This article is out of universe from Kung Fu Panda. This subject has been distinguished as part of the real world and therefore should not be taken as part of the fictional universe of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. |
The Kung Fu Panda manga is a serialized manga version of the first film. It was published by Kadokawa Shoten in the September issue of Kerokero Ace magazine on the same day the film was released in Japan. It is currently not licensed in English.
Description[]
This is a serialized manga adaptation of the American computer-animated comedy film Kung Fu Panda in the September issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Kerokero Ace magazine on Saturday. Not coincidentally, the movie opened on that day at the Japanese box office at #5. Like the film, the manga recounts the story of Po, a panda who dreams of becoming the legendary kung fu master known as the Dragon Warrior.[1]
Summary[]
The manga mainly follows the same story as the original film. A panda named Po awoke from a dream in which he had been heroically fighting alongside the Furious Five—Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane—a quintet of warriors trained in kung fu whom Po idolized.
In reality, Po was the son of a goose named Mr. Ping and worked in the family noodle shop. Though clumsy and portly, he was a kung fu fanatic who dearly hoped to become a kung fu warrior himself. However, his father was proud of their "noodle folk" heritage and wished for Po to some day run the restaurant in his place and was unaware of his son's true aspiration.
Elsewhere in the Jade Palace, the master of the Furious Five, Master Shifu, was told by Master Oogway about a premonition that Shifu's former pupil and son, the snow leopard Tai Lung, who was imprisoned after attacking the Valley of Peace, would escape from his high-security prison and return. Shifu immediately sent a palace goose named Zeng to Chorh-Gom with orders to strengthen its security and prevent Oogway's vision from coming true. Oogway relayed to Shifu that it was time to choose the legendary Dragon Warrior, one who would be worthy to receive the power of the Dragon Scroll, said to give supreme power to whoever would read it. A tournament was to be held to determine which of the Furious Five would be chosen.
Once aware of the tournament, Po became anxious to attend it, but was swayed by his father to take a noodle cart up the giant staircase to the Jade Palace arena. Desperate to see the tournament, Po tried several ways to get inside, all ending in disaster. In a final attempt, Po strapped fireworks to a chair and after declaring that he loved kung fu, the fireworks soon sparked and Po shot up into the sky. Po eventually fell down into the middle of the arena in front of Oogway, who was about to point to the Dragon Warrior. d lit them, only to be spotted by his father, who panicked seeing the stunt.
The tortoise indicated that the Dragon Warrior was, in fact, the panda who had fallen before him.
After failing to persuade Oogway that the panda couldn't possibly be the true Dragon Warrior, Shifu met Po in the Jade Palace and tried to berate and humiliate the panda, even threatening him with the Wuxi Finger Hold. The red panda later tried to pressure Po into quitting, subjecting him to the dangers of the Training Hall and a grueling series of matches with the Furious Five, all of whom (especially Tigress) thought little of him and joked about his incompetence.
That night, Po was dejected after his first day of training, and subjected himself to overeating, stuffing his mouth with peaches picked from the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom. When discovered by Master Oogway, who understood his troubles, the tortoise gave him the advice to focus on his present situation instead of worrying about the failures of the past or future.
Meanwhile, Tai Lung had escaped from his Mongolian prison, using one of the loose feathers from the very messenger goose Shifu had sent to assure the prison's security, and was able to pick the lock of the acupuncture restraint he was held in. After fighting and defeating the guards of the prison, the snow leopard grasped the messenger and told him to tell those at the Jade Palace that "the real Dragon Warrior is coming home." Anxious to have the Dragon Scroll himself, he began his return to the Valley of Peace.
Taking Oogway's advice to heart, Po had arrived early in the courtyard to practice, surprising Shifu and Five, who had been convinced he had quit. That night, Oogway exacted a promise from Shifu that the latter would believe in and train Po, and then ascended to the heavens in a swirl of flower petals, conferring his guardianship of the Valley of Peace upon Shifu.
As Po was cooking soup for the Five, Zeng arrived to tell them that Tai Lung was coming, to which Po panicked and tried to flee from the palace. Shifu refused to let him go, insisting that Po was the Dragon Warrior, but Po had lost all confidence and the red panda was at a complete loss for a solution. After witnessing this argument on the roof of the Palace, Tigress led the Furious Five in an attempt to stop Tai Lung themselves.
The next morning, Shifu discovered that Po displayed incredible and impressive agility when he was motivated by food. He therefore took Po for solitary training in the mountains and, by promising food as a reward for learning his lessons well, trained Po into becoming a skilled and capable warrior.
Meanwhile, Tigress and the other members of the Furious Five had arrived at a long rope bridge where they engaged in battle with Tai Lung, who ultimately defeated them. After a day of training, Po and Shifu discovered the injured Five that had been carried by Crane back to the palace. Feeling that Po was ready to beat Tai Lung, Shifu gave him the Dragon Scroll — which opened to reveal nothing but a blank, golden reflective surface.
Stricken with at the scroll's apparent worthlessness, Po and the Five were ordered by Shifu to evacuate the Valley while he prepared to delay Tai Lung for as long as he could, knowing this attempt would likely lead to his death. During the evacuation, Po found his father, who was busy preparing to escape. Po ruefully helped, his hopes of following his dreams dashed, but then Mr. Ping told him the long-withheld secret ingredient of the family's famous secret ingredient soup: "nothing"—except the power of conviction. Taking this in, Po then took out the Dragon Scroll; he realized that this idea applied to himself and his own destiny. He hugged Mr. Ping and set out to return to the palace and face Tai Lung.
At the palace, Tai Lung confronted Shifu and demanded the scroll, letting out his anger at being rejected from becoming the Dragon Warrior himself and blaming Shifu for not speaking up for him at the determining moment. After fighting him off and being beaten, Shifu eventually offered an apology to Tai Lung for his mistake in not seeing what he had turned him into. When Shifu refused to hand him the scroll, Tai Lung attacked and nearly killed him. After a hesitant moment, Tai Lung declared he didn't want an apology, he wanted his scroll. He continued to attack, but before Tai Lung was about to strike a blow to his former master, an exhausted Po arrived, proclaiming to be the Dragon Warrior and holding the Dragon Scroll.
Po was swiftly attacked by the leopard. Soon the two began a battle over possession of the scroll, in which Po unexpectedly proved himself an equal, which the leopard concluded could only be possible through the scroll's power. After a frustrating struggle that dragged down the palace steps and into a village of the Valley, Tai Lung gained the upper hand, pummeling Po to the ground, and finally opened the scroll only to be met with confusion, unable to comprehend its symbolic meaning.
Po then offered an explanation, interpreting that: "There is no secret ingredient... It's just you." Furious at this, Tai Lung attacked the panda again; however, Po's body-mass made Tai Lung's nerve attacks useless, only managing to tickle him. Po followed this defense with counter-attacks of devastating effectiveness, and eventually captured an exhausted Tai Lung with the Wuxi Finger Hold, claiming to have figured out the mysterious move himself. With the bending of his pinkie and the word "skadoosh", Po performed the hold, bringing about a golden, misty shockwave throughout the Valley and defeating the snow leopard.
The Furious Five soon returned to the village with the Valley's citizens, finding Po, dazed but victorious. Mr. Ping, moved by his son's brave actions, proudly declared to all that the kung fu warrior before him was his son, and he and Po embraced. Tigress, deeply impressed, then led the Furious Five in their acceptance of Po as a fellow kung fu master. Po was humbled and overjoyed, but remembered that Shifu was critically wounded, and hurried back to the palace. Po found the old red panda not moving and burst into tears. But Shifu suddenly yelled that he wasn't dying, and he told Po that he had brought peace to the Valley, and to him, and thanked him. After the two rested in a tranquil moment, Po broke the silence by asking Shifu if he wants to get something to eat, to which the red panda eventually agreed.