Fairy Tail Week: What You Never Knew About Fairy Tail

Written by Shiggins

As with every fictional series you'll ever read, Fairy Tail is full of trivia and references that you won't notice right away. And since it's Fairy Tail Week here on Otaku Nuts, I figured I should create a list to provide as much information as I can to all readers of Fairy Tail and any who are just interested in small pieces of trivia about fiction.

You may find spoilers ahead. 

Just like Levy, I devoted time to researching for this article. It took longer than expected.

Natsu Dragneel

“Natsu" is a Japanese name and the vocabulary word for "summer". However his surname, “Dragneel”, is most likely a combination between the word “dragon” and his father’s name, Igneel. 

Another fun fact is that Natsu was originally going to wear red clothes to symbolise fire, but Hiro Mashima wanted a nice contrast instead.

In the original short-story version of Fairy Tail, Natsu was neither a human nor a mage. He was in fact a spirit with horns. When Natsu played the villainous role at the end of the Edolas Arc, he had fake horns on his head which could most likely be a reference to this.

Lucy Heartfilia

The name "Lucy" means “light” and the surname Heartfilia seems to be a unique name that Mashima came up with by combining the English word “heart” with the Greek name Filia which means “friendship”. An interesting fact about her name is that Hiro Mashima chose the name Lucy while he was listening to the famous Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

We're all thankful Hiro Mashima gave her a whip.

Lucy was originally meant to use cards to summon spirits instead of keys. However, Mashima realised that using cards in such a way was far too common in anime and manga so he changed it to keys.

Her ideal man is assertive.

I'm not sure but I think that man next to her may have been an original idea for Leo/Loke.

Lucy’s original design is quite close to the current look. She had curly locks, two ponytails, and more retro clothing that including frills and high heels. Her large black boots and signature whip are not present in this concept art.

Gray Fullbuster

While Gray’s first name is obviously a reference to the colour itself, his surname “Fullbuster” is most likely another combination of two words. In this case, the word “full” and the English name Buster that derives from the word “bust”, from “burst”. Of course, the problem is Hiro Mashima has actually admitted that he forgot how he named Gray so this may all just be a theory.

As I'm sure you know, Gray picked up his infamous stripping habit from his teacher. In reality, those words would cause massive anger from the public.

When Gray first appeared in the manga, one of the biggest differences he had back then was that he used to be a smoker. After one or two chapters, Gray was never seen smoking again. This has never been addressed in the story, and the anime didn't put the cigarette in at all.

Erza Scarlet

The name “Erza” comes from Elsa/Elisabeth which can be translated to “God is my oath”. As you obviously know, Scarlet means “red”. She was named after a character from a short story Hiro Mashima once wrote. The story was called “Fairy Tale” and the character was “Eru”.

Erza has the highest kill-count in the Fairy Tail Guild because of the "100 Monsters" incident.

When Hiro Mashima first created Erza, he set out to make sure she was a female character that Natsu could be afraid of. To help make her scary, she started out with a very wild look which included a spear and a bird, as well as a headband and other differences in appearance.

I admittedly love this design and wish Hiro Mashima would make this a new character one day.

During the Fighting Festival Arc, viewers could cast their vote on their favourite female of the series to win the “Ms. Fairy Tail” contest. Erza came 1^st place, with Lucy in 2^nd and Juvia in 3^rd.

Erza's title Titania could be a reference to the character in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", as the character in that was also known as "Queen of the Fairies".

Gajeel Redfox

Gajeel's name is derived from the Japanese word “Kajiru” which means “to bite”, “to gnaw”, or “to nibble”. The “Ka” sound is changed to a “Ga” sound because “Gaji Gaji” sounds like a person eating in Japanese text. And to keep things from being too complicated, the name Redfox simply comes from the animal red fox.

Volume 8 vs Volume 13. Pick your favourite! (There is only one "right" answer)

Gajeel is one of many characters to get a change in eye colour later on in the series. If you look at various manga covers, Gajeel originally had green eyes. However, later volume covers and the anime show that his eyes are now red.

Wendy Marvell

Wendy is an English name that means “friend”. Her surname “Marvell” is a name that comes from Latin, and means “wonderful” or “extraordinary”.

When she was first created, Wendy was actually going to be a Water Dragon Slayer instead, however Mashima changed his mind. This is most likely because he already had Juvia, who used water abilities.

Basically, nothing about her initial appearance changed except the removal of that wand.

In the original concept art for Wendy, she was holding a wand of some kind. Her new upcoming series “Blue Mistral” might be a reference to this, as Wendy has been transformed into a “magical girl” for this non-canon spin-off.

Juvia Lockser

Juvia comes from the Spanish word “lluvia” and means “rain”. Sadly, there seems to be no information on what exactly her surname means.

Hiro Mashima once said he loves to change small things about characters' clothing every now and again. This helps to make the series more visually interesting, as some fans such as myself welcome interesting changes.

Her original outfit, which featured the blue Russian Cossack hat, also had a homemade doll known as a teru teru bozu. This is a common Japanese doll which children use to pray for good weather and remove all rain. The reason Juvia wears this is because of how she used to always be followed by rain wherever she went, and she wanted the rain to go away.

The Strauss Siblings

Strauss as a boy’s name has the meaning “bouquet", "ostrich" or "fight” which works well since Mirajane is feminine, Lisanna can turn into animals and Elfman is a fighter.

Mirajane is a combination between the name Mira which means “wonderful”, “peace” or "prosperous" and Jane, which is a Hebrew name and means “God is gracious”. Mirajane’s name is a parody of an online friend of Hiro Mashima, although I am unsure what the original name was before Mashima parodied it.

The anime also seems oddly devoted to making Lisanna as important as possible...

The name “Elfman” comes from a short form of a German personal name composed of the elements “alf “, which means”ghost”, and “man”.

Lisanna is a shortened form of Elizabeth which means “holy” or “sacred to God”.

Laxus Dreyar

Laxus’ name is based off the unit of luminous emittance, Lux.

Remember kids, only power-hungry villains smoke!

Just like Gajeel and Gray, Laxus’ first appearance is very different from his other appearances. He originally wore a cape with the Fairy Tail symbol on it, smoked heavily and wore metal chains and greaves. His eye colour was also different at the start, changing from yellow to blue. This initial look was never shown in the anime, and the manga made sure to change it later.

Laxus enjoys classic Rock & Roll music. (He has very good taste then).

Jellal Fernandes

Jellal means “greatness”, “superiority” or “renown”, while Fernandes is a Portuguese surname that means "Son of Fernando".

I don't know why he's smiling. It looks so uncomfortable.

Jellal’s clothing changes in the anime during the fight in the Tower of Heaven Arc. In the manga, he wore clothes that were specially designed to withstand his powers and looked like a tight battle-suit. In the anime, he just wore a vest and trousers.

For some unknown reason, Siegrain (Jellal's false self in the Council) was who Lucy originally considered her "perfect boyfriend". 

Cana Alberona

Cana is Hebrew and means “Place of Reeds”, while Alberona derives from the word “alberone” which means “big tree”. Hiro Mashima came up with Cana’s name when he looked at Arcana of the tarot cards.

I like to imagine that one day, Cana will become sober and suddenly scream because of her huge drinking problem.

Levy McGarden

Levy is a Hebrew name which means “joining”. McGarden consists of “mc-“, which is a Gaelic name that means “son of”, and “garden”.

Levy may be the only character to actually get smaller breasts as time goes on!

Levy was never originally planned to have so much time in the series. She was originally planned as nothing more than a background character; however Mashima eventually changed his mind during the Phantom Lord Arc.

Manga and Anime

Both the anime and the manga were never expected to last this long. Hiro Mashima expected Fairy Tail to end shortly, so he didn't plan any arcs past the Phantom Lord Arc. However, the sudden rise in popularity from fans kept the series going and convinced him to create more stories. 

It wasn't until the Tenrou Island Arc that any of the Arcs started to properly connect their stories together with Zeref, Acnologia and more being major influences within the series.

The anime was never expected to last longer than one season. After the rise in popularity, the series kept going and has reached 200 episodes this week. There are various signs that shows the anime didn’t expect to make it far, such as when they don’t mention Gildarts until season 2 but in season 1 someone says that there are only 4 S-Class Mages in Fairy Tail (Erza, Mirajane, Laxus and Mystogan).

Gildarts looks like Shanks from One Piece. This is a reference/homage to Hiro Mashima's old friend and classmate Eiichiro Oda, the writer of One Piece.

The anime has very few filler arcs and instead focuses on spending more time expanding certain episodes by making battles last longer or giving some small fanservice moments, including near-nudity and character interactions. One of the most recent examples was in episode 199 where Gajeel and Levy talked about how Levy was happy he was alive.

As you can clearly tell, the anime ship Natsu/Lucy together.

However the largest anime filler arc, known as the Key of the Starry Sky arc, was extremely popular. Hiro Mashima himself enjoyed it so much that he actually considers it canon and references it in the manga series. The two largest examples of this are Kinana, who was revealed in the anime and had a prominent role in the Starry Sky Arc, and Cobra who lost an eye during the same Arc. Both of these character have since made appearances in the manga, with Cobra still having lost his eye when he reappears in the Grand Games Arc.

In the anime, the Narrator is voiced by the same voice actor who voices Igneel. This most likely means that Igneel is narrating his own son's story! And since we recently found out where Igneel has been hiding, this makes more sense that he would know Natsu's story.

One of the biggest criticisms towards the series is about the “death” of Lisanna Strauss and how she conveniently came back from the dead. An interesting fact about this is that Hiro Mashima never intended to bring her back. It's said that either the editor or the anime director was actually a huge fan of Lisanna, and asked Hiro Mashima to resurrect her in some way.  This is proven by the differences in Lisanna’s death in the manga and anime, although some sources do say that this is just a rumour.

Somewhere in this picture is evidence to why the anime director likes Lisanna. I wonder what it could be?

In the manga, we clearly saw signs that Lisanna died and was buried. In the anime however, we never saw Lisanna die and only saw Lisanna get struck and sent flying by Elfman’s rampage. The anime didn’t want to show the death itself because they hoped Lisanna would be brought back. Clearly, the anime got their wish and Lisanna appeared in the Edolas Arc, which inspired the anime to make her seem quite central in the Opening and Ending credits at that time.

Rave Master

As you may already know, this is not Hiro Mashima’s first ever big series. His first big series was known as Rave Master and ran from 1999 to 2005. If you’re a fan of Fairy Tail or any shonen series, I would definitely recommend checking it out as I hear it is considered an under-appreciated classic. After reading it, you’ll notice many references and jokes about Rave Master inside the Fairy Tail series.

A special so good that I demand an anime reboot!

Plue, one of Lucy’s first ever Celestial Spirits, is actually one of the biggest influences and characters within the Rave Master series. He serves as the guide to the main character, Haru. Another fun fact about Plue is that Hiro Mashima says Plue must always have 5 lines on his nose. No more and no less.

The necklace Gray wears was supposed to be Rave (which will only make sense to Rave Master readers), but after a lot of consideration about making Gray being the 10th Rave Master among other characters in the Fairy Tail series, Mashima eventually changed his mind.

The similarities between these two makes me uncomfortable.

Jellal has a tattoo on his face and blue hair colour which causes him to resemble a Rave Master character named Sieg Hart. Another reference to this is when Jellal’s fake name in the council was Siegrain.

The powerful weapon known as Etherion originated from Rave Master, and was a huge destructive weapon of magic in that series as well.

........Maybe I'll just stick to the manga version.

An Oracion Seis group also exist in Rave Master; however they have different members and goals. The reason for this is because Hiro Mashima was trying to make a deadline while making Fairy Tail and thus used Oracion Seis as the codename for the group of characters (Cobra, Angel, Brain, Hoteye, Midnight and Racer). Unable to find an appropriate name for them, he ended up having to call them Oracion Seis in the canon series.

Let's play a game. "Find Haru and Elie". (I know where they are!)

Haru, and the main female of Rave Master series Elie, have actually made several appearances throughout the series, including being part of the crowd when the king gave a speech during the Grand Games. The most obvious example however is the Fairy Tail and Rave Master crossover chapter which was adapted into an OVA special. This featured several Rave Master characters with new updated graphics and even featured some of the original anime’s music to go along with Fairy Tail’s soundtrack.

Here's another game for you. What does this girl have in common with Lucy?

Looking back at Rave Master, Hiro Mashima considers it to be a somewhat sad ending. (I don’t know myself yet but I plan to start reading it very soon). Due to the sad ending, Hiro Mashima claims his plan is for Fairy Tail to have a happy ending.

Other Facts

Mavis Vermillion was originally meant to be a male, but at the last second Hiro Mashima decided to make her female because he discovered Mavis was a feminine name.

Hiro Mashima regrets naming Ultear’s friend “Meredy” because he later discovered it was the name of an RPG character.

Clearly, it is true love.

After every large brawl in the Guild, the character known as Max can be seen with a broom shoved up his anus. This may be a reference to how he uses sand as his main magic and that can create quite a mess. Or it might just be Hiro Mashima revealing a disturbing side to himself. I don't want to know.

Freed Justine is homosexual. This is shown when we see a chibi form of Freed in a manga omake, staring at the naked forms of the Blue Pegasus trimen from a magazine. He also has a poster of Laxus on his wall, however this might just be a sign of admiration.

Hiro Mashima incorporates quite a few non-Asian themes into this series, with the two most prominent ones being the Zodiac Celestial Spirits and the dragons. The Celestial Spirits are based on the Greek Zodiac instead of the Chinese Zodiac. (So instead of using Snake or Dragon, he uses Pisces or Virgo). His dragons are western dragons, which is why they have long necks, thick bodies and massive wings instead of just being long snake-like creatures. This is surprising when you consider how many manga series out there only use Asian culture, and very few extend to European culture.

Annoyingly, it took over 300 chapters for dragons to properly influence the story.

There are several Fairy Tail games, but sadly they are only on sale in Japan and have no English release or even a patch. Despite my attempts to find one, I cannot play a copy. Some examples of game titles include Portable Guild, Zeref Awakens and “Gekitotsu! Karudia Daiseidō” which means “Attack! The Greak Kardia Cathedral.”

I can't die until I've played at least one of these games!

Hiro Mashima constantly uploads images of his artwork on his official Twitter page, many of which include the romances/ships within the series.

He also drew this... I don't even know what to say.

And this last fact is for all you fans of romance out there. Hiro Mashima has said he loves a story where the main male lead and the main female lead end up in a relationship together. Whether or not you want to keep that in mind as you read Fairy Tail... I'll let you decide.

I know there are facts I left out. Any you want to tell me or talk about? Let me know in the comments below!

Shiggins:[Admin]
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