in: Work, Webcomics Long Runners, OEL Manga,
Embellished Webcomics
Megatokyo
From left to right: Kimiko, Erika, Largo, and Piro. Back row: Ping (pink hair) and Seraphim (wings).
"You see, nothing in the real world will ever live up to what I feel inside. I came to terms with that a long time ago... Maybe it's because the feelings I have work only in fantasies, not the real world. That's why I want to be an actress. It's a way to live what I feel, even if it is just part of a story."
One of the most successful Web Comics around, and one of the easiest to find in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Also one of the most confusing. Starts off when two American video game otaku — Piro and Largo — hop on a one-way flight to Japan, then find themselves unable to get back after a credit-card-maxing shopping spree.
Piro meets an aspiring voice actress called Kimiko and awkwardness ensues. Largo becomes steadily more demented and awkwardness ensues. Kimiko's flatmate Erika has to deal with her past as a popular Idol Singer and awkwardness ensues. A schoolgirl called Yuki gets a crush on Piro and awkwardness ensues. Piro gets stuck with a Dating Sim Robot Girl called Ping and awkwardness ensues. And Dark Magical Girl Miho stirs things up for her own amusement, leading to awkwardness for all concerned.
Has gained a great deal of infamy for its erratic schedule, along with the Dead Piro Days (DPDs) and stick-figure Shirt Guy Dom (SGD) comics (a takeoff on the "Shirt Guy Tom" comics from Sluggy Freelance). Recently the illness of the author's wife has made a realistic schedule even harder to produce.
Has been called the Lost of webcomics for its complex plotline and character histories, most of all the enigmatic Tohya Miho. Has also been called The X-Files of webcomics, for the same reasons, but not as positively. Quite intentionally, it includes a number of anime tropes. Interesting to note, however, is that it is one of few works who take flak for being Trope Overdosed.
Can be found through this link here. In 12 different languages, although each language is at a different point in the story.
And it also has a wiki.
This comic contains examples of:
Abandoned Info Page: "I'll finish this section when I feel like it."
The page was later updated to acknowledge this, and suggest that a new page was coming soon, but wasn't ready for the site redesign. This was in Fall of 2007.
Above the Influence: Piro, when Ping comes onto him during Kimiko's radio show. That may not count though, since there's more than a little evidence that at this point he still thinks she's Just a Machine.
Accent Adaptation: Komugiko (the Fox Girl) is a subtle version of this trope.
Alternate Universe: Often, between the chapters there will be a short story with the Megatokyo characters in different settings, such as in Circuity or unMod.
Angry Eyebrows: Toward the end of chapter 7, Piro gets a whole lot more aggressive in his "defenses".
Animal-Eared Headband: Komugiko-san.
Later on, Erika sports some Steampunk bunny ears.
Animeland: One of the best examples is Page 760. Just look at all the things Largo walks by!
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
Largo's been busy:
Masamichi: ...deploying an opposing force without a permit, deployment of defensive weaponry without a license, illegal use of duct tape...
The current page image for Nebulous Evil Organisation, which literally starts off with arson and murder:
"We'll set some brush fires on the west coast, cause a major earthquake under an orphanage in New Delhi, and then announce a recall on the American Play Station 2 machines."
Art Evolution: Just compare the early strips to the current ones.
Artifact Title: Rodney Caston originally bought the megatokyo.com domain and used Largo as his handle because he was a fan of Bubblegum Crisis. The comic is essentially named after its domain name rather than being a Shout-Out.
Artists Are Not Architects: Exception: By training, Fred Gallagher actually was an architectural draftsman.
Ascended Fanboy: Piro, and everyone else to one degree or another. This is one of the main themes of the story.
Ascended Meme: Largo recently took out several blocks of the Tokyo power grid with a weaponized Rickroll.
Asian Gal with White Guy: Erika and Largo, Miho and Piro (in the past), Kimiko and Piro (in the present), Yuki and Piro (in fantasyland).
Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever: The Rent-A-Zilla is a Godzilla-like monster that can be rented (by the hour, paid for in pork rinds), and Gameru is a Gamera parody who occasionally goes on drunken rampages.
Attractive Bent Gender: "Pirogoeth", or Piro's female online persona with a sword. Some people though require Brain Bleach upon seeing Pirogoeth in a barmaid's dress.
"Piroko" is the FPS persona. Fear the cute one, especially when undercover as a fetish mod.
Author Appeal: Moe and Sad Girls In Snow.
Awesomeness Is Volatile: When Largo blew up something in the class he taught.
Axe Crazy: Ed (and Dom to a lesser extent) definitely count, especially considering Ed's reaction to meeting Miho: "What is this...this is...ph34r! This is ph34r! I feel ph34r! HAHAHAHAHA!"
Backstory: "Behind the Masque" for the Kindle is a short story based on a fantasy MMORPG played by characters before the comic started.
Badass Adorable: Ping
Badass Cape: Largo, dressed to go clubbing.
Badass Teacher: Great Teacher Largo.
Beat Panel: Used with more drama than most uses of this trope.
Begone Bribe: At one point, Largo is being surprisingly nice to Erika after her past has caught up with her. However, she assumes he wants something from her, so just bluntly asks him "If I sleep with you, will you go away?"
Belligerent Sexual Tension: Erika and Largo.
Berserk Button: Rejecting Ping, in any form, is a very bad idea. Mind you, this is a design flaw, but still.
The enforcement of end user dress codes is entirely as intended.
Also, never try to play head games with Largo when Piro is nearby.
Beta Couple: Erika and Largo, to Piro and Kimiko.
Beware the Nice Ones: Piro does have a spine, usually manifesting itself in his friends' defense, or...erm...his own.
Big Brother Attraction: Piro and Ping, arguably. Since she's a Ridiculously Human Robot Girl, she starts out unsure if she wants to play the role of his girlfriend or little sister.
Bilingual Bonus: Some parts are written in (romanized) japanese or Leet Lingo.
Bishonen: A few characters, but especially Ed after his first facial reconstruction. The reaction by random passerby later is hilarious.
Bland-Name Product: The game Kimiko is doing a voice for is made by Cubesoft and LockArt.
Blank White Eyes
Break the Cutie: Miho did it to herself though.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: A seriously frightening example (in retrospect) where the character is reflecting the symptoms of her real-life namesake's autoimmune disorder which later turned into cancer. Note the knee brace on Seraphim then read Rant 1042 for details.
Broken Bird: Erika named this trope, and embodies it perfectly.
Brother Chuck: Tsubasa being the main example, being ostensibly their excuse for being in Japan and promptly written out of the comic. However, with the combination of Schedule Slip and Cast Herd, you would be forgiven if you honestly don't recall most of the major players outside of the main 4 - 5.
Calling Your Attacks: Junpei and sometimes Largo: "PREP4R3 FOR PANTLESS NINJ4 FURY!!!!"
Parodied when Junpei uses Keyless Enter to break open a door.
Cerebus Syndrome: Started out as a gag strip with a plotline before a falling out between the original author, Rodney Caston, and Gallagher led to the latter taking full control of the strip and quickly removing almost all of the gag elements in favor of one long continuous serious plot. Funnily enough, a strip right before this happened could count as a Reverse Funny Aneurysm by depicting what would happen if only one of the two authors controlled the output. Gallagher's version is identical to what the comic turned into. Although the comic has taken a turn for the dramatic and emotional, it still packs enough hilarity and madcap moments to remain amusing.
Real Life example: This happened between Caston and Gallagher, depending on who you ask. As can be surmised by the fact that they started the comic, the two were pretty good friends. The point at which Caston left is where the story differs-Gallagher maintains that it was a fairly amicable exchange because Caston wanted to move on to other projects, while Caston's side of the story holds that Gallagher handed him an ultimatum: if Caston didn't sell him his share of the rights to the comic, he'd drop the whole thing; Caston says he complied because he felt it was more important for the comic to get published than for him to be a part of it.
Characterization Marches On: Hard to believe an early strip had Largo ponder giving up gaming and leading a more productive life, only to have Piro argue that the "real world" sucks.
Chekhov's Gun: Sniping with it from 8 years, 4 months, 17 days away! (of course, in-comic it was only two weeks or so)
Gunmen, too. Most new characters appear as apparent one-shot bystanders or adversaries before receiving names and becoming important to the plot.
Cherry Blossoms: Some scenes with Yuki. Since the comic is black-and-white, and mostly set in September, one has what looks like Cherry Blossoms, but is probably leaves.
Childhood Marriage Promise: In a page aptly titled "osana najimi," Tsubasa explains that he's flown off to America to search for his.
Children Are Innocent: Or rather omninous, if you're Largo
City of Weirdos: Invading hordes, Humongous Mecha, and Rent-A-Zillas are so common that no one is surprised any more.
It's worth noting that most people don't notice these things.
Class Representative: Junko
Cloudcuckoolander: Largo, especially now that he's in a relationship. Him and Erika are talking about clubbing — she's talking about going to a nightclub, he's talking about beating people with blunt objects. (Oddly, their conversation is mostly coherent with either meaning.)
Meimi. Full, freaking, stop. She's the most out-there conglomeration of magical girl Charm Points that exists. And her magical girl power? Magical theft. She takes magical girl tropes Serial Escalation.
There is some evidence that she actually is insane, but most of the time she gives the impression that she's playing it up for whatever reason. At the very least, it's pretty clear that she does accidentally steal things all the time.
Console Wars: Takes on a whole new meaning in Megatokyo.
Contrived Clumsiness: Kimiko performs the drink spill variant on four people at the same time. Although her motive is more justifiable than most, there is a small measure of revenge in her actions.
Cool Shades: During the zombie revolt.
Creepy Cool Crosses: Meimi wears one.
Crossover: with Apple Geeks, although it's much more common for Megatokyo characters to appear in Apple Geeks than the other way around.
Also, Piro tended to show up in the early-to-middle years of the now complete Mac Hall. See Snow Means Love below for the result of one such incident.
Cryptic Conversation: Miho and Kenji seem fond of this.
Cunning Linguist: Erika speaks, or at least understands, fluent Japanese, English, Hamster, and L33T, the only character in the series that can do so.
Dom and Piro are runners up, understanding Japanese, English, and L33T, but Piro tends to tune Largo out during his L33T M45T3R rants.
Cute Little Fang: Komugiko.
Department of Redundancy Department: Yuki would often refer to Piro as "Mr. Piro-san," and also gave Largo both "Mr." and "san." Ping at least once addressed the school nurse similarly. Though it's become common in eastern pop culture to (incorrectly) use -san as a term of endearment. Adding the 'Mr.' both translates it and makes sure that the right translation gets through. So it may be justified.
Dojikko: Kimiko, usually when she's carrying a coffee pot at the Anna Miller's.
Yuki's halfway there, though she manages to be one while pulling off ridiculous acrobatics at the same time.
Drowning My Sorrows: Largo; see Wham! Episode, below.
Piro and Kimiko once did this together — over the problems with their own relationship.
Duct Tape And Cardboard For Everything: Largo's "deadly" duo of all-purpose construction materials.
Drop What You Are Doing: Meimi, end of chapter 9.
Dysfunction Junction: Oh so very much.
The Electric Slide: Many characters use this trope. It's handwaved by them all being magical girls — yes, even the one who doesn't know she is one.
Elegant Gothic Lolita: Miho
Enforced Method Acting: The "conveniently similar reaction to real-life event" variety is used in-universe.
Enjo Kosai: Junko is seen practicing this. She may actually be attracted to older men if her reaction to "Old Snake" from MGS4 is any indication.
Everyone Can See It: Yutaka Kobayashi is madly in love with Yuki, and everyone (except Yuki) knows it.
Miho: When has anyone ever been in love with you?
Yuki: (Luminescent Blush) Eh?
Miho: Oh, wait, there's that Kobayashi kid--
Yuki: OH, COME ON!! EVEN YOU KNEW??
Hair Decorations: Piroko, Yuki, Miho... well probably all of them, really.
Expressive Hair: Yuki.
Extended Disarming: Yuki and Largo in the unMod omake.
Eyes of Gold: in the rare color pictures, Kimiko and Miho have them. Kimiko doesn't really fit the usual golden-eyed archetype, but Miho does.
See this last panel as well. Effective use of color.
Face Palm: Kobayashi-kun at his own stupidity. When a girl you've had a crush on for years suggests you hold on to her "really, really tight...."
Ryoya at Kimiko's PR disaster of a response to a question.
Fan Service: When Kimiko and Erika strip down to their underwear.
Also, when Miho gets ready for a bath.
Fan Disservice ...Piro in boxers? The boy could stand to lose a few pounds. Though the boxers aren't his so it may be a bad case of muffon top.
Fan Verse: Megatokyo has spawned at least three Fan Verses to date. The oldest is the Megatokyo: the Clans game that started in 2001 on the Megatokyo Forum, and which is STILL going (look for threads labeled [Mt:tC] in the RP subforum). More recently is the Story Discussion Fanworks game that is hosted off site in its own dedicated forum. Also the energetic Megatokyo Campfire Story that can be found in the sites RP forum.
Filler Strip: Dead Piro Day. Also, there are short "omake" stories using Megatokyo characters in popular anime or original stories Fred wrote himself. The most recent one strongly insinuates that the "omakes" are Ping's dreams.
Fingore: Given a nod and a wink.
Largo: Okay, digit validation check...
The First Cut Is the Deepest: Hitoshi to Erika, possibly Miho to Piro
First Girl Wins: By way of a coffee pot to the head.
Actually, second girl wins. First girl lost by way of dagger to the throat in Endgames.
Depends on if you want to go by first appearance (Kimiko) or first meeting in-story (Miho).
Judging from recent parts of the story, Miss Dagger to the Throat might not be out of the running yet, either.
First-Name Basis: Piro and (Nanasawa) Kimiko make this switch here...for Kimiko's name, that is; Piro and Largo have no stated last names.
Flanderization: Largo has gone from a Deadpan Snarker with an affinity for first person shooter games, to a cardboard-mech-building, zombie-slaughtering, 1337-speaking, Badass. This is generally accepted by Megatokyo's current fans. Most readers who actually disliked this change (along with others) have already stopped reading, and those who've stayed and dared to speak up about the flanderized Largo are usually castrated and chased out of the forums.
Fluffy the Terrible: Zom-Zom, Yuki's Fun Sized pet zombie 'zilla.
Foe Yay: Miho has a lot of this with Piro and Largo. Though she and Piro were a romantic couple of sorts prior to the start of the comic
Miho: So, tell me Piro ... do you still love me?
Piro: Wh... what?
Miho: That's not a very nice way to respond to that question. You could hurt a girl's feelings. In fact, I think I might start to cry.
Follow the Chaos: Most of the cast falls under this. However with all the random property destruction going around by monsters of the day it could count as a subversion too.
Friendly Enemy: Perhaps only somewhat exemplary, but look at the last panel of this strip and try to say that the dialogue, at least, isn't the best example of this trope on the planet.
Full-Frontal Assault: Seraphim uses it to defeat Asmodeus.
Funbag Airbag: Ping bumps her head into Erika's chest at the Cave of Evil.
Fun with Acronyms: The Nanasawa Protection Coalition, made up of 95% nameless and faceless otaku losers.
Funny Background Event: Fred loves to load up his backgrounds with these. This page is an excellent example .
As is this, albeit it's a dialog-only example.
Combined with Cameo in this strip. In the midst of Piro's angsting, Ayu appears in the background and gets tackled by Makoto.
Fur and Loathing: In a fashion show about eco-friendly clothes, seraphim and Boo both look angrily at someone off-screen as she declares that "No, fur is not eco-friendly."
Gag Sub: Whenever Leet Guy is talking.
Gag Translation: Miho. Poor Largo...
Genki Girl: Ping.
And Yuki's friend Asako is a Genki Girl of Mass Destruction, and her friend Mami knows the arming codes. In her own words, "Hey, I always reserve the right to use the "Asako option". You should know that by now."
Mumu is a professional genki girl. "No sad girls on MY show!"
Genius Ditz: Largo. He seems completely insane at first glance, seeing everything through the lens of various action games (primarily shooters), but in the few times we've directly seen his thought processes, he's figuring out some of the comic's more complicated elements. Unfortunately, everyone else is a little bit to used to tuning him out when he talks.
GIRL: used straight, inverted then inverted again. Miho struck up a relationship with Piro's female alter ego online, using a male avatar. She revealed her true identity, letting him see photos of her when she was ill, then broke up with Piro by claiming she was a man after all and the photos were of someone else. Bad form, Miho, bad form.
Piro: Who was that guy anyway? Please tell me that was photoshopped.
Miho: Phil's the janitor at the Cave. He's a sweet guy, don't be mean.
Girlish Pigtails: Yuki previously. She's since traded up to a ponytail.
The Glomp: Yuki, when finally finding Miho.
Earlier Miho glomps Ping. The page is actually titled "a defusing glomp".
Good Angel, Bad Angel: Seraphim and Asmodeus. And also apparently Seraphim and her sister, though this is never mentioned again.
Groupie Brigade: Kimiko's fan club.
Heroic BSOD: Kimiko when told she's been a busy girl.
Not to mention Piro, when he finds out Erika is one of his favorite idols, or when he discovered Miho on his sofa.
"Ping, I have to go. I think I broke something."
Heterosexual Life Partners: Piro and Largo; Kimiko and Erika.
Hidden Eyes
High-Class Glass: Largo wears a monocle with his clubbing outfit.
High-Pressure Emotion: Parodied, with Boo helping Largo out via a hat..
Highly-Visible Ninja: Junpei, who has an armband reading NINJA at one point.
Hot Mom: Meimi "Yuki's Red Hot Mom" Sonoda.
Hulk Speak: Junpei speaks both English and Japanese somewhat shoddily as a joke playing on old, poorly-dubbed ninja movies.
Humongous Mecha
Hurricane of Excuses: Piro trying to explain away Ping seems oddly reminiscent of the "medicinal carrots" speech (in retrospect, of course, as it predates the show by seven years.)
Idol Singer
I Have the High Ground
Important Haircut: Various references have been made to Miho's hair being "hacked mercilessly short" sometime prior to the start of the comic. It is unclear what this actually means, but no less than three characters (Piro, Yuki and Miho herself) seem to consider it significant. It apparently happened during her hospitalization, as she told Piro at the time the nurses were upset about her cutting her hair.
There are many instances throughout the comic where the state of a Magical Girl's hair is implied to be connected to the state of her power.
Impossible Thief: Yuki, she stole a zilla. This page could probably manage to double in size with the list of things Yuki has stolen. More recently people have started going over strips in great detail looking for differences between frames when Yuki is known to be around. Watch the laptop...
Taken Up to Eleven in this strip. She not only steals everything from Dom's hands and pockets, she steals his van.
She gets it from her Mother.
Improbable Hairstyle: The author once remarked about how people who tried to emulate Miho's hair style complained about how very hard it was to get the ribbons to stay like that. The comic itself has implied, the presence, absence or state of that ribbon is an indicator about how in-control Miho is. The fact that it stays in at all is a statement.
Incendiary Exponent: Largo lives for this trope. Not everybody is impressed.
In the Name of the Moon: Used by fans of a fictional Magical Girl.
Instant Fanclub
Invisible to Normals
Invoked Trope: Largo, in particular, loves to invoke tropes.
In this strip, for instance, Largo's invocation of Nice Hat is mentioned.
Iron Butt Monkey: Largo. It's even stated that it's his job to get physically injured, while Piro gets the emotional flak.
It's a Wonderful Plot
It's Fake Fur, It's Fine: Spoofed. When Seraphim shows different outfits from around the world, the Russian outfit is a fur coat, hat, and muff (the fur even wraps around her wings), and she is really worried it might not be fake fur.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
Japanese Honorifics: Obviously. There is an odd one though; Yuuki (and later Ping) will refer to people as both "mister" and "san" at the same time (ex: Mr. Piro-san). It's unclear if this is a little bit of Gratuitous English or some odd translation choice.
Kuudere: Miho. Although she toys with it frequently, so it's hard to tell if she really is one. She currently seems to be in "tsun-vulnerable" mode. Possibly due to the fallout from Ping's 'uploads'.
Littlest Cancer Patient: Miho may be deliberately invoking this trope for her own amusement.
Little Miss Badass: Ping, Miho and Yuki.
Logic Bomb: Averted in at least one instance. Ping is momentarily frozen since two equally important people need her help, but she works through it logically and quickly reaches a conclusion. It was the wrong conclusion, but that's because she started with a flawed basis (Piro didn't need help anywhere near as much as Miho did).
She wasn't going to Piro to help him, she was going to try to make him care about what's wrong with Miho (Not that that would have gone very well, but still...)
The Loins Sleep Tonight: Heavily implied to have been what put the brakes on the first serious encounter between Largo and Erika. Poor guy.
Lost in Translation: Largo doesn't speak Japanese, so he has trouble communicating with a lot of the characters. Also, Leet Guy only speaks in leet...most of the time.
Which leads to a bit of Fridge Logic, since in a very early strip Leet Guy literally couldn't speak regular English to save his life. Of course, since spoken Leetspeak is no different from English, this probably isn't meant to be taken seriously.
Love Dodecahedron
Kaleidoscope Hair: Ping can change her appearance in response to user feedback, and the most obvious changes are to her hair. So far, she's had pale grey, hot pink, and turquoise.
Kudzu Plot
Made of Iron: Ed gets smashed through a concrete pillar, then crashes into a natural gas plant, causing the whole thing to explode around him. Not only is he not dead, he doesn't even bother seeing a doctor until after a house-sized turtle is hurled into him, knocking him off the top of a skyscraper. Even being almost completely vaporized only puts him out of commission for a day or so. He probably couldn't be killed off even if he wanted to be.
Magical Girl: One metafictional, one retired, one budding, and one dark.
Magic Skirt: Fairly obvious in frame 3 of this strip. Compare Yuki's hair and bangs to her skirt. Although she is, at least, magical.
A Man Is Not a Virgin: Most likely averted with Piro and Largo; Piro's only experience with women is in dating sims (and Miho), while Largo generally thinks all women are insane and not worth the trouble. Erika certainly thinks this of Piro, at least. Word of God states, however, that all main characters have enough sexual experience to know what they're talking about. Even if they're too awkward to talk about it.
Meet Cute: Piro and Kimiko. Three times. Yuki and Yutaka. Two times.
Meganekko: Kimiko when she isn't wearing contacts, Yuki when she's in her maid uniform or zombie riot gear, and Ping briefly.
Miho as of this strip.
Memetic Mutation: In universe, Ping caused this when she uploaded several thousand pictures and videos of a missing Miho. Piro even mentioned that it "turned into a huge viral thing." Of course, in comic it's been less than a day, so it might die down.
The Merch
Mind Screw: The comic has been descending into this of late, particularly whenever Miho or the other Cave-Of-Evilers get involved.
This seems to suggest that Miho's something like a cross between an idol, a Servant, and Shonen Bat, to which the terms "dead" and "alive" may not be applicable at all. And whatever she is, she's "the real thing" that the EDS units like Ping were supposed to be able to replace.
Another way of thinking of it seems to be this: You've heard of projecting the surface of a 3D object onto a 2D plane, like a world map? And you've heard of a 2D complex? She's what the 2D girls are projections of. But only those of a particular "type," meaning she's unlikely to be the only "analogue."
Fred has suggested on the forums that the majority of the comic (including Kimiko in her entirety) may be nothing more than a fantasy of Piro's.
More generally, the whole comic is, in a sense, the combined fantasy of every character. See "Weirdness Censor" below.
Mr. Exposition: Yuki in strip #1199.
Ms. Fanservice: Erika, Miho.
Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: Piro, Kimiko and Miho.
Nerd Glasses: Piro until #687, as well as Ping and Yuki a little more recently.
Nice Hat: Part of Largo's Cave of Evil outfit.
Ninja: Junpei. In fact, there's a whole organization of ninjas, and this is not their headquarters.
Noodle Implements: Done a few times.
Noodle Incident: Many examples:
One that springs to mind immediately is this.
The comic is full of these. "Hey come on... we got handcuffed by real Mounties! That was cool."
In fact, there's an entire plot arc based around exactly this.
And one actually involved noodles.
No One Could Survive That: Ed (repeatedly) and Miho.
Not a Game: Used repeatedly — not entirely unsurprisingly in the context.
Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught
Not Quite Dead: Ed, who can simply be regrown in a tank has survived being thrown out a window (and clipping a concrete column with his head), being hit by a giant turtle, and a direct hit from an orbital laser strike. Miho too.
Not the Fall That Kills You: It appear that, while Magical Girls can perform some quite devastating feats of acrobatics, people they carry with them are still subject to the laws of physics.
Odd-Shaped Panel
Of Corsets Sexy: Erika's Cave Of Evil outfit.
Offhand Backhand: Erika gives one to Ed with her elbow.
Older Than They Look: Or at least, so Miho claims.
Note here, where she describes an old and unopened bottle of alcohol as "almost older than I am." Depending on what type of alcohol it is, that could be very old indeed.
Balmenach 17-year single malt scotch, which is probably a Connoisseurs Choice batch. (The label's not identical, but that's the only equivalent available to the Asian market which this troper could spot. There's a lot of 16-18 year old batches in that range.)
Only Sane Man: At first, that role belonged to Piro. But as he's slowly been pulled into the web of general insanity that is the main plot, he's been replaced by Junko.
Only Six Faces: An extreme example that only got worse over the years. For example, there is almost no way to recognize Miho with her new hairstyle compared to Yuki or her mother.
Our Vampires Are Different: Possibly Miho and other Magical Girls. Based on some of her conversations, it seems that they need to "feed" off of emotions, which they seem to do by inciting these feelings in others. This doesn't seem to cause any damage to the victim (other than the discomfort of having their emotions toyed with, that is).
It also Mind Screws the hell out of them as recent comics make it seem like Miho is unable to think that she's loved due to her repeated reference to relationships as "Games" and lovers as "players"
Overprotective Dad: Yuki's father runs a background check on his daughter's boyfriend.
Papa Wolf: Deconstructed, as Yuki's father's efforts to protect his daughter fly clear over the line and land squarely in the realm of grievous invasion of privacy.
Pistol-Whipping: Dual Shotgun Whipping is done by Ed when he's fighting Largo.
Present Day Past: Yuuji appears to be playing a DS about three years before its release
Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Ping does this at one point.
Rapunzel Hair: Yuki, since turning into a Magical Girl.
Remix Comic: Fans from the forums write "rescripts."
And there's also Negatokyo.
Rent-A-Zilla: Trope Namer, after the service.
And the black sheep of the Gamera family.
Rickroll: On a Largo-scale.
Ridiculously Human Robot Girl: Ping.
Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Ping and Tohya. If not then it still looks like it.
Rule 34: Early in the run, Fred (in)famously said that if he saw porn of Megatokyo characters, he would stop producing the comic. As it turns out, this declaration only dissuaded his fan base, whereas it served as incentive for the sizable population who dislike Megatokyo.
He has apparently since dropped this threat ever since A) it became clear most of the folks doing it were just trying to get him to cancel the comic, and B) his own NSFW artwork was brought to light.
Running Gag: Largo loses his pants a lot. Normally he takes them off for whatever reason, but if his clothing is getting damaged, the pants are definitely getting hit.
Piro's head is removed rather often in stick-figure comics. Apparently all you need is a bit of duct tape and he's as good as new.
Schedule Slip: There's a reason Megatokyo fans are widely considered some of the most patient and forgiving people in the webcomic world. Megatokyo is in the running for the distinction of being the most notorious still-ongoing webcomic example of the phenomenon, especially since the birth of Gallagher's son.
Most recently, this is due to the diagnosis of Sarah having a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. You can read Gallagher's rant on it here and Sarah's rant on it here
This might come to an end, or so Piro (and his readers hope) according to his rant about a little discovery in his production process...
Secret Test of Character: Once Yuki's dad finds out about her "boyfriend," he spends ten minutes (and three strips) yelling at him, threatening him with grievous legal and physical harm, and concrete, as well as insulting the very fiber of his being...then hands the phone to his daughter.
Sonoda: He didn't hang up.
Serial Tweaker: Gallager seems to be an artistic version of this; next time you watch the live stream of him drawing the comic, try and count all of the time he goes back to redraw some minor detail that he's already drawn multiple times before.
Sexy Coat Flashing
Shirtless Scene: The debut of "Great Teacher Largo".
Shout-Out: So many they have their own page.
Shutting Up Now: Kimiko trying to explain about how she got mad because people were sneering at pathetic fanboys like Piro.
Snow Means Death: Ironic, considering...
Snow Means Love: "Piro, go to your happy place. Sad girls in snow."
Notable since Gallagher isn't responsible for it; Ian McConville and Matt Boyd of Mac Hall and Three Panel Soul are.
This strip and this sketch both predate the Mac Hall Crossover, if only by a few months. Moreover, it had to be a noticeable trait of Piro's beforehand for McConville to joke about it.
Somebody Else's Problem: At least one magical girl (probably Miho, but she may have had help) can produce this effect, hiding a house and causing other people to just walk right by it. This isn't Invisible to Normals, either; it worked fine on a Magical Girl.
Spit Take: Junko's father, when she spots him in the Cave of Evil.
Also here, with Yuki's dad.
Squee: Asako pretty much embodies this trope.
Stalking Is Love: Yutaka Kobayashi, to Yuki Sonoda. It hasn't really been portrayed either positively or negatively yet, though. In fact, the only word someone used to describe it was "pathetic."
Still Got It: Erika flaunting her celebrity creds.
Stock Super Powers: The magical girls have super speed, super strength, as well as a few odder abilities--one seems to have teleported, and another can apparently shrink things.
Stop Helping Me!: Erika gives Largo this treatment in this strip. Played for drama.
Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Sony programmed the "tsundere" trait a bit too well. Junko has a moment of Fridge Brilliance, when realizes why Ping never has to worry about her end users getting a little bit too hands-on, especially considering that she isn't programmed to give sex.
Take a Level In Badass: Piro, if slowly. He shows unexpected agility and strength (not to mention backbone) during his short stint as a busboy at Anna Miller's, and easily navigates Largo's PH34R game in Mega Gamers the next day.
Take Off Your Clothes: Erika can be a bit hands on when it comes to this.
Take That: Almost parodied here, with many of the complaints leveled at the comic.
Tears of Remorse
Telephone Polearm: Ping, when she freaks out. Then she puts it back and thanks it.
Tender Tears
Thanks for the Mammary: Largo: "Wow. Those are a lot softer than I thought they'd be."
And again here. Despite saving her life with the accidental groping, he still gets pummeled for it.
Those Two Bad Guys: Dom and Ed.
Those Two Girls: Yuki's friends Mami and Asako.
The Tokyo Fireball: Nicely parodied thanks to the "Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division", a branch of the local police department that schedules and keeps an eye on massive destruction events.
Tone Shift: Happens many times as the story goes.
Transformation Sequence: Lampshaded.
Translation Convention: Most (but not all) spoken Japanese is portrayed as English in <angle brackets>, along with translations for the more hardcore 1337.
Translation Train Wreck: Ping's English "transl33tor" approaches this after Largo tweaks it, causing it to translate everything into nonsense blended with porn advertisements. He tries to fix it, and temporarily causes her to achieve a flawless communications link with Cuckooland.
"Bleed me dry with your nettles! I am a coconut!"
Tsundere: Erika, using the original tsundere definition. Ping also enters a Tsundere mode that leads to unstoppable robot rampages.
Even Piro exhibits typical tsundere characteristics whenever Miho is involved.
Note his mood swings when he is actually speaking to her.
Unusual Euphemism: "Fsck!", a unix command that finds and fixes any hard drive errors.
fsck is being used as a generic swearword by unix sysadmins since epoch 0. Since Largo is skilled enough to use a beowulf cluster as workstation, he qualifies. So, no: it's not unusual at all.
Miho also refers to sex as "completionism" and long-term relationships as "replay value." This fits in with her treating people as games.
Unwanted Harem: Piro's reaches a size of four--Kimiko, Miho, Yuki, and Ping. Naturally, the First Girl Wins.
It should be noted that Kimiko is the only one whom a relationship would have a reasonable chance of working out. Yuki is underage (which his concience has made clear that that is a big No, No), he's oblivious to her crush (whether selective or not), and her father is a cop (and Overprotective Dad) not to mention the weirdness and problems caused by her being a Magical Girl. Ping's a Robot Girl who's programming tends be at odds with her own developing individuality (she literally was not designed with long-term-relationships in mind), and in, many ways, could be considered underage as well; Piro tends to be just as oblivious (again, purposely or not) about this issue as he is with Yuki, and instead tries to act as her Big Brother/caretaker/guardian. As for Miho, well, besides the fact that she's a walking enigma and her penchant for manipulation, she and Piro have a... complicated history with each other. He cares about her (on some level), but also doesn't trust her, and it's implied that he needs to settle his past with her before he can move forward with any relationship.
Useless Spleen: Though limited to the filler Shirt Guy Dom episodes, it starts here, continues through here and here, and eventually reaches a spear named Spleen Slayer.
Verbal Tic: Piro.
The Verse: Part of a pseudo-canonical "Macverse" with Apple Geeks and Mac Hall
Virginity Makes You Stupid: Kimiko gives the impression of this at first glance. Turns out Erika could tell a few stories...
Webcomics Long Runners: In five of the twelve languages it can be read in.
Webcomic Time: Probably one of the primary examples. Chapter 0 takes up about two months of in-comic time. Every chapter since then contains the events of exactly one day, with the only time skip occurring between chapters nine and ten. So almost every relationship in the comic (be it romantic or platonic) has had just about two and a half weeks of development.
When you think about it though it makes some things awkward. Though time passes nowhere near as fast as us for them, the technology around them seems to advance at the same rate as reality. Its often very jarring.
The same is true for anime references and products sold in the store where Piro works.
Weirdness Censor: There are multiple forms of censorship running simultaneously, explained here. It'd be easier to say that there are multiple mutually exclusive Extra Strength Masquerades in effect — look in the right direction at the right time with the right eyes and you can see anything from Kaiju to entire Magical Lands. There's an Anime population, full of Magical Girls and Sentai groups battling various threats. There's the Morality population, where Shoulder Angels attempt to guide the human race to their own ends. On top of both is the Government Conspiracy, which attempts to regulate the destruction created by the Anime heroes without getting the world blown up in the process — they drive Humongous Mecha on the street in broad daylight. And some censored populations are subject to censorship themselves! Heroes only see their own threats, and can get pushy when they are interfered with by cops or other heroes. No one sees Shoulder Angels save their clients. The mecha-riding regulators tear their hair out on a regular basis trying to deal with the madness. And the Muggles can't even agree on what to ignore. While Yuki is still coping with being a Magical Girl, she apparently finds being told to stay in the mech to be mundane enough to be infuriating. And while Junko freaks out over Ping's light pole save, the owner of the car that would have hit Junko freaks out not over it being crushed by said light pole, but for Junko's carelessness which brought it about.
"Don't worry--they're as afraid to look up as we are to look down."
In the fifth collection of Megatokyo, Gallagher FINALLY detailed his explanation for this phenomenon: "...the main theme of Megatokyo is how everyone has different perceptions of the world around them..." Everyone sees the world slightly differently. Piro and Largo are on the extreme ends of the scale--Piro only sees "mundane" things (and dismisses the fantastic things as mundane things) and Largo only sees "fantastic" things, and comes up with fantastic explanations for the mundane things he sees. Everyone else is somewhere else on this scale, nearly always between those two extremes. In this world, there are no Muggles: Piro can't see Largo's world and Largo can't see Piro's world, and they both think the other is crazy.
Wham! Episode: "If I sleep with you, will you go away?" Undoubtedly a very dick move on Erika's part, and the reason Largo tries to drown his sorrows.
You probably even thought it'd help you get laid tonight! Pretty much the same circumstances and result as above.
In Erika's defense, she truly could not comprehend Largo's behavior at any point via the lense through which she had already learned to view the world around her. As soon as she realized that he actually meant everything he said and did, she decided to date the "total nutjob" (to quote the ninja order that's been observing him).
And on a funnier note, "I find balancing on power lines a little disquieting." Suddenly gave us some real answers to what Miho and Yuki are.
What Does Erika See In Largo?: Largo is NUTS, but he's a Good Man. The previous one was... not.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Maybe not so lame after all: Largo initially assumes that the Magical Girls gain their power from love similar to how ninjas gain their power from honor, but Junpei quickly corrects him, explaining that honor is far "safer" than love, and that the latter should never be underestimated. Considering the Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division's reaction to an unregistered Magical Girl (pure panic), as well as some of the powers they've demonstrated, this seems justified.
The reaction actually says a lot about Japanese culture, and what it values, if you think about it: Magical Girls believe in a completely separate law/code of behavior than the culture they are born into, and the strongest among them might well be completely uncontrollable except by their fellow members.
Wishful Projection: A character finds Piro's sketchbook, creates a fantasy about what he must be like, and then gets hostile when he fails to live up to it.
Write Who You Know: Not only Piro and Largo, but also Fred's girlfriend (now wife), "Seraphim," plus friends Dom, Ed, Asmodeus, and Tsubasa.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Piro and Largo see everything in Video Game Tropes (Dating Sims and First Person Shooters, respectively) no matter how hard they try. Kimiko is dismayed when she discovers life isn't a Soap Opera with her in the lead role.
As Characterization Marches On, Piro's "hat" has been more his Genre Blindness to the fact that he's in a dating sim, despite Miho's insistent lack of a Fourth Wall about it.
Yaoi Fangirl: "Sorry, just teasing."
Yuki's "Sorry!" on that page also says quite a bit about her.
You Didn't Ask: Sonoda says this exact line when Largo demands to know why he wasn't told about the existence of a high intensity satellite-based laser.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: One character has purple hair; another's changes from gray to pink to blue green. Though the latter is a sort of subversive joke, since the comic is mostly in black and white; hair color can only be determined from occasional colored strips or when a character points it out.
Junko: ...blue-green hair. How do you get away with this? Is your mom like, color blind?
Your Makeup Is Running
Zettai Ryouiki: just about every female character has had an A-grade at one time or another. And if you've clicked all the links on this page thus far, you've probably seen it for about half of them already (heck, Kimiko's got it in the page image here). Here's one more for you.
Also, Piro's online avatar, Pirogoeth. Always.
Webcomics Long Runners
OEL Manga