Fairy Tail Creator Comments on HERO's Crossover Release

Hiro Mashima is one of the most prominent characters to come out of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine thanks to each of his major series thus far, and thus he was tapped by the magazine to create a special crossover of Fairy Tail, Rave Master, and his most current series Edens Zero, as a way to celebrate the magazine's 60th Anniversary. With the physical release of the crossover now hitting shelves in Japan (complete with an additional steamy spin-off), Mashima opened up about how the anniversary allowed him to look back on each of his major releases thus far.

Hiro Mashima shared a special afterword in the physical release of Mashima HERO's and @11thDoctr and @miggyxmarie provided a translation of the creator's message where he opens up about the release of the crossover, "I had always wanted to do something like this, but I thought it would come later down the line because Edens Zero had just started. However, since I was asked to this project for the 60th Anniversary, I decided I would go ahead and do it."

Mashima revealed what his thought process was going into the crossover, "I tried to make it so people who know all of my works would certainly enjoy it, but people who do not know all of them could still enjoy it. With that said, I made way too many characters appear! It is impossible to dive deep into every one in just 10 chapters, but it more like a big festival."

In fact, Mashima realized that he had so many characters he wanted to use, that there might potentially be room to explore later, "The point is more to enjoy the interactions between the characters rather than the story. I actually had a lot more stories and characters I wanted to involve, but there are characters that do not appear because I had to fit everything in 10 chapters. If this is received well, I would like to come up with a sequel some day."

Mashima even revealed that he began to forget what some of his older characters looked and sounded like, "And surprisingly, I had already forgotten some of the characters I haven't drawn in a while! The most difficult task was pulling out old volumes and confirming where their scars are, where their emblems are, and how they talk."

Mashima concluded the message by revealing what his favorite scene to draw was, "Personally, the scene I most enjoyed drawing was the scene in which the leader of the jiggle butt gang and Mosco fight. It was so chaotic while I was drawing it that I couldn't stop laughing as I said to myself, 'What is this? LMAO' By all means, please take this opportunity to check out any of my works that you haven't read. It would make me very happy. I hope we can meet again soon!"

Are you excited to check out Mashima HERO's when it finally gets an English language release from Kodansha Comics sometime later this year? Which is your favorite of Hiro Mashima's three series so far? What character crossovers are you hoping to see in this series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!