Altair: A Record of Battles

TL:DR Tense military action in a grounded medieval/renaissance era world with genius tactics and riveting plot backed up with art to match. If you like military fiction, then please read this masterpiece. Description For generations the Turkiye Devleti and the Balt-Rhein Empire have stood in stern opposition to each other. Then one night, when an imperial minister is found assassinated, the two nations are plunged into a potentially explosive situation. As the generals of Turkiye's council cry for war, Mahmut comes to discover the devious truth behind the assassination. Thus the young pasha's battle for his country, peace, and trust in his fellow man begins! Story: 9/10 Lots of mediatell you their characters are smart but this manga is one of the few where they're genuinely as clever as the reader is told they are. There are lots of ingenious tactics employed by both protagonists and antagonists, taking advantage of geography, politics, troop composition, weather, and any other factors you can think of, that will have you in awe at their genius. However, they're not superhuman. They still make mistakes, overlook things, are outmanoeuvred or foiled by an unexpected event. When carrying out their plans there's the anticipation of learning what they're scheming and the tension of discovering whether it succeeds or not. Often the characters will think up a way to make a comeback from the brink of defeat or trick their foe into thinking they've won only to reveal they've fallen into a trap - this means that it's always up in the air whether protagonists are actually winning or it's all about to turn around on them. The sheer ingenuity in the tactics employed is amazing while still being grounded and realistic, with characters that feel like real people rather than over dramatic cackling anime masterminds. The warfare is absolutely the manga's strongest point, which is a god-send for a military fiction manga. The politics is really interesting, there are very few true friends in this manga, with most characters only working together due to political expedience and happy to betray each other when necessary - trust is scarce and enemies are plenty. While we see the internal conflicts of numerous countries, there is naturally a focus on the internal politics of Mahmut's home nation of the Torqye Pashalu. In fact, I think the true conflict that runs throughout the manga is the conflict between the protagonist's faction and that of his rival, Zaganos. Which means that even if Mahmut scores a crushing victory against his military enemy, he's not necessarily won the true war to decide the fate of his nation. Another thing that makes this manga unique is how it portrays types of countries other than generic medieval kingdoms. Our main character, Mahmut, comes from a Turkish inspired country of equestrian nomads, other countries include a maritime merchant republic, Italian renaissance style city-states and landsknecht-like mercenaries - all facing off against roman-empire style legions, mountaineers, military engineers and, yes, medieval armoured knights are included too. By taking these concepts that are underexplored in other historical manga and integrating it into the plot, the unique blend of cultures and civilisations create a style of warfare distinctly different from other military ficton that usually focuses on medieval-era European warfare. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how all of this mixes to create some really interesting tactical decisions and schemes. The pacing of the plot is really solid. This manga is all killer, no filler and I don't feel there was a single wasted chapter. We start off with a few strong initial conflicts and then Mahmut goes on a smaller scale adventure so the reader can get to know him and experience some world building with lower stakes. Of course, the events that transpire are still very important to the future plot, crucial set up for the manga's latter half. Then we get to the slow build up to the central conflict of the manga - the fight between Torqye and the Balt-Rhein Empire - as it escalates with scheming to gain allies, neutralise enemies and fight proxy wars before the final struggle really begins. Eventually it grows into an international, transcontinental affair that builds and fractures alliances and consumes nations in an existential conflict to decide the fate of the world for centuries to come. The official translation is really good, no awkward wording of turns of phrase, it conveys the characters emotions well. I have no complaints with the translation itself but there are a few issues I must mention. Keep in mind that this might be fixed by the publisher by the time you're reading this! Firstly, there are a few has a few obvious spelling or word duplication errors dotted around. Most of these are of no consequence but a few can really take you out of the moment, the last thing you want while reading an epic battle is running into a literary brick wall trying to parse a nonsensical phrase that's clearly had words deleted. In addition, the translation of some names change at points. This thankfully doesn't affect character names, but the main country the protagonist is from changes name after the first volume and there's one relatively important organisation that has its name translated three different ways - which is confusing to say the least. Now, these issues obviously didn't impact my enjoyment of the manga too much as this glowing review clearly shows but it's disappointing to have such a great manga be let down by the translation/proofreading team like this. Characters: 7/10 While young, our protagonist Mahmut is not a child that needs to be led around the nose by other characters. He's proactive, intelligent and driven to change his nation's fate. However, as noted above, he's not perfect. He doesn't always make the best possible choice, he gets beaten and, while he makes a comeback as you'd expect, he faces real set-backs that have to be worked around and set the course of the plot. There are lots of characters and they each have their part to play, very few characters are one-and-done used and then forgotten, they always come back later and have their own ambitions and loyalties. I would say most characters in the manga go through some sort of character arc. The characters are introduced gradually for the most part, in their own arcs, so don't worry about being overwhelmed and not remembering who is who. They're pretty memorable so that's not a worry anyway. The antagonists are genuinely quite threatening, in their every appearance the reader is forced to wonder what they're plotting and how they're going to turn it around on Mahmut. As mentioned above, they are smart characters who are serious threats while feeling like real human beings who aren't always in perfect control of the situation. They also have sensible motivations that go beyond what you'd expect from the stereotypical, one-note ‘evil empire'. We also see that they're not a monolith, sometimes acting against each other, they act on their own initiative and makes their own plans and alliances and mess up our protagonist's best laid plans independent of each other. However, the characters are still the weakest point of the manga. The author is not interested in doing a deep dive into their personalities or backstory. Few characters get much depth, or strong characters arcs. I understand that his is a difficult thing to include manga with so many moving parts (characters, countries, conflicts, etc) and still keep it to a reasonable length without it feeling drawn out. As the manga is strongly driven by politics and military conflict rather than characters, I believe they're good enough that I wasn't upset by the lack of character exploration. Their backstories are, for the most part, not that important to the plot as a whole and they're ambition and skill are what matters most for this manga. So, while I was a little disappointed by how shallow some of the characters were, I don't think it's a major flaw and they work well enough that it won't affect your enjoyment of the manga. Art Good characters designs that make every one look distinct while keeping to the grounded, more realistic vibe the manga is aiming for. The backgrounds are detailed and the fight scenes, of which there are many, are beautifully illustrated. No complaints here! Overall: 9/10 If you enjoy military fiction then you need to read this! It's a real hidden gem, I didn't not expect to be so impressed when I started reading this. The start was slower than expected but I do not regret reading on, 27 volumes sounds long but I devoured this manga because I enjoyed it so much and I had to know what happened next - I was not disappointed.