is a series of manga adaptations of classic literature. Published by East Press and later Gakken, the aim of the series is to introduce average manga readers to important literary works they would otherwise not be aware of or willing to read. The series received press coverage for its publication of often controversial political treatises. East Press published best-selling versions of the communist novel Kanikōsen, Karl Marx's Das Kapital and Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Some of the books were translated and made available in other languages such as English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Manga de Dokuha was launched by East Press in an effort to expose young Japanese people to classic works of literature in a manga format. Kosuke Maruo produces each book in the series and outlines the narrative while artwork is created by Variety Art Works.[1] The books in the series were often sold through easily accessible convenience stores, including 7-Eleven. Maruo said: "We thought that maybe we could get people to read well-known works perceived as tough reads by turning them into manga and selling them at convenience stores". In July 2008, the series' first 17 entries had sold over 900,000 copies.[2] The average sales for an entry in the series were around 35,000.[1]
(published in English as The Crab Canning Ship or The Crab Ship) is a 1929 Japanese novel by Takiji Kobayashi. Written from a left-wing political perspective, the book follows the crew of a crab fishing ship living under oppressive conditions while being exploited by capitalists. The novel which typically sells around 5,000 copies a year became an unexpected bestseller in 2008 and sold over 507,000 copies that year. The same year, East Press published its own manga version of the novel which sold over 200,000 copies.[3] In response to the popularity of the communist-themed Kanikōsen manga, East Press published a manga version of Karl Marx's 1867 treatise Das Kapital. This version presents the original Marxist anti-capitalist principles via the fictionalized tale of Robin, the owner of a cheese factory who experiences guilt for exploiting his workers and betraying his father's socialist principles. Maruo stated that "I think people are looking to Marx for answers to the problems with capitalist society. Obviously, the recent global crisis suggests that the system isn't working properly". East Press's edition of Das Kapital sold 6,000 copies in its first few days of publication.[4]
The renewed success of both the novel and manga versions of Kanikōsen as well as that of the manga Das Kapital were often discussed in the context of the rising popularity of left-wing literature in Japan, the late-2000s recession affecting Japan and growing membership of the Japanese Communist Party.[3] [5] [6] According to Waseda University literature professor Hirokazu Toeda, "Kanikōsen is discussed and analyzed every time a critical social issue occurs – the disparity society, severe labor conditions, consumer product falsification, random killings. This is a unique characteristic of the Kanikōsen boom and it now is symbolizing or mirroring all those negative aspects of current day Japan".[7] Daisuke Asao, a senior office of the National Confederation of Trades Unions, said that "the situation of those labourers in the book is very similar to modern temporary workers: the unpredictable contracts, the working under heavy supervision, violence from supervisors, the widespread sexual harassment and the pressure against unionisation are all things that modern Japanese recognise every day".[5] Anti-poverty activist Kosuke Hashimoto responded to the books' popularity, saying: "I think many young people in Japan are afraid of the future, and that fear is sometimes turning to anger. Reading comics might only be the start".[6] Social welfare advocate Kaori Katada said: "Poverty has been a growing and visible problem for some time, but now people are looking for answers about why it is returning. That's why they're turning to these books".[6]
A version of Adolf Hitler's was published in October 2008. The book is Hitler's autobiography in which he outlines his Nazi political ideology. The manga version of Mein Kampf was a minor commercial success, selling 45,000 copies.[8] However, it also proved to be controversial. The Financial Ministry of Bavaria which owns the copyright to the book and has refused to publish it in Germany issued a statement saying that manga was an inappropriate medium for Hitler's writing.[8] Bavaria's former Japanese representative Toshio Obata stated: "Even 60 years after the end of war, Nazism remains a sensitive issue in Germany. Did East Press exhaust discussions before publishing it? Did it consider the difference between Japan and Germany as to how manga is viewed as a medium?"[1] Maruo defended its publication, saying "Mein Kampf is a well-known book, but relatively few people have read it. We think this will provide clues about Hitler as a human being, as to his way of thinking that led to such tragedy, even though he was dismissed as a 'monster. The publication of the manga helped reignite the debate in Germany as to whether the ban on the book should be lifted.[1]
Between November 2011 and November 2012,[9] [10] JManga made available online 14 Manga de Dokuha titles in English, namely No Longer Human, Das Kapital, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Book of Five Rings, I Am a Cat, Seton's Wild Animals, Sutta Nipata, One Thousand and One Nights, The Metamorphosis, Journey to the West, In Search of Lost Time, The Art of War and The Narrow Road to the Deep North.[11] One Peace Books also released Don Quixote, The Great Gatsby, Moby-Dick, Ulysses and The War of the Worlds as part of its "Manga Classic Readers" series on 1 September 2012.[12] Canadian company Red Quill Books physically published Das Kapital in 2012 as Capital in Manga!.[13]
The Spanish division of Verlag Herder publishes the series in the country since 2011.[14] Thus Spoke Zarathustra,[15] the Divine Comedy,[16] The Prince,[17] The Art of War,[18] The Social Contract,[19] Das Kapital,[20] the Iliad and the Odyssey (in a single book),[21] Nineteen Eighty-Four,[22] The Antichrist,[23] the Analects[24] and Tao Te Ching[25] are the eleven books published by the company.
In Brazil, Editora JBC published The Capital and King Lear in 2011.[26] Two years later, L&PM Editores published The Art of War, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.[27] Between 2013 and 2016, L&PM published the Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Metamorphosis, The Social Contract,[26] The Brothers Karamazov,[28] In Search of Lost Time,[29] and Ulysses.[30] A box containing The Brothers Karamazov, The Great Gatsby, The Metamorphosis and Thus Spoke Zarathustra was also released in 2015.[31]
| Number | Title | Original author/editor | ISBN | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD001 | No Longer Human | (new edition) | August 2007 November 2020 (new edition) | ||
| MD002 | The Broken Commandment | August 2007 | |||
| MD003 | Kokoro | (new edition) | August 2007 November 2020 (new edition) | ||
| MD004 | Crime and Punishment | October 2007 | |||
| MD005 | "Rashōmon" | October 2007 | |||
| MD006 | Kanikōsen | October 2007 | |||
| MD007 | Night on the Galactic Railroad | December 2007 | |||
| MD008 | War and Peace | December 2007 | |||
| MD009 | On Decadence and The Idiot | December 2007 | |||
| MD010 | The Brothers Karamazov | February 2008 | |||
| MD011 | The Setting Sun | Osamu Dazai | February 2008 | ||
| MD012 | The Red and the Black | April 2008 | |||
| MD013 | An Encouragement of Learning | April 2008 | |||
| MD014 | April 2008 | ||||
| MD015 | The Metamorphosis | April 2008 | |||
| MD016 | King Lear | May 2008 | |||
| MD017 | Light and Darkness | Natsume Sōseki | May 2008 | ||
| MD018 | Night Flight | July 2008 | |||
| MD019 | Faust | July 2008 | |||
| MD020 | Thus Spoke Zarathustra | July 2008 | |||
| MD021 | Divine Comedy | October 2008 | |||
| MD022 | The Prince | October 2008 | |||
| MD023 | "The Dancing Girl" | October 2008 | |||
| MD024 | Mein Kampf | November 2008 | |||
| MD025 | Dogra Magra | November 2008 | |||
| MD026 | The Possessed | December 2008 | |||
| MD027 | Das Kapital | (new edition) | December 2008 October 2020 (new edition) | ||
| MD028 | The Sickness Unto Death | February 2009 | |||
| MD029 | Les Misérables | February 2009 | |||
| MD030 | Moby-Dick | March 2009 | |||
| MD031 | The Great Gatsby | March 2009 | |||
| MD032 | The True Story of Ah Q | April 2009 | |||
| MD033 | Don Quixote | April 2009 | |||
| MD034 | Ulysses | May 2009 | |||
| MD035 | Das Kapital, Volume II | May 2009 | |||
| MD036 | In Search of Lost Time | June 2009 | |||
| MD037 | Hagakure | June 2009 | |||
| MD038 | The Origin of Species | July 2009 | |||
| MD039 | The Merchant of Venice | William Shakespeare | July 2009 | ||
| MD040 | Pandora's Box and Villon's Wife | Osamu Dazai | August 2009 | ||
| MD041 | Sorekara | Natsume Sōseki | August 2009 | ||
| MD042 | Water Margin | September 2009 | |||
| MD043 | Manifesto of the Communist Party | Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels | September 2009 | ||
| MD044 | The Sorrows of Young Werther | October 2009 | |||
| MD045 | Macbeth | William Shakespeare | October 2009 | ||
| MD046 | The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | November 2009 | |||
| MD047 | A Christmas Carol | November 2009 | |||
| MD048 | The Book of Five Rings | December 2009 | |||
| MD049 | A Fool's Life | December 2009 | |||
| MD050 | Kojiki | (new edition) | December 2009 November 2020 (new edition) | ||
| MD051 | Nihon Shoki | (new edition) | January 2010 November 2020 (new edition) | ||
| MD052 | The Tale of Genji | February 2010 | |||
| MD053 | The Life of an Amorous Man | Ihara Saikaku | February 2010 | ||
| MD054 | Analects | March 2010 | |||
| MD055 | One Thousand and One Nights | Unknown | March 2010 | ||
| MD056 | I Am a Cat | Natsume Sōseki | (new edition) | April 2010 December 2020 (new edition) | |
| MD057 | Byōshō Rokushaku | April 2010 | |||
| MD058 | The War of the Worlds | May 2010 | |||
| MD059 | The Interpretation of Dreams and Introduction to Psychoanalysis | May 2010 | |||
| MD060 | Sutta Nipata | Unknown | June 2010 | ||
| MD061 | Heart Sutra | Unknown | June 2010 | ||
| MD062 | Analects Part II | July 2010 | |||
| MD063 | The Art of War | July 2010 | |||
| MD064 | Seton's Wild Animals | August 2010 | |||
| MD065 | Souvenirs entomologiques | August 2010 | |||
| MD066 | Gespräche mit Goethe | September 2010 | |||
| MD067 | Human, All Too Human | Friedrich Nietzsche | September 2010 | ||
| MD068 | Kama Sutra | October 2010 | |||
| MD069 | Journey to the West | October 2010 | |||
| MD070 | The Antichrist | Friedrich Nietzsche | November 2010 | ||
| MD071 | Black Death Hall Murders | November 2010 | |||
| MD072 | Various | December 2010 | |||
| MD073 | Various | (new edition) | December 2010 October 2020 | ||
| MD074 | The Book of Tea | January 2011 | |||
| MD075 | Commentarii de Bello Gallico | January 2011 | |||
| MD076 | Hyakunin Isshu | Various | (new edition) | February 2011 April 2011 (new edition) | |
| MD077 | The Pillow Book | February 2011 | |||
| MD078 | Analytical psychology and Psychology of the Unconscious | March 2011 | |||
| MD079 | Tsurezuregusa | March 2011 | |||
| MD080 | The Social Contract | April 2011 | |||
| MD081 | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | April 2011 | ||
| MD082 | Discourse on the Method | May 2011 | |||
| MD083 | Records of Three Kingdoms | May 2011 | |||
| MD084 | The Narrow Road to the Deep North | June 2011 | |||
| MD085 | The Lady of the Camellias | June 2011 | |||
| MD086 | Alain on Happiness | July 2011 | |||
| MD087 | On Liberty | July 2011 | |||
| MD088 | Yotsuya Kaidan | Unknown | August 2011 | ||
| MD089 | Critique of Pure Reason | August 2011 | |||
| MD090 | Book of the Dead | Unknown | September 2011 | ||
| MD091 | On War | September 2011 | |||
| MD092 | Notes from Underground | October 2011 | |||
| MD093 | Resurrection | October 2011 | |||
| MD094 | Iliad and Odyssey | November 2011 | |||
| MD095 | Fathers and Sons | November 2011 | |||
| MD096 | Paradise Lost | December 2011 | |||
| MD097 | The Wealth of Nations | December 2011 | |||
| MD098 | The Structure of "Iki" | January 2012 | |||
| MD099 | The Chrysanthemum and the Sword | January 2012 | |||
| MD100 | Nineteen Eighty-Four | February 2012 | |||
| MD101 | A Woman's Life | February 2012 | |||
| MD102 | Constitution of Japan | Various | March 2012 | ||
| MD103 | The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci | March 2012 | |||
| MD104 | Kaitai Shinsho | April 2012 | |||
| MD105 | Tao Te Ching | April 2012 | |||
| MD106 | Anna Karenina | May 2012 | |||
| MD107 | A Young Girl's Inferno | Yumeno Kyūsaku | May 2012 | ||
| MD108 | History of Japan | June 2012 | |||
| MD109 | Meditations | June 2012 | |||
| MD110 | The Tale of the Heike | Unknown | July 2012 | ||
| MD111 | Emile, or On Education | July 2012 | |||
| MD112 | Ten Nights of Dreams | Natsume Sōseki | August 2012 | ||
| MD113 | Tsugaru | Osamu Dazai | August 2012 | ||
| MD114 | Autobiography of Heinrich Schliemann | September 2012 | |||
| MD115 | Two Years' Vacation | September 2012 | |||
| MD116 | "Lemon" | October 2012 | |||
| MD117 | Futon | November 2012 | |||
| MD118 | Yoake-mae | December 2012 | |||
| MD119 | Man'yōshū | Unknown | January 2013 | ||
| MD120 | Beneath the Wheel | February 2013 | |||
| MD121 | Science as a Vocation and Politics as a Vocation | March 2013 | |||
| MD122 | Apology | April 2013 | |||
| MD123 | A Season in Hell | May 2013 | |||
| MD124 | The Count of Monte Cristo | June 2013 | |||
| MD125 | The Sayings and Doings of Napoleon | Unknown | July 2013 | ||
| MD126 | The Legends of Tono | August 2013 | |||
| MD127 | Risshō Ankoku Ron | October 2013 | |||
| MD128 | Records of the Grand Historian | December 2013 | |||
| MD129 | An Inquiry into the Good | February 2014 | |||
| MD130 | April 2014 | ||||
| MD131 | A Study in Scarlet | July 2014 | |||
| MD132 | "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" | October 2014 | |||
| MD133 | Unknown | February 2015 | |||
| MD134 | The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money | June 2015 | |||
| MD135 | "Datsu-A Ron" | Fukuzawa Yukichi | September 2015 | ||
| MD136 | Chijin no Ai | January 2016 | |||
| MD137 | Botchan | Natsume Sōseki | August 2016 | ||
| MD138 | Caigentan | February 2017 | |||
| MD139 | Meisaku Koten Rakugo: Shibahama, Shinigami, Jugemu Hoka | Unknown | August 2017 |
| Number | Title | Original author/editor | ISBN | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MM1 | Theory of relativity | Albert Einstein | April 2015 | ||
| MM2 | An Encouragement of Learning | Fukuzawa Yukichi | April 2015 | ||
| MM3 | The Origin of Species | Charles Darwin | June 2015 | ||
| MM4 | Das Kapital | Karl Marx | June 2015 |
| Number | Title | Original author/editor | ISBN | Publication date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanikōsen | Takiji Kobayashi | September 2023 | ||
| 2 | Night on the Galactic Railroad | Kenji Miyazawa | September 2023 | ||
| 3 | Journey to the West | October 2023 | |||
| 4 | Kokoro | Natsume Sōseki | October 2023 | ||
| 5 | The Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu | December 2023 | ||
| 6 | A Christmas Carol | Charles John Huffam Dickens | December 2023 |