Adolf

[Haibane Shadsie]

I am wondering if anyone else has read or is reading this series.

I've read the first three volumes, and I plan to buy the final two.

It was done by Osamu Tezuka, so the style is a bit old-skool cartoony, but it's more realistic looking than his other works. I found the first volume in a comic shop, read the back cover, started flipping through the first pages, and decided it looked like an intersting story.

I got hooked.

Adolf is a historical fiction drama about World War II. The story is, in the words of the narration by one of the main characters, Sohei Togei:

"This is the story of three men named Adolf. Each Adolf lived a life that was very diffrent from that of the other two...yet the three of them were bound by a single twist of fate."

One of the Adolfs is Adolf Hitler. The other two are a German-Japanese boy and a Jewish-Japanese boy. The other main character in the story is a Japanese reporter named Sohei Togei. The story spans years, from just before the war, to... I believe in the final volume, just after it. It is about the lives of Sohei Togei, Adolf Kaufman, and Adolf Kamil as they get caught up in the pursuit of documents which could dismantle the Third Reich. Sohei gets involved when his brother is murdered in Germany and he tries to find the killer, and to seek justice. The other Adolfs, who start out as childhood best friends, also get caught up in it. (One of these Adolfs is Jewish, and the other... gets forced to join a Hitler Youth School to train to be a Nazi).

It's a highly entertaining story - if you like historcial drama. It has a lot of mystery and action. There are parts of it that read... like watching a good Spielburg movie. There are some upsetting things about it, of course... it being World War II... the Nazis... well, they act like Nazis. I warned a Jewish friend of mine about reading it because I was afraid some of the scenes would make her cry. It's definitely an anti-Nazi series, it's just that... it's sad to see the Jews abused!

What I like best about this series, perhaps, is though it is written from a Japanese perspective, the story is not "Rah-rah, Go Japan!" like many American World War II stories are "Rah-rah, Go America!" Tezuka portrays the war in a way that there is pain on all sides, and in a way that is against the Japanese military goverment of the time. It's quite refreshing to see a World War II story that doesn't portray "We Good! They Evil!" like most American war epics do.

I am looking forward to finishing the series. It's very good.

[Kuroi Inu]

I rented a few volumes of Adolf from my library and I started reading vol. 1. It failed to interest me (I'll admit my attention span isn't very long) so I stopped after (in the begining of vol. 1) the detective guy "interigated" that woman before she killed her self. Or at least I think that's what happened (it's been a long time)...but yeah...that just desturbed me so I didn't contunue to find out if it got any better. I know it's an acclaimed manga so maybe I'll look into it again someday. But that's good that you enjoy it.
Seeya

[otaku]

I am and have been interested glad someone was interested maybe I will go after a copy

[Bobtheduck]

Hmm... Portrayals of Hitler as anything less than "inhuman satan incarnate" in the US will be banned and protested against. In Japan on the other hand, Urusei Yatsura had a WWII themed festival and the main characters set up a "Third Reich Coffee shop" but I doubt that would happen in the US... If that happened here, those kids would all be called anti-semites and they would be called nazis and the school would probably get in trouble, unless they were successful as qualifying themselves in the "freedom of expression" loophole, then they could get away with almost anything... Hmm... I am really interested in this anime... Just being from Tezuka makes it interesting, but I really want to see how he would handle these historical events. It would be nice to see someone from a society that doesn't create social destruction from voicing an idea in those certain untouchable areas, the unwritten restrictions on speech and press which can be more powerfull than the written restrictions in less "free" countries.

Does this portray him as a human being, albeit it disturbed and defitately wrong, or does it portray him as a 1 dimensional monster? Hmm...

Sorry for my little rant, I'm just reaching my boiling point with this politically correct crap... The Rush Limbaugh thing really put me over the top... I'm angry, and the worst thing is many people here may get angry and I won't be able to explain myself on a forum, I have to talk in person face to face to explain what I'm saying... But I don't think I'd get very many people to talk to about that in person.

[Haibane Shadsie]

I'm not much for political correctness, either. As a voter, I'm an Independant - because I don't want to be lashed down to any particular party or lumped in with anyone. There are conservative things I like, and liberal things I like, and then there are my own ideas about how things should be.

Anyway, Adolf is a manga, and I do not believe it was ever made into an anime. I think it would work well as a live action movie or series, myself, as it's very... realistic.

As for the portrayl of Hitler... it's realistic and accurate in my opinion. There are some historical discrepencies, of course - to my knowledge, the documents that the storyline revolves around never existed (though, according to real history, what they reveal, that Hitler possibly had a Jewish ancestor - was accurate. It was something that Hitler feared and increased if not fueled his hatred). I watch the History Channel a lot. ^_^.

Anyway, in the manga, Hitler is portrayed as... insane. He's a guy who's nut is cracked! In scenes where he meets with Adolf Kaufman (to reward him for high marks in the Hitler Youth, and later for his involvement in stopping a Communist spy), he acts very kind, but he talks about himself a lot. Very self-absored - which I am sure Hitler was. He talks about how he wanted to be an artist or an archetict, but that the Jews and the Communists held him down... he talks about his "love of peace" and "love for the poor"... then, without warning, something will trigger a tirade from him, where he goes off into a rant about inferior races and about how he's trying to save Germany and all that.

Basically, Hitler is portrayed as... a nutbar. I think it is very true to the real Hitler.

[ShiroiHikari]

I saw that manga in the comic store...I should grab it if it's not too expensive.

[That Dude]

I've heard about it...I want to read it but can't find it anywhere.

[Haibane Shadsie]

amazon.com

[That Dude]

Neato...