Let loose the 500 pound gorillas.

In case you’ve been in a coma for the last seven years, the name of the game today is Megatokyo, a stunningly popular webcomic that’s been published in manga form both stateside and, very soon, abroad in Japan as well.

It’s pretty much the only example I can think of reverse importation in the anime/manga genre, where a foreign-made product based on an originally Japanese concept manages to make its way back overseas, (Not to be confused with foreign releases of Japanese products getting reverse imported) and for that Megatokyo and its creator Fred Gallagher deserve at least a few accolades for creating such a smash hit, at least in the American manga scene.

But Megatokyo has also recieved probably as much criticism as praise, and from the feel of things seems like a popular target for more ‘discerning’ anime/manga people to bash. Like the recent hate-fest for Shana II this comes from many groups, whether it be the newcomer who doesn’t understand the hype, or the longtime fan who feels the show has jumped the shark. The reasons are varied, from the largely derived-from-anime-culture feel of the comic and the slow pace to the wish-fulfillment factor and the tangled storyline. No doubt readers are already lining up at their keyboards to complain that I have not mentioned co-creator Rodney Caston in the last paragraph.

Perhaps some of these complaints are valid, perhaps some are just the usual ‘it’s cool to hate popular things’, and perhaps some are from people who aren’t exactly the target audience of Megatokyo (i.e. the less geekily informed). But likewise, one can picture the amount of exclamation marks, ‘kawaii’s, and ^_^ emoticons that equally uninformed fanpeoples have thrown on top of the Megatokyo hype pile.

Like most things, Megatokyo has some excellent aspects and some painful aspects to it, and undoubtedly the million dollar question is which one outweighs the other, but I think if I were to boil it down to one succinct, controversial statement, it would be this:

Megatokyo should not be a webcomic.
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