Review: Manga Messiah From Next Ministries
By Mike Kupferer Posted on January 11 2010
What happens when you mix Japanese animation with the compelling stories found in the Gospels? You get the Manga Messiah. Manga Messiah follows the entire life of Jesus according to the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) from His birth to His resurrection. There is only one word to describe this 280 page book - fantastic. If you have students (mainly middle school) who love manga comics, then you have to get this book into their hands. Not only will they enjoy reading it, but you will be glad they are.
Manga Messiah is unlike any other graphic novel adaptation of the scriptures I have ever seen. The first thing that you notice is the quality of art and style which fills the pages. There is not one page of low quality artwork. The accounts of Jesus' life are filled with emotion and this book captures those emotions through vivid manga animation. Like all good adaptations, you will be seeing the stories in your mind's eye each time you read through the Scriptures.
Along with the artwork, another great feature is the scriptural references on each page. At the bottom of each page you will find the passages where the stories are taken from. This allows the reader the ability to read more and discover the details and aspects which cannot be put into a graphic novel. There is no easy way for a reader to find a certain passage of Scripture unless they know the chronological order of Jesus' life. Beyond that knowledge, Manga Messiah is broken down into chapters and subchapters. So if you want to look at the Lord's Supper, you can see it starts on page 232. Along with these Scripture references, you will find a few other great little additions to the pages. One addition that sneaks some education into this Manga is the insertion of cultural background information (ie. explaining what it means to fast on page 120).
As a youth minister, there are a few expectations I have for a resource that can be given out to teenagers. First, I want something that is biblically accurate - Manga Messiah is very accurate. Second, I want something that is high quality - Manga Messiah is extremely high quality. Third, I want something that is going catch their attention - Manga Messiah will not be easily put down. Fourth, I want something that will impact their life - Manga Messiah is all about Jesus and anytime you read about His life you are bound to be changed.
Who should pick up a copy of Manga Messiah? I think there are four groups of people who need to pick it up; fans of manga comics, comic book fans, middle schoolers, and youth workers.
Comments
From Pastor Carl Johnson on June 08, 2011
We may have a mutual project which could be of monumental importance.
I have operated the BELIEVE Religious Information Source web-site for 15 years. I eventually realized that most of the world could not read the English texts, so I created 12 sets of duplicate pages in various languages.
But even that cannot get through to the billions of people who are illiterate.
I have a web-site that receives around 50 million hits each year, so I have access to a lot of people.
What I want to do is create a “Bible” which is without words! Imagine seeing a sequence of drawn pictires such as this: (1) a young woman and an older man, but the woman has a halo over her head; (2) a man in the air comes down to talk with the woman, and he has wings and also a halo; (3) her pregnancy advances; (4) a picture of the woman with a baby, which also has a halo, with the man off in the distance; (5) the haloed woman carrying the baby; and (6) the man, haloed-woman and haloed young child walking down the road.
I am convinced that IF I make such a series of drawings available, people (including Missionaries) around the world could print out copies of the pictures. If an aboriginal village received such a set of drawings as a “gift”, it would be unique enough where they would certainly keep it safe, and EVERYONE in the village would look at the series of pictures. They might not learn the names Jesus or Mary, but they would KNOW the Birth Narrative!
Better still, where Islamic extremists invoke forcibly their beliefs to a village in Pakistan or Afghanistan or Bangladesh, if those villages had (treasured) copies of the series of drawings, they would LEARN each of the stories and the lessons of the Bible. No Missionary’s life would be endangered to accomplish this, but the villagers would obtain a CLEAR understanding of Christian ideas and beliefs. I do not believe that Islamic extremists could compete with that. Actually, Christian Missionaries probably could not either, without devoting years to Teach, over and over, the lessons of Christianity.
It seems to work with extremely young children, too, as even three-year-olds in the US seem to enjoy the pictures and seem to understand the story. Even though they cannot yet read or write.
A “universal Bible” for every location in the world!
Pastor Carl
A Christ Walk Church
http://mb-soft.com/believe/indexaz.html
