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Phantasy
Format Shonen
Created by Akiba Numashi
Writer(s) Akiba Numashi
Director(s) Hana Numashi
No. of episodes 341- Ongoing
Run time 19 minutes
Rated PG-13
English Network Toonami

Fuji TV

First aired January 1st 2003

Phantasy (パンテーシ, Panteisi) is a shonen manga series written and illustrated by Akiba Numashi. It is published in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion. The series follows Knave Dhahaka, a young fairy that befriends middle school student Tsubaki Fusuke , who helps Knave restore his powers and return him to the fairy world (Utherworld). The series then follows Knave and his group of other Z-class fairies (faires that take requests to protect the Fairy World for money), as they explore Utherworld and fight evil.

The manga has been adapted into an ongoing anime series by Toei Animation. The anime was directed by the creator's wife, Hana Numashi. The anime premiered on Fuji TV on April 23rd, 2005, and continues to run to this day. The anime ranked 15th of the top 100 anime in 2010, as by TV Arashi. The manga won the Akita Shoten Manga Award for best manga of 2012. Two movies have been made, with a third on the way. In May 2013, a special, anime-only crossover between Phantasy and One Piece, Phantasy X One Piece: Stark vs Devil Fruits! The True Power Source!, written by both Akiba Numashi and Eiichero Oda was released on DVD. It was never adapted to manga due to the manga of both series belonging to different companies.

A card game made by Bandai was first produced in 2009, as well as a series of action figures, and even a series of video games for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, Gameboy, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. FUNimation announced plans to distribute the manga in the United States in 2007, and has currently released 31 volumes. The english-dubbed anime began airing on the 3 PM slot on Toonami in 2011. 

Plot[]

For more, see: List of Phantasy characters

Earth Arc[]

Utherworld Arc[]

Tournament Arc[]

Soon after, the group learns of a tournament for Z-Class fairies. Finding that the man who caused Knave to lose his powers in a long fight, Sirius, has entered as well, Team Gecko enters to compete with him. After Sirius crushes several of the other members, with Sid narrowly losing, he and Knave face off in the final round. After a grueling battle, Knave narrowly wins, and Sirius is disowned by the family he was serving as a bodyguard to.

Akasume Arc[]

The commotion at the tournament attracts Akasume, a pirate who seeks to recruit fairies with strong stark to assist him in destroying the Z-Class Fairy Organization. Unable to defeat Akasume, Knave recieves training from Murtaugh, a retired Z-Class who is also known as the Hero of Utherworld, named so for defeating a threat that struck Utherworld centuries ago. From this training, Knave learns how to access and use Kenshi, an ancient ability also known as the King's Armor used by the old fairy kings of old to purge evil, and is only accessible by their "descendants". Using this power, Knave defeats Akasume after a long battle.

Jose Arc[]

Three months later, Team Gecko encounters a young girl named Kagome, who is being hunted by a sadistic former serial killer, Jose. After Knave and Sid are brutally beaten in the first fight, Knave seeks out Murtaugh for further training but ends up being educated by his cat, Sensei-chan. From him, Knave learns Limit Breaker, a technique that allows him to access 100% of his power for five minutes. Armed with this ability, Knave battles Jose again, but his Limit Breaker runs out and he is once again heavily beaten and thrown into the sea. During the fight, it is revealed that Kagome is a living incarnation of Utherworld's Spark, a core of stark that keeps worlds from destroying themselves in massive outbursts of exploding stark. Jose kills Kagome, causing her to revert to her Spark form. Knave rises from the water, enraged, and brutally attacks Jose, defeating him. As the Spark returns to Utherworld's core, Jose is carted away, when informs the group that his masters, the 'Locusts' will soon arrive on Utherworld to absorb it's stark, and will destroy Utherworld.

Locust Arc[]

The Locusts arrive after a month, as promised, and swiftly eradicate a half of Utherworld's population, absorbing their Stark. They then send their highest underlings, the Cknights, to attack any fairies with high stark levels, luring Team Gecko to a confrontation near a cave leading to the Spark. As Team Gecko battles the Cknights, Murtaugh confronts their leader, an old apprentice named Brouchard, before the Spark. Team Gecko narrowly defeats the Cknights with the help of a reformed Sirius (though the battle causes Knave to use both Kenshi and Limit Breaker at the same time, heavily damaging his body), right as their leader, the Sixth Immortal, arrives, as he easily decimates them and even supposedly kills Murtaugh, before absorbing the Spark. With a breifly revived Murtaugh's help, Team Gecko escapes to the dimension next to Utheworld, the Shadowland, right as Utherworld is destroyed completely.

Shadowland War Arc[]

In the Shadowland, the group meets the prince and princess of Shadowland, Saturn and Mercuia, respectively. Their, they learn that the Locusts will be assaulting Shadowland in a month, and also that they can restore Utherworld by retrieving the Utherworld Spark's stark from the Sixth Immortal. Team Gecko begins training for the next confrontation immediatley. During the month that passes, Saturn and Knave become good friends, Mercuia begins showing tsundere-ish aspects towards Knave, and Sid seems to effortlessly charm the entire female staff. After a final party before the assault, the Locusts arrive, and most importantly, their five other leaders, the Immortals, lead the charge, with one generating a massive number of clones to act as foot soldiers. A massive war breaks out between Shadowland and the Locusts, with Team Gecko targeting the immortals, with Sid taking the clone-maker, Risa fighting a snake charmer, Sirius fighting a brute, and Tsubaki fighting a thinker. Knave confronts Brouchard, who has been promoted to Immortal status, and shows off his new transformation, the Kenshi Orage. After defeating him, and teaming up with Saturn to help defeat the brute with Sirius, the accumulation of losses cause the Sixth Immortal to join the battle.

Knave and Saturn attack, initially seeming to have the upper hand before the Sixth activates his stark for the first time, and murders Saturn. Consumed by rage, Knave launches a barrage, successfuly heavily injuring the Sixth and breaking his mask. The Sixth then releases his full power, killing Knave after a seconds-long fight. As the Earth splits under his power, the Sixth extracts the location of Shadowland's Spark from Mercuia's mind and leaves to absorb it. Meanwhile, Sid ends his grueling fight with the clone-maker, ending with him winning (though heavily injured), and the bridge connecting the two halves of Shadowland being partially destroyed.

With the Earth split, Knave's body falls directly into the Spark, where he is revived and his body is completely recreated. Knave then briefly meets with a temporary ressurection of Kagome, before receiving a power boost from the Spark, which has recognized the feelings of every Shadowlandian and Fairy, and wishes to protect them as well. Knave then returns to the surface, learns of the Sixth's location, and then follows.

Meeting up with the Sixth at the entrance to the official chamber leading to the Spark, Knave and the Sixth engage in an viscous and bloody final battle. Knave is forced to use all his techniques and transformations before barely defeating the Sixth in combat. Falling into the Spark, the Sixth's body stark revives the Shadowland Spark (which had begun dying upon his approach), and partially recreates the Utherworld Spark. Due to this, Utherworld begins regenerating slowly, as the deceased citizens begin to ressurect due to the new Spark. After the remaining Locusts are rounded up and either jailed or killed, Team Gecko spends a week recovering, before deciding to return home. The suddenly revealed King (though still unseen), announces that Mercuia will go with them as the Shadowlandian ambassador.

Returning to Utherworld, the group decides to split up and assist in the reconsturction of Utherworld, whilst training themselves along the way (with Knave deciding to visit a ressurected Murtaugh along the way). Tsubaki, meanwhile, returns to Earth, where she decides to learn swordplay in order to be more assitance in battle.

Lost Star Arc[]

Three years later, Team Gecko reunites, with new skills and new looks, with Sirius having also officialy joined the team. Right before activating the portal to allow Tsubaki to return, Knave receives a letter beckoning him to come to an area known as the Lost Star. Travelling there with Sid and Mercuia, Knave is confronted by the Lost Star's maniacal leader, Scorpio. Scorpio reveals himself to be a former member of the Fairy-Human Relations Bureau, along with Murtaugh, who had spent his last years before retirement there. Knave's father, Spade, had also been a member and had had an affair with Knave's mother, a human woman, before he was discovered. Despite Murtaugh's orders to simply arrest his friend, Scorpio and his unnamed assistant took the other initiative and fought and killed Knave's parents, nearly killing Knave too before Murtaugh rescued him and heavily injured Scorpio. Scorpio was later exiled from the Z-Class Fairy Organization and anything affiliated too it. Knave is temporarily mentally broken by this revelation, and Scorpio takes this opportunity to attack him, hoping to finish what he started.

Knave narrowly escapes, and collapses inside a shrine nearby. There, Knave is confrotned by the spirits of his appearence, who agree to accompany him in a final battle with Scorpio before finally passing on. Emboldened, Knave fights Scorpio one more time, easily defeating him. As Scorpio attempts to attack Knave behind hsi back, Murtaugh appears, killing Scorpio. Knave then says goodbye to his parents as Sid and Mercuia catch up. The group returns back to the Utherwordl in peace, where they finally return Tsubaki to the world.

Future Arc[]

Around the same time, two future versions of Knave and Sid appear, hoping to "re-educate" their current counterparters, in order to prepare them for a time when a race of beings known as the Grotesque destroy Utherworld. After a battle between the two versions of themselves, the future ones trap Knave and Sid in their future. Aiding a resisitence group, Knave and Sid launch an attack on the Grotesques. In the present, Future Knave begins summoning a tower that will bring the Grotesques to our world, claiming it had arrivied via a meteor previously.

Knave and Sid return from the future, having eradicated the Grotesques. They then engage in a final battle with their future selves, with KNave revealing his upgraded Kenshi to Future Knave. After defeating him, the tower begins to crumble as Future Sid is beaten by Sid. The two future selves return to their past after losing consciousness, while Knave begins worrying about a mysterious figure that appears in his mind during every use of his new Kenshi.

Team Gecko Annihilation Arc[]

Tsubaki goes to an Utherworld library to research any mentioning of the Grotesques in Utherworld's past. While browsing, she absentmindedly lookings up "Team Gecko", and discovers a mention of the name, linked to an incident known as "The Great Genocide". Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Kaiser gathers his companions, a group of fairies under the name "Team Boa", and announces that the 100th anniversary of the Team Gecko namesake, and on the anniversary they will eradicate the current "iteriation". 

Tsubaki arrives at Team Gecko's clubhouse, where she alerts them of her findings. Apparently, the Great Genocide was an event where a previous Z-Class team casued Team Gecko launched an attack on all their rivals at the time, leaving all bodies in their wake. Knave dismisses the story, stating that their Team Gecko is different and there should be no repricussions. As the group begins to relax again, a massive energy blast strikes the clubhouse, causing an explosion.

As Team Gecko scrambles outside, they are met by Team Boa, declaring that they will exterminate every one who bears the Team Gecko namesake. As Knave begins to fly up to then, Kaiser appears next to him, then strikes him fiercly, sending him smashing through several trees and landing on a boulder. Wiping blood of his lip, and with a bruise on his jaw, Knave orders Team Gecko to prepare for battle.

As the various battles rage, Team Gecko is slowly beaten down, with Kaiser being able to move faster than Knave (though they are roughly even in actual strength). During the battle, another member of Team Boa, a strange puppet-like fairy named Jaeger, begins randomly attacking Team Gecko members, impaling Sid on a cross-like beam. Meanwhile, as Knave and Kaiser fight, Kaiser declares that he was the only child who survived the Great Genocide, and has raised up his own team for the sole purpose of defeating Team Gecko. Elsewhere, Sirius falls to Jaegar in a similar manner as Sid. As Knave slowly gives ground to Kaiser, a mysterious boy dressed similarly to Knave (though with tan hair), appears, and tells Knave to step back, as he himself begins fighting Kaiser, and actually makes more headway. He identifies himself as Mest, then leaves an opening for Knave to launch an attack, managing to injure Kaiser. Kaiser, enraged, orders his team to retreat, as Risa falls to a fate like Sid's and Sirius's. As Team Gecko slowly recovers, Murtaugh reappears, congratulating Mest on his preformance and promising to explain things to Knave once they collect all the injured members.

At a small hospital, Knave collects the mostly unharmed members of Team Gecko and assembles in the hospital room with Sid, Sirius, and Risa. Murtaugh appears himself, and Knave demands he explains Team Boa's existance. Murtaugh then recalls back to at seventy years before Knave's birth. At that time, Murtaugh was a rookie Z-Class Fairy, eager to join his brother, Manarxus's, newely formed team, Team Gecko. When Murtaugh first joined a group, they were in a deep dispute with another team, Team Boa, lead by Kaiser's great-grandfather, and also featuring Sirius's grandfather, Morrigan. In a small skirmish on the outskirts of a small village, Manarxus and Kaiser's ancestor ended up destroying most of the village, prompting the village's neighboring team to counterattack. As a three-sided war arrupted, Manarxus's lover was killed by Kaiser's ancestor to spite him.

Slowly being driven mad by the grief, Manarxus lead a series of campaigns, viscouly slaughtering any teams or civilians related to Team Boa. Appalled by these attrocities, a young Murtaugh took it upon himself to save the team, and challenged Manarxus to a duel over leadership of Gecko. After at least 7 hours of nonstop combat, Murtaugh barely managed to defeat his elder brother, and refused to kill him in a final act of mercy. A insane Manarxus fled.

Later that night, Manarxus attacked Team Boa's headquarters, slaughtering all inside, excepting for one baby, the youngest there, who Manarxus wouldn't kill for a reason that is still unknown. Fleeing from the carnage, Manarxus succumbed to his wounds and died. With that, Murtaugh ends his story, leaving Team Gecko to reflect in silence while he waits patiently.

Just as Knave begins to speak, Jaeger seems to appear out of nowhere, impaling Murtaugh through the heart with an energy spike. As Murtaugh slumps, Jaeger blows a small whistle, summoning the sudden teleportation of Team Boa's headquarters, which lands right in front of the hospital. As doctors rush towards Murtaugh, an enraged Knave activates his Kenshi and clotheslines Jaeger, sending them crashing through the wall. They smash into a forest, nearly destroying it with their impact, and prepare to continue their fight, while Knave mentally struggles to hold back the mysterious figure. Meanwhile, the rest of Team Boa elects to watch, to test the new Gecko's strength.

As Knave and Jaeger fight, Knave constantly is forced to deactivate his Kenshi to stave off the mysterious figure, and as a result, finds himself taking loads of unneccessary damage. As Risa and Sid debate moving into to assist Knave, Kaiser suddenly appears, dismissing Jaeger and proclaiming that he wants to test Knave's true strength, imploring him to keep his Kenshi active. As they begin their fight, Knave begins progressively losing control of his Kenshi, with the mysterious figure physically assaulting him within his mind. Struggling to keep himself conscious, Knave continues fighting Kaiser, unaware that he is steadily improving in strength.

Murtaugh, awakening, senses Knave's Stark and quickly arrives outside, nearly reopening his wound in the process. There, he orders Knave to stand down, and demands that Kaiser face him instead, calling himself the source of this conflict. As Kaiser and Murtaugh prepare to fight, Murtaugh tells Knave that if he loses, he should go with Sensei-chan to his homeland, the Continent of Ice, to fully master his Kenshi. With that, Murtaugh unseals his full Stark. Despite initially holding his own, Murtaugh is eventually beaten down and has his back broken by Kaiser, who views him as not worthy to kill.

Enraged, Knave attempts to attack again, but is stopped this time by the full force of Team Boa, who pummel him incredibly quickly before leaving. As Team Gecko attempts to regroup from their second defeat, Sensei-chan reappears, and teleports Knave to the outskirts of the Continent of Ice, for mastery of his new Kenshi.

Continent of Ice Arc[]

As they begin to head towards a massive ice spire in the distance, Knave and Sensei-chan are confronted by two groups, samurai and various cats, who begin to fight. Knave attempts to stop the conflict, but is confronted by a samurai named Sarutobi, who battles him. Unaccustomed to opponents primarily using blades, Knave is heavily injured, and Sensei-chan is forced to drag him away. Realizing that Sensei-chan appears to be on their side, the cats utilize explosives to distract the samurai and help them escape. The cats tell Sensei-chan that the civil war has been raging since he left several years ago, and say that they have to get Knave to the Spire of Kings quickly, or else his own Kenshi will tear him apart.

Arriving at the Ice Spire, they are met with another large group of cats, who introduce Knave to the Head Priest. The Head commands Knave to enter a large ice crystal in the floor, and, once inside, to activate his new Kenshi. When Knave does as asked, the area around him becomes pitch black, and strange, monster-like beings begin to pull themselves from the ground and attack him, with him seemingly being powerless. Outside the crystal, the Head Priest explains to Sensei-chan that Kenshi was used by the Twelve Fairy Kings of old to form Utherworld as it is today, and to do so, countless lives were sacrificed. In order for a fairy to utilize the true form of Kenshi, they must accept the weight of its bloody history.

Knave is swallowed up by the creatures, with only his hand sticking out, and sinking fast. Right as it vanishes, Knave giving into a despair, a hand reaches out, grabbing his and stopping his descent. The figure is revealed to be an apparition of Murtaugh, who confesses to Knave that his biggest regret was to never be able to erase the hatred that filled his older brother's heart, and begs Knave to break the cycle before it destroys another generation. He hands Knave two orbs of Stark, which he explains contains both his and Manarxus's respective Kenshis, which he believes will stabilize Knave's own. Tearing up, Knave thanks his mentor for all that he has done for him, as the Hero of Utherworld passes on. Knave then absorbs the two orbs, and breaks through the crystal surrounding him with one hand, demanding that the cats bring him warmer clothes.

Outside, Sarutobi gathers the samurai for a massive strike on the Spire of Kings, when Knave walks out on one of the higher edges of it, now wearing a wool kimono. He and Sarutobi stare each other down for a moment, then prepare for battle. The two proceed to charge at each other, exchanging a few brutal blows, Knave managing to parry every sword strike by hitting the flat sections of the samurai's blade with his fists. After a few minutes of this, Sarutobi becomes frustrated and attempts a much stronger technique, forcing Knave to dodge.

In order to even the odds, Knave snatches the blade from another samurai and attempts to go sword-to-sword with his opponent, managing to do surprisingly well. Becoming more and more enraged with Knave's growth, Sarutobi begins to go all out, while flashing back to his time as an apprentice swordsman. Long ago on the Continent of Ice's history, the cats and samurai lived in something close to peace, with the cats acting as loyal companions and at times servants to the more powerful samurai. However, that all changed after a samurai extremist taught his own cat how to utilize Stark to increase its power. The cat spread the knowledge to its brethren, and a rebellion quickly began. The samurai, too arrogant and prideful to think that the cats could live equally or above them, countered, and war sprung up. Sarutobi himself was brought up by the descendants of the samurai who had sparked the war, leading to a large amount of prejudice aimed directly at him. Becoming angered and hating both his ancestors and the cats he fought against, Sarutobi swore to become the leader of the samurai and end the war with his own hands.

Becoming desperate, Sarutobi launches his strongest attack in the hopes of destroying both Knave and the Spire itself. Losing his patience, Knave increases his speed and delivers a massive blow to Sarutobi's stomach. He then increases his speed even more, seizing the Head Priest, and forcing both the cat and the samurai to bow to each other. He then demands that the two species learn to get along, or he'll do this again and again to each member of the species. He then heads back into the Spire, while thanking Sarutobi for the fight. He then tells Sensei-chan that it's time for them to head home, as he wants to see his friends and stop Kaiser for good, breaking the cycle of hatred where it stands.

Meanwhile, at Team Boa's base (which has left the area right in front of the hospital and is now on an unknown mountain), Kaiser completes another round of training, then converses with Jaeger. He reveals that he's been thinking, and that he's decided the sight for Team Boa's "final play".

Team Boa Annihilation Arc (In progress)[]

After a brief interlude explaining the events of some of Team Gecko's three years of training, the story resumes in the present time, above the capital of Utherworld. The Z-Class Fairy Council finishes one of their meetings, discussing the sudden upsurge of activity in the mysterious group known as the Unseele Court. As they do so, Team Boa's fortress appears directly above the city, with Kaiser overlooking it and calling out the Council by their original name: the Seele Court. He then declares that on this day he will destroy all the falsehoods that have plagued fairies for eternity, and then lifts his hand up, declaring that he will bring the wrath of the heavens upon them. Elsewhere, Team Gecko prepares to head out to confront Team Boa, while Knave slowly makes his way back from the Continent of Ice. As Kaiser prepares to launch his assault, the Seele Court debates whether or not they should put him place. Before they can reach a decision, however, Team Gecko appears, proclaiming that they'll protect both the city and the Seele Court in order to defeat Team Boa once and for all. Amused by their persistence and decision to fight once more, Kaiser proclaims that he'll no longer simply be satisfied with a battle, and wants to put something more important on the line: the lives of every fairy and other living being in Utherworld. He then proceeds to maximize his powers to their limit, summoning a massive meteor in the skies above the Seele Court. As the Court quickly erects a Stark shield around themselves, Team Gecko heads towards the meteor, only to be confronted by various members of Team Boa, demanding a final battle themselves.

Production[]

Akiba claims that the inspiration for Phantasy came from when he first skimmed through the premise of the light novel series Duararara!!. Believing to be a series about fighting fairies, Akiba told his friend, a anime novice, about it. After his friend watched the series and told him he had been wrong, Akiba realized its potential for a shonen manga series. It supposedly took him 3 weeks of negotiations to get Akita Shoten to publish the first 3 chapters. 

When developing Tsubaki, Akiba drew upon himself as a teenager, and named her "Tsubaki" one of his favorite characters from his huge inspiration, the manga/anime Soul Eater. For Knave, Akiba took the concept of a standard shonen protagnist, and then fused it with some aspects of American protagnists (such as Harry Potter and Eragon), combining them to make Knave.

While creating otherworld, Numashi based it off the Wizard of Oz series, also traveling around the world to numerous locations to research about different enviroments. Akiba later claimed the name Utherworld was a tribute to his major inspiration, Dragon Ball.

In 2010, Numashi sued Akita Shoten for creating a Phantasy OVA without consulting him or asking for his permission. He won the case on the grounds that he had not given the rights to Phantasy to Akita Shoten at the time of the OVA's conception and release. The OVA was pulled from shelves, and Numashi wrote a sidestory chapter which was later adapted into a replacement OVA.

Media[]

Manga[]

For more, see: List of Phantasy chapters

Written and drawn by Akiba Numashi, Phantasy began publication in Weekly Shonen Champion magazine in January 2003. On November 2010, the series was put on temporary hiatus when Akiba's grandfather died. The series was once again put on hiatus, this time voluntairly, in August 2012, to celebrate the movie and the timeskip that had just begun. Numashi later released a miniseries called Phantasy! World of the Gods! which served as the background to the character Risa. As of March 2015, the series spans 672 chapters, and is still ongoing.

Anime[]

For more, see: List of Phantasy episodes

On April 23rd, 2005, an anime adaptation created by Toei Animation and directed by Hana Numashi aired on the 7 AM timeslot on Fuji TV. Up to 360 episodes have been released so far. FUNimation obtained the home video, television, and merchandising rights to the Phantasy anime on May 12, 2009. An english-dubbed version of the anime began airing on the 3 PM timeslot on Toonami in 2011. Viz Media acquired the merchandizing rights to the manga series in 2007, and began publishing the translated manga abroad in the same year. Up to 27 volumes have been released in America. The series began DVD release in both Japan and abroad in 2010. Following the animation of the Shadowland War Arc, Toei began restructuring itself internally, postponing or halting many of its current series, with Phantasy being undecided if it was over or on hiatus. After half a year with new episodes, a new team began producing Phantasy episodes, beginning with the 3 Years Later arc and onward. The group of animators, known currently as Team Phantasy, have announced plans to pause the anime once they conclude the Future Arc, in order to reanimate the rest of the series to match the new style. The new series will be released in box sets under the title of Phantasy Re:HD.

Several 'filler arcs' have been produced for the series when the anime came close to the manga. The first takes place between the Akasume and Jose Arcs, and follows Team Gecko as they team up with Sirius (not yet a member) against the malevolent shade of a former guardian fairy of Sirius's family. This filler is so far the longest in the series, spanning 25 episodes. A two-episode 'mini-arc' was added to the Shadowland War Arc, detailing further Team Gecko's training, as well as including a group of Locust spies who attempt to infiltrate the palace, and a royal ball of sorts. A single episode was also added during the conclusion of the Shadowland War Arc, promoting the third movie. A 12-episode filler arc was produced by Team Phantasy, taking place between Team Gecko's first battle after the timeskip and the beginning of the Lost Star Arc. Two new filler arcs were added to the middle of the actual Future Arc, both dealing with further adventures Knave and Sid have while stuck in the future, one dealing with an organization called NEXT that seeks to take over Utherworld following the defeat of the Grotesques, and the other following the two as they travel to defeat the Four Pillars, four superpowerful fairies who are preventing them from returning to the past. In addition, Akiba Numashi has announced to have written a four-episode anime-exclusive arc to promote the fourth movie, to be released at an unknown date.

Films[]

The series has spawned three films so far. The first, Phantasy Movie: The Red Generation, was released in Japanese theaters on December 31st, 2010, and released on DVD on March 3rd, 2011. A second film, Phantasy Movie: A Will of Steel, was released in Japanese theaters on December 32st, 2012, and released on DVD on  April 2nd, 2013. The third film, Phantasy Movie: Into the Nether, was released in August 2013, and was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in September 2013. The third movie remains the highest grossing Phantasy movie in the franchise history.  FUNimation has recently acquired the rights to the first and third movies, to be released in American theaters sometime in 2014. The second will not be liscensed due to some "adult content". On December 31st, 2013, Akiba Numashi unveiled the fourth movie, Phantasy Movie: World's Strongest, to be released sometime in 2016. It was later announced that the movie would be written and directed by Hana Numashi, the regular anime director, and that the scenario, overall plot, and character designs/art direction would be handeled by Akiba Numashi himself. 

OVAs[]

The original Phantasy team released 5, 3-episode long original video animations during the anime's hiatus. Unlike most OVas, which are mostly lighthearted and focusing more on daily life of the characters, these five had darker, action-based storylines and were more in keeping with filler arcs in the regular anime. The first, Phantasy Special: Attack on the Toyhouse! Battle for the Fairy Children! was released in August 2010, with the following September seeing the release of Phantasy Special: Sword of Utherworld, as well as Phantasy Special: God's Eye (an adaptation of the World of the Gods omake). The last two were released in April and June 2012, those being Phantasy Special: Blood of the Sakura and Phantasy Special: War on Earth (the only one to have 5 episodes instead of 3). 

Team Phantasy has announced the production of their first OVA, called Phantasy Special: World is Ours, on December 19th, 2013, to celebrate the series' tenth anniversary.

Music[]

The audio tracks for Phantasy were produced by the Japanese band Jitterbug. The first soundtrack, covering the music of the first 3 seasons, was released on August 22nd, 2009. The second soundtrack was released in 2011, on the same day. Several other CDs, featuring character singles, uncut songs, and character duet songs were released quietly on 2012, then pulled from stores. They have become valuable collector's items. Though Jitterbug produced the series's musical score, the anime's openings have had a wide variety of artists performing them, most notebly being LM.C (who performed a remixed version of [Boys and Girls] for the first opening), and NICO Touches the Walls (the only band to have performed two opening songs).

Video Games[]

Phantasy has spawned 7 different video games. The first 3, Phantasy: Fairy ConflictFairy Conflict 2, and Phantasy: Fairy Adventure were released on the Xbox, the PlayStation 2, and the Dreamcast. The Fairy Conflict games are Street Fighter-style fighting games, while Fairy Adventure is a Final Fantasy-styled RPG. A collected version of the first three games called Phantasy Game Collection 1, was released on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. A trilogy of fighting games similar to the Budokai Tenkaichi series of Dragon Ball were released, under the titles: Phantasy: Fairy Warfare, Fairy Warfare 2, and Fairy Warfare Genisis were released on the current generation of consolse as well. An upcoming game for the next generation, Phantasy: Dark Warriors, is under development.

The most popular series of video games in Phantasy's history is the Fairy Gakuen series, a series of school/dating sim arcade games that allow the player to control a student in Fairy Gakuen, where they can interact with or romance the main cast. The first game, Phantasy: Fairy Gakuen, broke records upon its release and remained the top played arcade game in Japan for a incredible 3 weeks in a row. A sequel, Fairy Gakuen 2, was release a year later and also held the position, though this time for 4 weeks. The first two games have been bundled into a collection called Phantasy: Fairy Gakuen GOLD, released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii and Wii U in Japan, with a limited release in America, the UK, and Korea. A game for the 3DS and Vita entitled Fairy Gakuen Zero Dust has been announced, which will be compatible with the upcoming Fairy Gakuen 3, the next game in the series.

Reception[]

Phantasy has become the best selling manga under Weekly Shonen Champion, to the point that color images often appear on the front covers. The series has also received positive reviews, with most critics praising the character personality, the comedy, and the action scenes. The english dubbed version of the anime has received much less praise, with many American reviews critizising some of the voice actors, and some of the edited animation. Phantasy was ranked number 15 on the best selling manga of 2012, and number 9 in 2013. It was also rnaked number nine on the most watched anime series of 2010-2012, dropping slightly to 10 in 2013.

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