'Fairy Tail's Creator Reveals Surprising Secret About Its Ending

Earlier this year, another one of Japan's top shonen titles was brought to an end. Hiro Mashima saw his final chapter of Fairy Tail get published a few months back, and he has been busy since with a brand-new project. However, Mashima isn't ready to total leave Natsu behind, and the artist revisited Fairy Tail with Barnes and Noble to drop one surprising secret.

Back in October, Mashima came to New York Comic Con to meet with fans, and the artist was able to chat about how Fairy Tail ended. It was during the artist's chat with Barnes and Noble that Mashima said he had no clue how he would end the series until the finale crept up on him.

"I honestly didn't have any of the last scenes of the story in my mind when I started the series," he admitted.

"The fact that I didn't know where the story [was] going was actually the best part about working on this series. For example, one chapter ends with a huge cliffhanger with the characters in a real tight spot. What's going to happen next? That's actually my question to myself — and I really have to think about this."

As a follow-up, Mashima said he laissez faire plotting made him disregard continuity more than others. "It's more important to me to make the story exciting by really portraying the emotions of each character," the artist explained.

"If the fans find some flaws in the continuity or the plots, I'm actually excited to know that people are reading that much into it."

For fans of Fairy Tail, they may not be too surprised to hear Mashima's comments about how the series ended. While many readers love Natsu's story for what it is, there are those who publicly pleaded with Mashima to tighten up his stories. When Fairy Tail came to an end, some fans did say they wished more loose strings were tied up, but it doesn't look like Mashima is the kind of writer whose interested in neatly wrapped farewells. After all, how else would the artist return to Fairy Tail one day if he had answered all the questions his readers had?

Are you surprised by Fairy Tail's fast-and-loose plotting secret? Hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to let me know and talk all things anime!