It’s the history lesson you wish you had while you were at school. 16 of Japan’s most celebrated manga artists have combined forces to draw the cover art of Educational Manga World History. Published by Shueisha, this reprinted series is scheduled for release later this year on October 4th.
A Crossover for the History (and Manga) Books
If you’ve ever wondered what Winston Churchill or Adolf Hilter would look like in the style of Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo, well, wonder no more. This is just one of the many crossovers that we’ll see throughout the entire collection. Other noteworthy artists and styles that are featured here included Ramses II illustrated in the style of Yasuhisa Hara’s Kingdom and Napoleon by Hirohiko Araki of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fame.
About the Series
The Educational Manga World History series is well known amongst Japanese students for being a good source of supplementary knowledge alongside what they might be using at school. According to Shueisha, it’s designed with the flow of a textbook and is suitable for daily study and in preparation for entrance exams. Other aspects of these books that make them unique is a larger focus on human drama and emotions, which is said to help students remember key elements of history that may be otherwise dry.
The relaunch of this acclaimed series of books is in conjunction with Shueisha’s 100th Anniversary Project. This also marks the first time the books have had a revamp in the last 22 years.
Will combining the artistic finesse of manga with textbooks help keep students from dozing off at school? Or perhaps the sight of Shin-ichi Sakamoto’s rendition of Gandhi will inspire them to study harder. All we know is that these covers are incredibly cool and might even be a collector’s piece down the line. Amazon Japan currently only lists the old paperback versions of these books. Check back closer to the release date if you want to pick up your own.