Hiro Mashima

Early life Mashima stated that he knew he wanted to be a manga artist for as long as he can recall. His father was an artist that aspired to turn professional, but died when Mashima was young. Living in the mountains as a child, his grandfather would bring him discarded manga that he found. After reading them, Mashima would draw from them. In middle school, he began to rebel and get into trouble, but still drew everyday. In high school, he became guitarist in a rock band named Night Meeting, which played a show every two or three months.

Career In 1998, Mashima created the one-shot manga Magician while working part-time at an arcade, and entered it into a competition held by Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine. After completing Rave Master, Mashima serialized Monster Soul in the monthly magazine Comic BomBom from 2005 to 2007.

Mashima began Fairy Tail in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2006 and it went on to become one of the best-selling manga series in history with over 72 million copies in print. It spawned a large franchise, including numerous spin-offs and adaptations, before ending in 2017. In 2011, Mashima created a crossover manga between Rave Master and Fairy Tail published in the May issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine. It was adapted into an original video animation released in August 2013. A special 2013 issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine featured a small crossover between Fairy Tail and Nakaba Suzuki's The Seven Deadly Sins, where each artist drew a yonkoma (four-panel comic) of the other's series. An actual crossover chapter between these two ran in December 2013. From July 17, 2014, to July 17, 2015, Fairy Tail had its own monthly magazine titled Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine, which included a prequel manga by Mashima himself titled Fairy Tail Zero.

In 2014, three spin-offs were started: Fairy Tail: Ice Trail by Yūsuke Shirato; Fairy Tail Blue Mistral by Rui Watanabe; and Fairy Girls by Boku. Another spin-off manga titled Fairy Tail Side Stories and created by Kyōta Shibano launched on July 30, 2015, in Kodansha's free Magazine Pocket mobile app. On July 25, 2018, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest began on Magazine Pocket as the official sequel to Fairy Tail. Mashima provides the original storyboards for the manga, which is illustrated by Atsuo Ueda. At the end of 2021, Mashima approached Kodansha Game Creators Lab to hold a contest looking for video game proposals based on Fairy Tail with the winning work receiving $132,300, $88,200 of which came from Mashima himself. The games would be created for platforms such as Steam, iOS and Android, and Kodansha would distribute the winner to be decided in April 2022, with the profits shared between Kodansha and the developers.

While creating Fairy Tail, Mashima serialized Monster Hunter Orage, an adaptation of the Monster Hunter video games, in Monthly Shōnen Rival from 2008 to 2009. Also in 2008, he drew a remake of Atsushi Kase's gag manga Chameleon for the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Mashima's Japanese-style epic fantasy one-shot Hoshigami no Satsuki was published in the September 17, 2014 issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine.

Mashima began the series Edens Zero in Weekly Shōnen Magazine on June 27, 2018, which ended on June 26, 2024. From October to December 2019, he created the mini-series Mashima Hero's in Weekly Shōnen Magazine for its 60th anniversary. It is a crossover between his three series Rave Master, Fairy Tail and Edens Zero. Mashima drew a one-shot manga adaptation of the video game Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age for the October issue of Shueisha's V Jump magazine, which was released on August 21, 2019. On December 17, 2021, Mashima announced that he was developing an Edens Zero video game by himself using RPG Maker. Describing it as a "hobby project" that he worked on in his free time, he released Rebecca to Kikai no Yōkan for free on PC on March 16, 2022.

During Edens Zeros run, Mashima began the series Dead Rock in Monthly Shōnen Magazine on July 6, 2023. Initially announced to be a short series, the manga was extended by Mashima due to positive reader reception. In May 2026, Dead Rock entered hiatus and Mashima announced the development of a Fairy Tail manga miniseries celebrating its 20th anniversary, scheduled to be released in Weekly Shōnen Magazine on July 29, 2026.

Style and influences

Mashima listed Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball as his favorite manga growing up, the video game series Dragon Quest, and Yudetamago's Kinnikuman as inspiring him to become an artist. In 2008, when asked if there were any current things that inspired him, he gave Code Geass as a response. Mashima speculated his desire to include strange and surreal mascot characters in his works, such as Happy, was influenced by Utsurun Desu author Sensha Yoshida. He also said he finds the visual contrast that such characters bring "beautiful". Following Toriyama's passing in March 2024, Mashima was among the many people to give his condolences to the late author, as it was Toriyama's work which helped him become a manga author.

For Rave, Mashima's inspiration was wanting to travel the world, while for Fairy Tail it was simply sitting in bars and partying with his friends, the community aspect, but is also about young people finding their calling. He stated that while he tries to consider both his own interests and the fans' on what will happen next in Fairy Tail, the fans take precedence. In Monster Soul, the main character is Aki (Autumn), while both Monster Hunter Orage and Edens Zero have a character named Shiki, which is the Japanese word for seasons. Other assistants who have gone on to work on projects of their own were Shin Mikuni, who published Spray King, and Ueda Yui, who published Tsukushi Biyori.

Works Manga Serials Rave Master (Weekly Shōnen Magazine, 1999–2005, 35 volumes)

Monster Soul (Comic BomBom, 2005–2007, 2 volumes) Fairy Tail (Weekly Shōnen Magazine, 2006–2017, 63 volumes) Fairy Tail Zero (Monthly Fairy Tail Magazine, 2014–2015, 1 volume) Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest (Magazine Pocket, 2018–present, 24 volumes) – writer/storyboarder Fairy Tail Re:Fantasia (Weekly Shōnen Magazine, 2026) Monster Hunter Orage (Monthly Shōnen Rival, 2008–2009, 4 volumes) Edens Zero (Weekly Shōnen Magazine, 2018–2024, 33 volumes) Mashima Hero's (Weekly Shōnen Magazine, 2019, 1 volume) Gate of Nightmares (Weekly Shōnen Magazine, 2022, 2 volumes) – credited as original creator Dead Rock (Monthly Shōnen Magazine, 2023–present, 7 volumes)

Other manga – collection of one-shots:

Chameleon (Weekly Shonen Magazine, 2008) – one-shot remake of Atsushi Kase's title

Other works Sangokushi Taisen – Card illustration Respect Gundam – Contribution Bakemonogatari – End card – fifth story Gate of Nightmares – Character designs – Game developer Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls - Story artist - Fighting Avengers Story Episode