Megatokyo

Megatokyo
Megatokyo volume 1, first edition
Author(s)	Fred Gallagher, Rodney Caston
Website	https://megatokyo.com
Current status/schedule	Active; erratic updates
Launch date	August 14, 2000[1]
Publisher(s)	Print: Dark Horse Comics; formerly Wildstorm, CMX and Studio Ironcat
Genre(s)	Comedy, drama, action, romance

Megatokyo (メガトーキョー) (also stylized as MegaTokyo) is an English-language webcomic created by Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. Megatokyo debuted on August 14, 2000,^[1] and has been written and illustrated solely by Gallagher since June 17, 2002.^[2] Gallagher's style of writing and illustration is heavily influenced by Japanese manga. Megatokyo is freely available on its official website. The intended schedule for updates was for postings twice a week, but new comics are typically posted just once or twice a quarter on non-specific days. In 2011, updates began being delayed further due to the health issues of Sarah Gallagher (Seraphim), Gallagher's wife. Megatokyo was published in book-format by CMX, although the first three volumes were published by Dark Horse. For February 2005, sales of the comic's third printed volume were ranked third on BookScan's list of graphic novels sold in bookstores, then the best showing for an original English-language manga.^[3]

Set in a fictional version of Tokyo, Megatokyo portrays the adventures of Piro, a young fan of anime and manga, and his friend Largo, an American video game enthusiast. The comic often parodies and comments on the archetypes and clichés of anime, manga, dating sims, arcade and video games, occasionally making direct references to real-world works. Megatokyo originally emphasized humor, with continuity of the story a subsidiary concern. Over time, it focused more on developing a complex plot and the personalities of its characters. This transition was due primarily to Gallagher's increasing influence over the comic, which led to Caston choosing to leave the project.^[4][5]