Fairy Tail Vol. #01

By Danielle Van Gorder     April 29, 2008
Release Date: March 25, 2008



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Hiro Mashima
Translated by:William Flannagan
Adapted by:William Flannagan

What They Say
Lucy wants to join the Fairy Tail, a club for the most powerful wizards, but her ambitions land her in the clutches of a gang of dangerous pirates and devious magicians. Her only hope for rescue is Natsu, a strange boy she met on her travels, but does he have what it takes to be a hero?

The Review
Packaging:

Del Rey has done an excellent job on this release, with crisp, clean printing that shows off all the detail in the artwork, an embossed cover, and a ton of extras inside. In addition to the usual explanation about honorifics, there's a section in the back with translation notes, a translated afterward, and a short article on guilds that's presumably translated from the original. The only disappointment is that there are no color pages included.

Art:

Readers familiar with Rave Master will find this very familiar, although the art is, if anything, more polished. He's very good with dynamic page layouts that flow smoothly, and he packs in a ton of detail without making the page feel cluttered or overly busy. Facial expressions are fairly simple overall, but very expressive at the same time, and he does an excellent job with distinctive character designs.

Text/SFX:

The translation flows extremely smoothly and feels, for the most part, very natural. All sound effects are translated with subtitles.

Contents (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):

In the world of Fairy Tale, wizards are common, complete with different specialties. But if a wizard wants any respect, joining a guild is the only way to go. A guild is like a club or professional organization for wizards, but the most prestigious guilds are the hardest to get in to.

Lucy is a celestial wizard who primarily uses portkeys to summon powerful spirits to help her out - although some are more helpful than others. And she's set her heart on joining Fairy Tale, an almost legendary guild full of extremely powerful wizards - wizards who seem to have a knack for causing almost as many problems as they solve. While in a small town called Hargeon, Lucy hears rumor that a Fairy Tale wizard is in town, but when she goes to find him she runs into some unexpected difficulties. A down-on-his-luck young man named Natsu rescues her, and the two proceed to form an unlikely partnership.

Natsu is on a journey of his own, searching for a dragon named Igneel. And, as it turns out, he's more than he appears to be as well - he's actually a powerful salamander wizard who can control fire. Although "control" might be a bit of an exaggeration, as when he gets going he's more like a natural disaster. Whether it's rescuing girls from would-be slavers or saving a fellow wizard from horrible monsters, Natsu and Lucy are up for the challenge.

Comments
This first volume moves fast and covers a lot of ground, introducing a large cast of characters who have yet to really show us what they're about. Readers familiar with Rave Master should recognize a crossover character who shows up in this volume. Lucy and Natsu are a lively pair, and definitely a good match, with Lucy's inexperience and restraint contrasting nicely with Natsu's wild skills. The world they inhabit is filled with danger and wonder, and watching them explore it while they complete various jobs promises to be quite a bit of fun.

Anyone looking for an entertaining shounen adventure series can't go wrong with this - although "misadventure" might be the right word in some of the situations Natsu and Lucy end up in. At this stage it's hard to tell if there's going to be any kind of overarching story or if it's going to stay episodic, but either way this is a promising start.