''Showa: A History of Japan'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by

Shigeru Mizuki was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death. ...

. An autobiographical work, it describes the author's experiences growing up during the

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

. Mizuki served in the Japanese army, and his series is critical of Japanese and American militarism.

Release

The manga was originally released by Kodansha as between November 1988 and December 1989. The manga was republished as ''Comic Showa-shi'' by Kodansha from August 1, to November 4, 1994, and a box with all the eight volumes was released on December 14, 1994. An adaptation titled was written by Kōji Kata and published on August 19, 2004, by

Iwanami Shoten is a Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo.Louis Frédéric, ''Japan Encyclopedia'', Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 409. Iwanami Shoten was founded in 1913 by Iwanami Shigeo. Its first major publication was Natsume Sōseki's novel ''Ko ...

. In February 2013,

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

announced it would publish the manga under the title ''Showa: A History of Japan''. The company released ''Showa 1926-1939'' in October 2013, ''Showa 1939-1944'' in May 2014, ''Showa 1944-1953'' in November 2014, and ''Showa 1953-1989'' in September 2015.

Reception

It received the 1989

Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. It is currently awarded in three categories: '' shōnen'', '' shōjo'', and general. The awards began in 1977, initially w ...

for the general category. In 2014 and 2016, respectively, the first edition and the fourth edition of ''Showa'' published by Drawn & Quarterly were nominated by the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...

s in the category "Best American Edition of Foreign Material". It was also nominated at the

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...

in the category Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia in 2014 for ''Showa 1926-1939'', and it won it in 2015 and 2016 for ''Showa 1939-1944'' and ''Showa 1953-1989'' respectively. Comics critic

Paul Gravett Paul Gravett is a London-based journalist, curator, writer, and broadcaster who has worked in comics publishing since 1981. He is the founder of ''Escape Magazine'', and for many years wrote a monthly article on comics appearing in the UK magaz ...

elected ''Showa: A History of Japan'' the third best manga published in North America in 2014, asking "What a better way to tell an epic modern history lesson than in these multi-layered, accessible manga?" Ian Scheffler of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' praised the "knack for narrative" and "ability to convey the mood of a nation" expressed by the author.

References

External links

* {{Kodansha Manga Award - General Drawn & Quarterly titles Historical anime and manga Kodansha manga Seinen manga Shigeru Mizuki Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General) Autobiographical anime and manga