Hiro Mashima

One of the biggest names in manga industry that people don't really want to talk about.

When talking about manga creators, we tend to talk about the really successful ones like Eiichiro Oda or Rumiko Takahashi, rising stars like Tatsuki Fujimoto or Yukinobu Tatsu, or those with really unique styles like Taiyo Matsumoto or Haruko Ichikawa. They absolutely deserve their fame, but I want to talk about someone else.

That someone else being Hiro Mashima.

When people talk about Hiro Mashima, it’s not uncommon that they talk in an unflattering manner. I think the reason is clear: Hiro Mashima was never known for his strong or unique art style. His most famous works (Rave, Fairy Tail, Edens Zero) weren’t really masterclasses in storytelling or worldbuilding. He also openly reused plot points, names, or characters by a lot (I once joked with a co-worker that Hiro Mashima is not really different from Osamu Tezuka, known for his “star system” or recurring characters in different roles).

If you’re a comic artist or writer, you’re probably not inspired by Hiro Mashima—and there’s not much to learn from his craft, not more than anything you can learn from someone else.

But look at what the guy has done since his debut:

• Since 1999 to 2024, he has made 130 volumes of manga from all his main series: Rave, Fairy Tail, and Edens Zero.

• During some of those years, he managed to work on additional serialization at the same time, like Monster Hunter Orage.

• He wrote/storyboarded the sequel to Fairy Tail while making Edens Zero.

• He had the time and bandwith to do some game character designs for Gate of Nightmares and Farmagia. He even made his own RPG Maker game during his “free time”.

He even had time to nurture his assistants: One of the assistants is Yoshikawa Miki, who went on to create her own successful titles: Yankee-kun and Megane-chan, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, and A Couple of Cuckoos. All of those titles have been adapted to anime, and Yamada-kun had a live action adaptation.

Hiro Mashima might not be on the pantheon of the greatest manga creators of all time, nor are his works considered classic by any means, but he definitely is one of the most consistently hardworking creator out there.

And I think that’s amazing. He defied all odds and accuses of mediocrity by sheer hard work. The fact that he’s often collaborating with other creators for games and other artwork implies that he’s reliable and/or easy to work with as well.

Now. Is he the only hardworking manga creator out there? Probably not. In that sense, he’s not that special. But he is visible. He’s famous, even though he’s not the best among his peers, and it is my opinion that he deserved that fame.

I think we should aspire to be a bit more like Hiro Mashima.