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Resident Evil The Marhawa Desire Logo

Logo from Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire

Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire (stylized as Resident Evil the marhawa desire), known as BIOHAZARD marhawa desire (バイオハザード・マルハワデザイア?) in Japan, is a manga series that was originally published in the Weekly Shōnen Champion from 2012 to 2013 as a prequel series to Resident Evil 6. The Polish company Japonica Polonica Fantastica later bought a license to translate the first tankōbon volume (the first six issues and the prequel "Episode 0"). It was later licenced to Viz Media, who translated to English and released it in North America from 2014 to 2015.[1]

Plot[]

The Marhawa Desire is set in Singapore and Tropical Forest of Asia during BSAA advisor Doug Wright's investigation of a viral outbreak at the prestigious Marhawa School. This manga marked the debut of Piers Nivans, who appears in Resident Evil 6 as Chris Redfield's new partner.

Production[]

Marhawa School map

Floorplan.

Capcom approached Akita Shoten sometime in 2011 with the idea of a Resident Evil manga which would tie-in to their upcoming Resident Evil 6 game. Unlike the various comics and manhua of the 1990s and early 2000s, which were written and published autonomously with a license to the IP, Marhawa Desire was a collaborative project owned by both parties, comparable to Resident Evil: Degeneration. In this case, Capcom was solely responsible for the scenario, while Akita Shoten was responsible for the art and publishing rights.

Resident Evil 6 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi was responsible for overseeing the project on behalf of Capcom, while Shotaro Suga wrote the script based on it.[2] Unlike long-running and popular manga such as Dragon Ball, which were published weekly from start to finish, Marhawa Desire was divided into five blocks separated by a hiatus of two months. This system in theory allowed for Capcom to monitor fan reception of one volume while developing the follow-up, as well as having time to ask for re-writes without harming the integrity of the story. In practice however, re-writes were commonplace, and by the end of Volume 2 Serizawa estimated that 20-30% of the manga so far has been redrawn,[3] increasing his estimation to 70% after completing Volume 3.[4]

Perhaps the volume most heavily altered is Volume 4, which marked a major shift in the story by making Chris Redfield the main character over Ricky Tozawa, having been a recurring secondary character until then. To mark this shift, the ending to Volume 3, "At the End of Despair", received a rewrite to include more pages only a week before its publishing date.[5] The scenario document for Volume 4 itself arrived on 8 November 2012, and within ten days was replaced with a significant re-write, which forced Serizawa to completely replace more than 15 completed pages.[6][7] Volume 5 also went through late rewrites, with a new script arriving only a week before it was to begin circulation.[8] Among the changes for this one were that Mother Gracia's surname change from Simmons to Delenikas.[9]

While developing the art for the manga, Serizawa designed a floorplan for the school in order to maintain consistency as more locations appeared over the course of the story. A completed floorplan was published on Twitter following completion of the story.[10] For characters and creatures to appear in Resident Evil 6, Serizawa was provided with concept art to work with.[11] However, because the game was still a year away from release there was a degree of discontinuity. Piers Nivans for example had a pole in concept art and the manga, but not in the finished game.[12] Lepotica concept art was provided as a basis for Nanan Yoshihara's mutant form, though changes in the game design led to the two works having radically different interpretations.[11] For the Zombies, Serizawa felt himself too inexperienced for the first few issues and exaggerated the skin fissures after spotting them in concept art; these fissures were heavily reduced from Volume 3 onwards.[13]

Volumes[]

Volume No. Image Publication date
Vol 1 Resident Evil Vol 1 The Marhawa Desire June 8, 2012 (JP)
November 18, 2014 (NA)
Vol 2 Resident Evil Vol 2 The Marhawa Desire October 5, 2012 (JP)
January 20, 2015 (NA)
February 12, 2015 (EU)
Vol 3 Resident Evil, Vol 3 The Marhawa Desire January 8, 2013(JP)
March 17, 2015 (NA)
April 9, 2015 (EU)
Vol 4 Resident Evil Vol 4 The Marhawa Desire May 8, 2013(JP)
May 19, 2015(NA)
Vol 5 Resident Evil Vol 5 The Marhawa Desire October 8, 2013(JP)
July 21, 2015 (NA)

Marhawa's Report[]

Marhawa's Report Chapter 3

A (watermarked) Chinese scanlation of a report, specifically Episode 3.

Each chapter of the Japanese tankōbon features reports on the series backstory related to dialogue mentioned in the manga. They are absent in the Viz adaptations, however.

Further notes[]

  • Following the completion of the manga, Nippon TV were interested in doing an anime adaptation. Although Akita Shoten was supportive of doing so, the project went nowhere due to disinterest on Capcom's part.[14]

Sources[]

  1. VIZ.com. Retrieved on 2014-09-15.
  2. @serizawanaoki (Jan 18, 2017). マルハワデザイアはバイオ6の脚本家さん、ヘヴンリーアイランドはリベレ1,2の脚本家さんがシナリオを書いてます。実は同じ人じゃないという。 (Japanese).
  3. @serizawanaoki (Jul 4, 2012). マルハワデザイア2巻の原稿、少年チャンピオン掲載された原稿の内、3~4割は描き直すことになりそうだ・・・2週間は作業必須な量だ・・・ (Japanese).
  4. @serizawanaoki (Oct 30, 2012). マルハワデザイア23話の作画が最悪なことに・・・(;つД`)コミックスで7割がた描き直しだ・・・ (Japanese).
  5. @serizawanaoki (Oct 26, 2012). 来週末から、マルハワデザイア3巻のデザインと原稿修正作業だな~~。今回も描き直し、追加シーンが多い・・・ (Japanese).
  6. @serizawanaoki (Nov 8, 2012). 来年一月上旬からマルハワデザイア連載再開とコミックス3巻発売です。続きのシナリオがカプコンのバイオハザード開発チームから届いたばかりなので、少々お待ちくださいm(_ _)m (Japanese).
  7. @serizawanaoki (Nov 18, 2012). マルハワデザイア、本文原稿の修正作業が終わらない・・・とりあえず追加ページ分は終わらせてあるけど・・・あと15ページくらい描き直し修正箇所がある・・・ ι(´Д`υ) (Japanese).
  8. @serizawanaoki (Jul 18, 2013). 現在、マルハワデザイア5巻の原稿修正中(バイオ開発チームからの指示)今回はそんなに無いので今週中に全部終わりそう。 (Japanese).
  9. @serizawanaoki (Nov 16, 2013). ここだけの話。実は、マルハワデザイアのマザーグラシアの初期設定では、本名がグラシア・シモンズだった。しかし最後の最後、本名が更されたので個人的に残念に思った思い出。 (Japanese).
  10. @serizawanaoki (Apr 21, 2021). バイオハザード~マルハワデザイア~の舞台、マルハワ学園の全体MAP作った強者が!
    上から見ると十字架になるように自分がデザインしたんだよなあ。
    懐かしい。
    (Japanese).
  11. 11.0 11.1 @serizawanaoki (Apr 28, 2013). マルハワデザイア3巻まではナナンの肌は表面がつるつる状態。当初レポティッツァの初期デザインしかもらえず、肌の質感分からなかったのです。4巻以降はネット上やアートワークスでバイオ6での実際のレポティッツァを見て「え?想像と全然違うじゃないか!」ってことで、かなり手直ししております。 (Japanese).
  12. @serizawanaoki (Oct 25, 2012). マルハワデザイアのピアーズの顔のホクロについて。バイオ6制作チームから最初いただいた初期デザインの絵にはうっすら描かれてあったので描いたんですけどね~・・・制作サイドから特に描き直し言われてないので、そのままにしてるわけです。 (Japanese).
  13. @serizawanaoki (Jan 11, 2013). マルハワデザイアのゾンビは1巻と3巻では若干描き方変えております。最初はゾンビ描いた事無かっので、カプコンからいただいたゾンビの資料見つつ肌にひび割れを多用してました。でも、なんかやりすぎ感を感じた為、ひび割れを3巻のゾンビにはあまり入れてません。描くの楽だからのもある(笑) (Japanese).
  14. @serizawanaoki (Dec 12, 2013). 先日、日本テレビ事業部の知り合いがサイバーエージェントがらみのアニメプロデューサー兼アドバイザーにも任命されてた・・・来年アニメ2本受け持つらしい。マルハワデザイアもアニメ化しないの?言われた。秋田書店はOK出すだろうけど、カプコンさんがOK出すか分かりませんと返答しておいたよ (Japanese).
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