Manga coverage: Kodansha's Super Mario

Borp

Borp

Lakitu
Back in about 2013 or so I downloaded a whole bunch of manga scans from a blog that doesn't exist anymore, so I figured I'd upload them all to the web and share them here so I can spread them as far as possible. Finding exact information on these has been pretty difficult. All I know so far is that they were published by Kodansha (講談社) in two magazines, Comic Bonbon (コミックボンボン) and Deluxe Bonbon (デラックスボンボン), they were written by a cartoonist named Motoyama Kazuki (本山一城), they were collected in a total of 42 paperback volumes from 1989 to 1998, and it doesn't have a unified title: rather, each volume is named after whichever game the stories adapt, while fans in Japan have nicknamed this particular manga "KC Mario". Not all of the stories from the magazines were collected, so I don't have those, and I'm still missing two volumes regardless.

Do note that this is not to be confused with Super Mario-kun (スーパーマリオくん), which was published in CoroCoro Comics (コロコロコミックス) and is still running to this very day. "KC Mario" on the other hand ended in 1998, while Comic Bonbon itself went defunct in 2007. From what I understand, after that happened the copyrights to "KC Mario" went to Shogakukan, and since they're the publisher of CoroCoro it's not likely that they're ever going to re-release these stories, which a) sucks majorly and b) makes these scans all the more valuable to have.

As for the content of the manga itself, most of the stories loosely adapt then-current Mario games, but some of them are wholly original pieces. The author seems to have been given a fair bit of creative freedom, as he liberally introduces original characters, features wacky meta jokes, and even makes the occasional reference to Japanese popular culture. Some issues get particularly nuts. Even if you can't understand the language, it's still worth a look just for the crazy images within. One thing I find fascinating is how much stuff in here seems to have inspired later Mario games. For example, Daisy is a semi-recurring character and acts really tomboyish, there's a Mario Kart story that features the cast splitting into teams and driving themed vehicles on a cross country rally, and Dr. Mario appears as a separate character from Mario in a few stories with no apparent explanation (that I could find, anyway).

Without any further digression, here is the list of links:

Vol. 1: Super Mario Land #1
Vol. 2: Super Mario Land #2
Vol. 3: Super Mario Land #3
Vol. 4: Super Mario Land #4
Vol. 5: Dr. Mario
Vol. 6: Super Mario World #1
Vol. 7: Super Mario World #2
Vol. 8: Super Mario World #3
Vol. 9: Super Mario World #4
Vol. 10: Super Mario World #5
Vol. 11: Super Mario World #6
Vol. 12: Super Mario World #7
Vol. 13: Mario Open Golf (aka NES Open Tournament Golf)
Vol. 14: Yoshi no Tamago (aka Yoshi)
Vol. 15: Super Mario Kart #1
Vol. 16: Super Mario Kart #2
Vol. 17: Super Mario Kart #3
Vol. 18: Super Mario USA (aka Super Mario Bros. 2)
Vol. 19: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins #1
Vol. 20: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins #2
Vol. 21: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins #3
Vol. 22: Yoshi no Road Hunting #1 (aka Yoshi's Safari)
Vol. 23: Yoshi no Road Hunting #2
Vol. 24: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land #1
Vol. 25: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land #2
Vol. 26: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land #3
Vol. 27: Mario & Wario
Vol. 28: Wario's Woods
Vol. 29: Donkey Kong #1
Vol. 30: Donkey Kong #2
Vol. 31: Super Donkey Kong with Mario #1 (aka Donkey Kong Country)
Vol. 32: Super Donkey Kong with Mario #2
Vol. 33: Yoshi's Island #1
Vol. 34: Yoshi's Island #2
Vol. 35: Yoshi's Island #3
Vol. 36: Super Mario 64 #1
Vol. 37: Super Mario 64 #2
Vol. 38: Super Mario 64 #3
Vol. 39: Super Mario 64 #4
Vol. 40: Super Mario 64 #5
Vol. 41: Yoshi's Story #1
Vol. 42: Yoshi's Story #2

The volume numbers are by no means official, I just put them there for my own reference. Titles without links are those I don't have scans for. Hopefully one day someone will be able to translate all of them.

Please feel free to look through these pages and post any opinions, questions or further discoveries you may have regarding these manga dumps. I think I myself will eventually give my own comments on them, but I thought it best to post the scans first. Also feel free to take the scans for yourself and re-upload them wherever you want. The more people know about these, the better. Just be wary as I'm told downloading albums off Imgur can be a real pain.
 
I see Baby Luigi yaaaaayyy more images to add to my rotating avatar and more stuff to add to that Baby Luigi article. ♫

Also, Baby Mario too. He's really cute.

Edit #1: Waaait do we have an article on this in MarioWiki?
Edit #2: Ok, so Vol. 35: Yoshi's Island #3 is ----ing amazing. Baby Mario and Baby Luigi are ----ing awesome in there.
 
This stuff's the best. I'll try uploading when I can, but overall, this manga is pretty adorable. It seems to have sometimes characters flipping off at some point...? What's the target audience for this manga anyway, since it seems to be children?
 
Judging by the simplicity of the dialog and use of furigana on all the kanji, it's pretty obviously a kids' comic.

I was told by an avid manga fan that in the mid-90s, Japan had only just discovered what the middle finger actually meant, so it became a common joke for manga authors to slip it into their work.
 
Wow... well, an image of Mario flipping off to Bowser, that's definitely going on this wiki. :) This is seriously a giant gold mine, so hats off to you. :fancy:

It's really hard to find space for these articles where images should belong. I don't even know how to caption these things other than call them Kodansha Mario manga??
 
Not sure how Baby Mario and Baby Luigi speak in the manga. They seem to speak coherently but I'm not sure if there are any catches. But it's brilliant how both of them (mainly Baby Mario cuz he's lucky) are actually portrayed as characters rather than objects in the Yoshi's Island mangas, to the point where Baby Mario can kick butt, which is a huge upgrade from their original portrayal.

Though the 3rd Yoshi's Island arc is still my favorite, mostly because Baby Luigi plays a more active role in it so naturally, I had to absolutely adore it.

Can't wait to add info from this manga into Baby Luigi's article, definitely deserves a mention and images there.

I really wish I can like your OP twice.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the manga is the first portrayal of Baby Peach before she became a thing, it looks like.
 
omg, these are amazing! Thank you so much for saving them and sharing them with us.

Striker Mario said:
Wow... well, an image of Mario flipping off to Bowser, that's definitely going on this wiki. :) This is seriously a giant gold mine, so hats off to you. :fancy:
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QFT! Just from a few random perusal, there's confirmation that Prince Pine's name is a reference to Pineapples (since his head's a Pineapple, and his dad's a teapot), artwork showing that Gao from SML are immobile because their legs are in chains, Jewelry Land is an island, Daisy starts out liking Mario but switches to Luigi during the golf arc, there seems to be a separate Dr. Mario character in Yoshi's Safari, Bowser's depicted as green with spiky yellow hair, King K. Rool has a tail, Toads have different head patterns like in the anime movie, Birdo is very anthro and curvy in one shot, and best of all, Yoshi from the SMB film shows up in the first Yoshi's Safari one as some lady's pet! The regular Yoshi even says "Omai wa eiga ni deteta riaru Yosshi!" (You were the real Yoshi in the movie!")

o1cZIDa.jpg

Seeing DKC reimagined with Mario is pretty entertaining too. And all the other games having Luigi, Peach and Bowser in active rolls when they're not in them originally is also interesting. It's weird how the manga only starts with SML, too, rather than earlier, although flashbacks in the Dr. Mario one show SMB2/SMUSA and SMB3. This entire thing is amazing - makes me wish I had time to translate the whole thing...

Striker Mario said:
It's really hard to find space for these articles where images should belong. I don't even know how to caption these things other than call them Kodansha Mario manga??
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History sections, but yeah, the title is tricky - like how there's no official name for the DIC cartoon trilogy. I feel like we could probably treat this a similar way and just use "KC Deluxe manga" for headers (and maybe "KC Deluxe (manga)" for the article).
 
A couple things:

-K. Rool did have a tail in the games, but lost it after Paon took over.
-I believe there was an adaption of Mario 3 before the Mario Land one, but it was exclusive to either one of the magazines or a game guide. I'm not exactly sure which.
 
Yeah, I know - you can see it in some of the original trilogy's artworks and in DK64, but I still like keeping an eye out for it in related media.

If so, hopefully scans of the magazine/guide-only and the two missing paperbacks will turn up someday.
 
Walkazo said:
and best of all, Yoshi from the SMB film shows up in the first Yoshi's Safari one as some lady's pet! The regular Yoshi even says "Omai wa eiga ni deteta riaru Yosshi!" (You were the real Yoshi in the movie!")

o1cZIDa.jpg
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We must've had really good foresight to veto that proposal.
 
If we were to use the manga as a citation or for images, what would we call it? As Borp mentioned, there's no unified title for the series, and "KC Mario" is just a fan name.
 
"KC Deluxe" is probably how I'd do it because every manga volume has KC デラックス, or "KC Derakkusu" on its cover, though I did call it "KC Mario" when I was citing the name for Togemaru.
 
^
which is then translated to Pakkun Flower

or Piranha Plant Flower since pakkun = piranha plant
 
Interesting, the enemy we've currently listed as a Muncher is actually a Piranha Plant. Some info shuffling may be required.

Is someone able to translate the text on this image (File:Maizō KC Mario Artwork.png) (still from the previous group image)? It's the only enemy with dialog on the page, so it might be interesting.
 
Nothing too interesting actually.

The text is small so there was an issue with reading one of the words (おカネ) but I'm certain this is it

わたしはマイゾー
この人におカネをあげちゃう

I'm Maizō
I give money to this person (unintentionally)

going by the wiki's page on the enemy, maizo is definitely correct in describing what he does lol
 
Well, that's surprisingly plain. Actually, if you're not busy, would it be possible for you to check some of the enemies and fill out their meaning? Like for Harisu, I dug through online texts and guessed that the name was a pun on harinezumi (hedgehog) and aisu (ice). Of course, I hardly know Japanese, so the task would be more suited for someone who knew what they were doing.
 
nah i'd second that interpretation actually. lmao are you sure you dont know japanese

if you wouldnt mind pointing out which ones in partiular you want checked then that would be hella helpful
 
GBAToad said:
nah i'd second that interpretation actually. lmao are you sure you dont know japanese
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I could say some quotes from anime, if that counts.

GBAToad said:
if you wouldnt mind pointing out which ones in partiular you want checked then that would be hella helpful
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Off the top of my head, Watch ( ウォッチ ) and Pecan ( ピーカン ) are assumed to be transliterations even though I find that odd, Bōtsu only provides the romanization and not the original name (not sure if you can do something about that, just thought I'd throw it out there), and I tried working on Togemaru but I've made no progress and it's been bugging me to no end.
 
Judging by the enemy's appearance, I'd translate Togemaru as spike ball (its literally a portmanteau of those two words)

I'm not really sure what else I can do about Watch and Pecan because their names are those words exactly (I'm used to ペカン for pecan but ピーカン works too, apparently), I'm trying to see if they're puns on ~something~ but atm I'd say its probably best to call a watch a watch and keep them as they are for now

no idea about Botsu tho, sorry.
 
Thanks for the others, but with Pecan, couldn't ピーカン be a pun on ペリカン ? The other word is "pelican", I believe, which makes more sense for the bird enemy than a pecan.
 
piikan -> perikan

its...possible. whats stumping me is the transition from pii to peri because they're pretty different even though they share their first and last letters in the romanisation, the characters and therefore syllables are entirely different aside from the 'kan' part.

perhaps mention it in the translation box anyway. Likely comes from perikan (however the wiki formats japanese words)
 
The 'pii' bit might be from another word, and "piikan" is a portmanteau between it and perikan. It's tempting to go with occam's razor and just say that the bird is named after a nut, but I just don't think it makes sense.
 
I mean piipii ピーピー is the onomatopoeia given to a chirping bird but in the context of what the enemy does, im not seeing anything that says its that and perikan combined and not just piikan. occam's razor yo

googling 'piikan wario' in japanese yields a wiki page where they label related words such as pelican so its worth mentioning the similarity in the translation box but not much further than that imo. Aside from that it simply describes the enemy as a pelican beach enemy that attacks (by) throwing up stored things.

if its any consolation than the japanese wikipedia page for the game also describes the enemy as a pelican that wears a bandana and throws up fish bones at you when you get close to it so lol

im not sure what that does to help the situation but there you go~~
 
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