The Tale of Genji (manga)

Genji Monogatari (Japaneseあさきゆめみし, Asakiyumemishi ) is a Japanese manga illustrator Waki Yamato from 1980 to 1993. The work is an adaptation of the medieval Japanese novel Genji Monogatari, whose action he follows closely.

Content

Hikaru Genji is the second son of Emperor Kiritsubo and known for its beauty. Although he will never climb as second son to the throne, he enjoys life on the farm.

Publication

The manga was published from November 1980 to 1993 in Japan Magazine Mimi the publisher Kodansha. The chapters were later published in 13 anthologies. Moreover, appeared from 1987 to 1989, a deluxe edition in four volumes cassettes.

In German, the first three volumes were published in 1992 at Okawa Publisher, but these are out of print. An English translation was published by Kodansha under the title The Tale of Genji in a bilingual version as teaching materials for Japanese students. The manga has also been translated into other Asian languages.

Anime adaptation

An adaptation of the manga into an anime was announced in August 2008. Later it became known that the production by director Osamu Dezaki oriented more to the novel. The series is broadcast on January 15, 2009 under the title Genji Monogatari Senenki of Fuji TV in Japan.

Reception and interpretation

The work was very popular in his time in Japan, particularly among girls and is still known today. It also helped to publicize the Tale of Genji Monogatari outside Japan. Doris Croissant looks in the manga also a parody of the original work, the " a popular medium of Fine Arts transplanting the classic heroes in [ ... ] " done especially by the. The figure of Genji is an idealized image given by the unattainable beautiful youth, which again could be broken only by mangas that emerged after 2000. So by a hentai adaptation of the work of Tatsuya Egawa.

The German magazine Funime denotes the manga as a masterpiece and praised the exceptionally good German translation.