Splatoon (manga)

Splatoon is a manga series available through the CoroCoro Comic magazines, made by Sankichi Hinodeya. It is also sold in volumes usually containing 4 chapters, a bonus story (which is sometimes replaced by an additional chapter), and an Inkling almanac. The volumes got translated to English by VIZ Media, to Spanish by Norma Editorial, to French by Soleil Manga and to German by Carlsen Manga.

Plot summary
The manga stars Goggles and his three friends: Headphones, Specs, and Bobble Hat. This manga uses the Splatoon rules and world, with action focusing on Turf Wars.

CoroCoro Cup arc
Most plots in the CoroCoro Cup arc focus primarily on the Blue Team, a team of idiotic Inklings who compete in Turf Wars. It contains eight chapters. This arc introduces Rider and Team Yellow-Green in Chapter 1, Army and Team Orange in Chapter 2, Team Green in Chapter 3, Aloha and Team Pink in Chapter 4, Mask and Team Cyan in Chapter 5, Skull and Team Purple in Chapters 5 and 7, as well as Team Yellow and Team Dark Green or "The Blaster Brothers" in bonus manga Chapters 0 and 4.5.

Square King Cup arc
Similarly to the first Splatoon era's Corocoro Cup arc, the Splatoon 2 era's Square King Cup arc focuses on the Blue Team on a tournament, specifically the Square King Cup. They take on many teams, with the biggest obstacle being Team Emperor, a team that is considered god-like. It contains thirteen chapters.

Octo arc
The Octo arc is based on the Octo Expansion. Goggles finds himself lost in the Deepsea Metro and has to find his way out alongside Eight, who is Agent 8, an Octoling with amnesia. Goggles meets up with his other teammates along the way. It contains five chapters. The first chapter of this was released in the July 2018 issue.

Square King Ranked Cup arc
The Square King Ranked Cup arc focuses on another tournament on Inkopolis Square that functions similar to the original Square King Cup with some elements retained from said arc such as Crusty Sean's shop being destroyed again but with other twists, such as Emperor joining Team Blue to replace Specs (who is unable to participate due to stings from bees), and past supporting teams returning. The newest obstacle to overcome is Team X-Blood, which consists of Rank X Inklings. Ranked Battles are to be expected instead of Turf Wars. The first chapter of this, Chapter 32, was released on 2019-02-15. It contains fourteen chapters.

Hero Mode arc
The Hero Mode arc takes place immediately after the end of the Square King Ranked Cup arc. It is based on Octo Canyon from Splatoon 2 and begins with Marie and Sheldon recruiting Goggles and Gloves as Agents 3 and 4 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon to find and collect the Zapfish. After collecting multiple Zapfish, Marie explains that Callie was kidnaped by the Octarians. Soon after, the group finds the Octarians' base but they are also met by DJ Octavio and his Octobot King 2. The first chapter of this arc is chapter 44. It contains two chapters.

The Adventures of Sheldon arc
This arc begins when Sheldon finds a treasure map and note written by his grandfather, Ammoses Shellendorf (as seen in the bonus manga "Grandpappy's note" at the end of volume 12). He quickly recruits Goggles and heads to Mount Nantai where the treasure is hidden. There, they find three guardians that test them in order to get three parts of a key to unlock the treasure. The first chapter of this arc is chapter 47. It contains four chapters.

Main characters
The main characters of the Splatoon manga are the four members of Team Blue.


 * Goggles, a C- rank male Inkling. He is the mascot of the manga. Goggles is quite naïve. In fact, it is mentioned in issue 4 that Goggles mixes toothpaste and wasabi. He sometimes never listens to anyone else except for Bobble Hat, showing that she and Goggles have a very special bond. He often pulls other Inklings' pants down, mainly to Rider, and often gets naked in public. He might not be able to hear well, which is why he sometimes ignores people.


 * Specs, a C+ rank male Inkling. Specs can be a very anxious squid but tries to hide it as best as he can. He tries to flaunt his knowledge as much as he can, but sometimes he notices nobody is listening to him, which upsets him. He is the actual leader of the Team Blue, not Goggles.


 * Headphones, a B- rank female Inkling. While acting as a big sister to the team despite them being the same age, Headphones is level-headed, except when Goggles is doing his usual idiotic things.


 * Bobble Hat, a C rank female Inkling. Bobble Hat seems to enjoy Goggles' actions. Though she and her big smile show her innocence, Bobble Hat is pretty much always happy in the face of danger. Although she is always smiling, her eyebrows are seen to be angry and annoyed when beaten by Skull.

Animated adaptation
An animated series was released on YouTube on 11 August 2017.

The series was announced by Sankichi Hinodeya, the creator of the Splatoon manga, on her Twitter account. It is in effect a colored and voiced-over version of the manga, with the occasional addition of animation in some sections. The episodes are available to be viewed on Corocoro's official Youtube channel, but are restricted to Japanense viewers.

The episodes are based on chapters 1 and 2 of the Splatoon manga.
 * Rider (Episode 1)
 * Army (Episode 2)

Trivia

 * The fan-made issue of the Splatoon manga was published in June's CoroCoro Special issue in 2015.
 * In this issue, the main protagonists made their first appearance as unnamed characters.
 * The same issue depicts the main protagonists in the outfits seen in promos of the video game.
 * The first official issue was published in December 2015's CoroCoro Special issue.
 * Furthermore, Rider and the Squid Sisters made their first appearance in this issue.
 * Some color combinations are depicted or mentioned that do not appear in Splatoon.
 * Seen
 * Blue vs. Green. This combination does not exist in the game, but there is a similarly-colored Blue vs. Lime color match.
 * Blue vs. Pink. This is supposed to be for the battle against Aloha, but there is a similarly-colored Turquoise vs. Pink match.
 * Blue vs. Cyan. This is supposed to be for the battle against Mask.
 * Blue vs. Purple. This is supposed to be for the battle against Skull.
 * Mentioned
 * Yellow-Green vs. Orange. This was mentioned in Issue 2.
 * Yellow-Green vs. Pink. This was mentioned in Issue 2.
 * Yellow-Green vs. Cyan. This was mentioned in Issue 2. This color combination is not possible to be matched in the actual game, despite the blue vs. lime color match.
 * Since the manga is published in the CoroCoro Magazine, it is child-friendly. However, there are some brief scenes of comical nudity in the comic. Furthermore, the manga is easy to read. The manga itself has a good dose of comedy and a nice representation of the Splatoon rules, world, and action.
 * There was a Japanese Splatfest on 2018-02-03 with the theme "Champion vs. Challenger", which was represented by Emperor and Goggles respectively.
 * Some characters are not named after a piece of their gear, such as Emperor, Prinz, the School Cardigan Team's members, and Team Eight.
 * For the School Cardigan Team's case, they are named after their hairstyles, plus "School" at the beginning of their names. This is also the case for two of Team Eight's members, Afro and Ponytail, although without "School".
 * Eight is named by Goggles. In Japanese, he is named Hachi, the term for "eight". Eight's nickname as Agent 8-Kun is named in the same way from his in-game counterpart, about him being identified as subject number 10,008 in his neon yellow bracelet on his wrist since he forgot his real name after losing his memory. Similarly, Seven is also named by Goggles and in Japanese, she is named Nana, which is the Japanese term for the word "Seven". After The Octo Arc, all members of Team Eight have their memories but were fond of Goggles' names, and therefore kept them.
 * It was announced on 2018-06-09 that the Spy Gear will be coming to Splatoon 2 and is also connected to the Splatoon manga's Octo Expansion arc, implying that Goggles wears this gear set.
 * Further announcement about the Spy Gear set had been revealed on 2018-07-09, with Specs, Headphones and Bobble all wearing it. It appears that their headgear will mostly be black versions of their default headgear. Also, Goggles is the only one whose shoes are not in the game yet, as Specs has Inky Kid Clams, Headphones has Punk Blacks and Bobble has Truffle Canvas Hi-Tops.
 * However, Goggles' shoes with the Spy Gear resemble the Roasted Brogues.
 * The July 2018 issue was released early on 2018-06-16 on the CoroCoro website. It was later disabled for viewing.
 * An error can be found in the Inkling Almanac of Volume 4. Team Outcasts' Choco Facemask has "Outskirt" written on her forehead instead of "Outcast". This is likely a translation error.
 * In Chapter 15 of Volume 4, when Crusty Sean shows Team Blue the shops in the Galleria, Shella Fresh and the Crust Bucket are incorrectly switched, showing that Shella Fresh sells food and the Crust Buckets sells shoes.