is a fictional character and protagonist of the Fairy Tail manga series created by Hiro Mashima. First making his debut in Fairy Tail chapter #1, originally published in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Magazine on August 2, 2006, Natsu is depicted as a member of the eponymous wizards' guild, who are notorious in the fictional Kingdom of Fiore for their numerous accounts of causing unintentional property damage with their magic. Being a Natsu possesses the same abilities as his foster father, the dragon Igneel, namely the ability to consume and manipulate fire. Natsu's predominant role in the series is to reunite with Igneel, who has been missing for seven years by the story's outset. He appears in most Fairy Tail media, including both feature films, all original video animations (OVAs), light novels, and video games. He is voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara in Japanese, while Todd Haberkorn voices him in the English dub.
Mashima has considered Natsu to be among his favorite characters, and claimed that he based him on his own characteristics. Reviewers have largely praised Natsu's character, noting his action-packed combat scenes and upbeat demeanor throughout the series. His motion sickness has also been well-received as a humorous element within the story. Natsu has placed high in popularity polls, and many different pieces of merchandise related to him, such as action figures, have been released.
Creation and conception During the making of the series Rave Master, manga author Hiro Mashima considered the protagonist Haru Glory as the "angsty hard-working type". As a result, when writing Fairy Tail, Mashima made the new lead Natsu to be calmer than Haru. Natsu Dragneel was one of the first characters Hiro Mashima created during the development of Fairy Tail. He was conceptualized as a fire-using member of a courier guild who would suffer from motion sickness, a character trait the author based on one of his friends. Mashima implemented Natsu's motion sickness into the final version of the character, believing that this and his pink hair make the character unique. Mashima cited his own personality as a junior high school student as the inspiration for Natsu's personality, and his father's death as an influence for the relationship between Natsu and Igneel. Natsu's concept evolved in a one-shot short story titled Fairy Tale, where he is depicted as a spirit with horns. He is normally portrayed as wearing black-colored clothing, which Mashima chose in favor of his original choice of red to improve the contrast between the character's fire abilities and clothes. The author mentioned that Natsu had been designed to give the best of himself when it comes to everything. Mashima regarded Natsu's development throughout the story as great and stated that the series could easily progress because of it. The author also commented that Natsu is his favorite character.
Mashima named Natsu after the Japanese word for to avoid using Western fantasy names that would sound unfamiliar to the Japanese audience, and to follow up on the fact that the protagonist of his earlier work Rave Master is called Haru, which means . Mashima also said that the names of both characters highlight their personality traits, with Natsu being "a fiery guy" as opposed to the "warm" Haru.
Natsu's age is left ambiguous throughout the series, with the character's age listed as "unknown" on the cover of chapter 23. A scene occurs during chapter 108 in which he is trapped behind a runic blockade designed to prevent those over the age of 80 from crossing; as a response to questions about the scene, which were submitted by readers for the "Emergency Request! Explain the Mysteries of Fairy Tail" section of the manga's volume 15 release, it is asserted that the character's age is actually not over 80, and that "beyond that would be revealing an important plot point".
Regarding the anime adaptation of the series, Mashima commented that his favorite part is seeing Natsu and Happy move around, characterizing them as "fun". Mashima stated that he loves Natsu's voice from the anime. When the Fairy Tail anime started being released in North America, Mashima was concerned about actor Todd Haberkorn's voice since Natsu, the character he plays, often yelled across the story. Haberkorn mentioned that one of his favorite aspects of voicing Natsu was leaving the recording studio without a voice. Tetsuya Kakihara, Natsu's Japanese voice actor, said that while he had not initially wanted to voice Natsu and had instead hoped to voice the character Gray Fullbuster, he had come to love playing Natsu and thought he was meant to voice him. He further mentioned that Natsu is his favorite character and considered him "fantastic". He also described Natsu's character as difficult because he has exceptional gifts compared to his friends. Kakihara stated that each scene in which he voiced Natsu remained in his mind, adding that he regarded Happy as his own partner since he is Natsu's companion.
Appearances In Fairy Tail Natsu first appears in Fairy Tail chapter #1, "The Fairy's Tail", which was originally released on August 2, 2006, in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. He is an orphan raised and trained by the dragon Igneel, whose disappearance Natsu notes on the date of July 7, X777, seven years before the beginning of the narrative. Upon introduction, Natsu is a famed member of the Fairy Tail wizards' guild who notoriously causes most of the collateral damage for which his guild is blamed. During the first chapter, Natsu and his Exceed companion, Happy, rescue celestial wizard Lucy Heartfilia from a criminal operating under Natsu's alias, "Salamander", whom Natsu confuses for Igneel, an actual salamander. The three form a team to perform missions together, later being joined by two of Natsu's childhood rivals, ice wizard Gray Fullbuster and armor wizard Erza Scarlet, becoming what their guildmates label as Fairy Tail's most powerful team.
Natsu is eventually selected to participate in Fairy Tail's S-Class promotional trial held on Sirius Island, the guild's sacred ground. The exam is interrupted when Natsu and his guildmates encounter Zeref, an immortal dark wizard who wishes to be killed by Natsu but is not recognized by him. After Natsu defeats Hades, master of the dark guild Grimoire Heart, the black dragon Acnologia assaults the Fairy Tail wizards, who are protected and placed into seven years of suspended animation within the magic Fairy Sphere cast by the spirit of Mavis Vermillion, Fairy Tail's founding guild master. Returning to find that Fairy Tail has fallen behind the other wizard guilds in the Kingdom of Fiore, Natsu participates in the Grand Magic Games tournament with his friends to regain their guild's prestige. Following Fairy Tail's victory in the tournament, the guild becomes embroiled in a war between Fairy Tail and Tartaros, a dark guild of Etherious demons created by Zeref that seek to summon E.N.D., Zeref's ultimate demon. When Acnologia appears and threatens both guilds, Igneel emerges from Natsu's body, revealed to have sealed himself within Natsu at the time of their apparent separation in order to inoculate him against dragonification, a Dragon Slayer affliction that transforms them into dragons similar to Acnologia. After his strength proves insufficient to prevent Acnologia from killing Igneel, Natsu embarks on a training journey with Happy to avenge Igneel.
One year later, a significantly strengthened Natsu reunites with Lucy and helps her reform the guild, which has disbanded in his absence. During Zeref's ensuing invasion with the militaristic Alvarez Empire, Zeref identifies Natsu as his younger brother and the true incarnation of E.N.D.—Etherious Natsu Dragneel—resurrected from death as a child to kill Zeref. It is further revealed that Igneel raised Natsu at Zeref's behest four-hundred years ago, sending him to July 7, X777 in the present era through Eclipse, Zeref's time travel gate, to secure Igneel's sealing technique and defeat Acnologia. After a failed attempt to kill Zeref, Natsu's demonic transformation is triggered, which manifests as a tumor-like "demon seed"; this, coupled with a similar "dragon seed" that induces dragonification, endangers his life. After falling into a coma following a rampage in his demon form, he recovers by asserting his humanity during a metaphysical dream, destroying both seeds. He subsequently defeats Zeref, acknowledging their brotherly bond, while Lucy edits the book containing Natsu's demonic essence to sever his connection to it. Natsu then kills Acnologia by destroying his disembodied spirit inside a space-time rift after his allies immobilize the dragon's body within Fairy Sphere. In the epilogue, Natsu and his team depart on a 100 Years Quest, a guild mission that has never been accomplished in under a century.
In other media Natsu appears in both Fairy Tail films. In Fairy Tail the Movie: Phoenix Priestess (2012), Natsu defeats Dist, the leader of the Carbuncle guild. Natsu also makes an appearance in the one-shot prologue manga created by Hiro Mashima for this film and in its animated adaptation. In the sequel Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry (2017), he fights and wins against Animus, the ruler of the kingdom of Stella, while half of Natsu's body takes on the appearance of a dragon.
Natsu is also a character in all nine Fairy Tail original video animations (OVAs). In the first OVA, Natsu cleans a swimming pool alongside other Fairy Tail guild members; in the second, he is depicted as an academy student; in the third, he is sent to the past by a magic book; in the fourth, Natsu goes to a camp in order to train for the Grand Magic Games; in the fifth, he spends time at a water park; the sixth is a crossover OVA of Fairy Tail and Hiro Mashima's Rave Master series, where Natsu meets Rave Master protagonist Haru Glory and Rave Master heroine Elie; in the seventh, Natsu participates in a penalty game; in the eighth, he tries to cheer Mavis Vermillion up; and in the ninth, Natsu attends a Christmas party held at Lucy's house. He also appears in every light novel based on the series, including one where he is a samurai, and one which is inspired by the Alice in Wonderland novel. Natsu is also present in Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest, the sequel to the Fairy Tail manga that directly continues the original story. He appears in several spin-offs from the original manga as well.
Natsu is a playable character in several Fairy Tail video games, such as the PlayStation Portable action video game Fairy Tail: Portable Guild (2010) developed by Konami and its two sequels — Fairy Tail: Portable Guild 2 (2011) and Fairy Tail: Zeref Awakens (2012). He is present in the multi-platform role-playing video game developed by Gust Co. Ltd. as well. Natsu also appears in crossover video games, including Sunday vs Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen (2009) alongside Lucy.
Powers and abilities Natsu is a Dragon Slayer trained by Igneel to use which grants him the ability to consume and create fire, and makes him immune to fire-based attacks. He also possesses other superhuman abilities such as immense strength, a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and resilience against otherwise lethal attacks. Because of his sharpened senses, however, he suffers from incapacitating motion sickness when riding transportation of any sort.