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One of the fun things about manga is the fact that it's produced by a culture that is quite foreign to our own. It's alien in a way, and that gives rise to some interesting takes and insight. Sometimes mangaka focus on topics quite peculiar to both their culture and our own though, such as the ones here: stories about foreign history. There's quite a few good ones, including the ones below. -----------------------------------------------  Vinland Saga Thorfinn is son to one of the Viking's greatest warriors, but when his father is killed in battle by the mercenary leader Askeladd, he swears his intent to have revenge. Young Thorfinn joins Askeladd's group in order to challenge him to a duel, and ends up caught in the middle of a war for the crown of England.    Vinland Saga is a history manga by Makoto Yukimura (Planetes) set place around the 11th century. Its mostly about the fighting between the English and the Norse, as well as period society and agriculture.  Read the series online at Mangareader Hox is scanlating the series, grab their latest releases from Hox's Website -----------------------------------------------  Historie: A historical manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki (Parasyte) that tells the life story of Eumenes of Cardia, the classic scholar and secretary/ general to Alexander the Great.  It is a very enjoyable manga which has a lot of historical content and interesting tid-bits, telling a (relatively accurate) portrayal of the life of Eumenes and Alexander. It's extremely good at capturing the period, with all it violence and ideals, beliefs and culture. Read the series online: Historie on Mangareader Hox is scanlating the series, grab their latest releases from Hox's Website -----------------------------------------------  Otoyomegatari / THE BRIDE'S STORIES Set on the Silk Road that connected Asia with Europe before the modern times. Amira, a woman skilled in archery and horsemanship, is sent to marry Karluk, a boy from another village who is 8 years younger than her. But all is not well, as her village decides to take her back...     It's a very interesting and well written about a period and area you don't see much about in fiction, let alone in manga. It's fairly realistic for the time/ area with its depiction of the culture and practices (which can often seem dissonant to our own, but that's just how it rolls!), and is often quite adorable. Buy the volumes from YenPress! They're very well done, rather large volumes in hardback. Read the rest online: Otoyomegatari on TenManga ----------------------------------------------- Victorian Romance Emma Set in Victorian London at the end of the 19th century, Emma is the story of a maid who falls in love with a member of the gentry. However, the young man's family disapproves of him associating with people of the lower classes. Read the series online: Emma on MangaFox ----------------------------------------------- Cesare Cesare is about the life of one of history's most enigmatic figures, Cesare Borgia, an aristocrat during the Renaissance Italy. The manga takes an intimate look at Cesare's life during his matriculation at the University of Pisa, at the tender age of 15, in the years preceding his appointment as a cardinal of the Holy See. Read the series online: Cesare on Mangareader ----------------------------------------------- The Rose of Versailles & Eikou no Napoleon – Eroica Blurb coming soon. Somebody fucked around with this message at Oct 30, 2011 around 17:38 |
| # ? Mar 7, 2008 04:30 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 04:21 |
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This is my current favourite manga, right alongside with Biomega. Totally hardcore stuff, pretty unflinching about how vikings were generally bastardly too. Got to go to work, but totally have more things to say about it later. Everyone should read this.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 09:33 |
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JerseyMonkey posted:Vinland Saga is set place around the 11th century. Its mostly about the fighting between the English and the Norse. The main character of the story is Thorfinn, a young skilled kid, who is very agile and handy with daggers. Please tell me I wasn't the only person who immediately thought  JAPAN!
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 09:47 |
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Heh, I was actually about to make a post on Vinland Saga myself. Go figure. For those who haven't read it yet I think Vinland Saga starts up a bit slow but is exploding into awesomeness in the current plot arc.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 09:52 |
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Petah posted:Please tell me I wasn't the only person who immediately thought It's actually played out very well. He's an assassiny type - run in, stab the guy in charge and get the gently caress out, because almost everyone else is better armed and armored. In the big setpiece battles he gets involved in, he occasionally gets his poo poo totally ruined by one hit.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 10:23 |
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Vinland Saga is totally kick arse and you should all definitely read it! How good is it? Punching a horse in the head and KILLING it good! What is love? Baby don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. No more.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 10:34 |
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Petah posted:Please tell me I wasn't the only person who immediately thought I thought so too at first, but while it does have a few japan-isms to the story, there is plenty of viking awesomeness to compensate. Askeladd and Thorkell are pretty awesome. I also didn't know it was by the author of planetes.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 11:52 |
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Settling on Askeladd as the villain's name... That guy is a goofy fairytale trickster to any Norwegian.  I'll be reading this, though.
SHAOLIN FUCKFIEND fucked around with this message at Mar 7, 2008 around 15:12 |
| # ? Mar 7, 2008 12:08 |
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 That is all.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 15:00 |
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Motorball posted:Settling on Askeladd as the villain's name... That guy is a goofy fairytale trickster to any Norwegian. That actually fits the character pretty well. He is a trickster who makes people underestimate him by his actions.
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| # ? Mar 7, 2008 23:05 |
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Just found this website: http://www.austevoll.kommune.no/vin...paul/page1.html Gives the story of Espen Askeladd. Interesting little tale.
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| # ? Mar 8, 2008 00:28 |
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Another forum member told me about this manga but this thread finally pushed me to start it. I'll be damned if I didn't just spend 4 hours being completely engrossed with the story. Can't wait to get caught up.
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| # ? Mar 8, 2008 11:19 |
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This manga really rocks. And it is fairly historically correct even though the story itself is fictional. Not a horned viking helmet or norse mega mecha in sight.
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| # ? Mar 8, 2008 13:10 |
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Regarding the recent developments with Askeladd starting in the late 30's chapters: (it's a super spoiler) I'm beginning to see him as more of an anti-hero, who might not be the 'bad guy'. The real bad guy might just be the king of the Danes, King Sweyn. Askeladd has already said that he really hates Danes on two occasions and is actually a descendant of Artorius, some kind of Welsh hero-king. Although, his willingness to order the mass murder of an entire village makes him a bit unappealing as a main character. enigma74 fucked around with this message at Mar 8, 2008 around 14:39 |
| # ? Mar 8, 2008 14:32 |
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enigma74 posted:Regarding the recent developments with Askeladd starting in the late 30's chapters: (it's a super spoiler) Well, since he is allegedly the descendant of King Artorious, he doesn't really like Anglo-Saxons all that much either. If you know your history, the Anglo-Saxons regained control of Danish-held areas of what is now north and east England (Danelaw) near the end of the 10th century. The Anglo-Saxons believed that the Danish settlers in the area were responsible for the resurgence of Viking raids in the kingdom, so many were killed in reprisal by them. This caused Sweyn to begin a campaign of taking over all of England and driving out the Anglo-Saxon monarch Ethelred II. The historical accuracy is pretty interesting. To be honest, all I ever read about during this time period was the Norman conquest, and not the Danish conflicts that happened previously.
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| # ? Mar 8, 2008 17:37 |
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Finished catching up on this manga earlier today, I do have to admit it managed to pull the kind of plot moves that I didnt exactly expect 
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| # ? Mar 8, 2008 22:12 |
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Onemanga has this up to chapter 39, is that the latest chapter release?
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 01:55 |
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Started reading now. So far, I am delighted. Wonderful artwork, historical accuracy, accurate Norwegian language. And Askeladd kicks rear end. Thorfinn is a bit bland, but I suspect he will become more interesting as his backstory is unveiled. Also, Don't make me chain you. 
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 04:11 |
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Well just flew through it, and I love it. How often are chapters released anyway? It seemed like 39 ended abruptly and man is this good.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 09:16 |
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It's serialized in a monthly magazine. Unfortunately. This is why I hate reading ongoing manga.  Oh well, it's still better than Berserk...
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 09:22 |
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Yeah, waiting for new chapters of this is gonna suck. I'm really liking the story and Askeladd's plan in general. The Prince is a character that I think has a lot of promise and I'm warming up to him. Overall, though, my favourite character is Thorkell. Besides the fact that he can sink boats and spear entire ranks from a few hundred yards away, the writers have made great use of his character with all the plot development he provides/the way he provides it.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 09:27 |
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Yeah, Thorkell is my favorite too. He's always doing something hilarious or badass (or both). The Prince is obviously Canute the Great. Should be interesting to see how that comes together.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 09:34 |
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telcontar posted:Yeah, Thorkell is my favorite too. He's always doing something hilarious or badass (or both). Wow. If Wikipedia is a reliable source, this manga seems to be sticking to the facts quite nicely. Looking up Canute, it lists Thorkell as his teacher in matters soldiery. If nothing else, I'm learning more about this time period than I ever thought I would.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 09:42 |
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More fluff on the Askeladden character and its orgins.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 11:11 |
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http://www.onemanga.com/Vinland_Saga/40/ 40 is out!
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 12:40 |
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I just read this entire series in a single setting. Holy gently caress I have not seen this much badassery in a single series since Berserk. Thank you for pointing me to this.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2008 13:34 |
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I'm mentally wrestling of 'saving' chapter 40 to read later for when I'm really bored or just caving in to the temptation. Edit: Goddamn another cliffhanger! enigma74 fucked around with this message at Mar 9, 2008 around 17:03 |
| # ? Mar 9, 2008 16:40 |
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Glad I found this on a lazy sunday where I had nothing else to do...Just spent way too much time reading from 1-30 and will probably finish to 40 tonight.
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| # ? Mar 10, 2008 01:11 |
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This series is pretty awesome. Thorkell is the very embodiment of  .
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| # ? Mar 10, 2008 23:24 |
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Thorkell's horse uppercut is one of the best things I've ever seen in a manga.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2008 15:49 |
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http://www.onemanga.com/Vinland_Saga/41/ An Avatar's weakness: Glass jaw
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| # ? Mar 12, 2008 13:38 |
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I'm very much interested in seeing how Askeladd reacts to the prince now.
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| # ? Mar 12, 2008 14:17 |
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Thanx for heads up. Seems like we're getting this issues pretty quickly. This is a monthly manga right?
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| # ? Mar 12, 2008 17:48 |
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Infinitum posted:http://www.onemanga.com/Vinland_Saga/41/  Also, Askeladden really is a goddamn scoundrel.
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| # ? Mar 12, 2008 20:01 |
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Wow, thanks for pointing me toward this. This is a really cool manga and I hope it gets animated. Hopefully not as a series for kids but as maybe a couple of movies. Blood and guts and decapitations and eyeballs intact.
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| # ? Mar 13, 2008 18:08 |
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STOP MAKING SENSE posted:Wow, thanks for pointing me toward this. This is a really cool manga and I hope it gets animated. Hopefully not as a series for kids but as maybe a couple of movies. Blood and guts and decapitations and eyeballs intact. Remember the last time a cool bloody series got animated? They called it Berserk and they hosed up the start and stopped making episodes for it.. I'd much rather this sit in obscurity for a while until it's done.
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| # ? Mar 13, 2008 20:44 |
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I want this to be animated IF they start when the series is well towards completion so it doesn't suffer from Berserk Syndrome. 
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| # ? Mar 17, 2008 16:21 |
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Infinitum posted:Remember the last time a cool bloody series got animated? They called it Berserk and they hosed up the start and stopped making episodes for it.. The berserk anime is pretty amazing and even with that terrible cliff hanger ending it still wraps in a kind of neat way, plus all the supernatural faggotry and epic non endingness of the manga wasn't highlighted by it. (I want the manga to end so the series doesn't cut off when the author dies and also I like resolution woop.)
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| # ? Mar 18, 2008 03:27 |
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Thorkell really is a great character. Or at least a much better "battle crazy" character than the ones in other manga. Plus when he crosses his axes and screams he looks like a Warcraft Troll.
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| # ? Mar 18, 2008 04:51 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 04:21 |
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I'm really torn on this manga. On the other hand there's the occasionally stupid loljapan stereotype fights, but on the other hand, gently caress YEAH VIKINGS. And i seriously can't be angry after the horse uppercut scene. Does anyone else have a feeling that we'll have some kind of a redemption scenario coming up for Thorkell? He was pretty interested with what happened to Thors to make him stop fighting. And all the "what makes a warrior" talk. Canute finally found his testicles, and seems pretty pissed at all the killing stuff. And i really, really hope Bjorn survives. 
Illegal Username fucked around with this message at Mar 18, 2008 around 10:38 |
| # ? Mar 18, 2008 10:20 |
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