Third Round Fairy Tail vs. Spy x Family

Kiki · Jul 26, 2020


Fairy Tail Hiro Mashima		Spy x Family Tatsuya Endou

Arjuna · Jul 27, 2020

I am definitely going with Spy X Family here.It has one of my favourite manga since the time it started.

But all the best to Brandish too.

Nie Li · Jul 27, 2020

Supporting Fairy Tail here for now.
Spy x Family is good but I guess I'm just more into FT's genre.

SirSamuel016 · Jul 27, 2020

As a former FT mod I don't think I need to state how I'm voting but to make sure its clear

I'm voting for Spy x Family

Erinyes · Jul 27, 2020

Support Ft here, sorry Marma-chan :pout

. I ive been following Ft for years, its not perfect, but it has a lot moments, some emotional/impactful scenes that really works with me.

Marmalade · Jul 29, 2020

Oooff, Fairy Tail is a strong opponent - this is going to be a difficult round. May the best series survive @Brandish μ :blush

Since I've been a bit busy this week, haven't really gotten the type to prepare a proper campaign - so as Erin would say, here is an appetizer

Out of all images I've seen, this one perhaps captures the soul of the series the most. One one hand, there is this adorable little family. On the other hand, perhaps not so adorable after all.
This duality in the story really makes it better - it gives the story a bit of extra spice, some layers and unexpected twists and turns

I mean, if the story itself doesn't convince you, just vote for the dog. The dog deserves it

Please make him feel loved

Erinyes · Jul 30, 2020

previous courses :
Symposium 1 - Introduction to Fairy Tail
Lesson 1- About Fairy Tail's world building

Lesson 2- About Fairy Tail's art

1-About artistic inspiration-creativity

Ft's universe

As said previously mashima got a lot inspired from other manga/movies like Dragon Ball ore Miyazaki's works and also from playing videos games, more specifically Rpgs he said himself, (see Itw extract below), for characters, story/plot and settings, we mentioned previously the medieval style streets or architecture we find usually in rpgs , but even fictional places are inspired from games, for instance, Edolas, its hard not to see some connection between Edolas and Zeal Kingdom from Chono Trigger, it might not be exactly this reference, but a lot of rpg got those kind of sky kingdoms.

Itw extract :

- Q : - You have traditionally used more Western influences in your work. What kind of Western work do you draw inspiration from?

- Mashima : - About 30 years ago in Japan, there was a huge boom of RPG fantasy games, so those are where I got my inspiration from. For example, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. (oct.2017)

Edolas - Ft & extalia

Zeal Kingdom- Chrono Trigger

Important, impactful scenes

To give more impact to some specific chosen scenes, Mashima tend to use for instance blank background or fading background, to convey the emotional weight or feeling of emptiness in some situations, or on contrary he would overload the pic in various ways, with onomatopeas, or dark backgrounds.

the fading background of this scene is emphasizing its emotional impact

On the contrary, the size of the onomatopeas and the way it fills the whole panels contribute to depict her confusion.

another exemple, here the background and onomatopeas, contributes to emphasize the pain during the fight

Misc & Art showcase

Q: - Do you have any advice for aspiring manga artists?

M; - Just enjoy yourself! Obviously, it's extremely important that you're passionate about manga. but its also important to watch movies, play games, read books and get inspiration from those forms of entertainment too. (2008)

I cant resist postiing a couple of lovely Fairy Tail arts, again they reflect very likely Mashimas inpiration from medieval fantasies and from video games.

Sun village, amazingly drawn, Mashima brillantly managed to recreate the frozen effect. the concept of the frozen village/place is also recurring in Rpg games, for exple Great Glacier in FF.

From magic games arc, this level of details !

Bonus :
Mashima always read his readers letters and he publishes their art on FT volumes like this

Obligatory kitties break

2- About character design

Fashion

As mentioned in previous rounds, and in the itw extract below, Mashima tries to create different type of characters to appeal readers, each as unique as possible, so readers can identify relate to them, therefore he create different kind personnalities but also various different looks and styles, and his characters tend to change clothes and hairstyle regularly which is rare in manga, he seems to have some nice sense of fashion, seemingly he is inspired from real life people and fictional character from games or series.

Q : - In terms of design, Fairy Tail is unique when it comes to designs. A lot of the characters change their outfits throughout the series. How do you go about changing the characters’ clothes?

M: -Every time I actually make a costume change, there's usually something that I didn't like about the character design so I refresh them. But sometimes I think maybe the previous character design was better so I kind of go back and forth.

- Q : - If you could go to a con and cosplay, what would you dress up as?

- M : - I really want to try it. I am really into Game of Thrones nowadays, so maybe I would cosplay one of the characters. (oct. 2017)

exemple here, with Cana & Evergreen wearing different style of clothes from usual, an another hairstyle. And ultear so classy !

ok this one is from a cover not the manga , but still, i find it awesome !

Emotions

For depicting, emotions, and insisting on certain specific emotional moments, Mashima, like a lot of manga artists, uses close-ups with a lot of focus on eyes, onomatopeas, and specific paneling, either big frames or multiple panel sequences to impact readers. And for various facial expressions, he uses a lot of exaggerated deformed faces. like in this scene, where Mashima is using several techniques, the paneling is interesting, and not only we got a focus on Cana eyes but on her opponent too :

some exemples of emotional/impacting scenes

Comic or exaggerated expressions

General design, and focus on females design

Mashima's inspiration for characters comes also from games or various fantasy fictions he watches or reads. One interesting point is that he also uses his own design in several works, for instance jellal/mystogan is exactly same design that Sieghart in Rave and Justice in Edens Zero, Happy appears under the form of robo-cat in Edens zero, but with the same name and design., thats somehow how Mashima is creating connections between his various worlds, and make it sound like a meta universe, made of small worlds linked with each other, and with his specific signature in which, like in some rpg (exple: Final Fantasy saga has a character called Sid who appears in each opus).

Siegfried, Jellal/mystogan, and Justice design

He said he has issues in drawing females compared to guys ( honestly i see no issue :arf

) i actually have the impression he likes drawing women. He know how to draw voluptuous figures with acceptable proportions and without too much deforming. Also he like drawing women from certain angles, generally from below so that made their appearances sexier, he uses this kind of perspective a lot when drawing women, but he does use different kind of perspectives too sometimes to focus on facial expressions or on some movements.

Q : - Do you think about anything particular when you draw?

M : - I’m actually not very good at drawing female characters. I want to draw them so cute I feel a lot of pressure drawing them. In contrast, guy characters are easy. I can just draw them quickly. (2016)

He doesnt seem to have any issue to draw females lol.

Mashima's favourite perspectives