Ask John: Will There be a Fairy Tale Anime?

Question:
Are their any talks about making the manga “Fairy Tale” into an anime?

Answer:
At the present time, there are no known plans for an anime adaptation of Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tale manga series. However, the series is one of Japan’s best selling manga titles, and Mashima is the creator of Groove Adventure Rave, which was adapted into an anime television series in 2001. Manga creators that have one title adapted into an anime very frequently have at least another title also adapted into anime. (Generally, the exception to the rule is manga creators like Kouta Hirano and Kentaro Miura who only have one manga series.) So while no anime adaptation of Fairy Tale has been rumored or announced in Japan yet, I suspect that it’s just a matter of time before an announcement surfaces.

On a side note, my best guess is that particular manga artists exhibit a consistent visual design style or consistently use a narrative structure that lends itself well to adaptation into animation. That may explain why manga creators who have one title adapted into anime usually have additional titles also adapted into anime.