''Fairy Tail Zero'' (stylized as ''FAIRY TAIL ZERØ'') is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) 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 prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

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 2017, ...

. 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 ''Fairy Tail'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from August 2006 to July 2017, with the individual chapters collected and published into 63 '' ...

'' 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 is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

. The collected volume was released in North America by

Kodansha USA Kodansha USA Publishing, LLC is a publishing company based in New York, USA, and a subsidiary of Japan's largest publishing company Kodansha. Established in July 2008, Kodansha USA publishes books relating to Japan, Japanese culture, and manga, ...

. The eighth season of the ''Fairy Tail''

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series included an adaptation of ''Fairy Tail Zero'', which aired January to March 2016.

Plot

In X679, six-year-old Mavis Vermillion lives on Sirius Island as a servant at the Red Lizard wizards' guild following the deaths of her parents. A violent skirmish breaks out between Red Lizard and the rival Blue Skull guild, leaving Mavis the apparent sole survivor alongside Zera, the daughter of Red Lizard's master, who becomes her friend. Seven years later, a trio of treasure hunters – Yuri Dreyar, the future father of Makarov Dreyar; Precht Gaebolg, the future leader of the dark guild Grimoire Heart; and future Wizard Saint Warrod Sequen – comes to the island in search of its sacred relic, the Sirius Orb. As Yuri contends with a teenage Mavis over ownership of the orb, they discover it has already been taken by Blue Skull. 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 Fairy Tail in Zera's memory.

Production

In an interview included in the ''Fairy Tail Zero'' graphic novel,

said he first rejected the idea of him creating a manga for ''Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine'' because he was so busy with the weekly ''

'' and supervising its anime adaptation. But after taking on a one-off "dream job" designing characters for a video game, he realized that he should be focusing on manga and agreed to create one for the magazine. Everyone involved agreed early on that it would be a ''Fairy Tail'' spin-off starring Mavis, but Mashima wondered what "era" it would take place in. Although he figured most fans wanted to know how she became a ghost, the author felt that story should be included in the main series. When he originally created Mavis for the main series, Mashima conceived an old, grandfatherly character, only to learn that "Mavis" was a feminine name. He thought that having the first guild master be a female would be a surprise, but found that everyone around him knew it was a feminine name and expected Mavis to be female as a result. Still wanting to surprise readers, Mashima then made her a young girl. Her unexpected popularity resulted in Mavis making further appearances in the main series and in Mashima thinking more and more about her past, leading to ''Fairy Tail Zero'' focusing on how the guild was founded. He said that its founding was supposed to be more important to the main series' storyline, but because ''Zero'' is a spin-off, he had to walk a fine line where it would "inform" the main story without being required reading. Mashima and his editor argued about whether or not readers would realize that "Law" and "Fairy Law" are different, with the latter being based on the former and refined by Mavis to have no side effect. The chapters for the manga were 20 pages each and spanned a year across all 13 issues of ''Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine''. Mashima called such a page limit too short for a monthly series, and said it resulted in him having to cut things from the story; such as Mavis overcoming a hatred of guilds, and Zera being the reason Geoffrey easily escapes from his cage. He designed Zera specifically for the series as a bully who becomes a kind person later in life, likening her to the character

Éponine Éponine Thénardier (; ), also referred to as the "Jondrette girl", is a fictional character in the 1862 novel ''Les Misérables'' by Victor Hugo. The character is introduced as a spoiled and pampered child, but appears later in the novel as a r ...

in ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

''. Mashima designed thick, black eyebrows for her to contrast with Mavis's short, thin ones. He also tried to keep Zera's identity a secret, although his staff had already figured it out after reading the first chapter, and were surprised when she reappeared in the second; however, he was able to fool Mavis's voice actor,

Mamiko Noto > is a Japanese actress and singer. Some of her prominent anime roles include Kotomi Ichinose in ''Clannad'', Rin in ''Inuyasha'', Kotori Monou in '' X'', Aoi Kannazuki in ''Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel'', Durandal in ''Honkai Impact 3rd'', Haru ...

. Mashima expressed disappointment how, when naming Yuri Dreyar, nobody involved realized that the name Yuri had previously been used for a character in volume 43 of ''Fairy Tail''. Acknowledging that there are many characters in the series, he said that he always tries to avoid the possibility of characters being confused with one another when naming them; describing it as one of the "rules" of storytelling. The author briefly considered having the two Yuris be the same character, but said he had to give that up as they look completely different. When asked about how Geoffrey is revealed to be the founder of the Phantom Lord guild, Mashima said in hindsight it was a mistake to have never mentioned Jose's last name in the main series as the two characters are related.

Media

Manga

Hiro Mashima began writing and illustrating the series in the first issue of

'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

, who announced their license at an event at

Books Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its name translates to "Bookstore of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo. One of the company's ...

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''

television series on the jacket bands of ''

'' volume 52 and on the single collected volume of the series. The adaptation premiered on January 9, 2016.

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

simulcasted the series as part of the anime's eighth season with a broadcast dub in North America.

Reception

The ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' of ''Fairy Tail Zero'' ranked 11th in sales by the end of its first week of release, selling approximately 7,104,878 copies. The volume ranked 21st on its second week, and 40th on the third week. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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

. Original Japanese version published by

. English translation published by

. ;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