Fairy Tail

Information

Fairy Tail is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It has been published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since August 2, 2006, and has been published by Kodansha in 49 tankōbon volumes; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with the first released on December 15, 2006, and the 49th volume released on May 15, 2015. Fairy Tail follows the adventures of Lucy Heartfilia, a teenage wizard, who joins the popular wizards' guild and teams up with fellow guild member Natsu Dragneel as he searches for the dragon Igneel.

Characters

The chapters have been adapted into an anime series produced by A-1 Pictures and Satelight, which began broadcasting in Japan in 2009. Additionally, A-1 Pictures and Satelight have developed six original video animations and an animated feature film, Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess. The series ended on March 30, 2013. However, on March 4, Mashima announced on his Twitter account that the anime would not end yet, and that reruns of the anime will begin airing on TV Tokyo under the title Fairy Tail Best! on April 4, 2013. On July 11, Mashima announced the green lighting of a sequel series of the anime. The new series premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2014.

The series was originally licensed for an English language release in North America by Del Rey Manga, which began releasing the individual volumes on March 25, 2008 and ended its licensing with the 12th volume release in September 2010. In December 2010, Kodansha Comics USA took over North American release of the series. The Southeast Asian network Animax Asia aired an English-language version of the series for three seasons from 2010 to 2013.The anime has been licensed by Funimation for an English-language release in North America.

The main characters of the series include Natsu Dragneel, a wizard with the powers of a dragon who is searching for his adoptive dragon father Igneel, and Lucy Heartfilia, a celestial wizard who joins the Fairy Tail guild. During the early part of the series, they form a team with Happy, a flying cat and friend of Natsu; Gray Fullbuster, an ice wizard; Erza Scarlet, a knight who specializes in using various magic weapons and armors. Over the course of the series, Lucy and Natsu interact with and befriend other wizards and guilds in Fiore. They also encounter various antagonists from illegal "dark" guilds, and Zeref, an ancient wizard who is sought out by several of the series' villains.

When creating the series, Mashima was influenced by Akira Toriyama, J.R.R. Tolkien and Yudetamago and based the guild on a local bar. He also used people as references in designing other characters. The characters have been well-received overall.

Kuroko's Basketbal

Information

Kuroko's Basketball, known in Japan as Kuroko no Basuke , is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. The English rendering The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays also appears in the artwork of the Japanese version. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2008 to September 2014, with the individual chapters collected into 30 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. It tells the story of a high school basketball team trying to make it to the national tournament.

By April 2014, Kuroko's Basketball had 27 million copies in circulation. It is being adapted into an anime television series byProduction I.G that began airing in 2012, with a third season having started in January 2015. A sequel manga by Fujimaki titledKuroko's Basketball: Extra Game  began serialization in Jump Next! on December 29, 2014.

Characters

Seirin High

Seirin High's basketball team was founded only the year before the manga; despite this setbacks and only including freshmen, the team made it all the way to the final league in that year's inter-high school tournament. This year, the team's notable newcomers include Tetsuya Kuroko, the main character of the manga, as well as Taiga Kagami.

Tetsuya Kuroko 

He is the "phantom" sixth man of the "Generation of Miracles"  (Teiko Middle School's basketball team). Kuroko is Seirin's secret weapon. Although he was an essential member of his middle school basketball team, unlike his former teammates, Kuroko is largely unknown. This is because he is so small, frail, and easy to miss. However, he is greatly respected by everyone. Kuroko possesses the skill of misdirection which allows him to steal the ball and shift the trajectories of passes to suit his team without being noticed by the opponents. His near-invisibility makes him highly susceptible to on-court injuries however, and is not effective indefinitely. If he is left in play too long, opponents grow used to his misdirection tactics; as such, he must be placed on the bench at varying points in any match to prevent this. During the second season of the anime series and the eleventh volume of the manga, he developed a new technique, called the "Vanishing Drive". As the name states, he makes a drives towards an opponent player and seemingly vanishes in front of their eyes, appearing again behind them. This technique combined with his misdirection makes him a powerful player. During the game against Tōō Academy, Kuroko did his Ignite Pass Kai, which is a powerful pass that pushes the ball at a very fast speed. Midorima stated that the Ignite Pass Kai is much like a bullet being fired out of a gun. Kuroko's special ability is the Misdirection Overflow, where when Kuroko's misdirection runs out on him, his teammates have the ability to do what Kuroko can do. However, when this happens Kuroko is just a regular member on the court without any special talents. He also is helped by Aomine on his shooting skills, creating a shooting style that uses misdirection- the Phantom Shot. This shot seemingly goes through the player and into the hoop. Kuroko respects but doesn't like Midorima because of his way of thinking; Midorima also has similar feelings toward Kuroko. Kuroko considers himself a "Shadow", whose goal is to help his "Light" achieve greatness. Kuroko calls Kagami "his Light". He also has a tendency to speak and act completely deadpan, and a running gag involves his teammates, thinking they are alone, talking to themselves only for Kuroko to answer them, apparently having been in the area long before they arrived .

Taiga Kagami 

A naturally gifted basketball player, Kagami easily makes his way into Seirin's starting line-up as a freshman power forward. When he first returned to Japan, he was disappointed by its relatively low level of basketball skill compared to that in the United States. However, since starting high school, Kagami has been spurred on by his desire to compete with the "Generation of Miracles". While he is a powerful all-around player, Kagami's unique skill lies in his ability to jump to great heights. This skill facilitates not only his most common move, the dunk, but also allows him to defend well against taller players. The drawback to this capability is that his body is still underdeveloped thus he often injures himself. Like many of the other developed characters, Kagami hosts a signature move. It is called Meteor Jam and was taught by the basketball coach he shared with Himuro in America, Alex Garcia. As Kuroko has chosen Kagami as his new "Light", Kagami is also bolstered by Kuroko's techniques. Kuroko is the one normally to calm Kagami down, normally with hits or punches to get Kagami focused. Kagami has the rare power to enter the "zone", a time where a passionate basketball player develops special abilities and is basically unstoppable. Kagami's seemingly wild reflexes is compared to a tiger by other players.

Junpei Hyūga 

Captain of the Seirin team, Hyuuga is a clutch shooter, his capabilities escalating immensely when the team is in a pinch. Along with Hyuuga's change in skill comes a change in personality; normally Hyuuga is a collected and calm individual, but when he isn't, he becomes heated and rude. He is the best shooter on the team, regularly making three-point shots throughout the course of a game. Prior to the addition of Kuroko and Kagami, he was one of the centerpieces of the Seirin team's 'run and gun' play style, catching balls scooped by Kiyoshi near the net to shoot as three-pointers. He is very big on respect for the seniors.

Shun Izuki 

Acting as the team's on-court tactician, Izuki is always calm and collected. While he has no special physical abilities, he has the "Eagle Eye", a mental skill that helps him visualize the court from any point of view. Izuki's special move is called Eagle Spear, in which he steals the ball from an opponent using his arm to knock it away in their blind spot. His eagle eye helps him in doing so.  He loves puns, a running gag being that he makes them quite frequently much to the chagrin of his teammates.

Rinnosuke Mitobe 

A stalwart player, Mitobe is very quiet and reserved. Although he is never shown speaking (except for in VOMIC), Koganei seems to understand his gestures and expressions perfectly. A hard worker with excellent defensive skills, he is also an accomplished hook shooter. He lives in a small house with a very large family, and is tasked with making and serving breakfast. He was the team's starting center while Kiyoshi was injured.

Naruto

Information

Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and dreams to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot manga by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.

Naruto was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from the 43rd issue of 1999 to the 50th issue of 2014, with the chapters collected into seventy-two tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. The manga was later adapted into a television anime, which was produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo and other TX Network stations on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted 220 episodes, while Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, has been airing since February 15, 2007. In addition to the anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed ten movies and several original video animations. Other types of merchandise include light novels, video games, and trading cards developed by several companies.

Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz serialized Naruto in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, as well as publishing the individual volumes. The anime series began airing in the United States and Canada in 2005, and later in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The films, as well as most OVAs from the series, have also been released by Viz, with the first film premiering in cinemas. Naruto: Shippuden was first released by Viz in North America in September 2009, started broadcast on Disney XD in October of the same year and on Adult Swim's Toonami block in January 2014. Viz Media began streaming both series on their streaming service Neon Alley in December 2012.

As of September 2014, the manga has over 200 million copies in print, with over 130 million copies in Japan and the remaining 75 million being overseas, making it the third best-selling manga series in history. The manga is also available in 35 countries outside Japan.[4] It has also become one of North American publisher Viz Media's best-selling manga series. Their English adaptation of the series has appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 7 won the Quill Award in 2006. Reviewers of the series have praised the balance between fighting and comedy scenes, as well as the characters' personalities, but have criticized it for using standard shōnen manga plot elements.

Characters

The Naruto manga and anime series features an extensive cast of characters created by Masashi Kishimoto. The series takes place in a fictional universe where countries vie for power by employing ninja who can use superhuman abilities in combat. The Naruto storyline is divided into two parts, simply named Part I and Part II, with the latter taking place two-and-a-half years after the conclusion of Part I. The series' storyline follows the adventures of a group of young ninja from the village of Konohagakure.

The titular character of the series is Naruto Uzumaki, an energetic ninja who wishes to become Hokage, the leader of Konohagakure. During the early part of the series, he is assigned to Team 7, in which he meets Sasuke Uchiha, a taciturn and highly skilled "genius" of the Uchiha clan; Sakura Haruno, who is infatuated with Sasuke and has Naruto's attention; and Kakashi Hatake, the quiet and mysterious leader of the team. Over the course of the series, Naruto interacts with and befriends several fellow ninja in Konohagakure and other villages. He also encounters the series' antagonists, including Orochimaru, a former ninja of Konohagakure scheming to destroy his former home, as well as the elite ninja of the criminal organization Akatsuki.

As he developed the series, Kishimoto created the three primary characters as a basis for the designs of the other three-person teams. He also used characters in other shōnen manga as references in his design of the characters, a decision that was criticized by several anime and manga publications. The characters that Kishimoto developed, however, were praised for incorporating many of the better aspects of previous shōnen characters, although many publications lamented the perceived lack of growth beyond such stereotypes. The visual presentation of the characters was commented on by reviewers, with both praise and criticism given to Kishimoto's work in the manga and anime adaptations.

One Piece

Information

One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since July 19, 1997, with the chapters collected into seventy-seventankōbon volumes to date. One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a young man whose body gains the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit. With his diverse crew of pirates, named the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy explores the ocean in search of the world's ultimate treasure known as "One Piece" in order to become the next Pirate King.

The manga has been adapted into an original video animation (OVA) produced by Production I.G in 1998, and an anime series produced by Toei Animation, which began broadcasting in Japan in 1999 and has aired 699 episodes to date. Additionally, Toei has developed thirteen animated feature films, two OVAs, and five television specials. Several companies have developed various types of merchandising such as a trading card game, and a large number of video games. The manga series was licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. The anime series was licensed by 4Kids Entertainment for an English-language release in North America, before the license was dropped and subsequently acquired by Funimation in 2007.

Characters

The One Piece manga and anime series features an extensive cast of characters created by Eiichiro Oda. The series takes place in a fictional universe where vast numbers of pirates, soldiers, revolutionaries, and other adventurers fight each other, using various superhuman and supernatural abilities. The series' storyline follows the adventures of a group of pirates as they search for the series eponymous treasure.

The main protagonist of the series is Monkey D. Luffy, a young pirate who wishes to succeed Gol D. Roger, the deceased King of the Pirates, by finding his treasure

, the "One Piece". During the course of series, Luffy gathers himself a diverse crew, named the Straw Hat Pirates, including the three-swords-wielding Roronoa Zoro, the master thief and expert navigator Nami, the cowardly marksman and inventor Usopp, the gourmet cook and martial artist Sanji, the anthropomorphic reindeer and doctor Tony Tony Chopper, the archaeologist Nico Robin, the cyborg shipwright Franky, and the living skeleton musician Brook. Together they sail the seas in pursuit of their dreams, encountering other pirates, bounty hunters, criminal organizations, revolutionaries, secret agents and soldiers of the corrupt World Government, and various other friends and foes.

The majority of the characters are human, but the cast also includes, among others, giants, mermen and mermaids, and "fishmen"—beings half human, half fish. Many of the characters possess supernatural abilities gained by eating so called "Devil Fruits".