MegaTokyo Volume 1Artist: Fred Gallagher
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy
Fred Gallagher's work of MegaTokyo has become exceedingly popular around the world as a Japanese-styled piece of work, but classified as an American manga. I was somewhat surprised to find Fred's work amongst the manga section at the shop where I purchase all of my manga from (Forbidden Planet), but of course, it was pleasing to the eye that his work has reached so far.
Fred's art is unique, to put it simply. Unlike all professional manga that I have read, Fred leaves his work sketchy. I'm not sure whether that's his touch or his laziness! Nonetheless, it adds an extra element to the art and lets one look deeper behind the pencil lines. The sketchy nature of Fred's uncoloured work almost gives another dimension to the story by allowing the reader to see how he has drawn the comic.
Enough about the sketchy nature of the art though. The drawings are true manga style, and every female character in his story gives the feel of a different style. There is Kimiko, the girl who seems to be having some problems with her job. Erika, the very confident and rather violent, in some cases, girl who stands up for herself. Miho who is possibly the weirdest girl I've come to know in a book. Yuki, a school girl depressed by certain misconceptions about the main character Piro, and lastly but not least, Ping, a real prototype robot created for dating simulation games by Sony as an accessory for the PS2.
Each girl is drawn with precision to truly portray their personalities. The stereotype female character of an up-start full of energy girl has been used as a side character, one of Yuki's friends, which is a good idea since this sort of character has been used far too frequently. There are several other characters to interact with, and each develop themselves maturely as the story progresses, especially with unexpected plot turns.
Fred's story is all the more interesting, and is based around the two main character's troubles, Piro and Largo. Piro is a person who loves dating games and drawing, far too frequently, sad girls. Largo on the other hand seems to be a hyperactive first person shooter addict who takes things far too seriously, especially zombies. Both characters are loosely based around the two creators, Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston respectively. Fred has taken interests of both of these two and entered them into Piro and Largo. It works well as the two have an undoubted friendship which is sometimes hindered (but not greatly) by Largo's actions.
After not being allowed into the greatest gaming event, E3, Piro takes Largo to Japan to calm him down. His reasoning being simple - Japan is a heaven for games. However, being excited, both spend their money far too quickly and therefore cannot afford to return back home. Hence, both are stuck with Piro's friend, Tsubasa who is willing to put them up until his patience runs thin. They are then stuck until Piro finds a job and a place to stay for the time being, until they can gather enough cash to return to America.
During this, Largo has a constant obsession with the living dead and more importantly is Piro's role, as he is finding trouble with the characters of the opposite gender, namely Kimiko and Yuki in particular. Piro takes a liking to Kimiko as Yuki takes a liking to Piro, and so the love triangle is set.
There is much more depth to the story than one realises at first, as several events occur to define each character's personalities. Largo provides the never-ending entertainment while Piro keeps things close to being realistic. Fred stated himself that due to the role of Largo, the realism of the comic was not to be.
MegaTokyo Volume 1 does contain some bonus features. The most noticeable is Fred's commentary on the first hundred or so comic strips, where he used a four-panel square layout, leaving a space at the bottom of the page for his notes. Later he adapted the more professional manga layout, utilising the full page. That is not all, as Fred also added parts from his sketchbook and the concept sketches of MegaTokyo, although there was close to no planning. There are also introductions from Fred and Sarah, his wife, at the beginning of the book.
On the whole, MegaTokyo is an excellent read and collects the online comic together very nicely. Just to reiterate, MegaTokyo is created by an American, and therefore is strictly considered as an American comic (despite the fact I found it amongst the manga section in the store). The extra features in my opinion are slightly lacking, but that does not matter as the content itself is excellent and worth the first and second time read.
Review Written: Tuesday 28th December 2004 by Shabbir
