When Splatoon was initially released, it had those “you’re a kid you’re a squid” adverts – but only in North America. We didn’t get any such thing over here in the UK, so I’ll be honest and say all those squid kid references mean absolutely nothing to me. Regardless, this manga pretty much references that with its title.
Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show is a comedy manga by Hideki Goto, based on Splatoon, of course.
Viz Media licensed the manga for an English release.
Front cover of the first volume of Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show, featuring Hit and Maika
New Inklings take centre stage as they and their friends embark on hilarious escapades in the world of Splatoon!
Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show introduces two new Inklings: Hit and Maika. Hit is the male and more playful one of the two, whilst Maika is female and more serious. Though to be fair, Maika isn’t exactly above setting up the odd gag from time to time.
Being a 4-koma, most gags follow the expected beats, with the last panel of each one generally being a character reacting to another (usually Maika reacting to Hit’s antics).
Some of the reactions that Hideki Goto has drawn for this manga are absolutely insane. It could be argued that those reactions are a particular highlight of Squid Kids Comedy Show.
As tends to be the case with 4-koma, it is effectively gag after gag. There are lot, and admittedly not every one manages to find its mark. There are a few cases of toilet humour, which probably will appeal to more immature readers.
Fortunately, though, the misses are outliers. There are plenty more jokes in there that will get a laugh or two, even a couple of running gags that are amusingly consistent.
There is something a little odd about halfway through, though. After spending some time establishing Hit and Maika and their antics, it feels like this first volume of Squid Kids Comedy Show undergoes some kind of reset.
Hit reintroduces himself, and a lot of the gags that were present in the earlier part of the volume are repeated, with slight alterations.
I’d understand that kind of things if multiple mangaka were contributing to this manga, but Squid Kids Comedy Show is solely the work of Hideki Goto. Perhaps the second half of the volume was initially published a little bit after the first.
Then it was all collected together, giving us this kind of awkward first volume.
Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Showcase is a decently amusing take on the Splatoon franchise, though I wouldn’t say it gives us anything side splitting. At least, not with this first volume.
I also suspect some jokes may have been changed about during the translation process, but the translators did a decent enough job coming up with dialogue that matches the visuals.
So overall, a fairly decent addition to the Splatoon media. Definitely not the funniest manga out there, but it does use Splatoon‘s setting pretty well for what it does.
Rory Muses 