Manga Bible (series)

This article is about five volume series from Next, Inc.. For other graphic novels with the same name, see Manga Bible.

Manga Bible
Cover of first book in the series, Manga Messiah
新約聖書 (Shinyaku Seisho)
Genre	Christian
Manga
Written by	Hidenori Kumai
Illustrated by	Kozumi Shinozawa
Published by	Next, Japan Bible Society
English publisher	Tyndale House
Original run	January 2006 – ongoing
Volumes	5 (List of volumes)
Anime and Manga Portal

Manga Bible (新約聖書, Shinyaku Seisho^?) is a five volume manga series based on the Christian Bible created under the direction of the non-profit organization Next, a group formed by people from the manga industry. Though first published in English, the books are originally written in Japanese and each volume is illustrated by a Japanese manga artist.^[1] Each book is adapted from the Bible by Hidenori Kumai. The first two books were illustrated by manga artist Kozumi Shinozawa, while the remaining three will be illustrated by a different artist. The first book in the series, Manga Messiah was published in 2006 and covered the four gospels of the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Production

The Manga Bible series is the creation of Next, a non-profit organization created in 2006 to produce and distribution biblically-based manga series for distribution in a multitude of languages worldwide. Next was formed by Roald Lidal, general director of New Life League Japan, pulling together manga publishing and printing professionals from Japan, and includes Japanese manga artists and other professionals in the manga industry.^[2][3]

Lidal created the Manga Bible series in order to "reach children who might resist traditional Bible translations and never attend a church." When he first announced his vision, it was met with some derision, with other Christians feeling the books would be insulting to the gospel.^[2] Lidal was persistent, and continued his vision to produce the five book series, with three covering the Old Testament and two covering the New Testament portions of the Christian Bible.^[2]

Each book in the series is initially written in Japanese by Christian Japanese artists, then translated to additional languages and published by regional religious publishers.^[2] Each language edition is reviewed by members of regional bible societies before publication, to ensure accurate translation.^[2]

Media

The first book of the series, Manga Messiah, was scripted by Hidenori Kumai and illustrated by Kozumi Shinozawa. Though initially written in Japanese, the English edition was published first, premiering in the United Kingdom and the Philippines in 2006.^[4][5] In North America, Tyndale House purchased the English rights for all the books in the series, publishing Manga Messiah in September 2007.^[2][6] COMIX35 acted as the English consultants for translating the Japanese editions into English.^[4][5] The Spanish language editions are being published by the American Bible Society.^[2] The Japanese language edition was published in Japan in February 2008.^[1][5]

Volume list

No.	Title	Japanese release	English release
1	Manga Messiah Kyuuseishu Jinrui o Sukui Shi Sha (救世主 人類を救いし者)	February 2008[1] ISBN 978-4-8202-4266-6	September 2007[7] ISBN 978-1-4143-1680-2
Chapter 1: The Birth of Yeshuah Chapter 2: Growth of Yeshuah Chapter 3: John the Baptizer Chapter 4: Preparation for Ministry Chapter 5: At the Wedding in Cana Chapter 6: Going to Jerusaleum Chapter 7: Return to Galilee Chapter 8: The Seashore Road Chapter 9: Messianic Miracles Chapter 10: Sermon on the Mount Chapter 11: Controversy About Beelzebub Chapter 12: Parables Chapter 13: Sending Out Twelve Disciples Chapter 14: Death of John the Baptizer Chapter 15: Lazarus Dies Chapter 16: The Entry to Jerusalem Chapter 17: Investigation of the Lamb of God Chapter 18: Judas the Betrayer Chapter 19: The Lord's Supper Chapter 20: Garden of Gethsemane Chapter 21: The Way to the Cross Chapter 22: Crucifixion Chapter 23: Resurrection and Ascension Area Map Character Profiles Twelve Apostles
2	Manga Metamorphosis Tsukawasareshi Monotachi (遣わされし者たち)	May 2008[1] ISBN 978-4-8202-4267-3	September 2008[8] ISBN 978-1-4143-1682-6
Chapter 1: Now What Do We Do? Chapter 2: Unearthly Wind And Fire Chapter 3: More Than You Asked For Chapter 4: Could These Things Be True? Chapter 5: Unity Of Five Believers Chapter 6: The Apostles' Arrest Chapter 7: Called To Serve Chapter 8: Cost To Conviction Chapter 9: Spreading Flame Chapter 10: Ancient Text Unbound Chapter 11: Blinded By The Light Chapter 12: No Outsiders, No Insiders Chapter 13: A New Messenger Chapter 14: Guardian Angels Chapter 15: Sent To The World Chapter 16: Unstoppable Good News Chapter 17: Are These The Gods? Chapter 18: The First Wave Chapter 19: Growing Pains Chapter 20: The Second Wave Chapter 21: The Apprentice Chapter 22: The Fellowship Expands Chapter 23: Power Encounter Chapter 24: Turning The World Upside Down Chapter 25: People Of The Book Chapter 26: The Unknown God Chapter 27: Good News, Great Boldness Chapter 28: Strengthening The Disciples Chapter 29: A Teachable Genius Chapter 30: The Third Wave And Beyond Chapter 31: The Dream... Or The Mission? Chapter 32: A Truth Worth Dying For Chapter 33: Gathering Clouds Chapter 34: Defending The Truth Chapter 35: Great Trials, Greater Opportunities Chapter 36: Hope In The Heart Of The Empire Letters To The Believer In Philippi Letters To The Believer In Corinth Letters To The Believer In Ephesus Letters To The Believer In Rome Character Profiles Paul's Missionary Journeys (Map) Chronology
3	Manga Mutiny	—	September 2009[9]
4	Manga Melech	—	September 2010
5	Manga Messengers	—	September 2011

Reception

Before its creation, some Christians expressed concern that the Manga Bible series format would "cheapen the gospel."^[2] The first book of the series, Manga Messiah, received mixed reviews from critics. Matthew J. Brady of the website "Manga Life" found Manga Messiah to be "a fairly authentic manga," feeling it had an authentic manga background and styling, but showing Western-influences in its use of full-color pages and greater amounts of captioning and text. As a whole, he felt the book was a faithful adaptation of the gospels, but did note that some slight liberties taken with the story would "probably bother steadfast Christians".^[10] Comixology's Jason Thompson was less impressed, heavily criticizing the art of the book, referring to it as the "most basic kind of manga shorthand—awkward geometric faces with big eyes, big hair, exaggerated expressions" with "blandly attractive" main characters, "dorky caricatures" of old RPG characters used for the villains, and crudely drawn backgrounds.^[11] Both reviewers felt the book tried to include too much information, and that the authors used Jesus' Hebrew name "Yeshuah" in an attempt to make it more palatable to non-Christian readers. They also both criticized the book's occasional odd phrasing when key dialog was rewritten using modern English.^[10]

In an editorial piece, Bruce Wilson of the The Huffington Post attacked the book, repeatedly quoting an anonymous source who sent him a copy of it, and Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates. The trio felt the manga contained extreme anti-Semitic views and was pushing for an idea of "objectifying Jews as non human".^[12] Berlet is quoting as stating that Manga Messiah is "A colorful comic training manual for motivating young leaders of the next pogrom against Jews. Not just offensive -- ghastly and horrific in content with a clear enemy scapegoat identified for venting apocalyptic religious bigotry."^[12] In a follow-up piece, Wilson himself claimed that "Manga Messiah depicts sinister, swarthy rabbis scheming with the devils and Jews laughing at and taunting Jesus as Christ is nailed to the cross. There are no "good" Jews depicted in the comic."^[13]

Christian reviewer Deirdre J. Good, of Ekklesia, rebuked the book for its removal of the tension between Jesus and his family and the removal of Judas from The Last Supper, suspecting that Japanese family values had been allowed to intrude upon the original text. She partially supports Wilson's assessment, feeling the depictions of the Pharisees were implausible and that "most depictions of Pharisees or other opponents are caricatures of unappealing people which become sterotypes [sic] by the time one has finished reading the book". As a whole, she felt it was too simplistic, even for a teenage audience.^[14]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Manga Bible series". Japan Bible Society. http://www.bible.or.jp/e/manga.html. Retrieved 2008-08-18. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Cutshall, Mark (Apr/May 2008). "Manga Messiah". Outcomes. Christian Leadership Alliance. http://www.christianleadershipalliance.com/outcomes/2008/aprmay/mangamessiah.html. 
3. ^ "About Next" (Flash). Next, Inc.. http://www.nextmanga.com/. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Kumai, Hidenori (September 2007). Manga Messiah. Shinozawa, Kozumi (illus.), Next (ed.). Tyndale House. ISBN 978-1-4143-1680-2. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} "NEXTmanga News". NEXT^{[disambiguation needed ]}. http://www.nextmanga.com/news/. Retrieved 2008-08-18. 
6. ^ Aronson, Michael (2007-09-01). "PR: Manga Messiah and Bible". http://www.mangalife.com/news/PRMANGAMESSIAHANDBIBLE.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-08. 
7. ^ "Manga Messiah". Tyndale House. http://www.tyndale.com/products/teen/details.asp?isbn=978-1-4143-1680-2&subpage=. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
8. ^ "Manga Metamorphosis". Tyndale House. http://www.tyndale.com/products/teen/details.asp?isbn=978-1-4143-1682-6&subpage=. Retrieved 2008-08-25. 
9. ^ "Manga Mutiny". Tyndale House. http://www.tyndale.com/products/teen/details.asp?isbn=978-1-4143-1681-9&subpage=. Retrieved October 16, 2009. 
10. ^ ^{a b} Brady, Matthew (2007-09-01). "Manga Messiah". Manga Life. http://www.mangalife.com/reviews/MangaMessiah.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-08. 
11. ^ Thompson, Jason (2008-03-21). "Manga Salad #4: The Manga Bible and Manga Messiah". Comixology. http://www.comixology.com/articles/40/Manga-Salad-4. Retrieved 2008-09-08. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Wilson, Bruce (2008-05-29). "Aimed at Children, Nationally Distributed Christian Comic Book Called a "Training Manual" For "The Next Pogrom Against Jews". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/targeted-at-children-nati_b_104183.html. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
13. ^ Wilson, Bruce (2008-06-12). "Bruce Wilson: Hagee Mass-Marketed Hitler's Favorite Conspiracy Theory". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/dumped-by-mccain-lionized_b_106756.html. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
14. ^ "Making Manga out of the Bible". Ekklesia. 2007-11-15. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/6254. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 

External links

• Official Next Manga Bible website
• Official Japan Bible Society Manga Bible website (Japanese)
• Official Japan Bible Society Manga Bible English website