When I came back to Anime/Manga again full force, it had nothing to do with some new amazing Japanese series believe it or not, I owe it all to a North American web comic called Megatokyo.I had heard about the comic for sometime from my roommate, he told me that I really should check it out, I had run into it in passing before, but never stopped long enough to look, to me it had always sorta been the "Hip thing" "Cool thing" and I am usually the last person that will get involved with the latest craze when it comes to Anime/Manga fandom [part of the reason I have never gotten into Naruto I guess] But I figured that I would give it another try one day when I had a few spare minutes at work, it might be fun to see what a North Americans take on this art for is like, what the heck right? Well, I managed to completely read the whole series current [as of March] in two days!
When I started reading I laughed at all of the gaming industry jokes and the satiric humor between the lead characters, Piro and Largo [interestingly enough, neither one of them ever seems to have a last name] as they try to invade E3 [you can never have too many John Romero/Daikatana jokes], then all of a sudden *whoosh!* they are off to Japan, and that’s where the real fun begins.
Piro is the definition of an Otaku, right down to the complete lack of confidence when it comes to women. Largo on the other hand, he is gamer geek, who speaks almost entirely in “l33t” speak as the series goes on. The two of them couldn’t be more different, but their friendship is wonderful to watch as it evolves and matures, and in many ways goes completely the wrong direction. Into their midst comes Hyasaka Erika, and Nanasawa Kimiko, two female roommates that have known each other since highschool, Kimiko is an aspiring Seiryu [voice actress] while Erika works in a local gaming store, much to her own chagrin.
The love interests and coupling are introduced very early on, but it’s the development of those relationships that makes for some of the more wonderful moments in the series. I don’t want to give a lot away, but by the time you get caught up to the current comic, you will have seen every Anime/Manga stereotype thrown on its ear, but with an amazing amount of reverence and loving care. [watch for Genbu and you will see what I mean] Fred Gallagher has so much respect for the culture of Japan and Anime/Manga fandom that he is careful not to overstep his bounds, his storytelling is very well done, parts heartfelt and amusing all in one.
I have heard people criticize the artwork, one has to understand that Fred has been learning as he goes, he is an architect by training not a comic book artist, so for him, it has been all about learning how the human body moves and emotes, not to mention the process of creating 3 strips a week. The early comics were crude by comparison to the later ones, but I urge you to give it a chance, by the current strips the characters look unique, and full of life. Like any good artist Fred is able to capture the feelings of his characters and render them lovingly on the page.
Megatokyo is available on http://www.megatokyo.com on roughly a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule [though that can fluctuate] and you can read the archives there. But I do urge you to go the Megagear Store on the site, and purchase the in print graphic novel compilations of the series as that will help Fred out, as well as keep the series going for the long haul.
I can recommend this series whole heartedly, you will definitely laugh, you might even cry, its one of the true gems of the web coming scene.
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