Fairy Tail officially ended its run last year, but Hiro Mashima has kept the series alive with many new projects, including even a sequel that just began publication (Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest). Still, fans appreciate when he goes out of his way. Mashima shared a new sketch of Natsu and Lucy pair, and this one is noticeably more “ecchi” than before with the two sharing a closeness rarely seen in the original series.
Mashima has uploaded some other fan service works to Twitter in the past like the sketch of Lucy for Christmas, also uploaded a sketch of Juvia in a Santa suit, a decidedly more innocent sketch of Wendy and Plue, and a short manga depicting a very NSFW encounter between Natsu and Lucy much like here.
Although the manga officially ended last year, Mashima has a ton of projects in the works. Along with this Fairy Tail sequel series, there are the confirmed spin-offs, Fairy Tail: City Hero, putting Fairy Tail’s characters in another world, and Fairy Tail: Happy’s Grand Adventure, which focuses on Happy, and Fairy Tail: Lightning Gods, which focuses on Laxus. It’s a very exciting time to be a fan of his works for sure.
There’s also Mashima’s latest work, Edens Zero, which was simultaneously published in five languages (Chinese, English, French, Korean, and Thai), for its first chapter as Edens Zero released in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine‘s Issue 30. The first chapter of the series was simulpubbed and available for fans in other territories on Crunchyroll Manga, comiXology, and Kindle.
When the announcement from Kodansha broke, Hiro Mashima had a special message for his worldwide fans stating, “I’m bringing you my next series pretty soon! I can assure you it’s going to be full of surprises and excitement. Please look forward to it on June 26!” Fans have reacted positively to the new series publication after reading through its premiere chapter.”
For those unfamiliar with Fairy Tail, the series was originally created by Hiro Mashima. It is set in a fantasy world full of magic where Natsu Dragneel, a “Dragon Slayer” (Mage who can fight Dragons using anti-dragons magic) is in search of his missing foster father, the fire dragon Igneel. As he and his wizarding guild Fairy Tail get into adventures, Natsu always tries to find a way to succeed. The series ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine from August 2006 to July 2017 and has spawned 60 million copies. It was later adapted into an anime by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc and Satelight in 2009 and ended its first run in 2013. A second series ran from 2014 to 2016, and a third series is planned for a Fall release.