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Megatokyo

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{{Infobox Webcomic| | title = Megatokyo | image = Image:Megatokyobook1cover.jpg 158px | caption = ''Megatokyo volume 1, 2nd edition'' | author = Fred Gallagher, Rodney Caston | url = http://www.megatokyo.com | status = Updates Monday, Wednesday & Friday | began = August 14 2000 [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=1] | ended = | genre = Comedy/Drama/Action/Romance | ratings = }}{{otheruses}} '''''Megatokyo''''' is a popular webcomic originally created by Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. It is now written and drawn in a manga-influenced style by Gallagher. The comic was started on August 14 2000{{ref|Start}}. Megatokyo's contents and comic strip on the website are available completely free. The contents are generally updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It has also been translated unofficially into other languages that are available elsewhere on the web. ''Megatokyo'' took its name from its Domain name Internet domain, which had hosted a short-lived news site of Caston's before the start of the comic. The news site in turn took its name from the city in the ''Bubblegum Crisis'' anime series. ''Megatokyo'' frequently uses "Leet L33t speak", and some argue that the comic helped to introduce that style to a more mainstream audience.

Plot
{{spoiler}} Image:Megatokyo - 0619.png Main Characters of Megatokyo#Piro left|thumb|200px|Strip [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=619 â„–619] depicting [[Main Characters of Megatokyo#Piro|Piro, Main Characters of Megatokyo#Largo Largo, Main Characters of Megatokyo#Sonoda Yuki Sonoda Yuki and Main Characters of Megatokyo#Nanasawa Kimiko Nanasawa Kimiko, published on October 8 2004..html" title="Meaning of Piro.html" title="Meaning of left|thumb|200px|Strip [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=619 â„–619] depicting [[Main Characters of Megatokyo#Piro|Piro">left|thumb|200px|Strip [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=619 â„–619] depicting [[Main Characters of Megatokyo#Piro|Piro, Main Characters of Megatokyo#Largo Largo, Main Characters of Megatokyo#Sonoda Yuki Sonoda Yuki and Main Characters of Megatokyo#Nanasawa Kimiko Nanasawa Kimiko, published on October 8 2004.">Piro.html" title="Meaning of left|thumb|200px|Strip [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=619 â„–619] depicting [[Main Characters of Megatokyo#Piro|Piro">left|thumb|200px|Strip [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=619 â„–619] depicting [[Main Characters of Megatokyo#Piro|Piro, Main Characters of Megatokyo#Largo Largo, Main Characters of Megatokyo#Sonoda Yuki Sonoda Yuki and Main Characters of Megatokyo#Nanasawa Kimiko Nanasawa Kimiko, published on October 8 2004. ''Megatokyo'' follows the story of two United States Americans, Piro and Largo, who are stuck in Tokyo and are unable to get home. The two protagonists are based on ''Megatokyo'''s two creators (or their online personas), but are fictional characters with lives of their own. Piro, as an otaku, is a shy and somewhat under-confident person who cherishes Japanese pop culture including manga, anime and Renai game dating sim games. Largo, the more extroverted of the pair, is obsessed with building high-end computers and playing games on them; somewhat unable to distinguish between the fictional and the real world, he sees elements from his games in everything around him like a modern day Don Quixote. The two arrive in Tokyo after an incident at the EÂ³ gaming exposition and find themselves with no money to buy plane tickets home. After living for awhile in the apartment of a Japanese friend of Piro's, they are eventually forced to make an independent living in Japan. Piro finds work at a computer game store called "Megagamers" while Largo takes on somewhat irregular jobs with the police and as an English teacher at a local high school. ''Megatokyo'''s pace and style indirectly correspond to the history of the comic itself. Much of the early humor consists of Computer and video games video game culture jokes, as well as culture-clash issues. During this early phase, the story moved along at a haphazard pace and was often interrupted by pure gag episodes and "dead piro" days. This changed over time with the greatest changes coming after Gallagher completely took over ''Megatokyo''. The comic features aspects from a number of different anime and manga archetypes, usually making light of the genre's various clichÃ©s: Junpei, a ninja who takes on Largo as his "l33t master"; Godzilla giant saurians (such as "Rent-A-Zilla") roaming the streets; the "Minor characters of Megatokyo#Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division", which fights the monsters with Mecha giant robots and oversees the orderly and periodic destruction and reconstruction of predesignated areas of the city; Ping, a cute android robot girl who becomes friends with Piro; and a school girl, Sonoda Yuki, who possibly is in love with Piro and has just started taking art lessons from him. Largo somehow manages to become an English teacher at a high school and teaches them about l337, computer and video games games and Hack (technology slang) hacking. Dom and Ed (real-life friends of Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston) play characters associated with the Japanese stereotype that all Americans are armed to the teeth. Hayasaka Erika is a former Japanese idol idol, singer and voice actress, while her roommate, Nanasawa Kimiko, is aspiring to the same career. One of the more mysterious characters is Tohya Miho; she befriends Ping and seems to enjoy psychologically toying with others, as though they are the characters of her own very real game. ''Megatokyo'' is divided into chapters, each consisting of approximately 100 pages. Chapter 0, which subsumes all of the comic's early experimental phase, covers a comic time span of about six weeks. Each of the subsequent chapters chronicles the events of a single day. The seventh chapter, ''Known Bugs and Security Flaws''[http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=0743], started August 2005. Usually, characters in ''Megatokyo'' speak Japanese language Japanese, although some speak English language English or l33t (subtitled). Under most circumstances, when a character is speaking in Japanese, it is signified by surrounding the English text with Bracket angle brackets. Not every character speaks every language, so occasionally characters are unable to understand one another; in several scenes, a character's speech is written entirely in rÅ?maji Japanese to emphasize this. Largo, for instance, speaks no Japanese at all. As the series progresses, he has periods where he becomes more and more withdrawn into his own fantasy world of videogames and zombies, possibly because he has no-one to talk to besides Piro and himself, and Boo, the hamster assigned to be his voice of reason but who can't speak at all. {{endspoiler}}

Chapters
* Ch 0 - "Megatokyo"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=1 1] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=129 129] * Ch 1 - "Do you want to save before you quit?"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=134 134] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=192 192] * Ch 2 - "things change little by little.."; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=196 196] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=301 301] * Ch 3 - "Am I Your Number One Fan?"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=307 307] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=397 397] * Ch 4 - "Low Ping Rate"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=402 402] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=514 514] * Ch 5 - "Color Depth"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=526 526] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=633 633] * Ch 6 - "Operational Insecurity"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=639 639] - [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=729 729] * Ch 7 - "Known Bugs & Security Flaws"; [http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=0743 743] - Current The gaps in the strip number indicate omake manga or other nonplot related strips.

Major characters
{{main|Main characters of Megatokyo}} {{spoiler}} * '''Piro'''- The protagonist and the comic version of Fred Gallagher. A fairly skilled artist who speaks fluent Japanese, he is constantly doubting and deprecating himself. * '''Largo'''- The second protagonist in Megatokyo and is the comic version of Rodney Caston. He is a technically gifted gamer who is fluent in l33t. Piro brings him to Japan after he gets drunk at E3. * '''Hayasaka Erika'''- A former idol (singer) and voice actress. She works at Megagamers, a small store that sells games, anime and music, among other things. * '''Nanasawa Kimiko'''- Erika's roommate. She is an aspiring voice actress and is soft spoken, introspective, and shy. She works at an Anna Miller's restauraunt. * '''Ping'''- A robot PlayStation 2 accessory built by Sony. She desires to make people happy but often misinterprets emotions and situations. Her best friend is Tohya Miho. * '''Tohya Miho'''- A manipulative and enigmatic goth girl. She is fluent in both English and Japanese and enjoys toying with both Largo and Piro. She later befriends Ping, and to a lesser extent Yuki. * '''Seraphim'''- Piro's "conscience enforcement agent" and the comic version of Fred Gallagher's wife, Sarah. * '''Boo'''- A hamster with strap-on wings. Is currently assigned to Largo as a temporary conscience. * '''Dom'''- An employee of Sega's Black Ops, with whom his method of gaining employment was rather suspect - this may explain how he got the job. He is the Megatokyo-world avatar of writer Dominic Nguyen, who has penned articles for Wired and Newtype USA, and in March 2006 appeared on the American gameshow Jeopardy!. He has also blogged for the Megatokyo website since Rodney Caston's departure. Lastly, he is responsible for the infamous Shirt Guy Dom stick-figure comics which periodically appear as a stand-in. * '''Ed'''- An employee of Sony's Enforcement Division, Ed's prime objective in Tokyo is the neutralization of the Playstation 2 accessory, Ping, by any means necessary. Ed is the Megatokyo-world avatar of Edmund Balan. * '''Asmodeus'''- Piro's anti-conscience, who attempts to undo everything that Seraphim has tried to instill in Piro. He is the comic version of Ken Hashimoto, one of the Megatokyo Forum admistrators, and handler of Megatoyko's translations. * '''Junpei'''- A ninja who originally fought Largo in Mortal Kombat (series) Mortal Kombat because Largo had no passport. He is later apprenticed to Largo to learn his "l33t ways" and later assists Largo in minor ways. * '''Sonoda Yuki'''- A 15 year old high school student. Early in the series, she comes upon Piro's sketch book, and comes to have a small infatuation with Piro and the way he draws. {{endspoiler}} {{Megatokyo}}

Books
{| class="infobox bordered" cellpadding="4" |Image:Megatokyo vol1 1st edition.jpg 100px|Megatokyo Volume 1, 1st edition |Image:Megatokyo vol2.jpg 100px|Megatokyo Volume 2 |Image:Megatokyo vol3.jpg 100px|Megatokyo Volume 3 |Image:Megatokyo vol 4.jpg 100px|Megatokyo Volume 4 |- | colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #CCCCFF;" | Covers of ''Megatokyo books'' 1 (1st edition), 2, 3 and 4. |} Megatokyo comics are now published by DC Comics under their CMX Manga imprint. Currently, volumes 1-3 are available through Dark Horse Comics. As of February 9 2006, three volumes are available for purchase. At one point Studio Ironcat published a book compilation of strips that are now included in Volume One. Gallagher and Ironcat were unable to come to an agreement on further volumes, and so Dark Horse Comics was the publisher of choice for ''Megatokyo'' volumes 1-3. The ''Megatokyo'' books have also been translated into German, Italian, and Polish. * ''Megatokyo Volume 1: Chapter Zero'' (''Megatokyo'' vol.1 1st edition ed.); ISBN 1929090307 * ''Megatokyo Volume 1'', 2nd ed.; March 21 2004 ISBN 1-59307-163-9 {{Ref|Darkhorse1}} * ''Megatokyo Volume 2''; January 22 2004 ISBN 1-59307-118-3 {{ref|Darkhorse2}} * ''Megatokyo Volume 3''; February 2 2005 ISBN 1-59307-305-4 {{ref|Darkhorse3}} * ''Megatokyo Volume 4''; June 21 2006 ISBN 1401211267

Sales
As of July 2004, ''Megatokyo'' is the tenth best-selling manga property in the U.S. [http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/5241.html]. Volume 3's highest ranking in bookscan is 3 ending February 20 2005.[http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/6520.html] This makes it the best showing for an American manga.

Criticism and praise
Megatokyo has been subject to much analysis from webcomic fans. Some critics dislike its slow pace and apparent lack of clear direction or resolution for the many plot threads that run through the Megatokyo story. {{ref|Websnark}} This perception is exacerbated by the often-erratic update schedule; Gallagher has occasionally resorted to "filler-art days", strips with other authors and artists with no continuity with any storylines (or guest comics), in order to prevent the front-page content from appearing too stagnant, commonly done with many webcomics. The complaints about the speed of updates have even prompted Gallagher to install an update progress bar for readers waiting for the next installment. As a story-oriented comic, Megatokyo has a large supporting cast, as well as several storylines at any given point in time. However, there are no on-site aids for the uninitiated, confused, or forgetful; the Megatokyo website has had story and cast pages which have been "under construction" for several years. A number of fans have created their own resource sites, including plot guides and character pages, indicating a need for such resources. Professionally, Gallagher is now working full time on Megatokyo. He was one of the first webcomic artists to have the ability to profit from his hobby, but with this change the customary complaint about the speed of updates was renewed. With Gallagher's full-time status, the criticism is that updates should be more frequent than when Gallagher was only working on the comic part-time. Artistically, Megatokyo is often praised for its intricate pencil work (done entirely in grayscale, without either digital or physical "inking,") and inspired character design. Gallagher has been criticized for an uniformity of appearance and simple design of his characters, particularly with his female faces, which some say are identical, with hairstyle and attire as the only distinguishing features. Conversely, it is noted that Gallagher takes great care in costuming choices, hair and other design elements. Originally, the strip was known for a frenetic sense of humor, with a greater emphasis on slapstick, video game humor and gag-a-day format. In the years after Rodney Caston left, Megatokyo has evolved into a very different kind of webcomic, focusing less on the humor that defined it in the beginning. This has lead to a section of former fans feeling that Megatokyo was better when Caston was writing it. Additionally, without Caston's input, it has been said that Caston's alter ego Largo's violent gamer antics appear forced and seem to be just an afterthought on Gallagher's part. Many people also note the frequent existence of Gallagher's 'Dead Piro Days' and other ways to avoid page stagnation when comics take too long to produce. Some feel that Caston's departure signalled an end to a constant running story, although the problem of delays and missed schedules plagued Megatokyo even during Caston's time as a writer for the comic. Further complicating the issue, some of Gallagher's critics say there are suggestions that Piro is, or could be, in questionable relationships with underage Japanese schoolgirls; however, this is a tenuous interpretation of one of the running sub-stories and something negatively mentioned within the comic by the character Seraphim. This latter criticism is related with the common complaint that under Gallagher's direction, Megatokyo is being somewhat more of a bishoujo series, the kind which Gallagher himself is so interested in, and is simply reflecting the trends in that. Arguably, buffering some complaints is the sense of humility Gallagher typically gives off, which has been playfully parodied in other webcomics.

History
The comic was started as a joint project of Gallagher and his friend (and later business partner) Rodney Caston, with Caston writing the scripts and Gallagher supplying the artwork. Caston sold off his ownership of the company in May 2002. Since then, the comic has been managed entirely by Fred Gallagher. In October 2002, Gallagher was laid off from his day job as an architect, and he has since taken the comic as a full time job. Rodney Caston's departure from ''Megatokyo'' was not fully explained at the time. Initially, Gallagher and Caston only briefly mentioned the split, with the news of it publicly announced when Gallagher posted a news post officially announcing Caston's departure. On January 15 2005, Fred explained his version of the reasons for the split in response to what he felt was a "mean spirited" comment by Scott Kurtz of ''PvP'', where Kurtz implied that Gallagher had stolen ''Megatokyo'' from Caston:

''While things were good at first, over time we found that we were not working well together creatively. There is no fault in this, it happens. I've never blamed Rodney for this creative 'falling out' nor do I blame myself. Not all creative relationships click, ours didn't in the long run.''{{ref|departurerodney}}

Four days later, Rodney posted his version of the event on his website. [http://www.rcaston.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=71&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0]

''After this he approached me and said either I would sell him my ownership of MegaTokyo or he would simply stop doing it entirely, and we'd divide up the company's assets and end it all. ''This was right before the MT was to go into print form, and I really wanted to see it make it into print, rather then [sic] die on the vine.''

Changes
Originally Megatokyo was laid out in four square panels per strip, in a two-by-two square array as a compromise between the horizontal layout of American comic strips and the vertical layout of Japanese comic strips. Soon, the limitations of this format became apparent, and the comic changed into a manga-styled free-form layout, which allows for both large, detailed drawings and small, abstract progressions as the needs of the script require. This change happened in the spring of 2001, during Chapter 0 and the first year of Megatokyo's publication.

Forums
A Internet forum message board system called the ''Megatokyo Forums'' accompanies the ''Megatokyo'' website to facilitate discussions among the site's fan community. Launched on September 29 2000, in their present incarnation, the ''Megatokyo Forums'' have covered a wide range of topics from the beginning, such as art, romance, computer gaming, and technology. Many forum members do not even read the webcomic, but the forums are also home to an active community of fans. They have spawned numerous fan-operated websites, several wikis, and several IRC channels. There are an estimated 40,000 members on the forums. The forums are very moderator-orientated, which makes some people uncomfortable, but many feel that a forum with such large membership needs heavy moderation. The ''Megatokyo Forums'' can be accessed at [http://forums.megatokyo.com forums.megatokyo.com].

Megagear
An online store called "[http://www.megagear.com/ Megagear]" sells art supplies and ''Megatokyo'' merchandise. Megagear was created by Fred Gallagher and his wife as an independent online store to be used only by ''Megatokyo''. MegaGear launched officially on August 1 2004.{{ref|MegaGear}} It replaced a ''Megatokyo'' store that had formerly been part of thinkgeek.com. This online store, in addition to banner advertisements and sales of ''Megatokyo'' books, provides a source of income for ''Megatokyo's'' author. As of September 2 2005, "Megagear" has offered environmentally friendly hemp clothing. They now also offer ''Applegeeks'' merchandise.

References
# {{note|departurerodney}} {{cite web | title=Fred Gallagher's view of Rodney Caston's departure | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=660 | accessdate= August 26 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|rodneyversion}} {{cite web | title=Rodney Caston's version of his departure | url=http://www.rcaston.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=71&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0&POSTNUKESID=f799ccc12006db0d0885818684e4b8e7 | accessdate= August 26 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|MegaGear}} {{cite web | title= Fred "Piro" Gallagher comments about MegaGear's launch status | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=589 Strip 589 | accessdate= August 5 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|Websnark}} {{cite web | title= You Had Me, And You Lost Me: Why I don't read ''Megatokyo'' - Criticism of ''Megatokyo'' | url=http://www.websnark.com/archives/2004/08/you_had_me_and.html | accessdate= August 27 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|Darkhorse1}} {{cite web | title= Darkhorse's product details on Volume One | url=http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-072 | accessdate= September 1 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|Darkhorse2}} {{cite web | title= Darkhorse's product details on Volume Two | url=http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-071 | accessdate= September 1 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|Darkhorse3}} {{cite web | title= Darkhorse's product details on Volume Three | url=http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=10-541 | accessdate= September 1 | accessyear= 2005 }} # {{note|Start}} {{cite web | title= Start of ''Megatokyo'' (strip â„–1) | url=http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=1 | accessdate= September 3 | accessyear=2005 }} # {{note|CMX announcement}} {{cite web | title=Megatokyo changes publishers to DC Comics / CMX Manga | url=http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004818 | accessdate = February 26| accessyear = 2006 }}

See also
*Anna Miller's *Characters of Megatokyo Characters of ''Megatokyo'' *Sad girl in snow *Webcomic

External links
{| class="infobox bordered" cellpadding=4 style="margin: 1em; width: 12em;" ! style="background-color: #ccccff;" | ''Fan translations'' |- | * {{flagicon|NLD}} [http://www.megatokyo.nl/?lang=nl Dutch] * {{flagicon|FIN}} [http://www.megatokio.com/ Finnish #1] * {{flagicon|FIN}} [http://www.megatokyo.it/?lang=fi Finnish #2] * {{flagicon|FRA}} [http://www.megatokyo.it/?lang=fr French] * {{flagicon|GER}} [http://www.megatokyo.de/?lang=de German] * {{flagicon|ITA}} [http://www.megatokyo.it/?lang=it Italian] * {{flagicon|JPN}} [http://www.megatokyo.com/jp/ Japanese] * {{flagicon|PRT}} [http://www.megatokyo.it/?lang=pt Portuguese] * {{flagicon|SCG}} [http://www.megatokyo.it/?lang=sr Serbian] * {{flagicon|ESP}} [http://www.megatokyo.it/?lang=es Spanish]
- Interlingua |}
- The ''Megatokyo'' website * {{RSS|http://www.megatokyo.com/rss/megatokyo.xml ''Megatokyo'' news}}
- The ''Megatokyo'' Forums
- Dark Horse Comics, current book publisher of ''Megatokyo''.
- Fredart, other art by Fred Gallagher.
- Rcaston.com, blog of Rodney Caston.
- CHRONICLE COMICS; No More Wascally Wabbits - ''New York Times'' article * {{comixpedia|Megatokyo}}
- Megatokyo review, from the website The Comic Book Guy.com.
- Megatokyo follow-up review, from the website The Comic Book Guy.com.

Fan sites

- Wikitokyo, a wiki dedicated to information about ''Megatokyo''
- Reader's Guide to ''MegaTokyo'', lots of information on ''Megatokyo'' plot and characters Category:2000s webcomics Category:Anime and manga webcomics Category:Comedy webcomics Category:Dark Horse titles Category:CMX titles Category:Drama webcomics Category:Internet forums Category:Megatokyo {{PAGENAME}} Category:Webcomics in print de:Megatokyo es:Megatokyo fr:Megatokyo ia:Megatokyo it:MegaTokyo ja:ãƒ¡ã‚¬ãƒˆãƒ¼ã‚ãƒ§ãƒ¼ pl:MegaTokyo pt:Megatokyo sv:Megatokyo see Megatokyo (disambiguation) {|class="toc" style="margin:0 auto; clear: all; text-align: center;" align="center" |+ '''''Megatokyo''''' |- || Main Characters of Megatokyo Major Characters | Groups and minor characters of Megatokyo Groups and Minor Characters | Alternate Universes and Omake Theatre in Megatokyo Alternate Universes and Omake Theatre |} Category:Megatokyo {{PAGENAME}} Category:Webcomic templates {{PAGENAME}} {{catmore|Megatokyo}} Category:Anime and manga webcomics Category:DÅ?jinshi

*** Shopping-Tip: Megatokyo