Reviews for Altair: A Record of Battles

The historical genre of manga has focused (almost exclusively) on China (particularly the three kingdoms period), Japan (around the Sengoku period) and Europe up to the late renaissance (though the Japanese authors tend to insert hot springs, panties and random modern or uniquely japanese appliances into some of the more light-hearted evolutions of this genre). Shokoku no Altair departs from this traditional theatre and brings us instead to the Ottoman Empire, once the greatest power in the Mediterranean and an empire that lasted well into the 20th century. Shokoku no Altair is, at the root of it, a shounen manga, but brings afresh face to semihistorical manga through a new setting and a promising plot.

=Story (8)=

The intentionally thinly-veiled nation of Turkeye (I will not bother typing up the accents, though I assume that it is read as Turkey anyway) represents the Ottoman Empire--but not the Ottoman Empire at its peak. A stratocracy ruled by military generals, Pashas, Turkeye is faced with the threat of the growing Baltein Empire (a reference to the Ottoman Empire`s Archrival, the Austrian Holy Roman Empire of the Hapsburgs), which is aggressively expanding and escalating tensions with Turkeye. The Stratocracy is divided between the War Hawks (led by the young Pasha Zaganos Zehir) and the Doves (led by the aged Pasha Khalil Sehir). Into this is placed Mahmut Tughril (Referred to more often as Mahmut Bey), the main character and one of the youngest Pasha to ascend to the General`s Council. Demoted from the council, Mahmut Bey travels through the nations of the Mediterranean (Phoenicia, the representation of Greece, and Venedik, the representation of the thousand-year Venetian Republic), learning more about the world outside of Turkeye and the expanding might of Baltein all the way. 19 Chapters in, we`ve seen at least one war, a few battles and a lot of political maneuvering. Shokoku no Altair so far has served to be an interesting look at politics, a look into the 17th century world of the Mediterranean and a fresh look at the Middle ages from a new perspective.

=Art (6)=

Perhaps it is the quality of the scans (which in no way I blame on the translators), but the main weakness of Shokoku no Altair is the art. At many points, the mangaka seems to take exceptional care with dra wing eyes, to the point that they seem way to delicate. While I cannot say that the art is bad, it simply isn`t to my taste. Yet, there is quite a bit of attention to detail, though there are few inconsistencies (as the translator notes, the Temple to the Water Goddess in Venedik is in fact filled with Christian Imagery when Shokoku no Altair does its utmost to keep religion outside of the story. Given, this is necessary as christianity has dominated European culture for most of the time period, and this is hardly a plot hole a casual observer would notice, so it detracts little from the story), but there is nothing bad per se about the art.

=Characters (7)=

The characterization of the characters in Shokoku no Altair vary from excellent to shallow. While some characters are implied to have far more depth (there is a suggestion that the friendly Pasha Khalil is not quite the happy santa claus he makes himself out to be, and the development of Mahmut Bey continues, there are characters that seem to have been abandoned by the author, such as the Magistros of Venedik, Constantinos, whose considerable role in the second volume ends abruptly. Overall, though, the main characters are always kept in perspective, and I do look forwards to whatever else comes up.

=Enjoyment / Overall (8)=

Overall, I really like Shokoku no Altair. As a fan of historical manga and not simply the traditional Three Kingdoms / Sengoku / castle and princess manga (that, as good as some of them are, get really repetitive really fast, something Dynasty Warriors and Koei have yet to realize), Altair brought a fresh note to the genre and provides a slightly more realistic view of historical politics. Moreover, Altair is not as uniculutural as the average historical manga, with a great deal of depth put into describing the nations already visited. Though the translation is slow, I would say that Shokoku no Altair is more than well worth the read.

This story is based on actual historical facts and even some characters are based in historical figures. The art is breathtaking and the character development is very consistent and through out the story most characters have quite a large impact on the main charcter or the other way around. What I find a little bit hard to deal with in these series is the large amount of characters that come along the story. Althought most characters will catch your atention, I still find it a bit hard to remenber every single one of them. Since it's an historical manga, people tend to think that itwill tedious in every single way. Shoukoku no Altair is more than history. It's packed action, comical and dramatic scenes. The characters really catch your eye and and it's easy to take a liking to them.

I promise you that you won't be disappointed if you give a try.

(this review may be subject to edits depending on how it goes) Okay, unpopular opinion time. From what I've heard, this series was written by an actual historian, which shows. The story is in many respects an alternate history of the Hapsburg Wars (a part of history I imagine few Japanese readers are familiar with). However, whereas the Hapsburg Wars was a conflict driven by the egos of big men and was filled with acts of cruelty and bravery on both sides, this manga is just a run of the mill "Evil Empire vs Good Alliance" story, that seems to think it's a realistic takeon the way war works.

Story 5/10

If you've read (even in passing) any "Evil Empire vs Good Alliance" plot, you've probably got a good idea where this story is heading. The Empire invades the good, peaceful countries burning, pillaging and raping; the story gives some paper thin reasons why the Empire is doing it, but that's about it. The prodigy decides to save the world, by forming an alliance of the free people and destroying the Empire. There's nothing new in that regard, and the morality is completely black and white; the Turks are good and the Imperials are bad (the series sometimes goes out of its way to demonstrate the latter). Anytime it gets a chance to show some moral ambiguity (showing the Empire doing some good or the Turks doing evil), it backs out at the last second. Don't let anyone tell you its gray morality, because it's not, it's as black and white as it come. Gray morality is when both sides are shown having an equal number of vices and virtues, and there are no clear good guys AND no clear bad guys, NOT when there are somewhat flawed good guys and obvious bad guys. There is no doubt who the good guys in this story are, and the story makes it absolutely sure that's clear, but then will try and go around and claim it's a "realistic" take on war and politics.

Where the story really shines though is in its battles. Writing large battles is never easy, especially if you have to do artwork to accompany it. But these are some damn impressive pieces and seem to be what the writer was really interested in. There is a little a lot of strategy and politicking throughout the plot, and while some might find that boring, I think it does the story a great service. I will take this as a moment to note it can get a little talky at times, but I think that's just the nature of the premise.

Sidenote: Though the genre tags classifies this series as "fantasy", there really aren't any fantastical elements in it, aside from the fact that story takes place in a fictional world. Just maybe keep that in mind going in

Art 8/10

I'll freely admit, I am not a fan of the artwork style, the expressions can get a little strange and extreme at times, and I have some difficulty at times gathering a sense of space and distance in the setting. That said, it is still very good artwork, allowing for a lot of emotion, and character designs that always look distinct from each other. It not for me personally, but I'm sure plenty more will like it.

For what is worth though, this story includes some of the least Turkish looking "Turks" I've ever seen (Mahmut in particularly doesn't even looking remotely Turkish). But I think's that it's more attributable to Japanese styles and idea of beauty and handsomeness, and I suppose there's no point in complaining about it.

Character 5/10

If I'm being really honest, the only words off the top of my head I can think about for Mahmut is "prodigy" and "idealist", that's about it. He fills the role of the intelligent youth whose pondering the "why can't we all just get along" questions of the world, while the brutal reality sets in, and he matures. Not much new to him. His inner circle are essentially the inner circle that serves as his supporters, backing him up as need be. Again, nothing new. Now for me, that's not much of a problem, if not for the fact that the story doesn't let the characters grow beyond it, nor does it seem to have any fun with it.

The rest of the characters are essentially meant to be personifications of their respective factions (the militarist faction, the pacifist faction, the ambitious faction, etc.). The Imperials get some of their own multi-faceted characters, with their own dreams and hope for peace (noble ones at that), but they only exist really to be told their wrong, and killed by the heroes. If the series wanted to have some real dynamism to it's conflict, it would show the Imperial characters affecting good in the Empire, but they don't; if anything, they let the atrocities happen, and just complain about them after the fact. It's such a waste of potential, and so crassly simplifies war; yes, I know there have been cases in real life where war was like that, but that wasn't the case in the Hapsburg Wars, which this series seems to model itself after.

Enjoyment 5/10

I was never a fan of the Alliance vs. Empire story in any concept, with a few exceptions ("Avatar: TLA" or "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" come to mind); the idea of amounting war (especially ones ostensibly based in reality) to the simple matter of Good vs Evil really get's under my skin. If the story didn't try so hard to set up the good guys and the bad guys, maybe I'd enjoy it more, but it simply doesn't do that.

Now, is that the story's fault for me not enjoying it? No, I suppose not. I'm not the only person in the world, and unlike some, I don't demand everyone constantly please ME. I know other's like it, so I suppose it's in a minority.

Overall 5/10

If you don't mind the problems I presented (I'll admit, many of these problems are subjective), you might get more out of this series than I have. Not a personal favorite.

I'v read the first five volumes and found this series one that I want to keep reading but at the same time pains me to read. It's benefits are the gorgeous art and realistic yet fantastical historical fiction world its set in. Its flaws are its characters and lack of depth in exploration of topics and unrealistic characters. To illustrate the points, keeping spoilers to a minimum, in the first volume or two our Main Character who is hailed by the narrative as a prodigy and genius attains the role of (for pretension purposes) a High General who governs land, the youngest one in history.But the first thing he does is immediately forgets he has an army and runs off by himself without a word to his men (whom we never see), and after the events that caused this he is stripped of his position for not acting in accordance of his office. But were told that he was the genius prep student in his military academy, etc. why would he do something that he should have known would end in a likewise way instead of something more logical for him and his position. For me this was the first sign of logical constancy problems, which persist through all the volumes.

Several arcs latter, it's a story about war, so should be little spoiler to say that a nation becomes conquered while its ruler was waiting for reinforcements that they 'knew would show up without a doubt', that never did end up arriving. But when our main character asks said reinforcements why they didn't come to help the response was something like 'we sent the men as per the treaty, but the treaty didn't say they had to arrive', with the reinforcement army being extremely honest on their foreign policy of themselves first and everyone else second. But if they're that open about it then wouldn't everyone already know that their unreliable, and why would the conquered nation be so sure the reinforcements would arrive if their this open about their stance.

Writing aside, the places in the book are nearly historical replicas of real world locations, depicted in art and atmosphere in great detail, which bring the world to life on the page. The character designs are all distinct and memorable. The whole of the story tries to stay political focused, around a growing empire were it's young power hungry administrators want to expand, and the smaller states around it are on the brink of losing to the empires European like cultural hegemony. The empire is already too large and powerful and no one nation is strong enough to stop it- will they band together or will they fall under the weight of a superior nation? That is the question of Shoukoku no Altair.

TL:DR Tense military action in a grounded medieval/renaissance era world with genius tactics and riveting plot backed up with art to match. If you like military fiction, then please read this masterpiece. Description For generations the Turkiye Devleti and the Balt-Rhein Empire have stood in stern opposition to each other. Then one night, when an imperial minister is found assassinated, the two nations are plunged into a potentially explosive situation. As the generals of Turkiye's council cry for war, Mahmut comes to discover the devious truth behind the assassination. Thus the young pasha's battle for his country, peace, and trust in his fellow man begins! Story: 9/10 Lots of mediatell you their characters are smart but this manga is one of the few where they're genuinely as clever as the reader is told they are. There are lots of ingenious tactics employed by both protagonists and antagonists, taking advantage of geography, politics, troop composition, weather, and any other factors you can think of, that will have you in awe at their genius. However, they're not superhuman. They still make mistakes, overlook things, are outmanoeuvred or foiled by an unexpected event. When carrying out their plans there's the anticipation of learning what they're scheming and the tension of discovering whether it succeeds or not. Often the characters will think up a way to make a comeback from the brink of defeat or trick their foe into thinking they've won only to reveal they've fallen into a trap - this means that it's always up in the air whether protagonists are actually winning or it's all about to turn around on them. The sheer ingenuity in the tactics employed is amazing while still being grounded and realistic, with characters that feel like real people rather than over dramatic cackling anime masterminds. The warfare is absolutely the manga's strongest point, which is a god-send for a military fiction manga.

The politics is really interesting, there are very few true friends in this manga, with most characters only working together due to political expedience and happy to betray each other when necessary - trust is scarce and enemies are plenty. While we see the internal conflicts of numerous countries, there is naturally a focus on the internal politics of Mahmut's home nation of the Torqye Pashalu. In fact, I think the true conflict that runs throughout the manga is the conflict between the protagonist's faction and that of his rival, Zaganos. Which means that even if Mahmut scores a crushing victory against his military enemy, he's not necessarily won the true war to decide the fate of his nation.

Another thing that makes this manga unique is how it portrays types of countries other than generic medieval kingdoms. Our main character, Mahmut, comes from a Turkish inspired country of equestrian nomads, other countries include a maritime merchant republic, Italian renaissance style city-states and landsknecht-like mercenaries - all facing off against roman-empire style legions, mountaineers, military engineers and, yes, medieval armoured knights are included too. By taking these concepts that are underexplored in other historical manga and integrating it into the plot, the unique blend of cultures and civilisations create a style of warfare distinctly different from other military ficton that usually focuses on medieval-era European warfare. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how all of this mixes to create some really interesting tactical decisions and schemes.

The pacing of the plot is really solid. This manga is all killer, no filler and I don't feel there was a single wasted chapter. We start off with a few strong initial conflicts and then Mahmut goes on a smaller scale adventure so the reader can get to know him and experience some world building with lower stakes. Of course, the events that transpire are still very important to the future plot, crucial set up for the manga's latter half. Then we get to the slow build up to the central conflict of the manga - the fight between Torqye and the Balt-Rhein Empire - as it escalates with scheming to gain allies, neutralise enemies and fight proxy wars before the final struggle really begins. Eventually it grows into an international, transcontinental affair that builds and fractures alliances and consumes nations in an existential conflict to decide the fate of the world for centuries to come.

The official translation is really good, no awkward wording of turns of phrase, it conveys the characters emotions well. I have no complaints with the translation itself but there are a few issues I must mention. Keep in mind that this might be fixed by the publisher by the time you're reading this! Firstly, there are a few has a few obvious spelling or word duplication errors dotted around. Most of these are of no consequence but a few can really take you out of the moment, the last thing you want while reading an epic battle is running into a literary brick wall trying to parse a nonsensical phrase that's clearly had words deleted. In addition, the translation of some names change at points. This thankfully doesn't affect character names, but the main country the protagonist is from changes name after the first volume and there's one relatively important organisation that has its name translated three different ways - which is confusing to say the least. Now, these issues obviously didn't impact my enjoyment of the manga too much as this glowing review clearly shows but it's disappointing to have such a great manga be let down by the translation/proofreading team like this.

Characters: 7/10

While young, our protagonist Mahmut is not a child that needs to be led around the nose by other characters. He's proactive, intelligent and driven to change his nation's fate. However, as noted above, he's not perfect. He doesn't always make the best possible choice, he gets beaten and, while he makes a comeback as you'd expect, he faces real set-backs that have to be worked around and set the course of the plot.

There are lots of characters and they each have their part to play, very few characters are one-and-done used and then forgotten, they always come back later and have their own ambitions and loyalties. I would say most characters in the manga go through some sort of character arc. The characters are introduced gradually for the most part, in their own arcs, so don't worry about being overwhelmed and not remembering who is who. They're pretty memorable so that's not a worry anyway.

The antagonists are genuinely quite threatening, in their every appearance the reader is forced to wonder what they're plotting and how they're going to turn it around on Mahmut. As mentioned above, they are smart characters who are serious threats while feeling like real human beings who aren't always in perfect control of the situation. They also have sensible motivations that go beyond what you'd expect from the stereotypical, one-note ‘evil empire'. We also see that they're not a monolith, sometimes acting against each other, they act on their own initiative and makes their own plans and alliances and mess up our protagonist's best laid plans independent of each other.

However, the characters are still the weakest point of the manga. The author is not interested in doing a deep dive into their personalities or backstory. Few characters get much depth, or strong characters arcs. I understand that his is a difficult thing to include manga with so many moving parts (characters, countries, conflicts, etc) and still keep it to a reasonable length without it feeling drawn out. As the manga is strongly driven by politics and military conflict rather than characters, I believe they're good enough that I wasn't upset by the lack of character exploration. Their backstories are, for the most part, not that important to the plot as a whole and they're ambition and skill are what matters most for this manga. So, while I was a little disappointed by how shallow some of the characters were, I don't think it's a major flaw and they work well enough that it won't affect your enjoyment of the manga.

Art

Good characters designs that make every one look distinct while keeping to the grounded, more realistic vibe the manga is aiming for. The backgrounds are detailed and the fight scenes, of which there are many, are beautifully illustrated. No complaints here!

Overall: 9/10

If you enjoy military fiction then you need to read this!

It's a real hidden gem, I didn't not expect to be so impressed when I started reading this. The start was slower than expected but I do not regret reading on, 27 volumes sounds long but I devoured this manga because I enjoyed it so much and I had to know what happened next - I was not disappointed.

I watched the anime it was based it was gigachad, it has femboys and pretty stuff, underrated anime, underrated manga, watch it, then read it, 10/10, best anime ever, manga better than berserk, main character better than midren mideger or smth its pretty good manga, i would just read it for the Turkiye bcs im proud Turkish alban... o7 heres my anime review for it It is a based anime, it is very underrated for real, its animated by mappa which makes animations automaticly good, it has real gigachad voice actors like jotaro and black woman from berserk, it also has zoro from one piece (can weget much higher) what i was talkin about. Oh yea the Turkiye anime, im a Turk so i enjoyed this anime so much but its still enjoyable if ur not a Turk. It has real rizz gigachad character development and complex politics with great action scenes, cool characters, cool voice acting, based story, Turkish femboys (gahhh damn) and most importantly it has rizz main character my man mahmut so good in chess he rizzes every girl up with his Turkish lightskin stare. Unironically its a underrated good anime. 10/10 Watch it...