Time for some more Mario Manga!
This time, let’s take a look at Dr. Mario.
This and other stories based on older Mario games were published by Kodansha Media from
1989-1998 and are not related to Super Mario Adventures, or Super Mario-kun.
Besides just liking the game, I’m choosing Dr. Mario because, its a game that doesn't
really have a storyline.
I mean, for example in Super Mario Land, you know that Mario will travel across many lands
and save Princes Daisy.
But what kind of story does a puzzle game have?
In the manual to Dr. Mario it says that Mario is working in the Virus Control center of
the Mushroom Kingdom and in the ending the viruses leave Earth in a UFO.
So, will the manga follow the game?
Lets take a look.
The Famicom and Game Boy versions were released in Japan in July 1990, and the weekly comics
ran at the same time as its release, with the compiled book released in October 1990.
The book, like always, explains how the game works and give advice on how to play the game.
Is it really possible to erase 8 blocks at one time?
I guess so!
I’ll have to try that.
The soundtrack to this video comes courtesy of AC Menes.
Be sure to check out “Meet The Light” available now.
The first story is called “The Laughing Viruses are Born” and begins with Bowser,
king of the Koopa, mixing an evil potion in his castle.
Wait.
Let’s stop right here!
Bowser is not in the game and according to the game, the viruses are from another planet!
But it does say right here, that this scenario has not been made into a game.
At the same time Princess Peach is holding a Worldwide Botanical Expo at the castle.
Hmm, when did we first see Peach’s castle?
Super Mario 64?
Or was it earlier.
This kind of looks like it.
Some of the flowers parody other famous characters in Japan and Mario remarks that this weird
one kind of looks like peach.
Then Princess Daisy comes in to show off her flower arrangement, which shows Daisy and
Mario getting married.
For the sake of explaining continuity, this manga series came right after Super Mario
Land, and it feels like a continuation of the story from there.
In that series, theres a little bit of jealousy between Peach and Daisy over Mario.
(vol 1 p 11 12 13 77)
A strange woman wearing a babushka and an apron with the letter K on it shows up and
wants to enter her flower, a piranha plant, into the expo, but instantly Mario questions
who she is and exposes Bowser’s identity.
The piranha plants start coughing up viruses.
When the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom breathe them in, they start laughing uncontrollably.
Mario covers his mouth and runs away.
He hides in his house, while the sky is filled with viruses.
He tries to develop a cure for the Laughing Virus and experiments on samples in Petri
dishes at home.
Meanwhile, on TV, the news reports that the only place not infected is Mushroom Mountain.
Hey, the border of the Mushroom Kingdom is shaped like a mushroom!
Neat!
Mario assumes that something in that area is keeping people healthy and tries to leave
in secret but Peach and Daisy find out and tag along.
They hop in Mario’s airplane from Super Mario Land, called the Sky Pop.
I guess he kept it from the last adventure.
While were on it The design of Daisy comes form the Super Mario Land manual, including
the dark crown.
And Sky Pop is mentioned too!
They get there quickly and strange figure shows up and offers Mario an . Peach and
Daisy eat it and get infected with the Laughing Virus.
As you would have guessed, its a trap set up by Bowser and he unleashes an attack on
the villagers of Mushroom Mountain.
While fleeing Bowser’s attack, Mario finds a giant mushroom, which is what the villagers
of the town pray to for protection.
Mario decides to dig it up and use it as a cure to the Laughing Virus.
Mario and the villagers dig out and cut up the mushroom, and put the pieces into capsules
and launch a successful attack.
Then Mario takes off in the Sky Pop and does an air raid over Mushroom Mountain.
The powers of the mushroom cure everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom of the Laughing Virus
and by the end of the day, the newsman on TV announces that outbreak is over.
Mario goes home and heads to bed.
All has been made right.
But unbeknownst to Mario, one virus escapes in the middle of the night and is ready to
make trouble all over again.
The next chapter is called “The Micro Battle to Save Luigi Part 1” and continues the
story the day after Mario cured the Laughing virus.
After one escapes, it comes in contact with a mysterious figure, who is actually Bowser
and he casts a spell on it which allows it to mutate and take the form of the virus character
that appears in the game Dr. Mario.
If he is right outside Mario’s house while he's sleeping why doesn't Bowser just kill
him right there?
It would be so easy!
All the commotion outside wakes up Mario, and Bowser orders the newly formed viruses
to attack.
They fly in his mouth, but wait.
It’s not actually Mario, its Luigi!
He took Mario’s night cap and wore it to bed.
How would the viruses, who were just created know who was whom anyway?
And isn't that the night cap from Super Mario USA?
The viruses get in Luigi’s stomach and get to work making him sick.
Mario gives Luigi the mushroom cure that he used yesterday, but it just doesn't work.
It has to be in capsule form.
They take an ambulance to Mushroom Hospital and Dr. Kuribo says there is no hope for Luigi.
Just then Bowser appears on TV an announces that the virus will kill Luigi by noon today
and Bowser will cure him before then, but only if peach surrenders the Mushroom Kingdom
to him.
This makes peach so mad she throws a chair at the TV.
For whatever reason, Bowser is hiding in the TV.
I guess Bowser doesn't have the power to take over the airwaves, or maybe just not the studio
space?
Mario and Peach suit up and hop in the Marine Pop to save Luigi.
Somehow the Marine Pop has the power to shrink them down to microscopic size.
I don't know where Daisy went but she's gone from the rest of the story.
Inside Luigi, the Marine Pop shoots capsules filled with the Miracle Mushroom from Mushroom
Mountain but soon find themselves overwhelmed by the number of germs and plan an escape.
The call on Dr. Kuribo for help.
But he's eating lunch and not paying attention, he scrambles around and drops some pepper
which makes Luigi sneeze them out.
There are now 3 hours left until Luigi will succumb to the virus.
Mario and Peach work hard to figure out how to beat them.
The develop 6 types of capsules of different color combinations to defeat the virus.
Nice that the story is following the game, but they don't really explain why this will
work.
Also color pages would help out here so nicely.
Once again they shrink down and prepare to save Luigi!
Mario and Peach start blasting away but its just not working.
The capsules are piling up but none of them are having any effect on the viruses.
Luigi’s condition is getting worse as another hour passes.
Luigi starts going into laughing convulsions, even sending him through the hospital roof!
Since Mario and Peach are inside him, any movement shakes them around too.
The shaking also rattles around the viruses and 4 of the same color line up, which sends
the viruses into a panic.
After all, in the game 4 in a row of the same color wipes them out.
Mario figures it out and tells Peach to aim the capsules so that 4 of the same color capsules
and viruses are connected.
It works!
And the first viruses are defeated….
um i guess the red ones???
In scenes reminiscent of the game the viruses start going down one by one.
Mario calls back to Dr. Kuribo to tell him that they are winning the battle and should
expect them to return soon.
But Dr. Kuribo tells him that the viruses are building up in his brain, and they cant
leave yet!
We are halfway through the book, one hour remains and the race to save Luigi is on!
When we come back, the final hour, of the the Micro Battle to Save Luigi!
CM
Chapter 3 picks up right where Chapter 2 ends.
If you're wondering why they just don't combine it all into one story, remember that this
book, and others were compiled from weekly comics in Bon Bon Magazine, so they way they
were written were for a weekly format and its not quite the same as a full book.
Mario and Peach have eradicated the Laughing Virus in Luigi’s stomach.
But Dr. Kuribo says that theres a outbreak of the virus in his brain.
There’s about 1 hour left to go until the virus kills Luigi.
Peach and Mario are aware of the time limit and rush to the scene of the outbreak to try
and save Luigi in time!
Remember that Mario and Peach are in the Marine Pop, from Super Mario Land and are shrunk
down to microscopic size floating around inside Luigi’s body.
Despite this Bowser has somehow snuck along and is inside Luigi’s brain as well.
Bowser gets hit in the head by a watermelon.
I’m going to just stop for a minute and say that the next 30 or so pages are very
surreal and very weird, if it wasn't already weird enough so buckle up!!
There’s all kinds of food flying around in Luigi's temporal lobe!
Icecream, Fried Shirmp, Curry!
Back outside, Luigi tells Dr. Kuribo that he’s hungry and as soon as he eats it the
food disappears from the area where Mario Peach are standing, And yea, Bowser too!
The viruses have camped out and are dancing on Luigi’s neural pathways and it makes
Luigi freak out and do crazy things.
Mario tells the viruses that their doomed because he knows that 4 in a row of the same
color will eradicate them.
In all the commotion, Bowser takes the capsule gun and then kidnaps Princess Peach and leaves
in the Marine Pop!
Mario realizes he’s got less than an hour to go and must save Luigi first, then rescue
Princess Peach afterwards.
They battle.
Mario whittles down the viruses, but, just like the game itself, it takes a long time
to clear them all.
30 Minutes are left.
Luigi has made peace with the fact that he’s about to die and wants to go out reading Manga.
Of course he Is reading Bon Bon, the magazine which featured this exact comic!
I’m not a brain specialist, but my guess is whatever Luigi is seeing or thinking will
appear as a real physical thing in his brain.
Since Bon Bon featured this story, it would only make sense that Luigi would read it and
come across the “Dr. Mario guide to victory!”
Mario uses it to his advantage.
Bowser makes a desperate move and slams into Luigi’s grey matter, trying to knock him
down and let time run out.
Peach is able to fight off Bowser a little bit.
and she steers the Marine Pop into some neural pathways and use them to bounce out of Luigi’s
head.
Bowser uses his fire breath to torch the guidebook!
Meanwhile Mario is doing his best to battle to viruses but there’s only 10 minutes left
until they take over completely.
Time is ticking down.
Mario calls out to Luigi and says its too dark and for him to think up something, anything,
to give him enough light to finish fighting.
Luigi goes back into his memories with Mario and Peach.
What he conjures up are scenes from the past, where Peach and Luigi were together.
A few are him being jealous of Mario and a few are from Super Mario Bros. 3.
At the time, that would be the last game that Mario and Luigi did together after all.
But there’s just one minute left until Luigi is finished.
Peach takes one desperate final action.
And says that if Bowser can help Luigi, she will Marry him and make him the King of the
Mushroom Kingdom.
Bowser says it’s his dream to marry Peach, but it doesn't matter.
Luigi, and Mario as well, will die in one minute anyway.
Peach says to Luigi that he was very brave and at the end of his life will make his wish
come true and gives him a kiss!
This makes the lights go on inside his brain and gives Mario a final shot at taking out
the last virus at the very last second.
With Luigi’s brain clear, the 3 mutated viruses are expelled from Luigi’s body,
as is Mario.
He somehow regains his full size with no explanation and grabs the viruses and chucks them into
Bowser’s mouth, which now infects him with the laughing virus!
This ends Chapter 3 but theres still one more part of story.
Chapter 4 is called Bowser and the one on one battle!
The mushroom Kingdom is having its annual sports day.
Luigi, naturally is in the lead in the high jump competition.
Another little nod to the physics of the games thrown in there.
Mario, who is still dressed as a doctor and Peach as a nurse, are running the first aid
booth at the festival when Bowser returns with his mutated Laughing Virus and offers
a challenge to Mario of who can clear their beaker first.
Hey!
I forgot, but Dr. Mario does have a 2 player mode!
Bowser rains down more viruses and the ones you've seen in the game are now grown to a
massive size… somehow…
Mario accepts the challenge and Bowser makes the first move.
He clears out multiple viruses in one move and that make capsule fragments appear in
Mario’s beaker.
Which we all hate to have happen when we play the game.
Oh and just as a side note, the beakers are linked together by 2 GameBoys (tm) and a Game
Link Cable (tm).
Mario is able to clear out some of his beaker, and Luigi Peach and Dr. Kuribo help out.
Bower throws some of the viruses at them, which cause them to fall ill and also change
into virus like beings themselves.
They end up swimming around in Mario’s beaker, making trouble for him.
It looks like the beaker is full of water.
I guess that makes sense because in the game, Mario throws that capsules quickly but they
descend at a slower rate.
The people of the Mushroom Kingdom join in to help out and everyone throws capsules into
the beaker.
This mimics a Japanese sports day event called Tama-ire.
The battle goes back and forth until Bowser has just one virus left to clear.
The subjects of teh mushroom kingdom launch Mario into the beaker and he uses the capsules
to connect to Peach Mario and Dr. Kuribo.
Clearing the beaker, and curing them as well.
Mario wins but Bowser is a sore loser, and orders the Giant Viruses to charge the village.
Mario takes the sports day prize, a trophy cup full of power up Mushrooms and eats all
of them.
It makes him grows to a massive size!
That actually happened in New Super Mario Bros. That’s at least 3 times now this book
as shown something that happened in later Mario games.
I wonder if Miyamoto read them and remembered these things?
Mario gives the viruses all one punch and it sends them halfway around the world and
they land in the bottom of the Ocean.
Bowser is hiding in a fireworks drum and Luigi lights it and sends Bowser away in a celebratory
explosion.
So ends Dr. Mario.
A tale of bravery, weird flashbacks, and unique product placement that never happened
in the actual games, because it's all in books!
Oh and uh, Mario and Dr. Mario, the same person!
Its settled.