Hiro Mashima

Hiro Mashima was born in the prefecture of Nagano in 1977 and he is a Japanese mangaka. In 1998, he won the award for new authors of the 60th edition of the Weekly Shonen Magazine, organised by Kodansha publishing company, with his work “MAGICIAN”. He then made his debut on FRESH Magazine with “BAD BOYS SONG”.

Among his most emblematic works we can find “RAVE” (published serially from 1999 to 2005 on the Weekly Shonen Magazine), “FAIRY TAIL” (published from 2006 to 2017 on the same magazine, it won the 33th edition of the Kodansha Manga Award, in the Shonen Manga category in 2009) and “EDENS ZERO” (ongoing since 2018 on the Weekly Shonen Magazine). All three works are a huge success and they have received animated transpositions.

He is a very active mangaka and he is currently carrying on with three works at once: “EDENS ZERO”, “FAIRY TAIL: 100 YEARS QUEST” (published serially from 2018 on Manga Pocket, storyboard) and “DEAD ROCK” (available from July 2023 on the Monthly Shonen Magazine).

25 years after his debut, he is setting the great record, among Japanese cartoonists, of never interrupting the serialisation of his works with downtimes.

His fame is not just limited to Japanese borders, but it is also recognised on an international level. In January of 2018, he received the Fauve d’honneur at the 45th edition of the Angoulême International Comics Festival. 

(Photo courtesy of KODANSHA LTD.)