Claim: Fairy Tail's main character is Natsu Dragneel.

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima . It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 2 , 2006 , with the individual chapters collected and published into 61 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha as of May 17 , 2017 . The story follows the adventures of Natsu Dragneel , a teenage who is a member of the popular wizards ' guild Fairy Tail , as he searches for the dragon Igneel .   The manga has been adapted into an anime series produced by A-1 Pictures , Dentsu Inc. , and Satelight , which began broadcasting in Japan on October 12 , 2009 . Additionally , A-1 Pictures has developed seven original video animations and two animated feature films . The series ended its initial run on March 30 , 2013 . A second series premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5 , 2014 , and ended on March 26 , 2016 .   Fairy Tail was originally licensed for an English language release in North America by Del Rey Manga , which began releasing the individual volumes on March 25 , 2008 and ended its licensing with the 12th volume release in September 2010 . In December 2010 , Kodansha Comics USA took over North American release of the series . The Southeast Asian network Animax Asia aired an English-language version of the anime for seven seasons from 2010 to 2015 . The anime has been licensed by Funimation for an English-language release in North America . As of February 2017 , Fairy Tail had 60 million copies in print .