Minjie Su (dir.), Medievalism in Japanese Manga. From Vikings to Samurai, Boydell & Brewer, 2026.
This book examines how the Middle Ages is reimagined in Japanese manga and related media, from berserkr and Bushidō baseball to Arthurian knights and Valkyries.
While the modern fascination with the Middle Ages has long been observed and discussed in medieval and medievalism studies, the medium of Japanese manga has only recently begun to attract scholarly attention as a rich repertoire of (neo)medievalist imaginative worlds. Given Japan’s geographical, cultural, and historical distance from medieval Europe, this phenomenon raises several questions. What allure does the era hold for Japanese pop culture creators – and why? And in what ways are the Middle Ages reimagined to resonate with different audiences?
This volume addresses these questions through close readings of a selection of globally popular and influential manga and related media, including Vinland Saga, Berserk, ONE PIECE, Attack on Titan, and Fate. Beginning with manga inspired by Old Norse-Icelandic materials, the essays then move on to examine those incorporating medieval(ist) motifs in a broader sense and those merging medieval(ist) Europe with the so-called “medieval” Japan. In doing so, this volume not only examines how individual stories or elements from the Middle Ages are adopted and adapted within Japanese manga media, but also contextualises them within the reception history of the Middle Ages in Japan, highlighting its far-reaching impact on Japan’s perception of its own past.
The introduction and chapter 7 are available as Open Access under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Citation Practice
Introduction: Medieval, Medievalism, and Manga
Minjie Su, Maxime Danesin
1 The Translation Movement of Medieval Icelandic Literature in Post-war Japan: From Shizuka Yamamuro to the Present
Minoru Ozawa
2 Rewriting Norse Myths and Culture in Japanese Manga: The Viking’s Violence in ONE PIECE and Vinland Saga
Sayaka Matsumoto
3 War, Peace, and Performance in Jómsvíkinga saga and Vinland Saga
Þórdís Edda Jóhannesdóttir
4 Go Beyond Iceland to the End of the Edge of the World – The Genuine Adventurer Thorfinn Thorsson
Makoto Yukimura, Yao Sun (trans.)
5 The Valkyries and Fenrir in the Mangaesque Imaginationscape
Maxime Danesin
6 ‘Ymir’s Wicked Blood’: About the Uses of Nordic Medievalism in Attack on Titan
Gaïa Perreaut
7 A Berserkr in Shining Armour: Berserk Fury, Werewolf, and Mental Trauma in Kentaro Miura’s Manga Berserk
Minjie Su
8 Berserker Knight and the Problem of Anger in Fate
John Lance Griffith
9 Arthurian Legends and Gawain’s Reception in Japan
Hiroki Okamoto
10 Die Like a Warrior in Vain? The Limits of Medievalisation, Counter-gentlemanification, and the Reinscription of Bushidō Baseball in Samurai Giants
Chiharu Hasegawa
Afterword
Minjie Su
Bibliography
Index
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