Marvel is synonymous with American comics. It couldn’t be any other way after decades of comics and with some of the best-known characters in the history of fiction. That doesn’t mean that, on quite a few occasions, they haven’t tried to tackle other fields. Specifically, manga. Their results have rarely been more than questionable, being at best decent for their time.
Generally, it’s when they’ve tried to go for a Japanese aesthetic that isn’t specifically manga, as the excellent collaborations with Peach Momoko show. But it seems that curse is over. Because one thing Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has achieved, and that no one is talking about, is capturing the essence of manga and anime in a way that is remarkable. All of it while still feeling like pure Marvel in the process.
Like a shonen anime
What stands out most about Marvel Tokon is the character design. While they’re all recognizable and they all have recognizable designs from some point in the comics, they always have small twists that give them a style closer to manga. With thick, loose lines, brighter colors, and generally less cluttered designs, all the characters seem taken from a manga version of their own universe.
Its story mode helps with that. Divided into five different chapters for each of the groups of four, besides teaching us how to play each character in the game, each one of these chapters has an opening and an ending as well as anime scenes created specifically for the game. All this gives the impression that we’re actually watching an anime from the Marvel universe, which adds that very particular touch to the whole.
Especially because the writer, Kieron Guillen, has managed to find that sweet spot between American comics and shonen manga. While the stories wouldn’t feel out of place in any Marvel comic, the celebration of friendship, gaining allies only after fighting them, and the heightened sense of justice feels as Japanese as it does American in the game, making it a perfect blend of comics and manga.
A genre built for spectacle
It also helps that, in itself, the fighting genre seems made to bring out the similarities with shonen manga. Wall breaks, assists, air combos, and strings that stretch beyond seven or eight hits seem right out of a fighting anime. Something that already happens in any Arc System Works fighting game and is no different in this Marvel Tokon.
Add to that the fact that the powers of the chosen characters are particularly flashy, with a very carefully made selection, it’s logical that it feels so good and so Japanese despite being an American property. If we didn’t know any of these characters at all, it’d be easy to think they’re a purely Japanese creation. But they’re Marvel superheroes, some famous beyond belief, others more obscure, but it’s impossible not to know what they are, at least.
Which makes it even more surprising how well they fit together. They already did in X-Men vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom, perhaps the only case where we can really say they truly managed to do it, but here with Marvel directly involved in the process. Something that makes us think about how fascinating a Marvel manga or anime with this style would be. If we’re even allowed to dream that big.
