Title - "Megatokyo"
Alternative title(s) - N/A
Genre(s) - Comedy and so much more
You can find the web d
jinshi at the Megatokyo web site.
A good amount of anime and manga fans must have ran into this web djinshi at least once.
"Megatokyo" made its debut as a web djinshi on August of 2000. I first ran into "Megatokyo" shortly after. The novels came out at the beginning of this year, but originally, they were supposed to be out last December. Special thanks goes to I.C. Entertainment. (If you don’t know, this is Studio Iron Cat’s new name.) Oh and now, thank Dark Horse.
For those who don’t know what this is, "Megatokyo" is the web djinshi of Piro and Largo, the alter egos of the creators, Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston respectively. If you don't know, "Megatokyo" got its name from a place in "Bubblegum Crisis" and there's a character named Largo. Also, if you’re wondering where did the name "Piro" come from, it’s from the cat, Piroshiki, in "Kanon". The server’s name is Makoto and that is one of the characters from the series as well, named after Sawatari Makoto. Piro is an anime/manga/visual novel fan. Largo is a leet, hardcore gamer.
The story starts off in E3/Electronic Entertainment Expo, a video game event in Los Angeles that holds various upcoming games. All would seem well, right? Wrong. Largo complains so much about the event, that Piro decided that the two should visit Japan. After all, a trip wouldn’t hurt, right? Actually, the scenario would turn from bad to worse.
Piro and Largo are now stuck in Japan. They have a hard time trying to come back home. They might as well make the best of their situation.
Well, that’s the main part of this series. There are also side plots as well. You have the war between Dom and Ed, alter egos of Dominic Nguyen and Ed Balan. (I’m sure the latter is not spelled right. Ask Dom for yourself if you don’t believe me.) You also have discussions between Hayasaka Erika and Nanasawa Kimiko. There are so many side plots to go along here.
I know what you are thinking. “How are you going to grade this series?” I am going to grade this series based on the web djinshi overall and the tankbon - * itself. If you see the rest of my review, you’ll know what I mean.
Before I go to the scores, I want to give out some facts. There was a time music was created for this series. Also, I remember a live radio show or some other form of entertainment of "Megatokyo". All I remember about it is that there were two girls playing as Erika and Kimiko.
Fun - 9
Oh boy. Where do I begin? This will take a while.
"Megatokyo" is one of my stress relievers. It’s a good one too. I can tell you that.
What I like about "Megatokyo" is that it pays homage to various anime, manga and video games. We have your "Card Captor Sakura’s" “Leave it to Kero-chan” parody. You have a poster of "To Heart". A series like "Megatokyo" is one series that comes up once in a while.
If I had to relate myself to a particular character, it’d be Piro, I guess. You can easily see character development. There’s development in some of the characters that don’t get much recognition. Very few series will do a task like this.
By getting the tankbon, you will learn more about "Megatokyo". For example, if you see these “< brackets >”, that means the character is speaking in Japanese. Also, you will see some side notes that are not on the web djinshi.
Why can’t I get a Key or Gainax shirt? I don’t know. I guess it’s because this is reality. If those shirts exist, then I’ll instantly buy both. Sure, it’s easy to get a Capcom shirt, but not a Key shirt.
Like all great anime and manga series out there, "Megatokyo" does strike out in some moments. While the series is great, it is not that original. The jokes only apply to some anime and game fans out there. That's about it.
Still, the strong points outweigh the flaws. Great characters, great comedy, you’ll have a great time with the djinshi. That’s all that I can say.
Life - 10
This is the first djinshi that I have owned. Of course it gets a perfect score from me. Besides, even if I said that this isn’t my first djinshi, it still has a long life line.
Story - 9
The story looks good on paper. I can tell you that.
Art - 9
I will divide this category into two parts: overall art and tankubon art. =P
First off, what is the reason I brought up the division? Unlike the web djinshi, the tankubon has extra pictures. This is one of the reasons why I bought the tankbon, but it’s not the main one. The main one is that if I ever go to some place where I don’t get to look back at the old strips, that’s where my tankbon comes in.
Okay! In general, the art is good. What’s weird, yet interesting is that just recently, I noticed that in one of the earlier strips, Piro looked a bit like Takeo of "Mahoutsukai Tai!" I’m serious! I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but nevertheless, that got me thinking.
The characters have nice designs. The buildings look good. (Then again, Fred was an architect at one point.) I will say that "Megatokyo's" art looks better than some of the art from various manga and anime series out there.
It’s a shame that the art is not consistent at times. Should I be that harsh? No. Fred tried some experiments with the strips and they felt average in some cases. There are other issues as well, but I don’t want to get into them.
As for the tankbon’s art, well, I don’t have much to say. Like I said, there are some pictures here that you don’t see in the web site. The new drawings are okay, but they’re just simple. I especially like the one towards the end with Piro and Kei Blue (who is the first publisher of the tankubon if you don’t know). The strips has been crammed in and I’m quite pleased on how they turned out.
Overall - 9
You can read the web djinshi if you want. As for those wondering if you should buy the tankubon, I’ll leave that up to you. I’m happy on how the djinshi is turning out. That’s for sure. ^_^
+
It's the first web djinshi I've seen and it looks good too as a whole.
-
At times, the elements are inconsistent on their performance.
Date of creation - 6/27/03
Last update - 8/10/04
* A tankbon is a book that is part of a manga collection. It can also refer to a small book in general.