Did you know there's a Super Mario manga? It's called:

スーパーマリオくん - "Super Mario Kun"

General Information

Volume one was released in 1991, so I picked it up second hand (中古, ちゅうこ) from BookOff! in japan for 110円 - the pages are a little yellow, but it's in mostly good condition!

Similar to the games, the manga follows Mario, Luigi and Yoshi on their journey to defeat Bowser and his monsters and save the Princess. In most of the games Mario is a silent protagonist but in the manga he, as well as the other characters, have a tonne of personality!

キコキコ Creaking sound of metal

There are a dozen short chapters in the first volume. Each one exploring encounters with a new enemy, item or scenario.

目次 (もくじ) Table of Contents

Japanese Level

The Japanese level in this manga is deceptively tough. First of all, most of the characters speak very casual and kind of rough - which is similar to the tone of anime. But I feel like most beginners learn the ます and dictionary form of verbs, which can make it a struggle with all of the contracted forms. Additionally there are so many sound effects and things happening in the background - and while manga is a great way to learn these sound effects I think it's a little overwhelming at first! My final criticism of using this as a learning tool is that sometimes the furigana is incorrect. This is a stylistic choice, to make it seem more cool and video-gamey but from a language learning perspective it might not be a good idea to learn these readings (see below photo for examples!)

新冒険開始 (ニューアドベンチャースタート incorrect) (しんぼうけんかいし correct) New Adventure Start

Entertainment

As a language learning tool I can not recommend it for beginners. However I think for fans of Mario, it's definitely worth a read just to see what life would be like if we had a more hot-headed Mario. The art style is quite nice, and the story has a lot of funny moments. I think it's really interesting to see how the power-ups are used in different ways to the games.

最強 (さいきょう) the strongest/most powerful

Verdict

So can you learn Japanese with the Super Mario Manga?

Yes you can. But I wouldn't really recommended it for that sole reason. There are much better options out there to learn and practice Japanese. But for Nintendo/Mario fans I think it could be worth picking up the first few volumes in a secondhand store if you ever come to Japan, just for your collection!