スーパーマリオくん 15

Volume 15 marks an interesting transitionary period in Super Mario Kun, we finally get the last little bit of Yoshi's Island which isn't particularly remarkable beyond the fact that it's Christmassy and I happened to read it around christmas and the fact that Yoshi lands ass-first on a christmas tree and says something like "That really stretched my butthole". I thought it was cute that Baby Mario's first words are Merry Christmas, it was a weirdly nice touch in a series that favors crudity but on the whole it wasn't my favorite arc and I mostly found it interesting for just how foul some of the scenarios are rather than the jokes actually being funny. There's a lovely panel where they slip Bowser some laxatives and we see him explosive diarrhea shitting all over the place and that's kind of the purest expression of what most of the gags in the Yoshi's Island arc have been.

Donkey Kong Country also ends in comparitively sane fashion, it's not a game I have a ton of nostalgia for but I generally enjoy it when I sit down and I think the manga version was one of Sawada's more successful attempts at putting Mario into a spinoff he had no presence in. There's a fun meta gag about some levels and enemies exclusive to the Gameboy port Donkey Kong Land and I always enjoy little in-the-weeds shoutouts that dorks would catch.

The real attraction this volume is Super Mario 64 which is the arc I've been anticipating the most, partly because 64 is one of my favorite games of all time, but also because this is the first time the manga has to straddle a shift in console generations and the manga itself shifts a little in ways that are kind of promising.

Given how obsessively people pour over everything related to Super Mario 64 I'm kind of surprised this never appeared on anyone's Mario 64 conspiracy icebergs, especially since the first page ACTUALLY EXPLAINS WHY LUIGI WASN'T THERE. That's right, the greatest mystery in all of gaming isn't even a spoiler, it's the opening salvo, and it turns out he's missing because Mario just didn't want to share that cake so he never told Luigi about the invite. Wow. After all these decades it's been hiding there in untranslated Japanese the whole time.

What fascinated me about the Mario 64 arc in comparison to the other arcs is that Sawada's had to essentially spin something out of nothing up until now. The SNES games might have a little blurb at the start and end, but what happens between that is all fairly indistinct and repetitive beyond certain levels having different themes and gimmicks, so most of the manga has felt pretty samey regardless of game with the actual game elements being more of a thematic backdrop.

While I wouldn't say Super Mario 64 is known for it's deep intruiging plotline, it is a significantly more defined game than its predecessors. Instead of several dozen levels made up of the same building blocks, there's only 15 levels each with a pretty distinct and memorable layout, there are characters who talk to you and while none of them are particularly fleshed out, they are memorable, they each have a thing like the penguin with the baby or the bob-ombs on the battlefield. There are distinct cutscenes and setpieces and the manga finally gets the gift of something to go off of. While the gags are still fast paced and crude, that extra definition and structure gives the storytelling a bit of a backbone its been lacking so far.

After the gag with the cake, Sawada adapts the opening scenes of Super Mario 64 pretty faithfully, no boring Lakitu speech about how to work the camera thankfully, but we have Mario jumping out of the pipe, going into the door to find nobody's home, Toad explaining that everyone's trapped in the walls and paintings, it's pretty spot on (and the manga takes the interpretation that they are literally trapped in the walls as opposed to just meaning "inside the castle" which is also how I interpret it). It feels like I'm actually reading a story and not just a series of gags.

The artwork also takes a subtle but noticeable shift. Starting with the Mario 64 stories, you can tell Mario's just a bit taller and more defined, his body is less stumpy and his poses are more dyanmic. One of the little puzzles between chapters seems to finally give Luigi his proper mustache shape but the rest of the book it's still the same as Mario's. I think Sawada has been drawing Peach's SNES and onward hairstyle for a few volumes (it can sometimes be a gap between reading these so I don't exactly remember) but she's definitely taller and a bit more definied. It's not a massive shift but it's noticeable that it's starting to change as the presentation of the games themselves changes.

The environmental artwork is also a lot less abstract than the 16-bit adaptations. The backgrounds fittingly have a lot more perspective and the renditions of Super Mario 64's levels are very accurate. Distinct layouts and pieces of level design are all here and in their correct place, drawn in a cartoony style that gives them a bit more life than the game could render. It's really impressive how much Sawada nails the details and the fact that the game itself lets you see the world from any angle was no doubt a huge help reference-wise. I do have to dock points for showing Mario doing the Green Switch challenge before Jolly Roger bay or Bower in the Dark World, but maybe this is Speedrun Mario.

It seems they're only doing one chapter per level so far, which is fine for pacing but it also makes me kind of sad that we'll potentially speed through Mario 64 when I actually want to linger in each area a bit more. It reads well but I found myself wanting just a bit more of Mario actually exploring the castle between levels but the chapters are mostly starting with him already in whatever level the chapter focuses on. I get it, manga chapters have fewer pages than American comics, but man this arc is so good I just want more. I want as much Mario 64 as possible. Sometimes I have to force myself to read these but I'm actually excited to read Super Mario Kun now because there's actually a bit of proper storytelling going on and not just a litany of fart gags (though they do imply Mario stole King Whomp's testicles not even bullshitting). I think they actually make a joke about the Messier deeps-sky numbering system and that's downright highbrow compared to most of this series (Mario says he feels like he's going to the M64 nebula).

Rounding out the volume is a chapter of 4-komas revolving around Mario Kart 64, which I think is a good choice rather than trying to turn the game into a whole story arc (though maybe they will who knows). These are surprisingly some of the funniest comedy the series has had to offer so far, the 4-koma format works really well and the jokes actually have a setup and payoff rather than just stuffing the randomest grossest thing in every panel. It's more Coyote and Roadrunner or, fittingly enoguh, Wacky Races, type humor and it's actually really funny stuff! I'd totally be down for another chapter or two like this over the next few volumes because it's the best actual joke-writing I've seen in one of these.

Overall Mario 64 didn't disappoint and I've actually regained my excitement for reading this series. We'll see if that lasts through the gamecube era (which I never got into as much as the N64 Mario-wise) but for now it feels like I might be hitting a little Mario Kun golden age.