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(also stylized as MegaTokyo) is an English-language webcomic created by Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston. ''Megatokyo'' debuted on August 14, 2000,〔 and has been written and illustrated solely by Gallagher since July 17, 2002.〔 Fred Gallagher's news post announcing Caston's departure.〕 Gallagher's style of writing and illustration is heavily influenced by Japanese manga. ''Megatokyo'' is freely available on its official website. The stated schedule for updates is Tuesday and Friday, but they typically are posted just once or twice a month on non-specific days (in the beginning a three-per-week schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday was the goal). Recently, this schedule has slipped further, due to the health issues of Sarah Gallagher (Seraphim), Fred's wife. ''Megatokyo'' was also published in book-format by CMX, although the first three volumes were published by Dark Horse. For February 2005, sales of the comic's third printed volume were ranked third on BookScan's list of graphic novels sold in bookstores, then the best showing for an original English-language manga.〔 Set in a fictional version of Tokyo, ''Megatokyo'' portrays the adventures of Piro, a young fan of anime and manga, and his friend Largo, an American video game enthusiast. The comic often parodies and comments on the archetypes and clichés of anime, manga, dating sims, arcade and video games, occasionally making direct references to real-world works. ''Megatokyo'' originally emphasized humor, with continuity of the story a subsidiary concern. Over time, it focused more on developing a complex plot and the personalities of its characters. This transition was due primarily to Gallagher's increasing control over the comic, which led to Caston choosing to leave the project.〔 Rodney Caston's version of the events surrounding his departure〕〔 ''Megatokyo'' has received praise from such sources as ''The New York Times'', while negative criticism of Gallagher's changes to the comic has been given by sources including Websnark.〔〔 == History == ''Megatokyo'' began publication as a joint project between Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston, along with a few internet acquaintances. Gallagher and Caston later became business partners, as well. According to Gallagher, the comic's first two strips were drawn in reaction to Caston being "convinced that he and I could do (webcomic ) ... () bothering me incessantly about it", without any planning or pre-determined storyline.〔''Megatokyo'' book one, pg. 6〕 The comic's title was derived from an Internet domain owned by Caston, which had hosted a short-lived gaming news site maintained by Caston before the comic's creation.〔 Interview with Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston accessed through archive.org〕 With Caston co-writing the comic's scripts and Gallagher supplying its artwork,〔 the comic's popularity quickly increased, eventually reaching levels comparable to those of such popular webcomics as ''Penny Arcade'' and ''PvP''.〔Alexa traffic rankings for Megatokyo.com,() compared to PvPOnline.com () and Penny-Arcade.com.()〕 According to Gallagher, ''Megatokyo'' In May 2002, Caston sold his ownership of the title to Gallagher, who has managed the comic on his own since then. In October of the same year, after Gallagher was laid off from his day job as an architect, he took up producing the comic as a full time profession.〔A news post by Fred Gallagher in which he mentions that he has been laid off from work, and announces that he is now working on ''Megatokyo'' full-time.〕 Caston's departure from ''Megatokyo'' was not fully explained at the time. Initially, Gallagher and Caston only briefly mentioned the split, with Gallagher publicly announcing Caston's departure on June 17, 2002.〔 On January 15, 2005, Gallagher explained his view of the reasoning behind the split in response to a comment made by Scott Kurtz of ''PvP'', in which he suggested that Gallagher had stolen ownership of ''Megatokyo'' from Caston. Calling Kurtz's claim "mean spirited", Gallagher responded:〔 Fred Gallagher's view of Rodney Caston's departure.〕 "While things were good at first, over time we found that we were not working well together creatively. There is no fault in this, it happens. I've never blamed Rodney for this creative 'falling out' nor do I blame myself. Not all creative relationships click, ours didn't in the long run." Four days later, Caston posted his view of the development on his website:〔 "After this he approached me and said either I would sell him my ownership of MegaTokyo or he would simply stop doing it entirely, and we'd divide up the company's assets and end it all. In May 2011, it was announced that ''Endgames'' (a gameworld existing within ''Megatokyo'') was being revamped in a light novel format, with a story written by webfiction author Thomas Knapp, with four light novels planned. A short story "Behind the Masque" was also announced, and released on Amazon's Kindle Store on June 10, 2011. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Megatokyo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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