ''FAIRY TAIL ZERØ'') is a Japanese
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
series written and illustrated by
Hiro Mashima is a Japanese manga artist. He gained success with his first serial '' Rave Master'', published in Kodansha's '' Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from 1999 to 2005. His best-selling work, '' Fairy Tail'', published in the same magazine from 2006 to 2 ...
. It is a
prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...
to Mashima's '' Fairy Tail'' manga, depicting the events leading to the formation of the titular wizards' guild. The manga was serialized in ''Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine'' from July 2014 to July 2015, with the 13 chapters collected into a single graphic novel by
Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
. The collected volume was released in North America by
Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, US, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 1st 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and man ...
. The eighth season of the ''Fairy Tail''
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series included an adaptation of ''Fairy Tail Zero'', which aired January to March 2016.


Plot

In X679, six-year-old orphan Mavis Vermillion lives on Sirius Island as a servant at the Red Lizard wizards' guild. A violent skirmish breaks out between Red Lizard and the rival Blue Skull guild, leaving Mavis the apparent sole survivor alongside Zera, the Red Lizard guild master's daughter, who becomes her friend. Seven years later, a trio of treasure hunters – Yuri Dreyar, Precht Gaebolg, and Warrod Sequen – come to the island in search of its sacred relic, the Sirius Orb. Yuri contends with Mavis over ownership of the orb until they discover it has already been taken by Blue Skull seven years earlier. Mavis forms a truce with the treasure hunters to recover the orb, proposing that Zera accompany them as well. The group journeys to the city of Magnolia, where Blue Skull has established a brutal regime. Mavis attempts to bluff the guild into returning the orb by using her illusory magic, but fails to deceive the guild's master, Geoffrey. Outmatched, the group retreats into a nearby forest where Mavis encounters Zeref, an infamous dark wizard. Unaware of his identity, Mavis expresses sympathy for Zeref upon realizing he is afflicted with a curse that kills all life around him against his will. Grateful for her company, Zeref agrees to teach the treasure hunters how to use magic so they can combat Blue Skull, becoming friends with Mavis in the process. After Mavis and her friends successfully overthrow Blue Skull and capture Geoffrey, she discovers that the orb has become contaminated with evil magic. Yuri ignores her warnings and takes the orb for himself, becoming possessed by its magic and unwillingly fusing with Blue Skull's massive skeletal dragon, which rampages mindlessly through the city. Mavis exorcises the magic from Yuri by casting Law, a prototype spell learned from Zeref, which permanently halts Mavis's physical age as a side effect. Guilt-ridden over Mavis's sacrifice, Yuri dedicates his life to protecting her. After Mavis accepts his friendship, he confesses to her that no one can see or hear Zera besides her, revealing Zera to be a sentient illusion that Mavis subconsciously created in place of the real Zera, who died during Blue Skull's raid on the island. With Zera's encouragement, Mavis accepts her as an illusion, causing her to disappear. To protect and reassure the people of Magnolia, Mavis and the treasure hunters organize the Fairy Tail guild in Zera's memory, with Mavis serving as guild master.


Production

In an interview included in the ''Fairy Tail Zero'' graphic novel,
Hiro Mashima is a Japanese manga artist. He gained success with his first serial '' Rave Master'', published in Kodansha's '' Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from 1999 to 2005. His best-selling work, '' Fairy Tail'', published in the same magazine from 2006 to 2 ...
said he first rejected the idea of him creating a manga for ''Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine'' because he was so busy with the weekly '' Fairy Tail'' series and supervising its anime adaptation. After taking on a short job designing characters for a video game and deciding to focus on manga again, he planned a spin-off with ''Fairy Tail'' character Mavis Vermillion as the protagonist. Mavis was originally conceived for ''Fairy Tail'' as an old, grandfatherly character, but after Mashima realized that "Mavis" was a female name, and that his editors expected her to be female, he re-envisioned her as a young girl to surprise readers. Her popularity resulted in her making further appearances within the main story, and also inspired him to focus ''Fairy Tail Zero'' on how the guild was founded. The chapters for the monthly series were 20 pages each, as with the weekly series, and spanned one year across 13 issues. Mashima had planned the story to involve Mavis overcoming a hatred of guilds, but dropped the idea due to page limitations. He designed the character Zera specifically for the series as a bully who becomes a kind person later in life, likening her to the character Éponine in ''
Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...
''. He designed thick, black eyebrows for her to contrast with Mavis's short, thin eyebrows. He also tried to keep Zera's identity a secret, although his editors already figured it out after reading the first chapter, and were surprised when she reappeared in the next one; however, he was able to fool Mavis's Japanese voice actor, Mamiko Noto.


Media


Manga

Hiro Mashima began writing and illustrating the series in the first issue of
Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
's ''Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine'' on July 17, 2014. The series ended in the magazine's 13th and final issue on July 17, 2015. The author stated that although the series was intended to be exclusive to the magazine, they received a lot of requests for a graphic novel version. The single collected volume was released on November 17, 2015. The series is licensed in North America by
Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, US, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 1st 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and man ...
, who announced their license at an event at Books Kinokuniya in New York on November 15, 2015. They published the collected volume on July 12, 2016.


Anime

An adaptation of ''Fairy Tail Zero'' was announced for the ''Fairy Tail''
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series on the jacket bands of '' Fairy Tail'' volume 52 and on the single collected volume of the series. The adaptation premiered on January 9, 2016.
Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...
simulcasted the series as part of the anime's eighth season with a broadcast dub in North America.


Reception

The ''
tankōbon A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...
'' of ''Fairy Tail Zero'' ranked 11th in sales by the end of its first week of release, selling approximately 104,878 copies. The volume ranked 21st on its second week, and 40th on the third week. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' listed the North American release as the 10th best selling manga at the end of its first week, and 8th on the second week.


Notes


References

;''Fairy Tail Zero'' manga volume by
Hiro Mashima is a Japanese manga artist. He gained success with his first serial '' Rave Master'', published in Kodansha's '' Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from 1999 to 2005. His best-selling work, '' Fairy Tail'', published in the same magazine from 2006 to 2 ...
. Original Japanese version published by
Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
. English translation published by
Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, US, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 1st 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and man ...
. ;Other sources


External links

* * {{Hiro Mashima Fairy Tail 2015 comics endings Adventure anime and manga Anime series based on manga Fantasy anime and manga Funimation Kodansha manga Prequel comics Shōnen manga