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Kodansha Comics Adds Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail Zero Prequel Manga

Kodansha Comics announced at an event at the Kinokuniya bookstore in New York City on Sunday that it has licensed Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail Zero prequel manga. Kodansha Comics had announced earlier this week that it would make a Fairy Tail license announcement at the event.

The company describes the manga as follows:

This is it: The Fairy Tail prequel fans have been waiting for! Series creator Hiro Mashima himself draws an all-new series that depicts the founding of the Fairy Tail guild.

Many years ago, Mavis Vermilion was a servant on Sirius Island, mistreated by a guild master and his daughter, Zera. But Mavis stayed positive, because her mother once told her that fairies never visit people who cry about their problems. When the guild came under attack, Mavis pulled Zera from the wreckage into the forest. Seven years went by, and the powerful wizards Warrod Sequen, Precht, and Yuri Dreyer arrived on the island, seeking a powerful jade gemstone. This journey would change the course of magical history...

Mashima launched the manga in the first issue of Monthly Fairy Tail in July 2014, and he ended the manga in the magazine's 13th and final issue on July 17. The manga's one compiled volume is shipping in Japan on Tuesday.

Kodansha Comics publishes the main Fairy Tail manga in North America, and Crunchyroll is releasing new chapters online as they come out in Japan.

Mashima's main Fairy Tail manga has inspired two TV anime series, two video anime, an anime film, and several spinoff manga. The second TV anime series began airing in Japan in April 2014, and Crunchyroll and Funimation stream the series as it airs. Funimation is releasing both series on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in North America.

Update: Kodansha Comics posted on its Tumblr account that it will release the manga in summer 2016.