Super Mario: Seine größten Abenteuer

by Yukio Sawada

Die Brüder Mario und Luigi gehen mit ihren Freunden auf Entdeckungsreise durch die bunten Welten der "Super Mario"-Videospiele. Egal ob am Boden, in luftigen Höhen oder im Weltall – für Mario & Co. ist kein Weg zu weit! Voller Tatendrang sammeln sie Münzen und Powersterne und überwinden fiese Widersacher wie Kettenhunde oder Riesen-Blooper. Dabei erleben sie allerhand spritzige und bombastische Überraschungen. Zehn kurzweilige Episoden aus dem Leben des beliebten Klempners plus Nachwort des langjährigen Videogame-Mangakas Yukio Sawada!

Genres: Manga, Video Games, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Childrens, Humor

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

Reviews

[Furrydestroyer 420 · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOLY CRAP ITS CHRIS PRATT!!!!!!!!!!!

[Francesca]

Scusate la volgarità ma sono sconvolta. In ogni capitolo Luigi lo prende letteralmente nel culo, tentacoli, cuori, dita, LETTERALMENTE nel culo, poi l’ultima storia è ispirata alla depressione dell’autore. Sono sconvolta.

[Des Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't even know this existed until a chance encounter at a pop culture store. My son scooped it up, and loved it dearly. The manga is cute, well drawn and I'm so curious about all the stories in between, chronicling Mario's video game adventures. There's a very curious and warm segment at the end detailing the author's life and struggles with mortality. It's a fairly middle of the road kids gag manga, but if your a Mario fan you'll get a lot out of it, it's fun seeing the characters speak and emote more.

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Super Mario-kun manga has run for a long time in Japan, but with no official English translation. I did come across fan translations of a few stories online. It retells the Mario games in a humorous fashion, often crude and full of corny gags, including ones where the characters mysteriously change shape or gain a prop for a panel to make a pun. This is a best-of collection, featuring individual comics rather than entire story arcs. Games featured include Paper Mario, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Super Paper Mario, Super Paper Mario, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The focus on gags means that the characters sometimes act unnecessarily mean, although in some cases that's more or less in line with the games, like when they throw each other around while fighting enemies. I will say that the style of showing characters with multiple lumps on their heads when they get hurt looks disturbing, though. I definitely give the translator, Caleb Cook, credit for making English puns that work with the original images, which doesn't necessarily mean they're actually funny. Humor is difficult to translate, and even though the jokes make sense in English, there's still some weird pacing to them. In the last story of the volume, "Super Mari-Old," Sawada addresses his father's death and how it interfered with his writing the comic, and does a bit of a metaphor for this with Mario becoming severely depressed and Luigi and Yoshi trying to snap him out of it, which they eventually do with Dr. Mario's help. I believe Dr. Mario is a separate character in the manga, but here it's explained that he's Mario from twenty-five years in the future (time enough to get a doctorate, I suppose). The thing is, while I wouldn't say they're great comics, I'd still like to read more.

[Zach Rolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Would recommend.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhh. This was a collection of manga adaptations of random levels of random Mario games. Not a cohesive story at all... but still rather cute. I do think that some of the pages were too crammed with pictures, dialogue and narration that it got too clustered and overwhelming.

Innocent enough for kids, but it would have been better if it was similar to the Zelda manga that tells the story of the games opposed to the random chapters with no cohesive narrative.

[Ezra Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not a really good book

[Vince · Rating 1 out of 5]

Swing and a big miss for me. I REALLY wanted to enjoy this, I was so hyped to get proper English translations of the various Mario manga... but boy howdy is this... not great. I can see kids enjoying it, but I can also see them being bored by it. Instead of giving us full translations like the Legend of Zelda manga, we are treated to a best of collection. Chapters are missing the context of their full story (though they do have a small note from the author to contextualize them), the jokes are SO plentiful but also feel like they're missing something in the shift from their original Japanese to a comparable English version.

I think the biggest issue for me is that with just small snippets nothing has room to breathe. Reading these chapters is exhausting, it's rapid-fire nonsense with no context and no pacing. I want to like this, I really really do, but this is just bad.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curated selection of Mario comics by the man responsible for 52 volumes-worth of children's Super Mario manga, this is a solid offering for the chapter book set. Familiarity with the franchise is definitely recommended, since each story takes place in a different game, but the humor is perfect for the age group, with lots of butt-related jokes and at least one problem solved by someone peeing. There is a merited trigger warning for Sawada's chapter about dealing with the loss of his father, but for the most part, this is a nice read for little Mario fans.

[Drew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Small children might like this, but that's about it. It's all very shallow and immature, full of "jokes" that only a child who's just learned about jokes might be able to enjoy.

The art isn't very good either. There's hardly ever any backgrounds, so everything seems to take place in a featureless void. The pages are crammed full of close-ups of characters' heads and huge word balloons and it's honestly difficult to focus on anything.

[Xander Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of the mario franchise and like fun crude humor, this is a great book for you. Not only was the artstyle very goofy and cute, but the games touched upon are less popular titles such as Super Paper Mario and Partners in Time. It felt good to see games like these get attention!!

[Chance Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Games I'm most familiar with was Paper Mario, Super Mario Sunshine and Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii
The best words to explain this book would be Madness and Chaos. There's a lot to cover so lets get into it.

Cover
I like this cover. It's simple and minimal but it's what you would expect. A goofy looking Mario with charm popping out of a pipe. A nice touch having the back cover as an after moment where Mario is falling from the pipe and everyone else is climbing out.

Interior
Story
It humor focused so how is the humor? It can be Crude and at time somewhat cruel. but something that I have to give Yukio credit. The toilet humor is actually low in this collection.
It... It has some decent jokes and follows some of the elements to games while adding more that wasn't in the game. It's completely changes some of the battlefield tactics. Accents moment a lot more for story purposes. And it pretty nice addition. It has some odd jokes like mistaking crunch and break for lunch break. I'm sure not everything translates well.
Which that being said I do feel like some of the stories have been redacted for space. Some of it felt like a scene or two were missing.
I really like the Bonus episode. It was a nice touch and really emphasizes the impact depression can have on a person. The insanity here feels most controlled and makes the character feel most grounded and self aware. I can feel the writers heart in this story and it's well done.

Illustrations
When it come to this type of illustration. Over all it's not that bad and when he inserts himself into the outrage at times is pretty fun. I didn't expect Mario to get the snot beat out of himself so often in the illustrations. While some of the visual gags are alright is can get a little uncomfortable to a little disturbing from time to time.

After Thoughts
The biggest mishap this book has is that it's like it's boiled down to the best/favorite moments. The biggest issue I find with that is that whatever overarching story impact is completely gone no matter how loose. It's like being introduced to a show by watching with a flash back and plot heavy episode. I don't have that association to Manga Sushi, Kooper, or more importantly Mario. Especially since Mario's demeanor is different from Sunshine to Mario Bros. Wii, to Paper Mario.

By far I would much rather have the entire collection translated into English than segments wanting to tell me the best parts. Granted that would be a heavy undertaking but I would get the series then.

[Jacob Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun selection of chapters from Super Mario Kun, with a lot of genuine laughs throughout and it's neat to see snippets of Manga from such a wide range of Mario games, from Paper Mario to Super Mario Galaxy. The only problem is that it is just snippets, taken from an huge, long-running manga series the rest of which is unavailable in English.

It's not fair to mark this book itself down at all because of that, because it still amusing and entertaining in it's own right and well worth getting for Mario fans, particularly any who've played the games covered, but it does leave a sort of disappointing feeling that the best-of volume won me over and made me interested in reading more, but the rest is simply unavailable outside of the original Japanese. They really should localise the other volumes.

It's best of format taking individual chapters from wider stories does rob it of some context, too, which isn't a problem for the most part, especially if - like me - you're already familiar with the games adapted, but I can see anyone that isn't potentially getting a little lost in, for example, the Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time chapter included, which covers that game's ending. I feel like some gags were lacking a little context that may have been provided by reading previous chapters, too (for example, why did Princess Peach smack Mario with a giant banana as though it was something we'd already know she owned in one of the Super Mario Sunshine chapters?).

These are minor issues created by issues outside the book itself, though, so I'd still absolutely recommend reading it for Mario fans! Or just fans of gag manga in general.

The last chapter's a particular highlight too as, in a very silly manga overall, it gets surprisingly poignant and genuinely emotional as it references a tragedy in the author's life, as represented by a broken-down, exhausted Mario. To do that and still somehow have a lot of funny gags in the same chapter is impressive (although it's perhaps upsetting for children as warned in the book itself) and it's a standalone story, too, so it requires no other context to enjoy!

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those that don't know (like I didn't), basically this is a "greatest hits" of a very long running Mario manga that has been exclusively in Japanese until now; it's called Super Mario-kun and goes all the way back to Super Mario World.

That being the case, it's a collection of different stories from different eras of that manga, with the eras being defined by what game they were based on - Super Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario, etc. So there's different stories from different games in here, which is neat, but also just keep in mind you're not getting any full story arcs here.

Tonally it doesn't necessarily feel like the Mario you know, everything and everyone is a little more crass and comedic - that may put some people off but I enjoyed that different take on Mario. Plus it doesn't seem like the comic has influenced the tone of the games or anything like that, so it's fine in my mind - it exists alongside the games in parallel.

But all that being said, I'm a little torn on this collection, because while it is nice to be introduced to this manga series that I didn't even know existed until now, based on a game series that I adore, it's really a damn shame that we don't have entire story arcs collected together in English yet. Looking into it, apparently they make a story arc for almost every game Mario is in, even the side games. I mean, there's one for Mario Picross, when did you ever expect there to be a manga based on Mario Picross? I'd really like to see how that was pulled off - plus some of the bigger ones like Super Mario Sunshine, which I particularly enjoyed the snippets of in this collection, would be great to read.

I tried looking for fan translations online and there doesn't really seem to be any full translations at all. I'm guessing since it's more of a comedy manga, the jokes might be tricky to translate and it wasn't deemed worth it (until this collection came out of course). But I really hope Nintendo/the publisher do decide to translate them and bring them over sometime, I think they'd be really fun.

[Ridge Briel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gag manga is something I haven’t read all that much of. I’ve only had a passing exposure to it, but this one caught my eye and I ended up learning a lot! After reading Bakuman, I knew of what gag manga was, but I knew that my exposure wasn’t all that in depth with any of the ‘classics’ of the genre. For those who don’t know, Bakuman is a manga about two ninth graders who make manga together. This is from the same creative team behind Death Note, so yeah, it was a bestselling series in Japan. And it’s really good!

But back to this, Super Mario Manga Mania is a small collection of chapters pulled from its 28 year, 52nd tankoban (manga serial novel) publication. And now I can see the inherent silliness of Mario, just taking all of hits thrown his way in stride and jumping right back with some witty banter and a ‘can do!’ attitude. It’s goofy and perhaps not meant to be taken seriously, but there’s a really fine art to this series’ overall presentation that I can appreciate. There’s a lot of excellent art in goofy in-jokes to the series (some of which will no doubt fly over the head of newcomers), but nonetheless it’s a good time. I won’t spoil the controversial final chapter, but through the darkest of tragedies, it truly breathes life into my initial thoughts on this series. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for publications of this, I really need to start learning Japanese anyways.

[Shadow Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for my good friend on Insta - @_digidust_

Oh man I love Mario. You know Mario is 1 of my favourite childhood characters before Sonic right?

While I was about to write my Super Mario Adventures review I had no idea there’s a Mario manga series called Super Mario-Kun from Yukio Sawada. Good thing there’s an English translation version I just found on Booktopia called Super Mario Manga Mania

It’s loosely based on the 2000’s Mario games such as Paper Mario & Super Mario Sunshine. While it may be a bit different than Super Mario-Kun the design on the characters are cute story is actually hilarious however I just hope VIZ would bring the 90’s Mario manga loosely based on some 80’s & 90’s Mario games like Super Mario Bros 3 Yoshi’s Island & my favourite Mario game Super Mario World to the west. That’ll be brilliant

Now to wrap this up it may not be as great as the games it’s always great for a smile & a laugh

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m a huge Mario fan and this looked like a whole lot of fun so I was excited about it. Unfortunately this is just a random collection of clips from a long drawn out manga only available in Japanese. It felt all over the place and confusing since everything was out of order.

While the story wasn’t too cohesive, I did find the illustrations to be cute when the panels weren’t cluttered. Sometimes there was so much going on within a single panel that it was difficult to tell what was happening.

Some of the humor was funny, but the author relied a bit too much on the puns. I also felt that there was too much fighting between the friends at times.

I would have much rather just had the first manga translated into English to get a better taste of the story arcs. The way this collection was structured just felt all over the place but was decent to read in small bursts.

2.5⭐️

[Mr. R · Rating 1 out of 5]

I guess I'm a bit confused. Nintendo is a company that is very protective of its content. If this was a "best of," I'm struggling to understand how this manga lasted for as long as it did. Specifically to this collection, the stories are so disjointed, that the disconnection just left me confused--yes each story is somewhat self-contained, but lacking much needed context, they weren't very enjoyable. As a whole, I didn't enjoy the artwork, and I felt the storytelling was far too general, absurd, hyperbolic, and the humor is based only on gags and toilet humor (really, a Cheep Cheep pisses on Mario's face and later calls it an energy drink?). How did Nintendo sanction or agree to this? I expect much more from a company I love dearly.

Grade: F

[Mechayoshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ymmv. You being a huge fan of the games does not necessarily mean you’ll love this. There’s a reason the manga has’t been a thing outside of Japan. It takes lots of liberties with the characters and the retelling of game events (if based directly on one) and in general the humor is in a very cultural zany gag style.

Now, I don’t mind that, so I enjoyed it most of the time. I like the art too, BUT the untranslated KC Mario manga series has the better designs to be honest. Alas that’s another subject. I respected the part at the end with the author talking about a personal experience. The stories we get concern some of my favorite games, so that helped. For me, it would be an 8, but for the novelty of translating this and taking it abroad and extra point. 9/10

[Ricki · Rating 1 out of 5]

My 7yo loves Mario, he loves reading manga. This should have been a hit. But he says all the characters “aren’t drawn right” and he doesn’t really like it. For my part, I’m weirded out that Mario is making puns constantly, and every time he does his head changes into the pun. E.g. “Watermelon are you doing?” and his head is suddenly a watermelon. It's bizarre and out-of-character.

Meanwhile Caleb is wearing out his copy of Super Mario Adventures, so I definitely recommend that one.

[Roberto Pilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it’s interesting to see the first translation of this long running Japanese manga staple, I was about to write this off entirely as an example of kids media that doesn’t translate to an adult audience.

But have to give credit for the last chapter delving deeper into the authors mental health struggles and grief through loss of his father. Making a deep topic fit in the world of super Mario is uncanny but interesting. Not enough to make this whole volume worth reading though.

[Tanner Perusse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn’t expecting it to be an anthology of stories based off the Mario games but each story had its charm. Thought it was more of its own story with Mario and gang.
Now not being the biggest Mario nerd alive I didn’t find everything that funny and some things rather confusing. From what I know of Mario some of the humor felt off or just way too much..
Probably meant for kids and I can’t hate that. I’m sure kids would find this as a fun read.

[Amy the book-bat · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one just didn't do it for me. I think it is partly due to being geared for children, partly the poor writing and artwork, and partly that I don't care that much about Mario. This manga is set up as a series of short stories based on the various Mario games. I think kids who are Mario fans might enjoy this.

[Nicholas Fossum · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fun book with a collection of the authors favorite chapters from a long running series, and tho a lot of it was fun and the final mari-old story was a very good read, the feeling that I was missing most the story and connections to the chapters that were chosen kinda ruined a bit of my enjoyment, I enjoyed it in the end but I really hope they do a complete story next time not best moments

[Danielle Booey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I full on admit to only getting through half of this Super Mario manga. I'm still adding it to my Goodreads log because I know that kids who are fans of Mario, video games, and sheer absurdity in their books are going to really enjoy this.

It is just a little too zany for me and that is ok.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could potentially see myself really getting into this if I ever got to read everything in order but since it's a mix of random chapters I didn't feel as invested. It was okay as an introduction to Mario manga if the reader wants samples of different volumes to get a taste of what the series is generally like.

[Tejask · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is a good book for people who like books that are funny. it is a good manga and also an book based off of an very famous brand of games Mario and Nintendo. it is a good book for people that like comedy. also a good book for people interested in Mario and Nintendo.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I see no reason to read a book from back to front. Second the cartoons made no sense too me.

[Sherry Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book! If you are a Super Mario fan. You will love this book!
This was fun to read and the artistic pages , were great!!!!

[The Spooky Jedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious. Haven’t laughed out loud reading something in a while