Fairy Tail is a manga from Hiro Mashima. Its serialization began in Shōnen Magazine number 35, on August 23, 2006. As of June 4, 2008, Fairy Tail has 89 chapters and 10 tankōbon volumes. New chapters are published in Shōnen Magazine every Wednesday. Volume 5 of Fairy Tail was ranked number 7 in a list of the top ten manga, and it continues to top the top ten chart with volume 6 ranking number 7. Del Rey Manga announced their acquisition of Fairy Tail during the San Diego Comic Con 2007. The first 2 volumes will be released during Del Rey Manga’s Spring 2008 manga lineup in April 2008.

The story of Fairy Tail focuses on the adventures of the main characters Natsu and Lucy, who are sometimes accompanied by the members of the Fairy Tail Guild.

The story begins with a young sorceress Lucy, and her ambition to join the magical Fairy Tail Guild. On her journey she encounters Natsu, a young boy, who is looking for Igneel the Salamander. After a brief adventure she offers him lunch and Natsu explains that Igneel is a dragon while Lucy talks about her dreams to join the Fairy Tail Guild. Shortly afterwards, she is tricked and abducted by Bora of Prominence, who was posing as Salamander of Fairy Tail, to be sold as a slave. She is rescued by Natsu, who is revealed as Salamander and a true member of Fairy Tail Guild. He offers her membership into the guild, and Lucy gladly accepts. From that point on Natsu and Lucy form a team. Thus begins their adventures as they perform missions for the Fairy Tail guild.

In the Fairy Tail universe, some people are gifted with the ability to use magic and with this come powers far beyond those of normal people. This society of wizards and sorcerers align themselves to different Magical Guilds where they are assigned paid missions.

The guild system is governed by the Magic Council who monitor the actions of the guilds. Guilds which contravene the Magic Council's laws are declared as Dark Guilds. Dark guilds are those groups which have committed crimes against society or have accepted missions of questionable morality, such as accepting assassination requests. In the Fairy Tail world the official currency is the Jewel and its symbol is a "J".

So far, all of the action takes place in the land of Fiore. The land of Fiore is where the Fairy Tail Guild is located, as well as the Magic Council and other places visited by the main characters. The Time, as suggested in chapter 66, is Year 784. The Fairy Tail universe appears to have certain connections to Hiro Mashima's previous manga, Rave Master, such as Lucy's ability to summon the bizarre snowman-like creature named Plue.