esparks

エスパークス

エスパークス (Esparks, written as E/P in some stories) is the name of a long-running stationery series sold by San-X[1] from 1989 to 1995, as well as the name of a superhero appearing the stories.

The B5 size notebooks, central product of the line, was mainly composed of full-color manga by Soya Hiroshi[1] and mini-games like mazes and sugoroku inserted into the story. Other products like metal pencil cases, pencils, erasers and shitajiki also included additional stories, hints about the stories and mini-games, and alternatives for dice to be used in the games, which could be collected to see the full story.

The sweeping story of the adventures of Esparks and his sidekick, a white monkey named Kiisuke, through space and time to preserve peace on Terra, the charming characters and, most of all, the ability to read the manga while at school without technically breaking any rules made it a popular product line, spawning two video games and two "true" manga adaptations. A total of nine story arcs (sometimes referred to as 12 series, depending on the method of counting) were sold, with some that offered multiple endings.

The Esparks boom and production of the series ended abruptly, but in 2008, about 20 years after the start of the series, the staff reunited and set up an official website and staff blog[1].

Characters

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San-X
[2] http://natalie.mu/comic/artist/5752
[3] http://esparks.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ (Dead link)

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