Title: Megatokyo: Part 2 Volume(s): 3+ Author(s): Fred Gallagher Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Dark Horse MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Romance/Fantasy Rated: Teen (13+)

You may be looking at the title of "Megatokyo: Part 2" at the top of the page, and you may be wondering what it is I'm talking about. After all, there is no OFFICIAL "Megatokyo: Part 2”! Every book is simply called "Megatokyo." So what am I reviewing, then? Well, I'm reviewing the "Megatokyo" strips that were created after Rodney Caston left the comic strip and Fred Gallagher took up the position of both writing AND drawing the hit webcomic! So in other words, "Megatokyo: Part 2" is the part of "Megatokyo" most former fans refer to as "the day the funny died." Don't worry, current "Megatokyo" fans, my opinion of these later strips is far more complicated and (in some ways) more forgiving than that statement above. We are now at a point where the way the comic is being created has drastically changed, so the next question is: how much did the comic itself change?

The answer: surprisingly, not much... at first. Seriously, for how much you may (or may not) have heard about how drastically different the Caston-less strips are, you may be shocked to find out that if you read the first forty or so Caston-less strips, it doesn't really feel like much has changed. Piro is still the straight man keeping everything in order, Largo is still crazy, and Boo the Hamster is still getting the shaft when it comes to getting a piece of the budgeting. Everything’s cool. But as the book goes on, the changes become more apparent. Piro stops being the straight man, and starts becoming just as much of an irresponsible klutz as Largo (although in a different way, of course). Largo still has his crazy moments and fantasies, but they don't feel natural anymore, and instead feel rather forced. The most drastic change in the series is the story. Initially, "Megatokyo" starts out as a gag story where two guys go to Japan, get stuck living there (since they have no money to go back home), and how they both view the Japanese culture. Largo, who is the hard-core gamer, finds Japan to be one great big toy box with new things to discover everyday. Piro, who is the shoujo-loving artist, finds Japan to be nothing like the comics portray Japan as, and finds himself surprisingly miserable there.

Where have I seen THIS before?!

The two characters’ view on Japan make for an entertaining comic, where the various gags work on several different levels. With Caston gone, Gallagher decided to make "Megatokyo" into something HE envisioned: a shoujo romance! With this change in vision, the style and tone of the comic strikes a VERY different tone! Largo's antics become less and less frequent, and when they do happen, they aren't very funny. A ton of new characters get introduced (most of them being female), and almost all of them fall in love with Piro. More focus is put on the romance aspects of the storyline (as opposed to the humor side of the storyline in earlier comics), and for some reason those horrible "Shirt Guy Dom" comics still exist. What we have now is something completely different from what we've been reading all along, and whether you like this change in style is entirely based on your own personal preferences. Personally, I don't like these later comics nearly as much as the old comics. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with these comics, and I even enjoy them to some extent, but there are several reasons I think going in this direction was a huge mistake. Let’s start with why changing the story from a comedy to a romance was a bad change. There are tons of shoujo manga out on the market. TONS! The market for romance-driven shoujo is very crowded, and if you are going to try writing one of these series yourself, you need to distinguish it from the others in some way.

In this regard, "Megatokyo" tries to be different from the crowd by throwing some weird anime-style McGuffins into the story (ninja, robots, otaku), but most of these additions feel out-of-place. There may be a ninja in the story, and that MAY be something you don't see in most romance series, but there is no REASON for the ninja to be there in the first place!! For that matter, when a bunch of robots come out of nowhere, it just feels weird and out-of-place. When "Megatokyo" was a comedy, I could let this stuff slide, but once this becomes a romance series... well, then this stuff just feels weird and out–of-place. If you were to get rid of all the weird stuff that happens, you would find a story with underdeveloped characters and very little story progression. Unfortunately, since this is a webcomic first and a book second, the story moves along at a slug’s pace. In book form, the story pacing isn't so much of a problem (seeing as how you get a good chunk of the comic strips all at once), but online there are only three new comics a week (sometimes two). Each chapter is about seventy to eighty pages each. Each book contains about two chapters plus extras. As you can see, even if Gallagher is diligent to make sure that he doesn't miss updating three pages a week on his website (which doesn't happen too often), it could take at least half a year between books. If he misses a comic every couple of weeks, then it could be almost a year between books.

This is NOT acceptable! Not everyone reading this book will be reading the comic online, and to expect people to wait so long between releases is insulting. Of course, this also adds a problem that waiting for the story when you're reading "Megatokyo" online is also a long chore, which makes me wonder if being a "webcomic" is really working in "Megatokyo”’s favor anymore. I guess I should also comment on the artwork, if just slightly. The artwork has not evolved much since "Megatokyo" first started. This isn't a bad thing per se, as I have always liked the style of the artwork, but I know I have a problem with the way Gallagher draws women. He draws all the women in this series with the same face! From the goth chick to the PS2 accessory, all the women have the same faces and facial expressions. Since a vast majority of the cast is female in this series, this makes keeping track of the characters VERY confusing sometimes! Keep in mind the artwork is NOT bad, but it simply needs to be more refined to help the readers know who's who (although most of the men you can differentiate, for some strange reason)! All in all, I wouldn't call "Megatokyo: Part 2" bad, just different. However, my tastes in comics will differ, and my personal preference is that I liked early "Megatokyo" comics much better than I like them now.

Best line in the whole book.

Personally, I prefer the funny spoofs and wacky situations over the romantic triangles, and it's hard to recommend this to other people just because the wait time between books is pretty unforgiving. If you've been reading "Megatokyo" online for awhile, then you may have a good idea on whether or not the Caston-less days are your cup of tea or not. Personally, I like my tea with more sugar than what "Megatokyo" has to offer now.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -