Super Mario is a Super Mario Bros. manga by Kazuki Motoyama. It was released between 1988 and 1999 in Kodansha's Comic BomBom and Deluxe BomBom magazines. The manga wasn't published under one title, instead changing its title depending on the game being adapted. It is known as the Super Mario manga or KC Mario manga by fans.
Each manga adapts a Super Mario Bros. game, ranging from main games like Super Mario World to spinoffs like Yoshi's Story and Wario's Woods. The manga has never been released outside of Japan.
The YouTube channel GTV / Gaijillionaire
has a series of videos summarizing various volumes of the manga.
Not to be confused with Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania or Super Mario Adventures.
This manga provides examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: In this series, Wario wants to kill Mario because the latter was a Big Cousin Bully to him when they were younger, forcing Wario to always be the robber in their "cops and robbers" games. When confronted about it, Mario simply tells Wario to get over it and stop being such a wussy before offering to cheer him up...with a game of cops and robbers! WITH WARIO AS THE ROBBER!
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Mario's hair was black before becoming its standard brown in later issues.
- Alternate Self:
- Dr. Mario and Nurse Peach are seen as separate characters from their mainstream selves and interact with them in the Super Mario Kart arc.
- The Yoshi's Safari arc has Yoshi meeting his other self from the live-action movie.
- Anime Chinese Girl: In the Super Mario Land arc, Mario eats at a Chinese restaurant, including a stereotypical Chinese woman with odango hair.
- Characterization Marches On: As Daisy wouldn't be turned into a Tomboy Princess whose love interest is Luigi until the 2000s, the Daisy in this manga is girlier than her modern depiction and is a romantic rival of Peach's for Mario.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Each comic adapts a game, such as Dr. Mario and Super Mario World.
- Crossover: Some games covered included the Wario Land series and Donkey Kong Country spinoffs series, all of which were changed to add Mario and friends into the proceedings.
- Early Adaptation Weirdness: Being one of the earliest adaptations, the characters don't resemble their game selves as closely as they do in later adaptations. It also contains some NSFW Parental Bonuses, scenes involving smoking, and other things that wouldn't be allowed in later Mario adaptations.
- Fartillery: In the first Super Mario Kart volume, when both of their karts are destroyed except for one wheel, Bowser stops Mario from chasing him with a well-timed fart. It almost wins him the race until Peach uses Lightning to shrink Bowser.
- Food Fight: In the Super Mario Land arc, Peach and Daisy get into a food fight while fighting over Mario's affections.
- King Incognito: In the Super Mario Land arc, Princess Peach hides in a robot in order to tag along with Mario and rescue Princess Daisy.
- Naked People Are Funny:
- In the Super Mario Land arc, Mario spends several panels without any bottoms on, and you even see his private parts briefly. Unbeknownst to him, the robot that tags along with him is Peach and she's flustered underneath.
- The end of the fourth chapter of the Super Mario Land 3 arc has a gag where the tail of Daisy's mermaid costume slips down, exposing her butt to the reader. Wendy notices and reacts in shock.
- Villain Team-Up: Bowser and Wario team up frequently in adaptations of side games.
- Wacky Racing: The third volume of the Super Mario Kart adaptation has the cast breaking into racing teams and going all over the place, with Bowser and Wario teaming up with a Wacky Wayside Tribe of Amazons to defeat Mario, Luigi, and Peach.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Daisy disguises as a mermaid in the Super Mario Land 3 arc as part of an act where she disguises as the "spirit of the seas." Later on, the tail of this costume falls down.
