Splatoon
The cover art for the first volume of the English localization
スプラトゥーン (Supuratun)
Genre	Action/comedy
Created by	Sankichi Hinodeya
Manga
Written by	Sankichi Hinodeya
Published by	Shogakukan
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Magazine	CoroCoro Comic
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	November 13, 2015 – January 27, 2022
Volumes	16
Manga
Splatoon 3: Splatlands
Written by	Sankichi Hinodeya
Published by	Shogakukan
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Magazine	CoroCoro Comic
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	January 27, 2023 – present
Volumes	2

Splatoon (スプラトゥーン, Supuratun) is an action-comedy Japanese manga based on the video game series of the same name, and illustrated by Sankichi Hinodeya.^[1]

The manga follows the Blue Team, a group of Inklings that compete in Turf Wars, the primary online battle mode in the Splatoon franchise. Goggles, a member of the Blue Team, serves as the manga's protagonist.

An anime adaptation was released on the YouTube channel of CoroCoro starting in August 2017.^[2]

Plot

Splatoon stars the Blue Team, a team of Inklings who compete in Turf Wars against other teams.^[3] The Blue Team consists of Goggles, Headphones, Specs, and Bobble Hat.^[4] While the Blue Team has a lower rank than other competitors, they aim to succeed in their battles regardless.^[3] They enter the CoroCoro Cup, a tournament to decide who is the best Turf War team. After arriving, the Blue Team realizes that others refer to them as "famous idiots". The Blue Team's first match is against the Yellow-Green Team, a top-ranked team. Despite this, though, the Blue Team defeats them.^[4]

Characters

(Note: All of the characters here are all manga-original.)

• Blue Team: This team brings their lunches to practice.
  • The protagonist of this work and leader of the Blue Team. Udmae C-. He uses the Splash Shooter Collaboration and Splash Shooter (since S4). He is called an "idiot" by those around him, and he has a sunny disposition that is so out of his mind. In addition, he is always being criticized by Megane-kun and Headphone-chan because of his unprecedented behavior. However, he is not intimidated even when he is up against a superior rider, but rather he tries to enjoy the battle. He is also said by Rider to have strength that cannot be measured by his Udmae, such as "He may have more than S4 power."[4] In addition, Glasses says to him, "He has quite a few sempuku skills. and other original abilities. In the Haikara Square version, the bottoms have been changed. Her favorite food is her grandmother's homemade pickled plums and gohan. He also has a grandfather.

He often uses his super shot as a trump card in a game, a decisive blow to the opposing team, or in a one-on-one battle with the leader of the opposing team. He also has the control of a must-hit in the work, except in episode 3 when he was avoided by a safari hat (actually an aloha in disguise). Later in the Haikara Square Arc and onward, its role is changed to Super Chakuchi, and it often super-jumps to an ally near an enemy to round them up. He also has a voracious appetite, eating curry during battles (an action that upset Army and the Orange Team and ultimately led them to victory), carrying pickled plums and dumplings, drinking too many drinks and becoming obese, and even eating his lunch box while suspended in the air by General Takowasa's UFO. He even ate his lunch box even when he was suspended in midair by General Takowasa's UFO. He is also muscular, with a rapid increase in muscle tone after just 10 sit-ups. (It returns to normal when he exhales.) From volume 1 to volume 3, episode 11, he wears pilot goggles, armor jacket replica, and hero kicks replica, and in the Hero Mode version, he wears an original manga design that looks like the pilot goggles added to the Hero series. All of his clothes except for the pilot goggles burned up due to the force of the jump, so they were changed, and his armor jacket replica was changed to a Mountain Nori Tamago, but otherwise he has not changed. In the Bokeh vs. Tsukkomi festival, they are the Bokeh team, and in the Final festival version, they are the Chaos team.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

• • Headphones: a Rank B- female Inkling. She is a cool and level-headed Inkling, often acting as a big sister to the team despite them being the same age. Despite her calm and collected demeanour, she frequently becomes irritated by Goggles and his antics. She uses a Classic Squiffer.
  • Bobble Hat: a Rank C female Inkling.Unlike most of her teammates, Bobble Hat seems to enjoy Goggles' actions. She and her big smile show her innocence and is pretty much always happy, even in the face of danger. She uses a Slosher.
  • Specs: a Rank C+ male Inkling who is leader of the team. He is a nerdy Inkling who can be very anxious but tries to hide it as best as he can. He tries to come across as level-headed and tends to flaunt his knowledge a lot but becomes upset if no one is listening to him. He uses an Octobrush Nouveau.
• Yellow-Green Team This Team is led by Rider. Despite Rider hating teamwork from his initial appearance, he brought them together so he could compete.
  • Rider: an S+ rank male Inkling who uses the Gold Dynamo Roller. He believes in himself is his training philosophy. he also takes good care of his weapon. He has been pantsed repeatedly by Goggles, and he gets very angry with him when he does it, often rolling over Goggles with the whichever dynamo roller he has on hand.
  • Stealth Goggles: A male Inkling who uses the Jet Squelcher. He is said to love airsoft sports.
  • School Uniform: A female Inkling who uses the .52 Gal Deco She is said to be a class representative, indicating that she attends school. She is also seen to be good friends with Bamboo as she only joined back with Rider if Bamboo would join as well.
  • Bamboo Hat: A female Inkling who uses the Heavy Splatling. She is said to have a hobby in wood carving.
• Orange Team They are all very punctual and also clean up themselves after their battles. They follow their Inkling Manual to read their enemy's actions and tactics. It works every time, except when something unexpected happens or no tactic is involved.
  • Army, one of the S4. A male Inkling who uses the N-ZAP '85. He applies his own face paint. He also came from a noble family.
  • B-Sailor: A male Inkling who uses the Splatterscope.
  • Octarian Jacket: A female Inkling who uses the Rapid Blaster.
  • W-Sailor: A female Inkling who uses the Dualie Squelcher.

Development

Splatoon first released in Japan on February 29, 2016, through the CoroCoro Comic magazine.^[5][6] It first released in English on December 14, 2017, translated by Viz Media.^[7][8][9]

On August 13, 2017, the manga was adapted into an animated series, starring Mikako Komatsu as Goggles. The adaptation released on CoroCoro's YouTube channel.^[4][2]

For the release of Splatoon 3, new volumes of Splatoon released.^[6]

Reception

Dale Bashir of IGN Southeast Asia called the manga "a true shōnen interpretation of Splatoon ... that is quite faithful to the regular player’s experience with the game".^[3]

References