The Heroic Legend of Arslan
By Tanaka Yoshi
Tanaka Yoshi was born October 22, 1952, in Hondo, Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. An interesting side note is that the city of Hondo no longer exists. It merged with its neighbors to create the city of Amakusa in 2006. Amakusa is the fastest depopulating city in Japan as the ever voracious city of Toyko seems to be pulling the entire country into it (Nothing can escape its ever-expanding event-horizon, which spews out Hawking Anime as it feeds.). Although there is hope that the emergence of teleworking in Japan will reverse the trend (This is a country that still uses couriers rather than email. That is one hell of a shift.). Dr. Tanaka graduated from Gakushuin University with a doctorate in Japanese Language and Literature. His writing career has deep roots in his childhood as according to his mother he was always writing down story ideas. Right before starting graduate school, he entered a writing contest run by the literary magazine Gen'eijou and won. Unfortunately, they called him to inform him that he won while he was attending a funeral so there was some confusion as to his muted response. Thankfully this did not spike the wheel and Mr. Tanaka would go on to write not just The Heroic Legend of Arslan but also Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Which I just…Love.), as well as translate several Chinese novels and write his own novel series Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings.
The Heroic Legend of Arslan is extremely loosely based on Persian myth, in fact, it might be more accurate to say inspired. The myth in question is mainly the epic poem called Amir Arslan-e Namdar. I have some faint knowledge of the poem and I'll just say they mostly share some names and basic ideas and that's really it. Mr. Tanaka also takes inspiration from other times in Persian history ranging from the wars with the Byzantines and the legends from the time of Cyprus the Great. Now there are several versions of the story here. First is the series of novels by Mr. Tanaka, about sixteen of them published from 1987 to 2017. There was a manga series that was released from 1991 to 1996. We're reviewing volume 1 of the 2013 series of which there have been sixteen volumes as of December 2021. But let's turn to the setting and story itself.
The nation of Pars sits on the center of the great continental highway, connecting the east and west in trade. Because of this they are a very wealthy nation and famed for their unstoppable cavalry, as well as their culture and art. There's a dark side to this wealth, as the nation of Pars economically sits atop of vast sea of slavery, slaves are called gholams. Gholams have little to no rights and are bought and sold without any say in their fates. The labor of the Gholam, as well as the wealth from trade, allows even the common folk of Pars to live well and avoid doing messy, dirty jobs (Have they dehumanized this slave caste, or is it more like mine and quarry slaves in the Roman Empire, where they are recognized as people but still treated like disposable garbage? {Does it matter? From what I can tell the gholams are doing most if not all of the manual labor and Arslan mentions that gholams eat better than many free people in other countries} Just trying to get a sense for the form of slavery.). This wealth attracts envy and mass slavery brings condemnation.
To the west lies the nation of Lusitana, which is a monotheist nation worshiping the god Yalda-Brotha. Now usually this wouldn't be a problem, one of Pars' closest allies, the nation of Maryam, also followed Yalda-Brotha. Now, this religion forbids slavery but it seems that the Lusitanians have fallen into a version of it that calls on them to kill everyone who won't convert, including fellow believers of Yalda-Brotha who won't give loyalty to their specific branch of the faith. So any brownie points for being anti-slavery are lost for you know... Being a bunch of psychopaths! (I don’t know, at this point if your enemies are slavers, and your co-religionists support the slavers despite religious prohibition… I can certainly see the impulse. But I’m the sort of person who loves hookworm for giving Confederate troops horrible anemia and lead poisoning.{Yes but killing everyone who won’t convert to your god?} Hey, it’s not perfect…)
We find this out by Arslan learning this from a child soldier of Lusitana, who is sending boys of the ripe old age of 11 to war (Yikes! We’re in full RUF territory.). That said, this child soldier is frankly amazing as the kid breaks out of captivity, takes Arslan hostage, and precedes to escape the capital city of Pars via a fantastically drawn and paced rooftop chase (Good for him!). While I'm deeply opposed to sending children to war, frankly this kid comes across as a pint-sized super-soldier. In his case, if he really wants to go to war and is this good at it, how are you gonna stop him? (Something tells me he wasn’t given a choice, and just got good at it in order to not die.) The boy wouldn't have made it except for the fact that Arslan stopped anyone from shooting him in the back as he fled the city out of a compassionate impulse.
This setup was set three years before the main plot but was well done. We learn that Arslan is a perceptive, compassionate but determined young man. He is generally well thought of by people who come into contact with him because of this. He's also a bit of a Disney Princess™ in that animals seem to like him. The hawks of another character openly prefer his company to anyone else for example (Hah!). We also see that his relationship with his parents is distant and cold. The Queen barely speaks to her son and the King doesn't even look at him when returning home from war. Dismissing his son declaring he's glad his father is safe with a snarl that there's no way he could ever lose a war (So basically, animals like him because he models his behavior on everything his parents are not. Gotcha.).
This also tells us a lot about his parents, we see that his mother, Tahamine is incredibly beautiful but remote and I would hazard very unhappy. His father Andragoras frankly comes across as a brute (so you know, there may be a good reason Tahamine is unhappy). He's a man so incredibly sure of his own strength and near invincibility that he takes any suggestion for caution as evidence of cowardice (Toxic masculinity, thy name is Andragoras.). Honestly, my thought is that men like this make bad generals and worse kings (Good king is an oxymoron, however, there are gradients of terrible.{I think a King that leaves the people of his country better than he found him can be considered a good king,} Just grades of bad.). Anyone can lose, even if they do everything right. That's just the way life is sometimes and the best generals and kings are aware of that and don't place blind trust in their own strength. Also, I don't care for people who berate their sons for worrying about their safety or don't even bother to look at them when speaking to them.
The bulk of the story has to do with the 2nd war against Lusitanians, who in a surprise assault have overrun the nation of Maryam and are now set to fall upon Pars. As the army of Pars marches to confront the invaders, strange events pile up. Generals and nobles start acting strangely. Arslan is left feeling oddly isolated, although frankly you think he'd be used to that, considering his family life. The man who seems to have spent the most time actively mentoring and supporting the boy, Vahriz, who is also the commander of the army, seems deeply concerned about something... To the point of making his nephew Daryun, swear personal fealty to Arslan and to be his bodyguard (Well at least someone cares about the boy.). This is a pretty good move since Daryun is outright terrifying. Daryun, while a thoughtful and considerate young man, can singlehandedly wipe out entire platoons of enemy soldiers (Woah that’s…impressive. {for the record folks when I say platoon, I mean a body of trained troops of roughly 30 to 40 men, I don’t just throw out words}). He's still growing in his skills and abilities, being rather young. Just the kind of fighter you want watching over a young man who might have a huge target on his back.
Arslan is going to need all the help he can get as things go from bad to worse in this story. To tell you more would be spoilers so let me just say this, this is a great introduction to an interesting world. The plot is well told and the tactics and political moves are well thought out. Much is implied but not spelled out just yet which only increases the interest in the story. While the graphic novel itself tells a self-contained story with a clear beginning, middle and end. The Heroic Legend of Arslan Volume I by Tanaka Yoshi gets an A.
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