Megatokyo, Volume 1

I get fans creating things like this for themselves, for fun, but I don't get people reading them. Are they aware there is real anime in the world? And if they like bad anime, there is real bad anime? And if they want everyone to be like a suburban American teen, there is clearly also that? I guess the answer is they want to believe Japanese teens have all that martial arts robot hot body cat girl nonsense, but are also just like them. So this is just ... neoliberalism at work? The narcissism of no differences?

Piro and Largo, two American gamers, go to Japan on a whim, and get stranded there. Mischief and mayhem ensues as they attempt to make enough money to return home.

This volume is the first compilation of strips from the long-running webcomic series. I first saw a few of these years ago when I first became interested in Japan and anime/video game nerddom. The art is rough, but it gets better with time. It perfectly encapsulates what every new Japanophile imagines their first adventure in Japan will be like--cons, cosplayers and video games everywhere. There's not much plot, but it is entertaining.

Gallagher's early art is rough, really rough, and the same goes for the story. I don't really like this piece because of some huge literary merit - I mostly like it because it was the first webcomic that I ever read, it was a huge inspiration for me to get into comics in general, and because for some reason it's just funny.

The only reason I've heard of this long-running webcomic is because my husband has been friends with Fred Gallagher for umpteen years. This is the story of two Americans, Piro and Largo, who accidentally get themselves stranded in Tokyo. It's a fantasy - all the characters have real-life analogs - and in a lot of the early comics I felt like I was missing some inside jokes. I appreciated the commentary at the bottom of the earliest strips, even if there were some times when it was assumed the person reading was already familiar with all the characters and future storylines. The art is gorgeous and I'll probably read the later installments at some point, but I confess I was not sucked in by this first volume.

Megatokyo - it is cute. It is fun, but I am good with only one volume.

We have a couple of deadbeat gamers who find themselves in Japan with no money and no way back. This is a story of the crazy adventures.

I think that gamers will like it, Anime fans will like it. Graphics are good, story is silly, and the characters are likeable.

In spite of Fred's self-denigration, this is a wonderful manga series. No fan service (thanks to Fred's high moral standards), and a sprinkling of 1337. Consistently entertaining.

I've followed Megatokyo online for years. And, like all the webcomics I read, I read through the entire archives to catch up with the current storyline. Some of the things that are coming back into play now reference material in Chapter 0 that I'd totally forgotten about. Having it in hard copy is totally worth it.