Here’s a new scanlation of a quite obscure Legend of Zelda manga!
Subjective game reviews, comic translations, pixel art, and other video game bits & bobs.
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August 29, 2021
[Comic] Zelda Gaiden: Quark and the Fairy Queen
July 5, 2021
[Comic] Baraduke 2 promotional mini-manga
Here’s another scanlation for a short, obscure video game comic! This time it’s for Namco’s arcade space shooter Bakutotsu Kijuutei: Baraduke 2.
The original Baraduke was released in 1985, and its premise of a spacesuit-clad action hero who is revealed to be a woman predates Nintendo’s Metroid by a year. That hero, Kissy aka Toby Masuyo, does not appear in Baraduke 2 (although the UGSF timeline published later retcons that she did); instead the player 2 character Takky—named for designer Yukio Takahashi—graduates to player 1 status in the sequel, and she is accompanied by new character Hommy. This isn’t super relevant to this manga, but I thought I’d give you the background because the identity of the main character is left ambiguous in the text.
Anyway, this manga was published in Namco’s official PR magazine NG: Namco Community Magazine, in the September 1988 issue, to promote the release of the game. The credits for that issue list Jun’ichi Ishikura as illustrator, which I think means he drew the comic, and I have assumed that he also wrote it. His other works include a Bomberman gamebook and a series of instructional manga.
The manga is brief at 4 pages, acting as a prologue and setting up the context for the game’s events. Dialogue is sparse, leaving space for some cool, dramatic action panels. It’s intended to be read in standard Japanese right-to-left format. I’ve left sound effects intact in the art, with captions for approximate equivalents.
Share and enjoy!
February 12, 2021
[Comic] Umihara Kawase Gaiden
Here’s a short, rare comic based on the cult classic Super Famicom game Umihara Kawase, now in English for the first time!
June 10, 2020
[Comic] Akari & Pikachu’s Birthday
“How I Became a Pokemon Card” or “Pokemon Card ni Natta Wake” was a manga released in six volumes between 1999 and 2001. Kagemaru Himeno wrote and illustrated each chapter, which told the story around or behind the scenario seen in a particular Pokemon card (she also illustrated all of the cards featured in each chapter).
Chapter 38, or “The Final Chapter”, appears at the end of volume 6 and tells the story behind the famous Japan-exclusive “Birthday Pikachu” or “_______’s Pikachu” card. This story (relevant for this Pride Month release) is about Akari, a transmasculine child who is struggling with expectations and appearances. It’s perhaps a little wishy-washy about affirming his identity, but it’s still nice to see this kind of gender representation in children’s media. There’s lots of bold, dramatic panels in this brief story, and some lovely art on Himeno’s part.
Scelus of the Manga-Tube group scanned this volume, and agreed to provide me with the scans so I could create an English scanlation. Horseypope translated the Japanese script, and I did all the cleaning, editing, typesetting, etc. I’m happy with how it turned out, and thankful to my friends whose perspectives I sought on the nuances of Akari’s character.
This manga series is one of my favourites, as it tells smaller, diverse one-off stories in the Pokemon world that are outside the ordinary “Trainer’s journey” narrative. It’s not the only manga that does this but I think Himeno does a great job with these, and I’m very pleased to bring this one to an English-language audience. Please enjoy and share it.
Read the comic: https://mega.nz/folder/BRoRFAZK#HS6lvg3KZV4DtQL5imjOVQ
My other scanlations: https://mega.nz/folder/MYg0WBhY#xn5m-iIbff4Lx1imddWQLA
August 10, 2019
[Comic] Shrek the manga
Somebody once told me that Shrek had a manga adaptation, in the Jan 2002 issue of Corocoro Comic magazine. It was absolute rock star Ragey, who scanned and cleaned this short chapter by Takeshi Tamai. Since I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed, I said “yep, what a concept” and decided to translate it into English with the help of shooting star @horseypope.
“Kattobi! Shrek: Monstā-kyū no Nyū Hīrō”, or “Here Comes Shrek! The Monstrous New Hero” is a 20-page bit of silliness that purports to adapt the plot of Shrek but actually portrays it pretty differently; so, as the final page says, it’s a different experience to watching the movie. After all, we could all use a little change. It’s read in right-to-left format and I’ve left the original sound effects in (but subtitled them) to maintain the integrity of the art, because that’s the way I like it.
So bundle up, hope you don’t get bored, and enjoy the silly gags of the Shrek manga. There’s so much to see (like a bonus colour 4-koma after the main story). Hey now!
July 24, 2019
[Comic] Get That Plane! (A Diddy Kong Racing manga)
Here’s some fun fluff. It’s a short choose-your-own-adventure/puzzle manga loosely based on Diddy Kong Racing (always fun to see Rare’s games given the manga treatment). It comes from the Feb 1998 Ninensei edition of Shogakukan’s Shogaku Gakushu Zasshi magazines. Raw scans again thanks to Ragey. I’ve translated these into English with Horseypope’s help.
The comic is by Hiroshi Takase and is part of the “Super Mario Wonderland” series, later known as “Super Mario Game Land”. This is the successor series to the original “Super Mario-kun” manga that Takase started in 1986. This chapter sees Mario, along with Peach and Toad, meeting up with Diddy Kong who is showing off his vehicles. Dialogue implies this takes place before DKR begins… it’s a prequel to Diddy Kong Racing, somehow! Figure that one out, fans. Bowser then shows up and steals his plane, and the chase is on.
The comic is to be read in its original right-to-left format, and you’ll skip around between pages a lot if you’re treating it as a proper gamebook and following the directions! Some of the puzzle segments were literally untranslatable, so I included a note for these that tells you the solution. If nothing else, enjoy the cute character designs.
Read or download the comic here
My other scanlations are in this folder or the blog’s tag
July 18, 2019
[Comic] Donkey Kong: Candy’s Request
Hey-oh! Look out down below! This scanlation is from Yukio Sawada’s Super Mario-kun volume 23. It’s labelled as “Special Stage 3” and tells a new story set in the continuity of the French/Canadian Donkey Kong Country CG animated series from Nelvana et al, as you can see from the presence of Bluster Kong and Candy Kong’s unique design. Mario’s not even involved apart from a tiny cameo. It’s a short story but a bit of silly fun with the trademark SMk puns and comedic action (not to mention cute chibi character design).
This volume has never been available outside Japan (although it may be getting a French and even Spanish release in the future). But with the help of Horseypope I’ve translated it into English for the first time for fans to enjoy. It’s to be read in its native right-to-left orientation. I didn’t have scans available for this so I actually scanned this story myself (with help from @lupiter), using an unorthodox technique involving glass plates and a DSLR camera that worked out pretty well, except for losing a tiny bit if the printing was too close to the margin.
I am fascinated by works with multiple layers of adaptation; in this case game series->animated series->manga, so scanlating this was satisfying for me. I hope you enjoy it too. Banana Slamma!
See also: My archive of the Donkey Kong Card Game, another Japanese product based on the show.
January 26, 2019
[Comic] Sonic Comic
In 2016, Sega published a series of 25 comics (plus one bonus) on their Sonic Channel website to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. The comics each centre around a “day in the life” for a different character in the series; originally the website also published a biography of the character and their game appearances. With the tireless help of Horseypope, I’ve translated just the comics into English. They were already printed to be read left-to-right, which helps!
Now I found out when I was almost finished this that these comics have been officially translated through a pack-in with some Tomy toys. But I couldn’t find a scan of these books, nor could I find any other fan translation attempts. Either way, if you’ve seen these before or not I hope you enjoy my translation of them.
The comics have a great style to them, with spot-on designs by Eitaro Toyoda, who mostly works as a level designer on the Sonic games. I love how each has a key colour and uses different shades of it. The gags are pretty good too! Anyway, please spread this around if you can! Special thanks to Sonic News Network, I used some of their translated titles.
November 21, 2018
[Comic] Famicom Manga - Adventure of Link
Another short manga translation. This one comes from a Famicom Manga pack-in booklet included with the May 1987 Ninensei edition of Shogakukan’s Shogaku Gakushu Zasshi magazines. The raw scans come from Ragey; he also cleaned these up before I got to them! I took these and translated them into English with the help of Horseypope.
The comic is printed in a striking red-and-green two-colour style. It’s read Japanese-style, right-to-left, and was done by Shigeto Ikehara, who I know for his work on the Rockman manga in Comic Bombom. This shares his signature cute style, and looks great. It’s a sort of tutorial for the game, teaching you things about how to play it through a light choose-your-own-adventure/puzzle format. It’s pretty simple, as it’s aimed at 8-year-olds.
My other scanlations are in this folder or the blog’s tag
November 6, 2018
[Comic] Go Go Diddy!
This is one chapter taken from the Japanese children’s story/activity book, Mario no Boken Land (Mario’s Adventure Land). The book was written and illustrated by Ritsuko Kawai, the creator of Hamtaro. The scans come from Ragey once again. The book covers various games, from Yoshi’s Story to Wario Land 2, with Mario Party interstitials and also an adaptation of Super Mario 64 that brings Donkey Kong along for the ride. But the one I was interested in was this 10-page Diddy Kong Racing section, which tells a story related to the game through wonderfully cute full-colour art and simple puzzles.
Mario and Peach accompany Diddy on this adventure, and I’ve translated the whole thing into English. Some of the puzzles were kind of untranslatable, but I think the point here is seeing Wizpig the cutest he’s ever been. Read right-to-left, and please enjoy despite most of the puzzles already having been completed by the previous owner of the book! The answers are on the last page anyway if you’re having trouble ;)
My other scanlations are in this folder or the blog’s tag
October 24, 2018
[Comic] Mario’s Picross manga collection
More rare Benimaru Itoh comics for you, this time from Shogakukan’s Wonder Life Special guidebooks for the first three Picross games from Jupiter (Mario’s Picross (GB), Mario’s Super Picross (SNES), and Picross 2 (GB)). Again they are in full, vibrant colour and read left-to-right and with sound effects in English already, so they’re very accessible. Also I translated all the text from Japanese into English.
Also included are all the unique artworks that Itoh drew for the books, collated and cleaned up. I love his style! I also love Peach’s outfits, Wario’s absurd villain portrayal, and Picross puzzles being an integral part of the comic’s plot.
Thanks again to Ragey for the scans, and it’s worth checking out the raws because these books also contain a wealth of unique Picross puzzles in their pages. There are solvable puzzles during the comic, but some of them had been filled in already by the book’s previous owner. And I didn’t bother translating any text explaining how to solve Picross that appeared in the comic sections.
My other scanlations are in this folder or the blog’s tag
October 7, 2018
[Comic] Super Mario Kart guide comic scanlation
The comic scanlations from Mario guides keep coming, thanks to Ragey’s scans and Borp! The guides done by Ape Inc in particular are excellent, and have lovely comics like this one, drawn by Benimaru Itoh. Itoh, also known as Ashura, Benny, or Mitch, has done many Nintendo comics including the Mario World guide’s comic and a full Mother 2 manga, as well as the Star Fox and Super Metroid comics for Nintendo Power. His art style is distinctive and fun, especially when the comics are in full colour like this one!
The comic is also read left to right, so with this translation into English it’s very accessible. It tells the “story” of the original Mario Kart game in vignettes, with plenty of gags along the way. And look out for a whole bunch of cameo appearances on the first and second-last page by Mother, Zelda, and F-Zero characters among others!
My other scanlations are in this folder or the blog’s tag
October 4, 2018
A quick scanlation of a Rayman-themed 4koma, commemorating the release of Rayman 2 in Japan. From the pages of the May 2002 edition of Monthly Corocoro magazine. Written and illustrated by Hori Yoshikazu (this romanisation is a guess as this mangaka is fairly unknown, with few works to their name). Scanned by Ragey. @horseypope helped me translate it, I did the rest.
What a novelty to get a Rayman comic. Apart from some Rabbids-only ones later, the only other comic I know about is the 4-page short in Disney Adventures. Hopefully more will surface some day.
September 19, 2018
Super Mario World guide comics
It’s another scanlation of comics done from Ragey’s scans. Thanks Ragey (raw scans here and here)! Ape the company did a big 2-volume guide for Super Mario World, which is of course a big, important game.
The guide has a lot of fun extras but also quite a few comics, split over the 2 books. I’ve mixed them up and put together the ones that go together, with the story comic under the Volume 1 cover and the 4koma and bonus bits under Volume 2. The story part is by the wonderful Benimaru Itoh, and part one was actually in English already, which made my job easier. The 4koma strips are by Sensha Yoshida, Tamakichi Sakura (AKA Charlie Nozawa), Yukio Sawada, and Isami Nakagawa, in order of appearance. Some of these are read Western-style left-to-right, others Japanese-style right-to-left. I’ve added arrows at the top of the screen when reading direction for a section changes.
Please enjoy the colourful artwork and the silly jokes. Yoshida’s first strip opens the 4koma section with a very crude joke, and later there’s one that references a Japanese singer which I’m sure I didn’t fully grasp, but there’s some real gold in here and hopefully you get a kick out of it.
See all my scanlations in this folder and in this blog’s tag
August 30, 2018
[Comic] Super Mario Collection guide 4koma
Another quick comic scanlation here. Again thanks to Ragey I had nice scans of this official Nintendo guidebook (see the raw scans here). Ape (co-creators of Mother and Pokemon) used to do some totally sweet guides for Nintendo games, Japan only of course. This one is for Super Mario Collection (AKA Super Mario All-Stars) and features a few 4koma gag strips scattered throughout, containing some fun interpretations of the games in the collection clashing, or metatextual comparisons between “then” (the 80s) and “now” (the 90s).
There’s just seven strips which I’ve combined by author. The first three are by Sensha Yoshida and the next four by Tamakichi Sakura, a pseudonym of Charlie Nozawa, the illustrator of the Western-published Super Mario Adventures comic. One of the latter strips is a kind of tribute to Yoshiharu Tsuge, another mangaka that Nozawa must have respected deeply. Please enjoy and share.
See all my scanlations in this folder and in this blog’s tag
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