Since i’ve run out of older Mario films to review, time to look at some of the manga about the plumbering bros and its magical mushroom world of pipes and princesses.
At least one of the mangas, as we’ll do Super Mario-Kun some other times.
Thankfully italian publisher JPOP did collect all of the more known Mario manga series, simply called Super Mario Adventures, all in one volume, at least for the italian release, the american one is handled by VIZ Media, so you’ll have to check availability for your region or whatever.
Story is by Kentaro Takekuma, mostly known for this and Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga/Saruman series that parodies instructional works about making manga and the industry as well, and received itself a sequel series, Saruman 2.0, back in 2007.
Art is by Charlie Nozawa, whom surprisingly isn’t credited to anything else… at least under that name, a pseudonym for Tamakichi Sakura, whom worked as a character designer for some old Enix games like Dungeon Land and other titles like Pikiinia!, the Sansara Naga series and Tower Dream, all that never left Japan, but he also has other works as a manga artist, as he’s behind Shiawase No Kaitachi (Figures Of Happiness) and Oyaji No Wakusei (Planet Of The Father).
It’s a hybrid gag/adventure manga, as in, there actually is a story, about wha you’d expect from a Super Mario comic, it’s basically SMB 3 plot with stuff like the Yoshi or the cape from SMW (or the Reznor/triceratops boss), but it’s also pretty random, like the regular looking human salesman in Yoshi’s village basically going in “seal the deal” mode at every occasion.
So it’s isn’t a direct adaptation, as it mixes both old and newly made material in a pot, which works since it’s mostly a gag manga at heart, one you can tell how old is it even without checking its original run release date because they make a Hulk Hogan joke… not one lambasting his racist ass, but as a generic example of a strong person.
This alone makes it very unsurprising to learn it initially run on issues of Nintendo Power in 1992, then serialized in 1993 by the japanese Coro Coro Comics.
Or in how they do the ol’ trick of swapping the bride with Luigi in a dress, that old chestnut, but i will say, it has some well timed physical comedy style gags, there’s that old cartoon style of humour that is pulled off fairl well, and while it’s funnier than i expected, your enjoyment may vary, depending on how much old fashioned you like your gag manga, but it’s hard to dislike it, i feel, at worst it’s still cute and likeable, even though very outdated in sensibilities.
And some other fourthwall breaking jokes, though some are clever than they seem, like how Bowser lays an obvious trap and both him and Mario end up accidentally learn of the others explanation since they do the speech in panels next to each other.
And while yes, we have Peach playing Super Mario Bros on the NES in her castle, there’s no shameless product whoring like in the 1986 animated film, and speaking of Princess Peach, she’s awesome, ready to dive down from building like Ethan Hunt or treathening to go full kamizake unit on their asses (and herself) with bombs just to take down Bowsers, she kicks the shit of anything that dares to restrain her,
Bowser is basically what you’d expect, more of its usual persona, even if less of a whipped boyfriend like he was in the 1986 animated film, nor a “simp”, but obviously he’s still made goofy enough to have the Koopalings kinda fed up with his weird tangents or plans.
Not much to say about Mario or Luigi, which is already characterized as the scaredy one… though even in the ghost house he isn’t even scared, but curiously made a glutton to the point it overtakes his fears.
Rounding the characters, at first i though the random human, Floyd, was that, a random normal looking salesmen in a world of talking mushroom people, but then i remember this was originally published in Nintendo Power, which i known via AVGN episodes more than anything, in Italy we never got that magazine back then, we had other official Nintendo print publications but not that.
I mean, i’ve learned of the magazine had mascosts like Lester, but nope, Friendly Floyd is indeed just that, a random one off character made just for the comic.
There’s also final bonus chapter a story about Mario and Wario, which isn’t based around Super Mario Land 2, even though Wario has a castle in it,
and it’s own thing, as Wario and Mario are childhood friends, but Wario is still angry since Mario ended up accidentally bullying him, and plans revenge, which always backfires or goes awry in some way, with Mario oblivious to the dangers Wario has set up for him.
The art is actually nice and the action panels are actually well realized and composed, and it’s in full color, which is nice and i didn’t quite expect.
While it maybe a bit too old school style of a gag manga for modern audiences, Super Mario Adventures is actually quite a fun and likeable manga escapade for Mario and the gang, offering some great art (in lovely color, too), some nifty jokes and practical gags for 1993, with a story that features a lot of the expected characters from the games but doesn’t quite adapt any of them, standing as its own thing, with familiar characterization… aside from Peach, she’s the funniest and toughest her character has probably ever been, or pretty close.
It’s a bit more than a curiosity but nothing that amazing, it falls somewhere in between, but for fans of the series it’s definitely worth a looking.
Wise Cafe (International) 