Shoukoku no Altair (Altair: A Record of Battles)

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: The Stratocracy of Altair, Anastasia no Shinei Taichou, Anastasia's Captain of the Guard, Rising Eagle of the General Nation

Japanese: 将国のアルタイル

More titles

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 27

Chapters: 165

Status: Finished

Published: Jul 26, 2007 to Nov 25, 2023

Genres: Action, Award Winning, Fantasy

Theme: Military

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Sirius

Authors: Katou, Kotono (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.01¹ (scored by 2,483 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #772²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1436

Members: 15,802

Favorites: 227

Available At

Kodansha USA

Official Site

Resources

Wikipedia

8.01

Ranked #772Popularity #1436Members 15,802

MangaShounen SiriusKatou, Kotono (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /27

Chapters: /165

Altair: A Record of Battles

Volume 1
$10.99

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Synopsis

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!

(Source: Kodansha)

Included one-shot:
Volume 4: Anastasia no Shinei Taichou (Anastasia's Captain of the Guard)

Edit
Background

Shoukoku no Altair won the 41st Kodansha Manga Awards in the shounen category.

The series was published digitally in English as Altair: A Record of Battles by Kodansha USA from March 21, 2017 to December 31, 2024.

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Characters

Tuğrul, Mahmut

Main

Zehir, Zağanos

Supporting

Ulema, Beyazit

Supporting

Armut, Ayşe

Supporting

Al-Kaplan, Balaban

Supporting

Şara

Supporting

Kurt Kurt

Supporting

Kara Kanat, Süleyman

Supporting

γιός Apollodorus, Cyrus

Supporting

Şehir, Halil

Supporting

Reviews

Oct 27, 2025

darkpixelftw

Recommended

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 media ...

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Apr 11, 2023

MertEren

Recommended

Preliminary (3/165 eps)

I watched the anime it was based it was gigachad, it has femboys and pretty stuff, underrated anime, underrated manga, watch it, then read it, 10/10, best anime ever, manga better than berserk, main character better than midren mideger or smth its pretty good manga, i would just read it for the Turkiye bcs im proud Turkish alban... o7

heres my anime review for it
It is a based anime, it is very underrated for real, its animated by mappa which makes animations automaticly good, it has real gigachad voice actors like jotaro and black woman from berserk, it also has zoro from one piece (can we ...

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Nov 6, 2017

snakeguy33

Mixed Feelings

Informative

Preliminary (120/165 eps)

(this review may be subject to edits depending on how it goes)

Okay, unpopular opinion time.

From what I've heard, this series was written by an actual historian, which shows. The story is in many respects an alternate history of the Hapsburg Wars (a part of history I imagine few Japanese readers are familiar with). However, whereas the Hapsburg Wars was a conflict driven by the egos of big men and was filled with acts of cruelty and bravery on both sides, this manga is just a run of the mill "Evil Empire vs Good Alliance" story, that seems to think it's a realistic take ... on the way war works.

Story 5/10
If you've read (even in passing) any "Evil Empire vs Good Alliance" plot, you've probably got a good idea where this story is heading. The Empire invades the good, peaceful countries burning, pillaging and raping; the story gives some paper thin reasons why the Empire is doing it, but that's about it. The prodigy decides to save the world, by forming an alliance of the free people and destroying the Empire. There's nothing new in that regard, and the morality is completely black and white; the Turks are good and the Imperials are bad (the series sometimes goes out of its way to demonstrate the latter). Anytime it gets a chance to show some moral ambiguity (showing the Empire doing some good or the Turks doing evil), it backs out at the last second. Don't let anyone tell you its gray morality, because it's not, it's as black and white as it come. Gray morality is when both sides are shown having an equal number of vices and virtues, and there are no clear good guys AND no clear bad guys, NOT when there are somewhat flawed good guys and obvious bad guys. There is no doubt who the good guys in this story are, and the story makes it absolutely sure that's clear, but then will try and go around and claim it's a "realistic" take on war and politics.
Where the story really shines though is in its battles. Writing large battles is never easy, especially if you have to do artwork to accompany it. But these are some damn impressive pieces and seem to be what the writer was really interested in. There is a little a lot of strategy and politicking throughout the plot, and while some might find that boring, I think it does the story a great service. I will take this as a moment to note it can get a little talky at times, but I think that's just the nature of the premise.
Sidenote: Though the genre tags classifies this series as "fantasy", there really aren't any fantastical elements in it, aside from the fact that story takes place in a fictional world. Just maybe keep that in mind going in

Art 8/10
I'll freely admit, I am not a fan of the artwork style, the expressions can get a little strange and extreme at times, and I have some difficulty at times gathering a sense of space and distance in the setting. That said, it is still very good artwork, allowing for a lot of emotion, and character designs that always look distinct from each other. It not for me personally, but I'm sure plenty more will like it.
For what is worth though, this story includes some of the least Turkish looking "Turks" I've ever seen (Mahmut in particularly doesn't even looking remotely Turkish). But I think's that it's more attributable to Japanese styles and idea of beauty and handsomeness, and I suppose there's no point in complaining about it.

Character 5/10
If I'm being really honest, the only words off the top of my head I can think about for Mahmut is "prodigy" and "idealist", that's about it. He fills the role of the intelligent youth whose pondering the "why can't we all just get along" questions of the world, while the brutal reality sets in, and he matures. Not much new to him. His inner circle are essentially the inner circle that serves as his supporters, backing him up as need be. Again, nothing new. Now for me, that's not much of a problem, if not for the fact that the story doesn't let the characters grow beyond it, nor does it seem to have any fun with it.
The rest of the characters are essentially meant to be personifications of their respective factions (the militarist faction, the pacifist faction, the ambitious faction, etc.). The Imperials get some of their own multi-faceted characters, with their own dreams and hope for peace (noble ones at that), but they only exist really to be told their wrong, and killed by the heroes. If the series wanted to have some real dynamism to it's conflict, it would show the Imperial characters affecting good in the Empire, but they don't; if anything, they let the atrocities happen, and just complain about them after the fact. It's such a waste of potential, and so crassly simplifies war; yes, I know there have been cases in real life where war was like that, but that wasn't the case in the Hapsburg Wars, which this series seems to model itself after.

Enjoyment 5/10
I was never a fan of the Alliance vs. Empire story in any concept, with a few exceptions ("Avatar: TLA" or "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" come to mind); the idea of amounting war (especially ones ostensibly based in reality) to the simple matter of Good vs Evil really get's under my skin. If the story didn't try so hard to set up the good guys and the bad guys, maybe I'd enjoy it more, but it simply doesn't do that.
Now, is that the story's fault for me not enjoying it? No, I suppose not. I'm not the only person in the world, and unlike some, I don't demand everyone constantly please ME. I know other's like it, so I suppose it's in a minority.

Overall 5/10
If you don't mind the problems I presented (I'll admit, many of these problems are subjective), you might get more out of this series than I have. Not a personal favorite.

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Poll: Shoukoku no Altair Chapter 60 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 19, 2015	2 replies	by Ruuu___ »» Nov 23, 10:47 PM
manga on hiatus hankxzy - Aug 16, 2022	6 replies	by Alexioos95 »» May 5, 2024 9:47 PM
Poll: Shokoku no Altair Chapter 1 Discussion ToG25thBaam - Jan 8, 2014	4 replies	by Ruuu___ »» Apr 26, 2023 1:07 PM
Poll: Shokoku no Altair Chapter 2 Discussion Stark700 - Aug 17, 2014	1 replies	by MertEren »» Apr 11, 2023 1:35 PM
Opinion on the oneshot? Allslsl - Oct 6, 2022	0 replies	by Allslsl »» Oct 6, 2022 6:04 AM

Shoukoku no Altair
Altair: A Record of Battles
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