Shoukoku no Altair

A fantastic find among historical manga out there.

The character is not perfect, nor is he totally helpless and annoyingly weak. He can hold his own in combat, strategize, thing on multiple levels of politics, economics, culture, and yet still retain a desire for the ideal of keeping peace for his kingdom. He starts out as an extremely naive and idealistic thinker, who criticizes others who advocate war or military strength as the solution to their country's problems. However, as the manga goes on, the author lets him experience many more things. And unlike other mangas where the hero stays the same THE WHOLE TIME, this kid actually LEARNS from his mistakes and experiences, and incorporates them into wiser and more thoughtful decisions in the future. It's really easy and fulfilling to follow his progress through the chapters, and find that he is gaining more allies and revealing new talents for negotiation, business, and war.

I do always have at least one thing to criticize about manga, though, and for this one I'd have to say that it lacks a universality. Now, let me just say that to be criticized in this area means that the author is doing an awesome job. What I mean when I say that it lacks universality, is that it tends to focus pretty much only on Mahmut, our main hero, and leaves out the (undoubtedly) significant contributions the 14 other generals, 13 other Setros alliances, all the ministers and generals and sultans and.......yeah, you get the point. All those other humans in the world, you get the impression they're just sitting there twiddling their thumbs while Mahmut is out there doing all the important things in history. It would feel more realistic if more important, significant things were happening even if Mahmut wasn't present. But as I've said, to be able to create a world that lets me even consider others beside the main character is a feat in itself. Many works of manga tend to keep their worldview narrowed and focused on the main character, precisely to avoid criticisms like this one. But this author is not afraid to present a world that is real and includes more than just Mahmut and his adventures.

I look forward to seeing how this work will grow and expand, with its characters as well as the scope of its plot and political action.

I love both the art and the story. I like how this manga is set in Turkey, there aren't many, if not none. The story is well written, the plot makes it easy to read. I also enjoy reading war strategies. The art is just beautiful. It looks very nice and clean, it's comfortable to read. While there are some manga where you got to squint while reading. I love this very much, especially the characters.

The artist and assistants do an amazingly intricate job of detailing Turkish culture, from the street markets to attire to the very architecture of fortresses and castles. Character art is incredibly beautiful, and unusually shoujo-esque for a shounen manga, further differentiating it from normal shounen. Panel sizes and techniques are used very well to emphasize what's important and how the action flows.

But those are just the surface of the manga. The meat of it comes in its plot and war strategies. It's clear that a lot of thought was put into character motivations and how they respond to enemy military tactics. Characters aren't completely good or evil -- a breath of fresh air from overly simplistic shounen manga. They aren't defined purely by individual motives, but also by the interests of the country.

The manga's an excellent series for anyone looking for a more mature take on politics, character action, and art that many shounen manga simply don't offer.

the MC is some of naive who want everything ended peaceful
that's not what make this manga gone to astray, he is thoughtful of every action
and after the war for 4 sultans it more interesting development since it's go to more political way

not the strong is win, but smart
it's kind of fun, for me, to read this kind of series

and btw even it's sound middle-east and turkish environment
there's (maybe) no real religion involved
so it's come neutral in term of thatso read it with ease 😀