Dante Shinkyoku

I despise the widely controversial author even if he helped to inspire Berserk (10/10) but every dog has it´s day and this is clearly his. Every Miura fan needs to read this one and the admittedly dry poem too as the themes are highly important to the narrative as a whole. Fans of historical and psychological publications should also take a look as Alighieri influences on literature and religion in general can´t be overstated.
Nagai´s version is very well researched and the artwork is based on the world famous Gustave Doré paintings that will look familiar to any Miura fan too. The narrative is changed and simplified in comparison to what was written in the 14th century but it works fine. The art is the highlight for once and the straightforward characters, dialogue, narrative are nothing special but this manga is about the journey and the themes and not the story. A bit of historical knowledge or an open wiki pages will help too. The hell portion is the part where Nagai unsurprisingly put most of his heart into as the later portions feel somewhat rushed but they are also recommendable. A length of 5 volumes (about a 1000 pages) would have been preferable but i can live with 3 too. A finished translation is a must in my eyes and would have liked to see an OVA based on this instead of the EA game but both were admittedly a trashy delight.
Mugen Utamaro (7/10) is his second best effort and another even less recognizable adaptation of a classic.
He should have done more of these and his third best Amon - Devilman Mokushiroku (6/10) is the only part of the Devilman (4/10) mythos i can give to others without fearing a lawsuit. Finally make sure to not touch anything else directly written by him to prevent boredom or more importantly cancer of the soul.
Please take this to heart as i only want to help and Tezuka´s deeply psychological masterpiece Hi no Tori (10/10) and his equality perfect Buddha (10/10) should be your next step on your journey of self-discovery through manga. On the manga´s "educational" value:

My review states all and the manga is way better at representing the text in a visual way then as an adaptation. The poem is a bit hard to read now but lives of its vivid prose and that aspect is straight out lost here. Some changes and streamlining also took place and the manga loses steam as it marches on but you will certainly learn a few things along the way so read it along with an audiobook of the poem.

Take this test related test to see where you end up after reading: Which circle of hell is yours? - The Test
and i posted links to Gustave Doré 11/10 paintings in the thread too.

... Last updated 8 years ago

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Yeah, it's his work

by You Say
13 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

You may know Nagai Go as the author of crazy comedies or insanely violent dramas. Just like Tezuka, Nagai was moulding "manga" as an art medium to what we read now. And exactly like Tezuka who wrote many great works for adults even Nagai created some pieces which could be called "high art".

By now you've probably guessed that Dante Shinkyoku is one of these pieces. Before reading you should know that this isn't 100% adaptation of the original (which is great, by the way).Nagai gives his own explanations for some iconic scenes, he skips some minor parts, combines two characters into one and so on. But despite all of this, Dante Shinkyoku is noteworthy manga with good plot and nice drawings. How Nagai recreates famous paintings is incredible.

One really couldn't ask for a better author who could fittingly express the terrifying sights of the hell itself.

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