What Are the Fairy Tail English Editions?

Two publishers, one unbroken run, and a deluxe edition that stopped at five.

English readers got all 63 volumes, but not from one publisher. Del Rey Manga opened the series in March 2008 and folded after volume 12; Kodansha USA picked it up at volume 13 in May 2011, reprinted the Del Rey dozen, accelerated the schedule in 2013, and closed the series with volume 63 in January 2018. Kodansha also carried the series chapter by chapter in Crunchyroll Manga from October 2013.

Around the singles grew the reprint lines: the oversized Master's Edition omnibuses from 2015, and later the three-in-one Omnibus books. The covers, as the pairs on this page show, were Mashima's own paintings in both markets.

VOLUME 1, TOKYO AND NEW YORK

The same painting on both sides of the Pacific

Fairy Tail volume 1 Japanese cover — **Japan · Kodansha, December 15, 2006**Mashima's painting as drawn: the logo hand-lettered across the top, the Magazine Comics masthead, the author's name in Japanese at the foot.

Fairy Tail volume 1 English Del Rey cover — **North America · Del Rey, March 25, 2008**The identical painting re-dressed: an English logo in the same lettering, the author's name romanized, and a selling line the Japanese book never needed: “Creator of Rave Master.”

The English Fairy Tail kept Mashima's cover art throughout its life. What changed between editions was the dressing around it, logos, credits, and taglines, which makes the English books easy to shelve beside the Japanese and easy to tell apart at a glance.

VOLUME 63, THE FAREWELL

One crowd, two publishers

Fairy Tail volume 63 Japanese cover — **Japan · Kodansha, November 17, 2017**The full-guild farewell painting: dozens of characters in one frame, the series' whole cast assembled for the last cover of the run.

Fairy Tail volume 63 English Kodansha USA cover — **North America · Kodansha USA, January 23, 2018**The same painting two months later in English dress, closing the North American run a decade after Del Rey had opened it.

Between these two books the English series changed publishers once and pace twice, but the covers never changed hands artistically: Mashima painted all 63, and both markets used them.

THE ENGLISH LINE, IN ORDER

Del Rey, then Kodansha USA

Del Rey, 2008–2010

North America met the guild through Del Rey Manga, which published volume 1 on March 25, 2008 and reached volume 12 in September 2010 before the imprint closed.

Kodansha USA, 2011

Kodansha USA took over and resumed with volume 13 in May 2011, reprinting the twelve Del Rey volumes under its own name. After volume 24 (March 2013) the schedule accelerated, and the run closed with volume 63 on January 23, 2018.

Fairy Tail Master's Edition 1 English cover

The Master's Edition, 2015

Kodansha USA's oversized omnibus: five volumes per book, roughly 960 pages, a 7 by 10.5 inch trim, $39.99. The first book appeared in November 2015.

The Master's Edition stops at five

Five Master's Editions were published, the fifth, gathering volumes 21–25, in October 2017. Kodansha's own series page lists no sixth: the deluxe line ends a third of the way through the story, a gap in the English shelf that was never closed.

The current format

Kodansha later returned to the series with a large three-in-one Omnibus line, three original volumes per book, which is the form in which the series is actively sold today.

Beyond the singles

All eight spin-off series are licensed in English by Kodansha USA, and the art book Magnolia: Fairy Tail Illustrations reached English shelves as a hardcover in December 2025. In Britain the singles were distributed by Turnaround, in Australia by Penguin Books.

Are the covers the same?The Japanese covers More from the Library

What Are the Fairy Tail English Editions?

VOLUME 1, TOKYO AND NEW YORK

VOLUME 63, THE FAREWELL

THE ENGLISH LINE, IN ORDER

THE FIRST WORD