SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

July 21, 2021 by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Kirby Manga Mania | Review

July 21, 2021 by J. Caleb Mozzocco   Leave a Comment

Kirby Manga Mania coverKirby Manga Mania
Writer/artist: Hirokazu Hikawa
Viz Media; $9.99

In the Kirby video game franchise, which kicked off in 1992 with Kirby’s Dream Land, the character is an adorable pink sphere of a hero, using his ability to inhale enemies and objects and either spit them out as projectiles or gain special powers through his “copy ability” to defend his home world from various threats and villains.

In the first installment of manga-ka Hirokazu Hikawa’s manga strip that appears in Kirby Manga Mania, Dream Land’s King Dedede is hosting a picnic feast beneath the cherry blossom trees when Kirby  inhales everyone’s food, gets drunk—or, um, “loopy”, I guess, given that the bottle he gulps down is labeled “Loopy Juice”—and proceeds to wreck the party, inhaling several picnic-goers, cornering King Dedede to give him heartfelt repetitive advice, badly singing karaoke, flipping a table, and ultimately collapsing into unconsciousness.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Obviously, there’s a bit of a disconnect between video game Kirby and manga Kirby. It’s an element that Kirby Manga Mania shares with Mario Manga Mania, a December release from Viz Media that was similarly a best-of collection of strips starring a Nintendo icon, in which the Italian plumber was ruder, cruder, cowardly, and generally more venal than he seems in his games.

The real protagonist of the Kirby strips, in a reversal of the dynamics of many of the franchise’s games, is King Dedede, the often-selfish, penguin-like anthropomorphic bird that serves as several games’ antagonist. In most of the strips, Dedede is more-or-less minding his own business as he was in the initial one with the picnic—perhaps he’s readying his castle for an upcoming typhoon, or playing with his toy robot pet—when Kirby enters the picture, generally causing huge problems for Dedede. Kirby generally seems to do so not necessarily out of malice, but instead out of a combination of ignorance and a readiness for instantaneous action, which, given Kirby’s inhaling powers, generally has big ramifications.

One could perhaps read this as a criticism of heroes in general, but I suspect Hikawa is simply focused on gags, and Dedede, being the games’ villain, is the one who has to get the short end, even if it means presenting Kirby in an often petty, ignoble light and Dedede as his unfortunate victim. Indeed, one strip, in which Dedede hires a lookalike to take all the abuse Kirby unleashes, proves the point; the lookalike always emerges unscathed, the harm always finding its way back to Dedede

Each of the volume’s 11 short stories features Kirby and Dedede, generally with at least one other name character among the interchangeable animals and figures that make up the population of the Dream Land setting. While the characters’ roles remain intact for each story, the circumstances may vary rather widely. They visit a hotel Dedede fears may be haunted. They get trapped in a board game. They visit the future. Kirby tries to secede from Dream Land and form his own country.

As gag comics go, it might seem a bit bewildering at first glance, given the relative strangeness of the characters and their settings, but that is more a matter of design than a matter of one needing foreknowledge of the games; if you’ve ever heard of Kirby, then you probably know all you need to know about the character to understand his comics, which don’t seem to reflect the plotlines or mechanics of the games beyond his inhaling abilities. (In this respect, it does differ somewhat from Mario Manga Manga, as those stories were generally set within the greater plot of a specific game entry in the Mario franchise.)

Hikawa’s gag abilities are sharp, and the pages are loaded with jokes, most of which are character-driven and therefore translate perfectly well for English-speaking, Western audiences (not always the case with humor manga). Like the Mario of Mario Manga Madness, the Kirby of Kirby Manga Madness is a different one than the one readers may think they know, but that doesn’t mean he’s not worth spending time with.

Filed under: Manga, Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
Hirokazu HikawaKirbyKirby Manga ManiaViz Media

About J. Caleb Mozzocco

J. Caleb Mozzocco is a way-too-busy freelance writer who has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He currently contributes to Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog and ComicsAlliance, and maintains his own daily-ish blog at EveryDayIsLikeWednesday.blogspot.com. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

February 2023

Insomniacs After School, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

My Sister, the Cat, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

January 2023

SHY, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

November 2022

Romantic Killer, vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

October 2022

Dinosaur Sanctuary Vol. 1 | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

2023 Books from Pura Belpré Winners

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Newbery / Caldecott 2024: Spring Prediction Edition

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Pardalita | Preview

by Brigid Alverson

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Why Teens Should Read Hard History, a guest post by Lesley Younge

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey Try Something New

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

10 Sports Manga for Hardcore Fans and Newcomers Alike | Mondo Manga

Q&A: Harmony Becker, Creator of "Himawari House"

Saturday Morning Comics | Stellar Panels

Sneak Peek: SLJ Best Books 2020

Many Shapes and Moods of Yokai Inhabit Manga

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023