, literally translated as
"The Supergirl", and originally titled
Supergal in U.S. markets, is a
one shotIn the American comic book industry, the term one-shot is used to denote a pilot comic or a stand-alone story created to last as one issue. These single issues are usually labeled with a "#1" despite there being no following issues, and are sometimes subtitled as "specials"...
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
story by
Rumiko Takahashiborn October 10, 1957 is a Japanese mangaka.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent mangaka in Japan. The manga she creates are very popular in the United States and Europe where they have been released as both manga and anime in English translation...
. It ran in the October 1980
special editionThe terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...
of
Shōnen Sundayis a weekly shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan.- History :Shōnen Sunday was first published on Tuesday, March 17, 1959, the same day as its rival Shōnen Magazine...
and was later made into an
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
OVA, abbreviated , is a term originating from Japanese animation for animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats...
.
In North America, it was released on
VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
and
laserdiscThe Laserdisc is an obsolete home video disc format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Laservision, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA...
by
Central Park MediaCentral Park Media was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York that was active in the distribution of East Asian cinema, television series, anime, manga, and manwha titles in North America from its inception in 1990 to its bankruptcy in 2009...
under the "
Rumik WorldRumic World is a series of short manga stories created by Rumiko Takahashi, mostly created early in her career before Ranma ½. These tend to be comedies...
" series (which also included OVAs
Laughing Targetis an anime OVA released in Japan in 1987. It was licensed for North American release by Central Park Media, but this license has since expired. It is based on a manga story by Rumiko Takahashi, which was published in the Rumic World anthology in the U.S.-Plot:...
,
Fire Tripperis an anime OVA based on a manga story by Rumiko Takahashi. In North America, it was released on VHS by Central Park Media under the "Rumik World" series...
, and
Mermaid Forest). It was originally released under the title "Supergal", but this was changed for allegedly legal reasons.
Maris doesn't exactly have the greatest life.
, literally translated as
"The Supergirl", and originally titled
Supergal in U.S. markets, is a
one shotIn the American comic book industry, the term one-shot is used to denote a pilot comic or a stand-alone story created to last as one issue. These single issues are usually labeled with a "#1" despite there being no following issues, and are sometimes subtitled as "specials"...
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
story by
Rumiko Takahashiborn October 10, 1957 is a Japanese mangaka.Takahashi is one of the wealthiest individuals, and the most affluent mangaka in Japan. The manga she creates are very popular in the United States and Europe where they have been released as both manga and anime in English translation...
. It ran in the October 1980
special editionThe terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...
of
Shōnen Sundayis a weekly shōnen manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan.- History :Shōnen Sunday was first published on Tuesday, March 17, 1959, the same day as its rival Shōnen Magazine...
and was later made into an
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
OVA, abbreviated , is a term originating from Japanese animation for animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats...
.
In North America, it was released on
VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
and
laserdiscThe Laserdisc is an obsolete home video disc format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Laservision, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA...
by
Central Park MediaCentral Park Media was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York that was active in the distribution of East Asian cinema, television series, anime, manga, and manwha titles in North America from its inception in 1990 to its bankruptcy in 2009...
under the "
Rumik WorldRumic World is a series of short manga stories created by Rumiko Takahashi, mostly created early in her career before Ranma ½. These tend to be comedies...
" series (which also included OVAs
Laughing Targetis an anime OVA released in Japan in 1987. It was licensed for North American release by Central Park Media, but this license has since expired. It is based on a manga story by Rumiko Takahashi, which was published in the Rumic World anthology in the U.S.-Plot:...
,
Fire Tripperis an anime OVA based on a manga story by Rumiko Takahashi. In North America, it was released on VHS by Central Park Media under the "Rumik World" series...
, and
Mermaid Forest). It was originally released under the title "Supergal", but this was changed for allegedly legal reasons.
Summary
Maris doesn't exactly have the greatest life. Her father's an alcoholic, her mother's an airhead, and to top it off, she's always broke. Why? Maris is a Thanatosian, and Thanatosians have six times the strength of a normal human being. Generally, this would not be a bad thing, except that the planet Thanatos blew up years ago, and the rest of the galaxy is not set up for people who are six times as strong as everyone else. (Thanatos blowing up is similar to Krypton's fate, except that
SupermanSuperman is a fictional character, a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective Comics, Inc...
is the only survivor of Krypton, while the entire population of Thanatos escaped.)
So to keep the destruction her race does to a minimum, Thanatosians are made to wear harnesses that limit their strength. However, Maris accidentally destroys everything she touches and as all damages are docked from her wages, every mission she's assigned to by the Inter-Galactic Space Patrol takes her further in debt. * Note: Maris' obsession with money is demonstrated by her hair ornaments, in the shape of the symbol for Yen (Japanese money).
Traveling with Maris is Murphy, from a
kitsuneis the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; kitsune usually refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human...
-like race. He can create nine copies of anything he wants with his tail and is forever teasing Maris.
However, things may be looking up. Koganemaru, the son of an intergalactic billionaire has been kidnapped. This may be the chance that Maris needed to become financially independent, as she figures that he'll be so indebted to her that he might ask for her hand in her marriage.
There's just one tiny (well, large) problem. The kidnapper is Sue, an opponent of Maris from her days as a wrestler, and she's out for revenge. After causing Maris to crash, she heads back to her highly-adored base, where she meets her fellow kidnapper.
When Maris catches up again in an even more broken-down rocketship, she and Sue engage in a wrestling match to the death, made all the more difficult by Maris having a remote-controlled chip on her that prevents her from removing her harness, leaving Maris at Sue's mercy. With Murphy's help, she gets free, and destroys Sue's base.
At the end, it is revealed that Sue's fellow kidnapper is Koganemaru, who was bored and decided to try being evil. Sadly for Maris, he chooses to comfort Sue, and even proposes to her. Naturally, Maris is furious, and the story ends as she is destroying her ship, while being restrained by Murphy.
Characters
External links