© HITOSHI IWAAKI / Kodansha

14th Manga Division Grand Prize

Historiē

IWAAKI Hitoshi

Outline

In the pre-Christian period, Eumenes grew up in the city-state of Cardia without any knowledge of his Scythian heritage. After his adoptive father was killed, Eumenes was made a slave, which marked the beginning of his long journey. HISTORIE is a historical masterpiece that tells the story of the eventful life of Eumenes, who would later become Secretary to Alexander the Great. The artist, IWAAKI Hitoshi, who startled the world with kiseiju, had cherished the idea of bringing this story into a manga long before he became a manga artist.

Reason for Award

Episodes threaded together to form epic historical accounts of rises and falls
Simply put, it is interesting and entertaining. IWAAKI succeeds in sustaining the tension. We don’t know who’s going to die and when. An yet he keeps a certain mixture of lightness and brutality. The reader is pulled into a grand and yet mysterious journey through the twists and turns of fate. The protagonist uses only his inherent instinct and what he has learned from reading. Although Japanese readers are not very familiar with the history of the Ancient Orient, HISTORIE is accessible. Historical facts are not force fed, but rather included in the details of the string of episodes.
Through all the rises and falls of dynasties and empires, we come to realize that the history we know today were formed only by those facts that were scripted. The series has covered only the very beginning. We look forward to the day HISTORIE is completed as a full account of history.