Splatoon #1
Publisher: Shogakukan/Viz Media
Story & Art: Sankichi Hinodeya
Translation: Tesuichiro Miyaki
English Adaptation: Jeremy Haun & Jason A. Hurley
Lettering: John Hunt
Design: Shawn Carrico
Editor: Joel Enos
The Splatoon videos took the world by storm so it was not a surprise that the series would take to panels in a book. How do you make story based off a turf war? Kind of like how you play the game, get on a team and start painting! The adventure of Team Blue, the worst team in the league are going to work there way up the ladder as best they can.
The book focuses on Team Blue, predominantly Goggles, the goofball member of his team. Along with leader Specs, Headphones, and Bobble Hat, the four go up against some of the best in the business. It’s a true underdog story as Blue Team go paint to paint with people who outclass them in skill but the Blue Team have plenty of spirit that gives them an unbelievable edge. My only real complaint with the story is that I wish it were in color since the world of Splatoon is all about a spectrum of colors.
The book does a good job of teaching you about the world and game play, though I’d have liked for the #0 story to take place before the main story. The book places it in the back for some reason where it gives you all the basic game play. You can still pick up a lot of it as you go but by the time you get that zero issue it’s not as needed as it once was. Either way, the game play is represented pretty well if just not as fast since that’d be really hard to do in a comic but it does allow for slow down of the fast moments.
If you’re a fan of Splatoon and hang out in that world a bit more without having to start up your system, grab the manga. If you know someone who is a big fan of the series, maybe get them this as a little bonus they can check out when they aren’t playing. If they ever were to re-release this in color, I’d be very happy to get this again and see what this book looks like in living color.
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
