is a manga series written and illustrated by

Jiro Taniguchi was a Japanese manga writer/artist. His works belong to the gekiga, or "dramatic pictures", genre of manga. In France he was knighted a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. Career Taniguchi began his career as an assista ...

. Based on a 1998 novel by

Baku Yumemakura is a Japanese science fiction and adventure writer. His works have sold more than 20 million copies in Japan spread across more than 280 titles. He is published in a variety of formats including feature films, television shows, movies and comic b ...

, it follows Fukamachi, a photographer who finds a camera supposedly belonging to

George Mallory George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. Born in Cheshire, Mallory became a student at Winchester ...

, a mountaineer who went missing on

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

, and goes on a mountain-climbing adventure along with his friend Habu Joji.

Release

The manga was originally serialized in the magazine ''

Business Jump , was a Japanese seinen manga anthology published by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga of ''Business Jump'' were published under the "Young Jump Comics" line. This magazine's mascot was an anthropomorphic, Western-style mous ...

'' by

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

between May 2000 and July 2003 issues. It was collected into five ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' published between December 15, 2000, and March 20, 2003, then re-released in '' bunkoban'' between October 18, 2006, and January 18, 2007. An English-language version was licensed by British company Fanfare/Ponent Mon in 2007. On July 23, 2009, its first volume was released, and the last was released on July 31, 2015. It has also been published in French by

Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...

in 2004–2005, German by Schreiber & Leser, and Spanish by Ponent Mon.

Reception

In 2001, it was awarded a prize for excellence by the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

at the

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

, which praised its "powerful illustrations

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

seem to transport the reader right up into the mountains." Its English adaptation received a nomination for

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

for Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Series in 2010. The fourth English volume also was nominated at the 2014

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".

Adaptations

Live-action film

The manga was adapted into a live-action film, , directed by

Hideyuki Hirayama is a Japanese film director. His theatrical debut was the film ''Maria's Stomach'' in 1990. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for ''The Games Teachers Play'' in 1992. In 1995, ''School Ghost Stories'' was a big hit and made ...

and starring

Junichi Okada is an actor and a former member of Japanese boy band V6, which was under the management of Johnny & Associates. He joined Johnny & Associates at the age of 14. Music career In the summer of 1995, Okada participated in ''Johnny's Pre-School'' ...

, Hiroshi Abe and

Machiko Ono is a Japanese actress. Career Born in a rural area of Nara Prefecture, Ono was spotted by the film director Naomi Kawase cleaning out the shoe boxes at her junior high school, and cast in the lead role in Kawase's '' Suzaku'', which earned the f ...

. Distributed by

Asmik Ace Entertainment , formerly is a Japanese film production and distribution company. In the past, the company has distributed video games. It was formed in 1997 through a merger between the Asmik Corporation and Ace Entertainment, both of Japan. The name Asmik ...

and

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

, it was released on March 12, 2016, and grossed .

Animated film

In January 2015, an international co-production was announced between French Julianne Films, Belgian Walking The Dog and Luxembourg Mélusine Productions to create an animated film based on ''The Summit of the Gods''.

Éric Valli Éric Valli (born 1952, in Dijon, France) is a French photographer and film director. Valli specializes in mountain scenery and is an expert on the Himalaya Mountains. In 1999 he directed the adventure film '' Caravan'' about survival in the Hi ...

and Jean-Christophe Roger were set direct the film, with Didier Brunner as producer. In June 2020, it was announced the film would instead be directed by Patrick Imbert, with scripts by Imbert, Magali Pouzol, and Jean-Charles Ostorero, and music composed by Amine Bouhafa. In August 2021,

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

announced that it will be distributing the film to select movie theaters in the United States on November 24, 2021. It will then be followed by its streaming service debut on November 30.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Summit of the Gods, The Historical anime and manga Jiro Taniguchi Live-action films based on manga Mountaineering books Mountaineering in anime and manga Seinen manga Shueisha franchises Shueisha manga Japanese historical drama films