Title:
Megatokyo (US)
Creators:
Author and Artist: Fred Gallagher
with additional contributions by Rodney Caston, Sarah Gallagher and Dom Nguyen
Publishers:
- Dark Horse Comics (Volume 1-3)
- CMX Manga (Volumes 4-5)
Volumes:
5 volumes (ongoing)
Manga Genres:
- Shonen
- Action / Adventure
- Humor
- Romance
- Fantasy
- Original English Manga
- Webcomics
Content Rating:
T – Teens Age 13+, for humorous sexually suggestive situations, fantasy violence
More about content ratings
About the Manga:
Megatokyo originated as a webcomic in 2000, and has since become one of the most popular comics series available online. Originally a collaboration between Fred Gallagher (Piro) and Rodney Caston (Largo), Megatokyo is now primarily drawn and written by Gallagher, and is serialized online at www.megatokyo.com with new installments appearing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
About the Author / Artist:
Born in 1969, long-time anime, manga and video game fan Fred Gallagher was originally an architect by trade. However, since Megatokyo the webcomic has grown in popularity, Gallagher has been able to draw the series full-time. He lives with his wife Sarah in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is a frequent guest at anime and comic conventions worldwide.
Story Summary:
After a disastrous trip to a gaming convention, avid American gamers Piro and Largo, take a trip to Tokyo on a whim. After only a few hours in the gaming / computers / anime / manga capital of the world, the pair find themselves broke and unable to return to the U.S.
A series of wild coincidences bring Piro and Largo to MegaGamers, an anime / manga / game shop where they find a place to stay and a job for Piro. At MegaGamers, they meet Erika Hayasaka, a sarcastic salesgirl who’s actually a famous anime voice actress in hiding, and Kimiko Nanasawa, an aspiring voice actress looking for her first big break.
Add into the mix a ninja, an eager-to-please girl robot, a retired maho shojo (magical girl), a gothic Lolita, a trio of good and evil conscience agents, a classroom full of Japanese high school students, two hellbent-for-destruction black ops from Sony and Sega, hoards of obsessive anime otaku, a few cameos by Godzilla and Gamera, plus a “L33T”(hacker-speak for ‘elite’)-speaking video game sage, and you have the wacky and unpredictable world of Megatokyo.
The more time Piro and Largo spend in Japan, the deeper they fall into a world where people aren’t always who they say they are, buildings get destroyed, feelings get hurt and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur. Can they get it together to find their way back to the U.S. and at this point, do they even want to?
Main Characters
Piro
Sensitive, creative and self-deprecating to a fault, Piro is an anime-loving gamer. More grounded in reality but somewhat more neurotic than his friend Largo, Piro finds himself as the object of four girls’ attentions and affections: voice actress Kimiko, robot girl Ping, schoolgirl Yuki and scary goth chick Miho.
Largo
An obsessive gamer who sees vast conspiracies of “3vil” all around him, Largo seems to exist in a parallel fantasy world where ninjas, zombies and giant robots walk the streets, and honor can be won at a video game arcade. Largo is confident and a little arrogant. However, he has a chivalrous streak that drives him to use his computer skills to protect his friends, even if it sometimes means that a building or two gets blown up in the process.
Kimiko Nanasawa
Kimiko is an aspiring voice actress who works at the local coffee shop while waiting for her first big break. Sensitive and a little insecure, Kimiko finds that she has a lot in common with Piro and quickly develops a crush on him. As she gets a role as the lead character in a dating simulation game, Kimiko starts to wonder whether she can or even wants to handle the pressures of becoming a famous voice actress.
Erika Hayasaka
Sarcastic and tough, Erika works as a salesgirl at MegaGamers, a video game/anime/manga shop in Tokyo. What Piro and Largo don’t know is that she was once a popular anime voice actress who mysteriously disappeared from the scene several years ago. As her devoted fans rediscover her whereabouts, Erika must once again confront some painful events from her past and decide whether she can open her heart again to love.