is a Japanese

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

whose works draw on

Old Norse literature Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian people up to c. 1350. It mainly consists of Icelandic writings. In Britain From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Vikings and Norse settlers and their descendants colon ...

and other subjects from Northern Europe.

Biography and career

In high school, start drawing manga seriously. After that, joined the same Manga Dōjin group " Sakuga Group". Azumi published her first work in 1981 and made steady contributions to Wings and other magazines in the early 80's. In 1986 she published the first part of her magnum opus, ''The Scarlet Sword'' (緋色い剣, ''Akai Tsurugi''). The work appeared in installations up to 1993, consisting of a total of 1675 pages in 10 volumes. Akai Tsurugi takes place in the 10th century Nordic world, following both mortal heroes invented by the author and the

Norse gods Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a Medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nors ...

struggling against

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (also Ragnarok; or ; ) is a foretold series of impending events, including a great battle in which numerous great Norse mythological figures will perish (including the Æsir, gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, a ...

. The author attempts to situate her story naturally within the Norse literary tradition, working with such real historical themes as the social changes brought on by the conversion of the Norse peoples to Christianity. Many of Azumi's other works explore similar subjects.

Recent works

More recent series by Azumi include the following. * A four volume series based on

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compo ...

, published 1989–1991 * A five volume series published 1992–1995 * A five volume series based on the life of

Óláfr Tryggvason Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken ( Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King ...

, published 1994–2001 * ''Manga Mutiny'', ''Manga Melech'', ''Manga Messengers'', ''Manga Majesty'' books 3-5,6 in the biblical '' Manga Messiah'' series published 2009 - 2019

References

* Halldór Stefánsson (1994). "Foreign myths and sagas in Japan: the academics and the cartoonists" in ''Beyond Boundaries: Understanding, Translation and Anthropological Discourse'', pp. 75–99, edited by Gísli Pálsson. Berg Publishers.
Azumi Ryo's manga - Akai Tsurugi

List of works
Midnight Sun
Author's homepage {{DEFAULTSORT:Azumi, Ryo Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Manga artists from Tokyo