Showa: A History of Japan, known in Japan as Comic Showa-shi (Japanese: コミック昭和史, Hepburn: Komikku Shōwa-shi, literally "A Comics History of the Showa Era"), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shigeru Mizuki. An autobiographical work, this manga describes the author's experiences growing up during the Shōwa period. The author is a veteran of the Japanese army, but his series is filled with critical views of Japanese and American militarism.[1]
Release
The manga was originally released by Kodansha as Shōwa-shi: Comic (昭和史: コミック, Shōwa-shi: Komikku) between November 1988 and December 1989.[2][3] The manga was republished as Comic Showa-shi by Kodansha from August 1, to November 4, 1994,[4][5] and a box with all the eight volumes was released on December 14, 1994.[6] An adaptation titled Kamishibai Shōwa-shi (紙芝居昭和史, lit. "A Kamishibai Story of the Showa Era") was written by Kōji Kata and published on August 19, 2004 by Iwanami Shoten.[7]
In February 2013, Drawn & Quarterly announced it would publish the manga under the title Showa: A History of Japan.[8] The company released Showa 1926-1939 in October 2013, Showa 1939-1944 in May 2014, Showa 1944-1953 in November 2014, and Showa 1953-1989 in September 2015.[9]
Reception
It received the 1989 Kodansha Manga Award for the general category.[10] In 2014 and 2016, respectively, the first edition and the fourth edition of Showa published by Drawn & Quarterly were nominated by the Harvey Awards in the category "Best American Edition of Foreign Material".[11][12] It was also nominated at the Eisner Award in the category "Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia" in 2014 for Showa 1926-1939,[13] and it won it in 2015 and 2016 for Showa 1939-1944 and Showa 1953-1989 respectively.[14][15]
Comics critic Paul Gravett elected Showa: A History of Japan the third best manga published in North America in 2014, asking "What a better way to tell an epic modern history lesson than in these multi-layered, accessible manga?"[16]
Ian Scheffler of the Los Angeles Times praised the "knack for narrative" and "ability to convey the mood of a nation" expressed by the author.[17]
