July 15, 2024
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Probably the most interesting and exciting volume of Mario-Kun in a while, it's been a bit since I've read one of these so I can't directly compare to the last few, but we're finally done with Super Mario World which has been going since the first volume. While the series is pretty good at bringing call-backs and references to other games and weaving them into what's going on right now, it's nice to finally officially be adapting some other games and this volume is a two-in-one deal.
The structure is still a bit weird from the fact that they basically published the final Super Mario World battle between Mario and Bowser back in volume 4 because people were complaining about how long it was taking (yes, really!) so they basically run up to where it would have happened then skip to the aftermath with no comment, but the chapters leading up to the battle do a fun job integrating Super Mario Kart into the path Mario and friends have to take and there is a lot of Karting in this volume. One of the fun things about reading this series is when you see something that would end up being done in the games way later, and there's a scene where Mario (or maybe DK JR, I can't remember) flips the wheels of their Kart 90 degrees and turns it into a hovercraft, and it looks exactly how it does in Mario Kart 8 which came out over two decades after this comic was initially published. Like it's so spot on it can't be a coincidence.
One thing I particularly liked about this volume is it seems like the stories are starting to have at least a little continuity. It's not much, but I liked the fact that Birdo stuck around for a chapter or two after she was introduced (and Birdo basically waltzing into Bowser's castle and saying "you're bad at this, it's my turn to try is hilarious and a highlight. Manga Birdo is awesome). There's even a running gag about Bowser's increasingly lame attempts to rebuild his castle that goes for at least three or so chapters which was nice. I liked that Peach is more involved this time around and while it doesn't look like she'll factor much in the upcoming arc (Super Mario Land 2), her manga personality is so much spunkier and more fun than the docile damsel we tend to see in the games. Peach straight up trolls her captors and it's a lot of fun so I hope we'll get more of her and maybe even see what Daisy is like in this continuity.
We only get the first little taste of the Super Mario Land 2 arc, but SML2 is one of my favorite Mario games for aesthetics and it feels like this series is hitting more of a stride in storytelling so I'm excited to see how Wario factors into the picture. I like that it's treating Mario Land 2 like the direct follow-up to Mario World rather than shoving it to the sidelines as a spinoff like the actual games do, if the comic continues to treat spinoff games as important canon this series could really go some interesting places.
As far as the language side of things I'm doing much better with this series than when I started. I think I really only barely added anything to my anki deck word-wise which is nice because I can still make a dent. I took about a month and a half from "real books" to just catch up on Satori Reader and I think that still-productive-break actually helped because I feel like my reading is more solid now that I'm getting back to things. Onto volume 7!