Anime and Manga are usually considered to be a very Japanese phenomenon but China and Korea have their own respective traditions of these art forms. In case of Chinese it is known as Manhua and in case of Korean it is known as Manhwa. My question is thus not strictly related to anything regarding Islam in China. I have met many Muslims who are big fans of Anime and Manga and yet I have never come across any Manga either by Muslim artists or with Islamic themes. Thus if anyone knows of such a resource then please let me know. If there is none then I would like say to the Muslim artists out there: “What are you people waiting for?”
Pingback: Anime Home Planet Blog » Blog Archive » Request for Feedback: Anime and Manga with Islamic Themes·
For one of the most exciting British Muslim artists, check out Asia Alfasi
Asia Alfasi
Manga cartoonist
http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2005/05/17/asia_monir_cartoon_feature.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Alfasi
As’salam’o'alaikum Musab, Jazakallah for pointing this out. Its good to see some Muslim faces in the crowd.
Salaam.
I’d like to feel like I fulfill this role, to an extent…heh, nothing Islamically-oriented yet, but I’m getting there.
http://toolkitzone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38866
Please excuse the process required to get to the comic and the cluttered format; I need to learn how to digitally edit things…
As’salam’o’alaikum Amin, That is cool. Its good to see that people are getting there.
Has Jin Yong’s first novel, The Romance of Book and Sword (or The Fragrant Princess or shū jiàn ēn chóu lù ), been adapted to manhua yet?
In Thailand’s site, http://www.burapat.com/detail_gallery.asp?name=Book%20and%20Sword
it seemed there were manhua from the novel. However, I wasn’t sure since I didn’t see (or at least recognize) any pics picturing two muslim woman ( Xiangfei and Huo Qintong ) from the novel.
If you look for more general comics, not just manhua or manga, there is islamic publisher in Indonesia, publishing Islamic-theme comics. One of my favourite was Ophir. You may see the picture in following links
http://pitra.iwebland.com/comic-color-menu.html
I believe, there are Kuwait Superhero comics titled “The 99″. They were available in Indonesia. Just googling THE 99 COMICS and you can find it.
There is Tenshi Kinryoku (Angel Sanctuary) with two reference to Islamic names – Jahannam and Jibril, but thats about it that I know of.
However, there are muslims who draws anime and manga, not necessarily in islamic themes though. They can be found in DeviantArt (but not just there) and they’re usually from Malaysia or speak malay.
These muslims also cosplay – costume play – anime characters. You can even see lotsa hijabi girls in Malaysia attending cosplay events.
“The 99″ Comic Series
Creation of Dr. Al Mutawa and a team of ex-DC/Marvel veterans.
“Members of The 99 are ordinary teenagers and adults from across the globe, who come into possession of one of the 99 mystical Noor Stones (Ahjar Al Noor, Stones of Light) and find themselves empowered in a specific manner. All dilemmas faced by The 99 will be overcome through the combined powers of three or more members. Through this, The 99 series aims to promote values such as cooperation and unity throughout the Islamic world. Although the series is not religious, it aims to communicate Islamic virtues which are, as viewed by Dr. Al-Mutawa, universal in nature.” (wiki:characters)
Official – http://www.the99.org/
Wiki entry – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_99
NY Times article – http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/international/middleeast/22comics.html
kunderemp, Thank you for pointing out these resources. As per terminology I am using the word Manga for the art form and themes usually associated with East Asian art form of this genre and comics for the Western style and art form. I would classify “The 99″ under comics.
Crabby, That was greatly helpful too. I will add this information on the main page. Its good to see that Muslims are active in this genre.
Ramy, Jazakallh, Thanks for the info!
have you been to mmanga.org? (muslim manga)
Famous, As’salam’o'alikum. That’s great. I have not seen this website before. Thanks again!
that is good
i am glad you like it
you can even sign up for their community system there
famous, ok good.
do you live in china? jw
Pingback: Muslim Manga Artist « Islam in China·
famous, not now.
@famous: what’s up with muslim manga?
han?
Salaam alaikum and ni hao!
I’m not Chinese, I’m a white American convert but two of my passions are the study of traditional Chinese martial arts and wuxia. I’ve been brainstorming an idea for a wuxia inspired story involving a young Muslim who perhaps begins his journey from the Middle East at the behest of a teacher telling him the famous hadith “seek knowledge even unto China” and over the course of travelling the Silk Road he learns many things. But it is in China where he does the most learning and achieves a certain amount of heroism. I’m not particularly gifted with prose, however, so I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a comic or graphic novel. I’m no artist, however, and if there’s anyone that might be interested in collaborating on such a project I could see it really working out.
wa’alaikum’as’salam and Ni Hao Dawud Khuluq, Welcome to the blog. Sorry for the late reply, the idea seems interesting. Hopefully someone will follow up on this insha’Allah
ASSALAMO ALAIKOM
To Dawud Khuluq , about your request or your future project
i think you should start then brothers and sisters will follow u
by sharing experiences and ideas but keep always between your eyes the kuran and sunna to help you not to make
any error ; so first do isteghara salat and ask Allah to help
you and to guide you towards is good for you.
In anime Gundam 00, you can see some character with Islamic name such as Marina Ismail. Check the Wikipedia for more information.
My sister is an amateur manga artist. I would like her to get into it a bit more and draw a bit more seriously. I told her about Asia and hope that she has found some form of inspiration.
One of the newest animes that came out this season (spring 09), Hanasakeru Seishonen, has [i]some[/i] Islamic themes, I think. Though am not entirely sure. I haven’t gotten around to watching all the episodes yet.
Salamo Alaikom
“What are you waiting for?” is certainly a good question to ask, and as a Muslim myself I’m quite dissappointed to see that we haven’t had an anime series or manga that reflects our civilization as the Japanese have done on a large scale in numerous amount of times. We certainly have the resources to do that, and the talent. If you visit just deviantart.com alone you’ll see some Muslim artistic talent. Hopefully we have the drive as artists to produce something like an anime series. It would certainly be an accomplishment and entertaining.
I myself am an anime artist with an amibition to create a story of my own and inshAllah I will find the time and resources to do it one day.
Ma Salama
Since when muslim have civilisation in China? Muslim in china are either descendant of the persian immigrants (like Hui or Uyghur)or converted ones. But they havent been part of the mainstream han chinese. Most of them look to middle east for their islamic culture.
A new entry to comics with an Islamic theme called Sufi Comics found on http://www.vakil.org
asalammulaikum
,we have lots of resource to make any anime movie/series/comic/manga complete with epic batte,good rating drawing skill,full of moral values[friendship,a man who feared god,intelligient act,happyness/equalty..etc] in our islamic history. You could pick many examples heroes to make an anime story on : umar al-khattab,khalid al-waleed,tariq bin zayid,abu ubaidah bin al-jarrah,musa bin nusair,salahuddin ayubi,muhammad al-fateh,Ikramah bin Abu Jahal,Ali bin abu talib,umar bin abdul aziz with his son abdul malik…etc
[sorry for my weak english writing]
My english isn’t good. It’s not manga but there is a funy comics magazine named cafcaf In Türkiye. Unfortunately its not English but if you want to see here is link;
http://www.cafcafdergisi.net/category/sayilar/