One Scene from Hiro Mashima’s First Manga Inspired All of Fairy Tail
Manga author Hiro Mashima is best known for creating the popular shonen series Fairy Tail, though he also has Rave Master and Edens Zero under his belt. Any shonen fan can enjoy Fairy Tail without knowing the behind-the-scenes facts about the author and their creative process, but knowing all that is more fun for the most devoted fans.
Hiro Mashima’s works have a lot of overlaps and even canon crossovers. It is obvious that Mashima borrows a lot of his work from his first series, Rave Master. The characters, Blue and Happy, seem to exist across all of his series and the other characters also bear resemblance to each other. However, despite this, they are all separate series and universes.
Fairy Tail Was Inspired By One Scene From Rave Master
In an interview with Hiro Mashima, Kodansha Comics had the opportunity to sit down with the mangaka to reveal some interesting tidbits about his work. The interviewer describes him as a forever-humble student of life and also a big-hearted teacher, fascinated by the making of manga more than anybody.
When the interviewer asked him when he picked up drawing, Mashima said that he’d been drawing for as long as he can remember. He brought up an early memory of his grandfather showing him a manga magazine that he had picked up somewhere. Mashima thought the drawings in it were so cool, so he tried to copy them and that was when he realized that he loved to draw.
The interviewer then asked him how he came up with the world of Fairy Tail, and this is what Mashima had to say:
It actually goes back to the series I worked on before, Rave Master. In one episode, there was a scene where a group of guys are hanging out at a bar. That was fun to draw. So I wanted to draw a manga with the feel of guys hanging out at a bar. I thought it’d be interesting to enter a world where characters have established relationships, like friendship.
Usually a shonen manga starts with just a main character, who then slowly accumulates his or her allies as the story progresses. But in the world of Fairy Tail, everybody pretty much knows each other at the beginning. That was sort of what I was going for.
This is an amusing aspect shared by Hiro Mashima that gives readers a perspective and an insight into the mangaka’s mind that spurred him on to create such a vivid series filled with fun adventures, likable characters, and of course, an exciting storyline.
Hiro Mashima Wanted Fairy Tail To Be Fun
In an interview, Mashima was asked whether he wanted to accomplish something new with Fairy Tail compared to his previous work, he stated that he wanted a different ending for Fairy Tail. Unlike Rave Master, which had a sentimental ending, Mashima wanted to make this new story more fun. He continued:
The main difference is that in Rave Master, the goal was to save the world. In Fairy Tail, it’s all about this guild of wizards, and the jobs they have to do. It’s about their everyday lives. Over time, this might change, but that’s for the fans to find out as they continue to read this story! (laughs)
The interview further delved into Mashima’s busy life as a manga artist, giving fans an idea about his work environment, his assistants, and the challenging aspects of being a professional manga artist. When asked which artist or story inspired him to become a professional manga artist, he replied that he was inspired by Toriyama Akira, the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise.
