This is "MANGA"! This is "IWAAKI"!



Iwaaki Hitoshi is mostly known for his series Parasyte, but only recently it got the popularity that the fans sought for the series. It was by most positively received, because it offered something both for veterans and new faces regarding this medium. Be it from the ideas, to its theme exploration, to body horror, to high paced fights, but what was most important was its revival and how positively it was received overall in the industry. As such I was really looking forward to watching the series, and the most important question was if it will meet my expectations. To say it lightly, I was rather disappointed. There where many problems, which led me to be distanced to the author but curiosity got the better of me. This led me to reading his ongoing series, Historie. What really got me curious about Historie was its premise, which interested me mostly because of the involvement of The Great Alexander. However, Iwaaki wouldn’t be Iwaaki if he wouldn’t add some spice to the story with his unique ideas, that where so apparent in Parasyte. To my surprise Alexander wasn’t the primal focus of the story, or at the very least wasn’t at the moment, but rather it is about the life of the one who shall become his secretary, Eumenes.

The story starts out bizarrely with the introduction of Eumenes and many historical figures be it Antigunus, King Philip or Aristotle, who meet by chance. It was a bit off putting how it started out, but the story really starts kicking in when we get introduced to the life of our protagonist. From his childhood, to the very premise, that being the secretary of Alexander. The story moves surprisingly fast, especially when you take in account its slice of life feeling or at the very least that’s how I see this manga. Well, as mentioned the story moves fast, it has a variety of stories which are longer or shorter depending on how important the content of the arc is, however what really makes the stories move so fast might really be the combination of Iwaakis story telling abilities and his simplistic yet easy for the eye art. For that very reason his thematic use in this work is not entirely explored the way I hoped for, although you might say that it might be more of an don’t tell but show thing. On another hand the story is not really presented well. What do I mean? First it doesn’t have a sense of direction. Is the story about the life of Eumenes? Or the life of Alexander? The show doesn’t tell us what the ending point might be. Will the story end with Eumenes death? Or will it be Alexander’s? That might be one component you might take in account especially when you think about the scope of the story. Secondly the story has that absurd feeling of being way too convenient for Eumenes. It feels sometimes like a school oriented show, where the protagonist doesn’t need to do anything and something will happen anyway, but that is only a minor problem to me. On another hand I ask myself, how historically accurate this manga is. It says that History is made by winners but it is done the same way by the losers. As such a lie can have a bit of truth, and truth can be based on lies. As such historical shows have the luxury of interpretation. It can be historically accurate yet very differently presented. Such thing for me is Historie. Sadly I don’t have any knowledge regarding that time period or especially Alexander’s life, or even more so of Eumenes particular life. But I do see Iwaakis writing style being used, which leads me to the last story component I want to talk about, that being the plot twists. For one the twists in this show aren’t shocking or come out of nowhere, they seem all predictable but what I really like about them is the way it questions me. Has that really happened or is it fiction be it from Iwaaki or any other author? Which leads me to the conclusion of how awesome historical tales really are, but that certainly depend on the author and not the historical facts.

Let’s move on to the characters.

You know how Macedonia’s and Greeks tend to argue about which state Alexander’s is from? Which I found really funny, but sadly there is no real dispute to what character might become your favorite in this series, of course at the moment it would probably be Eumenes. For me the characters merits aren’t really their development, which is not really well handled by the way, but rather is the way they are characterized. Eumenes is an eccentric character, with a passion for reading. From that very trait almost his whole character is made of. It shows how a single passion may change your very life. From that point on we see his younger life, to his origin, to him using odysseys journeys as a way to look at his very own adventure, to his later days in Macedonia. However, as mentioned development in form of aging or rather getting experienced through out his aging, isn’t very well handled, or at the very least isn’t at the chapters I am currently at. His characters origin seems to don’t have a big role with his later years, and so do his initial traits change through out time, which realistically looked aren’t that important, but for me they are in such a medium. Another think I liked about him is that while clever, he isn’t the most intelligent individual in the series, despite that he is certainly portrayed as such, as he is the protagonist right, right? None the less he stays for me on a positive note. Other characters aren’t developed or presented as much as he neither is, nor is Alexander as he is currently still in his childhood, but he starts out interestingly as well. We shall see how Iwaaki will handle his character.

Moving on to the art.

When I looked at he art of Parasyte I wasn’t fond of his art style, as such other as well have mentioned how bad he is, but you grow on it. His style is very simplistic. The art quality ranges depending on what scans you read. Either they are taken from the magazine or from the tankoban volumes, or the quality changes depending on it. His panels are usually composed of primarily character movement and a lot of white space, which as mentioned is simple and easy going, maybe even bad if you are really want to call out his art, but as mentioned it somehow works with his writing style. I wasn’t really paying that much attention to his art in general as I was more focused on the story but I still want to call out one thing I particularly didn’t like, that being his portrayal of emotion. It sadly doesn’t work. I strangely feel distanced more to the characters because of the art. The reason isn’t because the characters are emotional bricks like Rey or other what was it called...maybe kuderes or the like , but how not much attention was put on the faces. Oh, and the comedic moments on the most part don’t even make me smirk.

Lastly I wanted to say, despite all the negative things I mentioned Historie still works. I readied around 70 chapters in a couple of days. It never gets really boring, but I think the fans surely are agonized how the story might move slowly when you wait every month for a chapter release.
So don’t read it all at one go and take your time with it.