365 Days of Manga, Day 139: Manga Messiah

MANGA MESSIAH (Minna no Seisho Manga Series Shinyaku Seisho, “Everyone’s Bible Manga Series: The New Testament”) (みんなの聖書マンガシリーズ新約聖書) • Hidenori Kumai (adaptation), Kozumi Shinozawa & others (art) • Tyndale House (2007-ongoing) • Japan Bible Society (2008-ongoing) • Projected 5 volumes (ongoing) • Unrated/All Ages (violence)
Not to be confused with The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation by British artist Siku, or with the MangaBible series by Korean artists Jung Sun Hwang and Young Shin Lee, Manga Messiah is the first in a series of Bible adaptations by Japanese artists, coproduced by NEXT (an American Christian organization) and the Japan Bible Society. (The books were originally produced to be given away for free in Japan, but they proved more popular overseas, where manga still has a feeling of trendiness and exoticism.) Volume 1, Manga Messiah, covers the life of Jesus; volume 2, Manga Metamorphosis, covers the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles; volume 3 covers the Book of Genesis, and so on. Clearly intended to shock the Gospel into manga-loving teens (”Do you DARE to read his story…even if it may change your life FOREVER?” tempts the back cover text), the 288+ page books are thorough adaptations with continual references to scripture, although the text is rendered in slangy modern English (”Anyone who checks out another person with greedy desire…that person has already committed adultery in their heart!”). So much is included that the books at time seem like an encyclopedic rush of information, but as teaching tools, they’re effective. However, the art is crude and spiritless, a cheesy “How to Draw Manga” house style only barely propped up by the computer coloring (the books are in full color) and lots of cheap-looking cloud and lighting effects. A few stylistic “manga-isms” provide unintentional humor: demon-possessed people mumbling “Uunnghh! Urrr…urh…urr! Urr!”…Judas as an earring-wearing bishonen…and a man on his first glimpse of Jesus, blushing and his heart going “tha-thump tha-thump” as he thinks to himself “He really is the son of God!”.

Today’s winner is Tricia C. of Florida. Congratulations, Tricia!