#i miss mashimas nalu Valentine’s Day arts

[celestialulu]

When this cover art dropped a few years back I lost my shit so hard and I STILL DO

(Happy Valentine’s Day!)

[m-i-r]

NaLu 2020 hints compilation

I've been enjoying FT100YQ for the Natsu and Lucy content, but I honestly miss talking about my OTP, so I decided to make a little compilation post to collect all of the NaLu crumbs (*cough*meals really*cough*) we got throughout this year thus far (+add a little bit of my commentary on each one of them)! ^_^

So let’s start with Mashima's Twitter Doodles:

#1:

Posted on January 25, for no particular reason. This is really among NaLu's best Twitter Doodles. The way they're smiling and holding each other is just so precious ♥

#2:

Posted on March 24, aka White Day in Japan! Natsu's giving Lucy a bunny plush as thanks for her chocolates! This one actually references a FT100YQ chapter cover, but we'll get to that later. #3:

Posted on May 23, aka Kiss Day in Japan! It's actually part of a "tutorial" that eventually takes on a "troll" route lol. Fun Fact: Mashima has plenty of official couples he could've drawn for this day, but for some interesting reason he chose to draw NaLu instead. The doodle also just so happens to bless the fandom with an official kissing artwork of their OTP, while still respecting said OTP's current status and developments in the official story (by being a "joke" post).  

  #4:

Drawn by Mashima and posted by his editor.

Apparently there was some kind of promotion on MagaPoke (the app/site that uploads the FT100YQ chapters) a while back - fans could submit requests for art by Mashima, and 3 winners were chosen. This was 1's requested artwork. ♥ There were a lot of NaLu requests apparently!

Now onto FT100YQ content! Which are unfortunately just Chapter Covers lol. (But it can't be helped, the manga's bi-weekly so it's walking at a snail's pace, and Natsu and Lucy are busy fighting separately for the time being. But the covers are really lovely!)

First, we got the cover of Chapter 49:

This one references Valentine's Day! Happy takes the spotlight with his romantic delusions, but in the background we can see Lucy shyly attempting to give Natsu Valentine's chocolate. And from Mashima's White Day Twitter doodle that he posted later on, we can conclude that her attempt was successful, and her feelings were happily accepted and reciprocated. 😉

Then, we got the cover of chapter 53:

JErza takes the spot-light this time, but in the bg we can see NaLu being dorks together. (This actually kind of canonizes Mashima's series of "Hot Spring Vacation" doodles he did back on his Twitter in 2018!) Natsu just can't help messing with Lucy lol, he truly loves being around her and having her attention. And is that.... Σ(ﾟÅﾟ) “May we stay together forever” I read up there?? Used in a romantic setting??? Σ(ﾟДﾟ)  I think all NaLu fans know what I’m trying to say lol.  

Then we got the cover of chapter 55:

This one references Children's Day in Japan. As you can see, Natsu's playing with Asuka again, and Lucy's looking at him lovingly in the bg. The Asuka omake had some strong NaLu hinting, so it's nice to see Mashima kinda reference it again. Although many may claim that Natsu’s an immature character whose unfit for parenthood, I think he’ll be a great father to his future daughter/children with Lucy. 😉

And lastly, we got the cover of the most recent chapter, chapter 58:

Gray/Gruvia take the spot-light, but in the bg we can see NaLu (and JErza) dancing together. ♥ Although NaLu's the only major pairing where neither side has openly voiced/admitted their feelings yet, Mashima still makes sure to include them in every piece with romantic undertones. The ship got his full support, and FT100YQ hasn’t been shy with romance, so I’m pretty excited to see what he has in store for NaLu. ^_^ ♥

 Now onto HERO’s hints. Or rather, HEROINE’s. HERO’s chapters were actually released weekly in 2019, but the volume containing them all came out in 2020, with an extra chapter called “HEROINE’s”.

HEROINE’s had a moment for all of Mashima’s main ships – Haru x Elie from Rave Master, Natsu x Lucy from Fairy Tail and Shiki x Rebecca from Edens Zero.

And well, the moment NaLu had was pretty damn cute, if I do say so myself:

The fact that they’re pranking people together now (or at least attempting to lol) just goes to show how close they’ve become. Natsu’s rubbed quite a bit of his personality on Lucy. And the way he takes care of her each time she’s in trouble (either drunk or passed out) is so damn precious! The smiling, blushing faces they give each other also make me feel all kinds of ways. ♥

And that concludes what we have for now! As you can see, it’s a fair bit of stuff despite them not interacting in the manga for what feels like ages! So I sure hope the fandom keeps looking at the positive side of things, and patiently wait for whatever NaLu’s gonna deliver us next.