It took me a while, but I finally made the leap to manga. I’ve watched a fair share of anime (my wife got me into it, so she really deserves the credit) and after a few years I decided to take a stab at its original written form. However, rather than reading material I’d already watched, I wanted to take on something brand new for me. Fairy Tail is an anime I’ve been interested in watching, so it seemed like a good start.
#spoilers
Fairy Tail is a story about a guild of wizards (same name as the book’s title) where a young, aspiring girl, Lucy, falls in with when she meets Natsu (a fire wizard) and his sidekick Happy (a talking cat who can sprout wings and fly). When she is rescued by the bizarre pair from a slave ship, she then travels to join in with the guild before venturing out to rescue a fellow wizard of Natsu’s when he goes missing. During these adventures we learn of Natsu’s ability to eat fire (and most forms of heat, including melted snow) and turning that into sheer power to fight, as well as Lucy’s collection of keys that summon celestial beings to do her bidding, such as a giant clock or muscle-bound cow.
If any of that sounds odd to you… well, welcome to the realm of manga/anime. If you’ve never given it a shot, I’d say it’s always worth a try, but if you have a particular taste for high fantasy and sci-fi, these types of stories might be up your alley… as long as you can get along with the high octane, sometimes perverted, often intense nature of Japanese media.
As for Fairy Tail, I’m now standing at a crossroads where I can’t decide if I want to continue reading it, or just dive into the anime. It’s a great story and I’ve enjoyed it so far, but I don’t know yet if I love it enough to experience it twice over, because the one thing I can say for manga is that it proves to me how accurate the anime counterparts are. Though I’m sure there are minor tweaks, the way manga is written and displayed seems completely identical to that of anime.
Whatever decision, the book remains a great alternative in material, especially in this day where there’s nothing hitting the shelves.
TL;DR Score: #actualspoiler… Natsu was raised by a dragon named Igneel and is on a quest to find him. If my wife found that out I’m sure I’d just be watching the anime instead of taking the slow approach.
TL;DR Comics 