The Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest manga is the new Fairy Tail sequel that just launched on July 25, 2018. Fans are just now getting a taste of where the new story is taking Natsu Dragneel, Lucy Heartfilia, and Happy the Cat, but already the way the plot is being handled leaves the door open for making a Fairy Tail Season 4 anime.
Fairy Tail manga creator Hiro Mashima officially finished the first series back in July 2017 with Chapter 545. The anime adaptation Fairy Tail 2018 will tell the tale of the final two story arcs of the original series and the Fairy Tail Season 3 release date has already been confirmed to be coming up soon.
A year later Mashima is back, although there will be one major change for the Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest manga series. Instead of creating the entire manga by himself, Mashima will be taking a supervisorial role over manga artist Atsuo Ueda (Dr. Prisoner, Hajime Shacho Monogatari), who will provide all of the illustrations and art for the Fairy Tail sequel.
The situation can be compared to Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, who provides oversight for new content. However, Mashima will be more directly involved since he will write the overall story for the Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest manga, including creating storyboards and character designs.
Kodansha Comics officially launched the Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest manga on July 25th in the Magazine Pocket manga app. But the series will also be serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine. The English translation has not yet been officially announced, but it’s certain to happen sometime in the future.
At first, chapters for the manga sequel were released weekly but now they will only be released on a bi-weekly basis.
“Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest will be updated every other week starting this week. So, the next update will be September 5,” Atsuo Ueda wrote on Twitter. “Originally, we planned to publish biweekly. But, in order to get the new series started, we published the first six chapters weekly. So, I hope you’ll continue to support the series in the future.”
In addition, mangaka Kenshiro Sakamoto (Pitch-Black Ten) is doing the Fairy Tail spin-off Fairy Tail: Happy’s Grand Adventure, which launches very soon in 2018. A second spin-off called Fairy Tail City Hero is scheduled to release later in the fall.
本日より『FAIRY TAIL 100 YEARS QUEST』マガジンポケットにて配信開始されております！
週刊少年マガジンにも第1話掲載されております！ついにFTメンバーが100年クエストに挑戦…！！
是非ご一読よろしくお願いいたします！！ pic.twitter.com/fvpG8hR5bQ
— 上田敦夫 (@atsuwo521) July 25, 2018
Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest’s Story Is A Direct Sequel
Warning: The following contains major spoilers.
The story for the Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest manga picks up again literally right after where the original series ended. By Chapter 545, Natsu and his friends had already stated their intention to set off on the 100 Year Quest, a seemingly impossible type of mission that no guild or mage has successfully completed since the founding of the mage guilds.
Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest Chapter 1 jumps right in by showing three new mages who are joining the guild. The rest of the guild members gave their usual wild introduction, but it’s the return of Laxus Dreyar who scares off the terrified recruits.
Except for one. A young female mage named Touka introduces herself by saying that she wanted to be in her “dear sweet darling” Natsu’s guild. Touka had met Natsu a year ago when he rescued her from bandits. But poor Touka was surprised to find out that Natsu had already set out on his 100 Year Quest with his friends Lucy Heartfilia, Happy the Cat, Erza Scarlet, Gray Fullbuster (yes, he left behind Juvia), Wendy Marvell, and Carla the Cat.
Natsu believes he can complete the quest while others gave into despair because of the power of his friends. Team Natsu was traveling to Magia Dragon, the oldest known guild in the world located in the unmapped continent of Giltena. Natsu is admonished by the others for assuming there will be an actual dragon there, but it turns out he’s right on the money. Hiding inside the crumbling guild hall is Elefseria, the Dragon of Law and the giver of the 100 Year Quest.
Fairy Tale Season 4 Release Date Possible By 2022?
Before the launch of the Fairy Tail sequel, it seemed like the third season of the anime would be the final ending to the main story. Now, there is no reason not to produce Fairy Tail Season 4. It’s just a matter of time before enough manga chapters are produced.
The third season is adapting 125 chapters of the manga and will probably require around 60 episodes. Assuming multiple weekly broadcasting breaks and some filler episodes, it’s very likely that the third season will end in the fall of 2019 or the winter of 2020.
Meanwhile, Hiro Mashima and Atsuo Ueda will be releasing new chapters for Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest on a bi-weekly basis. Assuming the mangakas only take a handful of breaks in the coming years, that means that by the beginning of 2022 the Fairy Tail sequel will have over 120 chapters to its name. So, a year after the third season finishes, the fourth season becomes possible.
Let’s just hope anime studio A-1 Pictures does eventually produce Fairy Tail: 100 Year Quest Season 1/Fairy Tail Season 4. Stay tuned!