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Megawangokyo
by Ken Nordris
Megawangokyo (or MW among fans,) is one of the ELoTH:TES fan community's greater success stories. It started as a simple webcomic following a pair of adventurers, Hidro Kobayashi and Ooesuke Minigawa who come across the city of Wangokyo during their travels and, through a series of humorous events, find themselves unable to continue their journey and start making a new life for themselves in the city. This fun premise, along with a vaguely manga-ish art style, garnered it quite a following online. So popular has it become, that it has spawned a series of published "manga" (printed directly from the original webcomic) and is pretty much considered canon by anyone who considers Wangokyo itself to be canon.
Evolution of the Series
Initially, Megawangokyo had little plot and no real direction. However, as time went on, an effort was made to take loose ends and tie them together as well as possible. The comic also took on a more traditionally manga-like style, both in terms of art and formatting. Eventually, it was decided that Megawangokyo would be presented AS a manga, with each strip representing a new page. This actually worked quite well. By many fans, it is considered a triumph that the strip can be read page-by-page online and then, when put into book form, actually reads like a manga with serious pacing issues.
The overall tone of the comic has also shifted over time away from more random, chaotic humor to a more thoughtful, introspective story. Some fans balked at the sudden, more series elements coming into play. Hidro's repeated attempts to take his own life during the fifth "episode", as well as the sixth episode's horrifying mental breakdown of Chime, the lovable grandfather clock Furniliar of Hidro who he obtains (quite by accident) near the middle of episode -1.5 (the kind of retroactive continuity required some odd numbering to fit the earlier strips into episodes), ultimately turned some readers off to the series. In spite of this, the series still has a large following, and many even applaud the more serious direction the stories have taken.
Basic Summary
Episodes -3.7 through .99
Hidro and Ooesuke wander the countyside of the Wang Kingdom with no real direction, having small adventures which poke fun at various ELotH concepts as well as many more over-arching fantasy concepts. The two come across the city of Wangokyo and enter (again, with no real purpose). A run-in with a band of theives, however, leaves them penniless and without their weapons. Hidro goes out and looks for a job while Ooesuke turns (with little success) to a life of crime. Hidro ends up being given a job at Hostelity by its beautiful assistant manager Jade Lotus. As it turns out, there are many attractive women working at Hostelity, but Hidro tries to remain focussed on getting cash and keeping Ooesuke from getting into too much trouble. Meanwhile Ooesuke, who is still trying to work the angle of crime, ends up accidentially creating Chime, a cute female clock furniliar, through the use of a stolen spellbook. Hilariously, Chime ends up bonding with Hidro, who must now contend with teaching this new furniliar about the ways of the world. But what might his co-workers think about such a thing, especially since Chime looks so human? And what crazy situation will Ooesuke find himself in next? It is with these questions that the "real" story of Megawangokyo begins.
Episode 1: Tick Tock Trouble
Episode 2: Much Ado About Everything
Episode 3: What Goes Up
Episode 4: Power and Justice
Episode 5: An End to Memories
Episode 6: Shattered Edges of Broken Dreams
Episode 7: Megawangokyo Is About to Explode!
Episode 8: Hearts and Hijinks
Episode 9: Controversy, Conspiracy, and Culimancy (current)
A year or so after the start of the series, and around the time the true plotline began to take form, several Megawangokyo readers began to notice some strong similarities between this series and the Ultrawang series (a word picture scroll explained within canon which was later transcribed as a series on its own). The basic settings and plotlines of the two are very similar, although they take place in different "realities" within Battal. In each, two warriors in the Wang Kingdom must deal with their lives as outsiders. However, with the introduction of Chime, the grandfather clock Furniliar, who was very similar in nature to Ultrawang's clock ferniliar, Shi, the controversy really took off, and many fans started to wonder if Megawangokyo was simply a rip-off of Ultrawang.
Megawangokyo's creator, Ken Nordris, has denied many times that the similarities are intentional. He says that he never even read the Ultrawang scrolls before creating the series, although he did read them after the controversy started and says that he does understand why people might think he's ripping them off.
"Look, if you make a series about two guys in the Wang Kingdom exploring the culture and dealing with life as outsiders, there's not a WHOLE lot of different directions you can take that. Similarities are going to come up, okay? No, seriously, I'm not stealing from Ultrawang. Wangokyo isn't even a similar setting! By the way, the next comic may be delayed a little. I have a cold." - Ken Nordris (on the Ultrawang controversy)
"Really, you guys, I'm NOT ripping off Ultrawang. Yeah, Chime is a female clock furniliar, BIG DEAL! Like there can only be one female clock furniliar in the canon or something? Geez, just get over it. Oh, and the next comic will be delayed because I'm moving. Sorry, everyone." - Ken Nordris (on fan reactions to Chime)
Trivia and Tidbits
Comments
Hmmm, they are somewhat similar, aren't they? I hadn't noticed that. -Rocket |
We should probably turn this into a redirect page, then. -Luggage |
I think it's more of a case of 'plagiarism' on the part of MW's authors. There's a famous rivalry between MW and UW fans. -olhado |
Wow, I didn't even know about this until I checked it out on the Megawangokyo message board, but you're right. Someone should make a page about the rivalry. I probably come down more on the MW, "any similarities are unintentional" side, but that's probably the MW fan in me. -Rocket |
One of my favorite episodes is episode 7, "Megawagokyo is about to explode." -tim |
Added a bit on the Ultrawang Controversey just to clear things up. By the way, where should this article go, Fan comics or official works, because it's pretty expansive but may-or-may not be canon (Nobody really seems to care.) -Rocket |
It gets worse. I just found an archive of an old webcomic tied into the CCG that seems to be a ripoff of both Ultrawang and Megawagokyo at the same time. - Zeta |
Comments (2)
Anonymous said
at 10:57 am on Feb 13, 2006
I've just noticed that our "argument" makes no sense since Ultrawang exists within canon (created by an ELotH character) and Megawangokyo is a fan-created comic story...
Anonymous said
at 12:03 am on Feb 14, 2006
Actually, it's a joke on the Ultrawang series, that developed into series on its own (after the artist killed the scriptwriter).
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