Megatokyo is an online doujinishi drawn by Fred Gallagher (aka "Piro"). Fred does the artwork, story, and site design. Rodney Caston (aka "Largo"), helped with the first year or so of the story, but now it is entirely Fred's strip. Fred was laid off from his day job in late 2002, and so he is doing the strip full-time now.
Megatokyo follows the story of two Americans, Piro and Largo, who wind up in Tokyo.
Lots of the humor is based on Video game humor and inside jokes, as well as culture-clash issues.
One of the important subthemes of the story is that Seraphim and Boo are on assignment as Piro and Largo's consciences. In particular, see the September 11 (http://www.megatokyo.com/index.php?strip_id=168) strip.
All strips are available free of charge from Megatokyo.com (http://www.megatokyo.com) as well as in the published book by IronCat [ironcat.com (http://www.ironcat.com/,)]
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Characters
- Piro - American manga (especially shojo) freak, who can speak Japanese. He is an amazing artist, yet refuses to believe this. Piro is the comic incarnation of Fred Gallagher.
- Largo - American computer games freak, usually acts before (or instead of) thinking, obsessed with beer. Can speak leet, but not Japanese. He gets a job as a teacher, becoming 'Great Teacher Largo' (reference to the anime/manga GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka). Largo is the comic version of Rodney Caston.
- Tsubasa - Japanese guy, Piro's friend. Now "following his heart" in America. Left Ping-chan to Piro and Largo.
- Ed - Sega employee, Dom's best friend and rival.
- Dom - Ed's best friend and rival. Gun crazed and competitive to boot. Also known as SGD, Shirt (or Stick) Guy Dom. He (or rather his real life equivalent) does stick-figure guest strips when Piro is unavailable.
- Hayasaka Erika - Japanese girl, Kimiko's roommate, a former idol singer.
- Nanasawa Kimiko - Japanese girl, Erika's roommate, a waitress in Anna Miller's, an aspiring voice actress (seiyuu).
- Ping-chan - PS2 accessory robot-girl. A non-H (which presumably means non-hentai) test model of the new Sony-EDS (Emotional Doll System), that fell into Tsubasa's hands somehow. She is designed to be used with dating sims[?], and after playing them she develops her own personality, based on choices in the games.
- Tohya Miho - Not much is known about her. She is currently a friend of Ping, but is quite creepy. Largo believes that she is in command of an army of Zombies, powered by the Necrowombicon, an ancient evil book used to make the video game Daikatana.
- Seraphim - A small girl with wings, taking the role of Piro's conscience. Comic incarnation of Sarah, Fred's girlfriend.
- Boo - A small animal (a hamster) with strap-on wings, assigned to the role of Largo's conscience, a nearly impossible task at which he is almost completely incompetent. A reference to the Boo character from Baldur's Gate, Minsc's 'Miniature Giant Space Hampster'.
- Asmodeus - Piro's not-conscience, from that 'other agency'. He tries to make Piro fall in love with Junior-high-school-age girls and whatnot.
- Junpei - Ninja, and Largo's apprentice. We first meet him when they arrive in Japan, Largo has no passport. So to get into Japan, Largo must beat Junpei at Mortal Combat, Largo 0wnz0r3d his 455.
Groups and Small Characters
- Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division - A division of the Tokyo police force, they pilot mecha, and stop giant monsters and such from rampaging through the city.
- Zombies - Usually ravers; Largo is bent on d357r0y1n6 t3h und34d h04rd.
- John Romero - The once-great game designer of games, such as Doom and Quake. He formed the game development house Ion Storm, famous for making Daikatana (a notable flop of a game after great hype), and after that he was promptly fired. Now he's broke and out of a job.
- L33T D00D - Strange raver type dude that appears whenever Largo must face the Z0/\/\B13 |-|04RD35 (Tohya/Ping) in c0mb47 (arcades) and advizes him in l33t which is invariably translated into highstyle language (i.e 1'm4 0wnz0r j00 becomes I shall defeat thee)
Origin of Name
Tokyo of the future in Japanese animation (see Anime and Manga) is often referred to as 'Megatokyo' or 'Neo-Tokyo'. In many of these stories, the city has been destroyed by natural disaster or nuclear war, but then re-built bigger and better than ever. See features like Bubblegum Crisis, AD Police, and Akira for more. The name was given to the comic purely because it was a spare domain name that Largo had lying around. Largo originally set the site up as an anime news site running Slashcode, but it failed and was eventually replaced with the comic.
Basic Plot Beginnings
Piro and Largo start the story by trying to get into the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). E3, only open to Media, says 'No'. Largo gets piss-drunk and pantsless in a bar, insulting the con. He wakes up on an airplane. Piro, after the events, decided they should get out of the country for a bit. He bought two one-way tickets to Japan. After arriving in Japan, they find a game store, and walk out with all sorts of games and electronic gadgets (including Largo's infamous Cool Thing). They head to an airport, only to find their credit cards maxed. They are now stuck in Japan.
Translations
- German (http://www.megatokyo.de/)
- Spanish (http://www.animedia.com.mx/megatokyo/)
- Italian (http://www.megatokyo.it/)
See also: Online comics, leet