When one thinks of manga, it is quite likely that your mind will go to the fantastic such as fantasy and sci-fi. However, it is important to remember that manga is a medium like any other and can be used to tell any story. While I’ve spoken about how I think basing media on true stories is overrated, I nonetheless find myself interested in the use of manga to tell true stories (this fascination might stem from how I feel that manga based on true stories is rarer than in other media).
I should probably clarify my criteria for what a manga based on a true story is. In my research on the subject, I saw people bring up historical manga such as Vinland Saga and Kingdom. While it is true that these manga are set in the real world and follow real events, I think referring to them as “based on a true story” gives the wrong idea. Instead, my focus is going to be on manga that tell very personal stories either about the mangaka or about someone else.
Let’s start with someone who I recently discussed on YouTube. Shigeru Mizuki’s most famous work is undoubtedly GeGeGe no Kitaro, a fictional story of Yokai. However, a lesser known fact about Shigeru Mizuki is how he told much of his life via his manga. Perhaps the most popular example of this is the manga “Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths” which told his experience on the island of New Britain in World War II. His manga “Nonnonba” described how he became so fascinated with Yokai as a child and he also wrote a manga series called “Showa: A History of Japan” which saw him detail his life and experience during the Showa period of Japan.
Speaking of World War II, I would be remiss if I did not mention “Barefoot Gen” by Keiji Nakazawa. The story is based on Keiji Nakazawa’s own experience as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. While he renames himself in the manga, most of the events are true to his life including how many of his family members perished when they became trapped under the debris of his house.
Another mangaka that I would like to draw attention to is Moyoco Anno. While most famous for her magical girl series “Sugar Sugar Rune”, she has also released a semi-autobiographical manga called “Insufficient Direction” which tells the story of her marriage to the famous anime director Hideaki Anno. The manga portrays the eccentric Director-kun (Hideaki Anno) and Rompers (Moyoco Anno) as they comedically struggle with Director-kun’s obsessions and the various problems they run into in their lives.
The most recent example of a real life manga that I can think of off the top of my head is “Ichi-F” which tells the tale of the mangaka’s (Kazuto Tatsuta) time as a worker in the cleanup of the Fukushima accident. It is interesting to note that this manga was listed as one of the most reliable sources of information about the cleanup by news sources! As far as I’m concerned, this only helps to prove the value of manga to the world.
While it is fair to say that the majority of true story manga are written about the mangaka themselves, we do occasionally see mangaka cover other people. A good example of this is “The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime” which is a biography about the legendary Osamu Tezuka and was drawn by an assistant to Osamu Tezuka.
When discussing manga based on true events with people, I see a question raised again and again. “Why didn’t they just write a book?” The answer to this question is very simple. Manga is their medium of choice to express themselves. Why should they have to move to another medium to express their stories when they are already adept at the medium of manga? There is no further justification needed.
The power of the medium of manga to tell a story never fails to surprise me and I would love to see more works based on true stories find their way to the West. Let me know what your favourite manga based on a true story is and if there are any that you would like to see translated to English.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!