Believing in the power of friendship can grant a power greater than any magic. At least, that’s what Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima seems to want his fans to believe. But while Fairy Tail is known in the anime world for it’s a unique world of mages who seem to prefer their fists and weapons to staffs and staves, everyone knows what people really watch the anime for: talking cats.
Fairy Tail’s world is full of felines who not only can use magic but converse with their partners as well. And one of the ones we were introduced to before any other is Happy, fish addict and Natsu’s oldest partner. This list gives fans a greater look at one of the best members of the team.
10 NATSU FLIES WITH HIM
Happy doesn’t receive nearly enough credit for being as strong as he is. He’s capable of carrying Natsu even though Natsu is several times his size. This is noteworthy for one primary reason—as a Dragon Slayer, Natsu suffers from severe motion sickness thanks to the synchronization between a human’s semicircular canals and a dragon’s incredible eye-sight.
Frequently, the show uses this as a means of comedy, pointing out how Natsu can’t ride even the slowest vehicles without getting sick. But since he views Happy as a friend and not a vehicle, somehow he’s able to fly Air Blue Kitty no issues.
9 HE CAN TRANSFORM
It isn’t thought of much because Happy is mostly used as comic relief, but Happy’s learned a bit of magic over the years. During a comedy omake chapter called “Mira-sensei’s Transforming Magic Class,” Mirajane teaches Happy, Natsu, and Lucy some basic transformation magic spells.
Happy tries to transform multiple times, but ultimately he’s only able to manage a tiny version of Lucy, which is more creepy than anything.
8 HE TRANSFORMED INTO RED HAPPY
In 2017, the film Fairy Tail: Dragon’s Cry aired in Japanese theaters. The story saw Natsu and the others going up against King Animus, the ruler of Stella, who had the Fiore hidden weapon Dragon Cry stolen for an ancient ritual. During that film, Happy happened to eat an odd fruit that turned him red.
Referring to himself as Red Happy, he remained basically the same cat as always, but gained magical powers. During a moment when things were at their worst, Happy pulled off his own version of the Fire Dragon Roar and took out an attack dog several times his size. Of course, the powers wore off right after.
7 HE SHARES A VOICE WITH ALPHONSE
Once again, a talented voice actor/actress is capable of doing any voice. Happy is voiced by the legendary Rie Kugimiya, a woman who’s been doing voice work since 1998. She’s voiced a ton of well-known characters from Shakugan no Shana’s Shana to Ichigo’s sister Karin Kurosaki in Bleach, but the voice she’s arguably best known for aside from Happy is Alphonse Elric, from Fullmetal Alchemist.
The English voice actress isn’t quite as well known, but she still does a great job. In addition to voicing Happy, Tia Ballard has voiced Rosario + Vampire’s Mizore and Rage of Bahamut’s Amira.
6 THE HARDEST JOB HE EVER TOOK
In the sixteenth volume of the series, a bit of extra material sees Happy do an interview with Sorcerer Magazine. During that interview, we learn more about Happy, including that his dream is to see Igneel, Natsu’s adopted father (aww!), that his closest partners are Natsu and Lucy, and we learn about the hardest job he ever did.
Unsurprisingly, this job involved fishing for the Winged Fish, giant, colorful fish who literally goes around flying. Despite Happy’s love of fish, it turned out the Winged Fish were completely disgusting and the worst fish he ever had.
5 HE APPEARS IN EDEN'S ZERO
Eden’s Zero is the manga Hiro Mashima started to work on after he finished Fairy Tail. A series following a group of misfit pirates in space looking for Mother, the goddess of the cosmos itself, early on we meet Rebecca, a young character who resembles Lucy quite a bit and happens to have a cat with her named Happy.
Just like Fairy Tail, Happy is a blue, talking cat. But unlike Fairy Tail, this version of Happy died in a car accident, and his mind was transferred into a robotic body that can transform into Magic Blasters.
4 HE USES FOOD AS WEAPONS
There’s nothing Happy loves more than to eat. Typically when he’s asked to do something that involves giving up his food, it leaves him out of action, and it’s the first thing he looks for when the battle calms down.
But when you wind up in as many battles as he has, you’ve got to reach for something to help in combat, and with Happy, it tends to be the thing nearest and dearest to his heart: his food. We’ve seen him use everything from octopus to fruits to even the precious fish he loves so much. He can be pretty deadly with a halibut in his hands.
3 HE'S BATTLE TESTED
It’s not really a surprise that Happy winds up in battle a lot. He’s a member of Fairy Tail, and pretty much all they do is end up in fights. It’s not something that comes up with Sting or Rogue’s Exceed partners Lecter and Frosch, who both wind up running away from battle or otherwise needing protection.
But Carla learns proper magic, Pantherlily can transform into a giant muscular form, and Happy serves as Natsu’s aerial mode. Though he isn’t usually brave, his time with Fairy Tail has led to some very brave moments, like when he once took a member of Tartaros that was about to explode far away from the city to save everyone else.
2 HE WAS INITIALLY MEANT TO KILL NATSU
At least, that’s what Carla told him. Initially, Wendy’s Exceed partner believed that all of them were sent to Earthland to slay the Dragon Slayers. In reality, this was the result of Carla’s power of prediction seeing glimpses of the future and creating a mission on her own.
Happy and the others were actually sent to Earth to avoid what the Exceeds believed to be a great misfortune happening to their home Extalia. It just so happened that Natsu found Happy and gave him a friend and a home.
1 HE GAINS A BATTLE FORM
When Gajeel’s friend Pantherlily was introduced to the series, we saw him as a massive cat capable of actually slugging it out with the Metal Dragon Slayer. Since then, we’ve never actually seen any other cats gain a form like this. But as it turns out, Pantherlily isn’t the only one who can achieve this form.
A year ago, Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima revealed a photo of Natsu and Happy after they had both gotten much older. Natsu looks roughly the same with a beard and a couple of wrinkles, but it seems as if Happy learned to achieve his Battle Form, and isn’t much smaller than Natsu.