Megatokyo

From left to right: Kimiko, Erika, Largo, and Piro. Back row: Ping (pink hair) and Seraphim (wings).
"You see, nothing in the real world will ever live up to what I feel inside. I came to terms with that a long time ago... Maybe it's because the feelings I have work only in fantasies, not the real world. That's why I want to be an actress. It's a way to live what I feel, even if it is just part of a story."
Kimiko

One of the most successful Web Comics around, and one of the easiest to find in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Also one of the most confusing. Starts off when two American video game otaku -- Piro and Largo -- hop on a one-way flight to Japan, then find themselves unable to get back after a credit-card-maxing shopping spree.

Piro meets an aspiring voice actress called Kimiko and awkwardness ensues. Largo becomes steadily more demented and awkwardness ensues. Kimiko's flatmate Erika has to deal with her past as a popular Idol Singer and awkwardness ensues. A schoolgirl called Yuki gets a crush on Piro and awkwardness ensues. Piro gets stuck with a Dating Sim Robot Girl called Ping and awkwardness ensues. And Dark Magical Girl Miho stirs things up for her own amusement, leading to awkwardness for all concerned.

Has gained a great deal of infamy for its erratic schedule, along with the Dead Piro Days (DPDs) and stick-figure Shirt Guy Dom (SGD) comics (a takeoff on the "Shirt Guy Tom" comics from Sluggy Freelance). Recently the illness of the author's wife has made a realistic schedule even harder to produce.

Has been called the Lost of webcomics for its complex plotline and character histories, most of all the enigmatic Tohya Miho. Has also been called The X-Files of webcomics, for the same reasons, but not as positively. Quite intentionally, it includes a number of anime tropes. Interesting to note, however, is that it is one of few works who take flak for being Trope Overdosed.

Can be found through this link here. In 12 different languages, although each language is at a different point in the story.

And it also has a wiki.


Tropes used in Megatokyo include:
  • Abandoned Info Page: "I'll finish this section when I feel like it."
    • The page was later updated to acknowledge this, and suggest that a new page was coming soon, but wasn't ready for the site redesign. This was in Fall of 2007.
  • Above the Influence: Piro, when Ping comes onto him during Kimiko's radio show. That may not count though, since there's more than a little evidence that at this point he still thinks she's Just a Machine.
  • Accent Adaptation: Komugiko (the Fox Girl) is a subtle version of this trope.
  • Alternate Universe: Often, between the chapters there will be a short story with the Megatokyo characters in different settings, such as in Circuity or unMod.
  • Angry Eyebrows: Toward the end of chapter 7, Piro gets a whole lot more aggressive in his "defenses".
  • Animal-Eared Headband: Komugiko-san.
    • Later on, Erika sports some Steampunk bunny ears.
  • Animeland: One of the best examples is Page 760. Just look at all the things Largo walks by!
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:

Masamichi: ...deploying an opposing force without a permit, deployment of defensive weaponry without a license, illegal use of duct tape...

"We'll set some brush fires on the west coast, cause a major earthquake under an orphanage in New Delhi, and then announce a recall on the American PlayStation 2 machines."

Miho: When has anyone ever been in love with you?
Yuki: (Luminescent Blush) Eh?
Miho: Oh, wait, there's that Kobayashi kid--
Yuki: OH, COME ON!! EVEN YOU KNEW??

Largo: Okay, digit validation check...

  • The First Cut Is the Deepest: Hitoshi to Erika, possibly Miho to Piro
  • First Girl Wins: By way of a coffee pot to the head.
    • Actually, second girl wins. First girl lost by way of dagger to the throat in Endgames.
      • Depends on if you want to go by first appearance (Kimiko) or first meeting in-story (Miho).
      • Judging from recent parts of the story, Miss Dagger to the Throat might not be out of the running yet, either.
  • First-Name Basis: Piro and (Nanasawa) Kimiko make this switch here...for Kimiko's name, that is; Piro and Largo have no stated last names.
  • Flanderization: Largo has gone from a Deadpan Snarker with an affinity for first person shooter games, to a cardboard-mech-building, zombie-slaughtering, 1337-speaking, Badass. This is generally accepted by Megatokyo's current fans. Most readers who actually disliked this change (along with others) have already stopped reading, and those who've stayed and dared to speak up about the flanderized Largo are usually castrated and chased out of the forums.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Zom-Zom, Yuki's Fun Sized pet zombie 'zilla.
  • Foe Yay: Miho has a lot of this with Piro and Largo. Though she and Piro were a romantic couple of sorts prior to the start of the comic

Miho: So, tell me Piro ... do you still love me?
Piro: Wh... what?
Miho: That's not a very nice way to respond to that question. You could hurt a girl's feelings. In fact, I think I might start to cry.

  • Follow the Chaos: Most of the cast falls under this. However with all the random property destruction going around by monsters of the day it could count as a subversion too.
  • A Friend in Need
  • Friendly Enemy: Perhaps only somewhat exemplary, but look at the last panel of this strip and try to say that the dialogue, at least, isn't the best example of this trope on the planet.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Seraphim uses it to defeat Asmodeus.
  • Funbag Airbag: Ping bumps her head into Erika's chest at the Cave of Evil.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The Nanasawa Protection Coalition, made up of 95% nameless and faceless otaku losers.
  • Funny Background Event: Fred loves to load up his backgrounds with these. This page is an excellent example .
  • Fur and Loathing: In a fashion show about eco-friendly clothes, seraphim and Boo both look angrily at someone off-screen as she declares that "No, fur is not eco-friendly."
  • Gag Sub: Whenever Leet Guy is talking.
  • Gag Translation: Miho. Poor Largo...
  • Genki Girl: Ping.
    • And Yuki's friend Asako is a Genki Girl of Mass Destruction, and her friend Mami knows the arming codes. In her own words, "Hey, I always reserve the right to use the "Asako option". You should know that by now."
    • Mumu is a professional genki girl. "No sad girls on MY show!"
  • Genius Ditz: Largo. He seems completely insane at first glance, seeing everything through the lens of various action games (primarily shooters), but in the few times we've directly seen his thought processes, he's figuring out some of the comic's more complicated elements. Unfortunately, everyone else is a little bit to used to tuning him out when he talks.
  • GIRL: used straight, inverted then inverted again. Miho struck up a relationship with Piro's female alter ego online, using a male avatar. She revealed her true identity, letting him see photos of her when she was ill, then broke up with Piro by claiming she was a man after all and the photos were of someone else. Bad form, Miho, bad form.

Piro: Who was that guy anyway? Please tell me that was photoshopped.
Miho: Phil's the janitor at the Cave. He's a sweet guy, don't be mean.

  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Piro and Largo; Kimiko and Erika.
  • Hidden Eyes
  • High-Class Glass: Largo wears a monocle with his clubbing outfit.
  • High-Pressure Emotion: Parodied, with Boo helping Largo out via a hat..
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: Junpei, who has an armband reading NINJA at one point.
  • Hot Mom: Meimi "Yuki's Red Hot Mom" Sonoda.
  • Hulk Speak: Junpei speaks both English and Japanese somewhat shoddily as a joke playing on old, poorly-dubbed ninja movies.
  • Humongous Mecha
  • Hurricane of Excuses: Piro trying to explain away Ping seems oddly reminiscent of the "medicinal carrots" speech (in retrospect, of course, as it predates the show by seven years.)
  • Idol Singer
  • I Have the High Ground
  • Important Haircut: Various references have been made to Miho's hair being "hacked mercilessly short" sometime prior to the start of the comic. It is unclear what this actually means, but no less than three characters (Piro, Yuki and Miho herself) seem to consider it significant. It apparently happened during her hospitalization, as she told Piro at the time the nurses were upset about her cutting her hair.
    • There are many instances throughout the comic where the state of a Magical Girl's hair is implied to be connected to the state of her power.
  • Impossible Thief: Yuki, she stole a zilla. This page could probably manage to double in size with the list of things Yuki has stolen. More recently people have started going over strips in great detail looking for differences between frames when Yuki is known to be around. Watch the laptop...
  • Improbable Hairstyle: The author once remarked about how people who tried to emulate Miho's hair style complained about how very hard it was to get the ribbons to stay like that. The comic itself has implied, the presence, absence or state of that ribbon is an indicator about how in-control Miho is. The fact that it stays in at all is a statement.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Largo lives for this trope. Not everybody is impressed.
  • In the Name of the Moon: Used by fans of a fictional Magical Girl.
  • Instant Fanclub
  • Invisible to Normals
  • Invoked Trope: Largo, in particular, loves to invoke tropes.
  • Iron Butt Monkey: Largo. It's even stated that it's his job to get physically injured, while Piro gets the emotional flak.
  • It's a Wonderful Plot
  • It's Fake Fur, It's Fine: Spoofed. When Seraphim shows different outfits from around the world, the Russian outfit is a fur coat, hat, and muff (the fur even wraps around her wings), and she is really worried it might not be fake fur.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
  • Japanese Honorifics: Obviously. There is an odd one though; Yuuki (and later Ping) will refer to people as both "mister" and "san" at the same time (ex: Mr. Piro-san). It's unclear if this is a little bit of Gratuitous English or some odd translation choice.
  • Kuudere: Miho. Although she toys with it frequently, so it's hard to tell if she really is one. She currently seems to be in "tsun-vulnerable" mode. Possibly due to the fallout from Ping's 'uploads'.
  • Littlest Cancer Patient: Miho may be deliberately invoking this trope for her own amusement.
  • Little Miss Badass: Ping, Miho and Yuki.
  • Logic Bomb: Averted in at least one instance. Ping is momentarily frozen since two equally important people need her help, but she works through it logically and quickly reaches a conclusion. It was the wrong conclusion, but that's because she started with a flawed basis (Piro didn't need help anywhere near as much as Miho did).
    • She wasn't going to Piro to help him, she was going to try to make him care about what's wrong with Miho (Not that that would have gone very well, but still...)
  • The Loins Sleep Tonight: Heavily implied to have been what put the brakes on the first serious encounter between Largo and Erika. Poor guy.
  • Lost in Translation: Largo doesn't speak Japanese, so he has trouble communicating with a lot of the characters. Also, Leet Guy only speaks in leet...most of the time.
  • Love Dodecahedron
  • Kaleidoscope Hair: Ping can change her appearance in response to user feedback, and the most obvious changes are to her hair. So far, she's had pale grey, hot pink, and turquoise.
  • Kudzu Plot
  • Made of Iron: Ed gets smashed through a concrete pillar, then crashes into a natural gas plant, causing the whole thing to explode around him. Not only is he not dead, he doesn't even bother seeing a doctor until after a house-sized turtle is hurled into him, knocking him off the top of a skyscraper. Even being almost completely vaporized only puts him out of commission for a day or so. He probably couldn't be killed off even if he wanted to be.
  • Magical Girl: One metafictional, one retired, one budding, and one dark.
  • Magic Skirt: Fairly obvious in frame 3 of this strip. Compare Yuki's hair and bangs to her skirt. Although she is, at least, magical.
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Most likely averted with Piro and Largo; Piro's only experience with women is in dating sims (and Miho), while Largo generally thinks all women are insane and not worth the trouble. Erika certainly thinks this of Piro, at least. Word of God states, however, that all main characters have enough sexual experience to know what they're talking about. Even if they're too awkward to talk about it.
  • Meet Cute: Piro and Kimiko. Three times. Yuki and Yutaka. Two times.
  • Meganekko: Kimiko when she isn't wearing contacts, Yuki when she's in her maid uniform or zombie riot gear, and Ping briefly.
  • Memetic Mutation: In universe, Ping caused this when she uploaded several thousand pictures and videos of a missing Miho. Piro even mentioned that it "turned into a huge viral thing." Of course, in comic it's been less than a day, so it might die down.
  • The Merch
  • Mind Screw: The comic has been descending into this of late, particularly whenever Miho or the other Cave-Of-Evilers get involved.
    • This seems to suggest that Miho's something like a cross between an idol, a Servant, and Shonen Bat, to which the terms "dead" and "alive" may not be applicable at all. And whatever she is, she's "the real thing" that the EDS units like Ping were supposed to be able to replace.
      • Another way of thinking of it seems to be this: You've heard of projecting the surface of a 3D object onto a 2D plane, like a world map? And you've heard of a 2D complex? She's what the 2D girls are projections of. But only those of a particular "type," meaning she's unlikely to be the only "analogue."
    • Fred has suggested on the forums that the majority of the comic (including Kimiko in her entirety) may be nothing more than a fantasy of Piro's.
      • More generally, the whole comic is, in a sense, the combined fantasy of every character. See "Weirdness Censor" below.
  • Mr. Exposition: Yuki in strip #1199.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Erika, Miho.
  • Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: Piro, Kimiko and Miho.
  • Nerd Glasses: Piro until #687, as well as Ping and Yuki a little more recently.
  • Nice Hat: Part of Largo's Cave of Evil outfit.
  • Ninja: Junpei. In fact, there's a whole organization of ninjas, and this is not their headquarters.
  • Noodle Implements: Done a few times.
  • Noodle Incident: Many examples:
  • No One Could Survive That: Ed (repeatedly) and Miho.
  • Not a Game: Used repeatedly -- not entirely unsurprisingly in the context.
  • Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught
  • Not Quite Dead: Ed, who can simply be regrown in a tank has survived being thrown out a window (and clipping a concrete column with his head), being hit by a giant turtle, and a direct hit from an orbital laser strike. Miho too.
  • Not the Fall That Kills You: It appear that, while Magical Girls can perform some quite devastating feats of acrobatics, people they carry with them are still subject to the laws of physics.
  • Odd-Shaped Panel
  • Of Corsets Sexy: Erika's Cave Of Evil outfit.
  • Offhand Backhand: Erika gives one to Ed with her elbow.
  • Older Than They Look: Or at least, so Miho claims.
    • Note here, where she describes an old and unopened bottle of alcohol as "almost older than I am." Depending on what type of alcohol it is, that could be very old indeed.
      • Balmenach 17-year single malt scotch, which is probably a Connoisseurs Choice batch. (The label's not identical, but that's the only equivalent available to the Asian market which this troper could spot. There's a lot of 16-18 year old batches in that range.)
  • Only Sane Man: At first, that role belonged to Piro. But as he's slowly been pulled into the web of general insanity that is the main plot, he's been replaced by Junko.
  • Only Six Faces: An extreme example that only got worse over the years. For example, there is almost no way to recognize Miho with her new hairstyle compared to Yuki or her mother.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Possibly Miho and other Magical Girls. Based on some of her conversations, it seems that they need to "feed" off of emotions, which they seem to do by inciting these feelings in others. This doesn't seem to cause any damage to the victim (other than the discomfort of having their emotions toyed with, that is).
    • It also Mind Screws the hell out of them as recent comics make it seem like Miho is unable to think that she's loved due to her repeated reference to relationships as "Games" and lovers as "players"
  • Overprotective Dad: Yuki's father runs a background check on his daughter's boyfriend.
  • Papa Wolf: Deconstructed, as Yuki's father's efforts to protect his daughter fly clear over the line and land squarely in the realm of grievous invasion of privacy.
  • Pistol-Whipping: Dual Shotgun Whipping is done by Ed when he's fighting Largo.
  • Present Day Past: Yuuji appears to be playing a DS about three years before its release
  • Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Ping does this at one point.
  • The Rant
  • Rapunzel Hair: Yuki, since turning into a Magical Girl.
  • Remix Comic: Fans from the forums write "rescripts."
  • Rent-A-Zilla: Trope Namer, after the service.
    • And the black sheep of the Gamera family.
  • Rickroll: On a Largo-scale.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot Girl: Ping.
  • Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Ping and Tohya. If not then it still looks like it.
  • Rule 34: Early in the run, Fred (in)famously said that if he saw porn of Megatokyo characters, he would stop producing the comic. As it turns out, this declaration only dissuaded his fan base, whereas it served as incentive for the sizable population who dislike Megatokyo.
    • He has apparently since dropped this threat ever since A) it became clear most of the folks doing it were just trying to get him to cancel the comic, and B) his own NSFW artwork was brought to light.
  • Running Gag: Largo loses his pants a lot. Normally he takes them off for whatever reason, but if his clothing is getting damaged, the pants are definitely getting hit.
    • Piro's head is removed rather often in stick-figure comics. Apparently all you need is a bit of duct tape and he's as good as new.
  • Schedule Slip: There's a reason Megatokyo fans are widely considered some of the most patient and forgiving people in the webcomic world. Megatokyo is in the running for the distinction of being the most notorious still-ongoing webcomic example of the phenomenon, especially since the birth of Gallagher's son.
    • Most recently, this is due to the diagnosis of Sarah having a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. You can read Gallagher's rant on it here and Sarah's rant on it here
      • This might come to an end, or so Piro (and his readers hope) according to his rant about a little discovery in his production process...
  • Secret Test of Character: Once Yuki's dad finds out about her "boyfriend," he spends ten minutes (and three strips) yelling at him, threatening him with grievous legal and physical harm, and concrete, as well as insulting the very fiber of his being...then hands the phone to his daughter.

Sonoda: He didn't hang up.

"Bleed me dry with your nettles! I am a coconut!"

  • Tsundere: Erika, using the original tsundere definition. Ping also enters a Tsundere mode that leads to unstoppable robot rampages.
  • Unusual Euphemism: "Fsck!", a unix command that finds and fixes any hard drive errors.
    • fsck is being used as a generic swearword by unix sysadmins since epoch 0. Since Largo is skilled enough to use a beowulf cluster as workstation, he qualifies. So, no: it's not unusual at all.
    • Miho also refers to sex as "completionism" and long-term relationships as "replay value." This fits in with her treating people as games.
  • Unwanted Harem: Piro's reaches a size of four--Kimiko, Miho, Yuki, and Ping. Naturally, the First Girl Wins.
    • It should be noted that Kimiko is the only one whom a relationship would have a reasonable chance of working out. Yuki is underage (which his concience has made clear that that is a big No, No), he's oblivious to her crush (whether selective or not), and her father is a cop (and Overprotective Dad) not to mention the weirdness and problems caused by her being a Magical Girl. Ping's a Robot Girl who's programming tends be at odds with her own developing individuality (she literally was not designed with long-term-relationships in mind), and in, many ways, could be considered underage as well; Piro tends to be just as oblivious (again, purposely or not) about this issue as he is with Yuki, and instead tries to act as her Big Brother/caretaker/guardian. As for Miho, well, besides the fact that she's a walking enigma and her penchant for manipulation, she and Piro have a... complicated history with each other. He cares about her (on some level), but also doesn't trust her, and it's implied that he needs to settle his past with her before he can move forward with any relationship.
  • Useless Spleen: Though limited to the filler Shirt Guy Dom episodes, it starts here, continues through here and here, and eventually reaches a spear named Spleen Slayer.
  • Verbal Tic: Piro.
  • The Verse: Part of a pseudo-canonical "Macverse" with Apple Geeks and Mac Hall
  • Virginity Makes You Stupid: Kimiko gives the impression of this at first glance. Turns out Erika could tell a few stories...
  • Webcomics Long Runners: In five of the twelve languages it can be read in.
  • Webcomic Time: Probably one of the primary examples. Chapter 0 takes up about two months of in-comic time. Every chapter since then contains the events of exactly one day, with the only time skip occurring between chapters nine and ten. So almost every relationship in the comic (be it romantic or platonic) has had just about two and a half weeks of development.
    • When you think about it though it makes some things awkward. Though time passes nowhere near as fast as us for them, the technology around them seems to advance at the same rate as reality. Its often very jarring.
    • The same is true for anime references and products sold in the store where Piro works.
  • Weirdness Censor: There are multiple forms of censorship running simultaneously, explained here. It'd be easier to say that there are multiple mutually exclusive Extra Strength Masquerades in effect -- look in the right direction at the right time with the right eyes and you can see anything from Kaiju to entire Magical Lands. There's an Anime population, full of Magical Girls and Sentai groups battling various threats. There's the Morality population, where Shoulder Angels attempt to guide the human race to their own ends. On top of both is the Government Conspiracy, which attempts to regulate the destruction created by the Anime heroes without getting the world blown up in the process -- they drive Humongous Mecha on the street in broad daylight. And some censored populations are subject to censorship themselves! Heroes only see their own threats, and can get pushy when they are interfered with by cops or other heroes. No one sees Shoulder Angels save their clients. The mecha-riding regulators tear their hair out on a regular basis trying to deal with the madness. And the Muggles can't even agree on what to ignore. While Yuki is still coping with being a Magical Girl, she apparently finds being told to stay in the mech to be mundane enough to be infuriating. And while Junko freaks out over Ping's light pole save, the owner of the car that would have hit Junko freaks out not over it being crushed by said light pole, but for Junko's carelessness which brought it about.

Junko: ...blue-green hair. How do you get away with this? Is your mom like, color blind?

  • Your Makeup Is Running
  • Zettai Ryouiki: just about every female character has had an A-grade at one time or another. And if you've clicked all the links on this page thus far, you've probably seen it for about half of them already (heck, Kimiko's got it in the page image here). Here's one more for you.
    • Also, Piro's online avatar, Pirogoeth. Always.
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