| Japanese publisher East Press released a manga edition of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" last November. It's a part of a series "Manga de Doppa", which publishes classical literatures such as Goethe's Faust and Dante's La Divina Commedia, as manga books. Manga Mein Kampf on Amazon Japan The editior of East Press said "Few people have actually read Mein Kampf although the book itself is well-known. We think this manga is a good reference to understand Hitler's thought, which brought about such a terrible tragedy." Manga Mein Kempf has been sold 45,000 copies for half a year. Considering the average sales of the series are 35,000 copies, the manga was sold unexpectedly well. Kein Kampf has been banned in Germany by its copyright holder Bavaria State. The Ministry of Finance of Bavaria replied to Asahi Newspaper that "The publication of the demagogic literature makes the victims of Nazism remember their pains. Moreover, manga is not an appropriate media for the critical research on this problematic book." Professor Klemens Vornharz (Dresden University of Technology) objects to the idea. "Prohibited books must not be existed in the free society. Mein Kampf cannot agitate people anymore. Rather it's an important historical material for the society." Source: Asahi.com |
dtshykSep 6, 2009 1:56 AM
| Hmmmm... a lot of food for thought on this one. But then again, if it's not banned in Japan I see no problem with it. I don't doubt that there are plenty of other ways to view this material. Let the publisher do as they wish. If you don't agree with the material (as probably 99% of the world doesn't) then just avoid the work. |
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| Does it really surprise people that a Japanese company is doing this? After all Japan was part of the Axis powers with Germany and Italy in WW2. "Mein Kampf cannot agitate people anymore," said Professor Vornharz. Tell that to the families, survivors, and captured soldiers that were put into concertration camps. The lingering affects are still felt regardless after all these years. A stupid statement in my opinion. |
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Quietknight said: Does it really surprise people that a Japanese company is doing this? After all Japan was part of the Axis powers with Germany and Italy in WW2. More like "Does it really surprise anyone that Germans are complaining about books? After all they burned quite a lot of them in WW2." |
PlateSep 6, 2009 2:27 AM
| the past and current are 2 different things....anything can be make into manga.. |
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| Mein Kampf seems to be banned in mostly European countires, so who gives a shit? I saw it the other day in bookstores over here in India too. I guess the manga would just widen it's reach. And well what's wrong in an ideology no matter how absurd it may be. Then all Marxists books should also be banned! |
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| A Mein Kampf manga? Torrentz pls ktnkx! |
Quietknight said: I lost about 10 family members due to civilian casualties casued by the Germans and Japanese. I honestly do not care about this, and am actually quite interested.Does it really surprise people that a Japanese company is doing this? After all Japan was part of the Axis powers with Germany and Italy in WW2. "Mein Kampf cannot agitate people anymore," said Professor Vornharz. Tell that to the families, survivors, and captured soldiers that were put into concertration camps. The lingering affects are still felt regardless after all these years. A stupid statement in my opinion. At least, that is if they did not change it into some kind of action manga, and stays true to hitler's thoughts, otherwise it would be nothing mre than capitalism at its best. |
| manga mein kampf?! OMFG, wft?! |
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| Hehe, I like the reference to Faust. I'm currently reading it xD dtshyk said: Also, what the hell is wrong with people? You can't ban books, that's pretty much what the Nazi's did themselves. Free will, speech and dom means that no one has the right to tell us what we can and can't do.[/url] It's propaganda for Nazis. That's why the book "Mein Kampf" is forbidden in Germany. But we do have documentaries about this book, so it's not like we just forget what happend. We just don't want to spread this bullshit ideology of his. As for the manga, it depends on how its written. So I'm not really against it as long as it's not propaganda (but I guess its not?). But I'm not really interested in a manga with such a topic. I rather read books |
lumi said: Nice. Keep the prejudices coming :) I'm openly prejudiced against nations which ban books. But I was being sarcastic there. |
| Out of curiosity, what are the comments like on amazon.jp? Were they screaming bloody murder? Or was it more of a...celebratory mood? Some texts are considered widely offensive for definite and valid reasons. Just because the publishers claim that "we think...Hitler's though...brought about such a terrible tragedy" does not negate the possibility that this is a mere cover for their attempt to cash in on a sensitive, and therefore profitable topic (see manga sales stats). I'm of the impression that a good number of people around the world, and perhaps the Japanese in particular (for historical and political reasons), are susceptible to such ugly and controversial subjects. In any case, I won't be soiling my mind, or anyone else's, with this kind of thing. |
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Ophelia said: It's propaganda for Nazis. That's why the book "Mein Kampf" is forbidden in Germany. But we do have documentaries about this book, so it's not like we just forget what happend. We just don't want to spread this bullshit ideology of his. Its only really propaganda when its forced. However, I think that free will of speech and choice should let us choose by ourselves on what we want to read. No country should impose some sort of ideology on another. Everyone should be free to choose what they like. It only makes me laugh when some countries try to impose a religion, ideology or philosophy on others(like in our country anything talking about good side of alchohol is taken out of the bookstores and anything about drugs too, even if its just an autobiography of past druggie, who shares his thoughts about overcoming it.) I think Frank Zappa sums up that quite well. No one should be restricted from saying or writing the words they want to write. Its up to the masses to choose what they want to read. Not some sort of nation-wide censorship agency. |
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Nrvnqsr said: Yeah, but luckily the copyrights to "Mein Kampf" are running out in some years, and then everyone can sell the book as he/she likes. Although you cannot call it censorship, the government wants us not to read it by having the copyrights and not publishing it, and that is wrong. It is important source material about his life that everyone should have access to. (Well, I tried reading it, but it was just written so badly, I gave it up) And I do not see a problem at all if it is adapted into a manga. That could be a good way to make people (or especially youths) interested into this period of history. I've actually read the whole book in school (sweden is a bit more liberal than most countries it seems) and didn't find it too bad. There are quite a few more uninteresting reads out there. Though I'm quite curious as of how they will make a good manga story out of it (assuming they are trying to follow the book as much as possible) |
| Doesn't surprise me seeing Germany banning the book, same happens with "violent" videogames and movies. In my opinion Germany is trying to shut its citizens in a "cultural bubble" using the WW2 as an excuse. In my case i had my half (or more) of my german part of the family killed during WW2 and i face similar restrictions as the ones given by the german governament and censourship at home (my father was around 3 or 4 years old during WW2 if i recon), so i can say that the bans and the try to keep people away from Hitler's thoughts and stuff that can cause another conflict comes from the mentality of some citizens and not just the higher-ups. Still the manga got me interested. |
| Mein Kampf isn't banned in Germany... |
| Can we get a fan sub plz XD |
| Please read Rules #16 and #17 of the General Forum Guidelines |
| Controversy over stuff like this only really exists because some idiots can still get influenced by these sorts of things, and so governments think it's best to just ban it outright. Banning something nationwide is usually just ridiculous. Although i haven't read the book, and don't plan to, the only thing this controversy is going to do is make more people read either the manga or the actual book. |
| Controversy? This is the reaction we get? It's an awesome projct, thanks to exist. And I agree with that Professor Klemens, he's a pretty nice guy. |
 Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
| I'm waiting for the anime... that should be a bit different of Hetalia :$ |
| I know some people...that would be VERY interested in this. |
dtshyk said: Kein Kampf has been banned in Germany by its copyright holder Bavaria State. true that xD, but that doesn't mean we here in Germany won't be able to read it (yeah, nobody ever said it, just wanted to mention it) though I'm not sure whether it's a real good idea to publish this as a manga mh...I've read it, but...well...as I said I'm not sure about it <.< |
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| FUCK YES! |
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Quietknight said: Does it really surprise people that a Japanese company is doing this? After all Japan was part of the Axis powers with Germany and Italy in WW2. What. I am having a hard time believing that this thought actually occurred in someone's brain. |
| Having actually read Mein Kampf (the librarian looked at me like I was insane) I'm actually somewhat interested in this. However, I'm wondering how the hell it would even begin to work as a manga...Hitler isn't very bishonen. >: |
maykipz said: However, I'm wondering how the hell it would even begin to work as a manga...Hitler isn't very bishonen. >: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_(manga) |
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vertreter said: Plate said: More like "Does it really surprise anyone that Germans are complaining about books? After all they burned quite a lot of them in WW2." You're not too smart, are you? You're not too good with context, are you? |
EternalDreamer said: Nrvnqsr said: Yeah, but luckily the copyrights to "Mein Kampf" are running out in some years, and then everyone can sell the book as he/she likes. Although you cannot call it censorship, the government wants us not to read it by having the copyrights and not publishing it, and that is wrong. It is important source material about his life that everyone should have access to. (Well, I tried reading it, but it was just written so badly, I gave it up) And I do not see a problem at all if it is adapted into a manga. That could be a good way to make people (or especially youths) interested into this period of history. I've actually read the whole book in school (sweden is a bit more liberal than most countries it seems) and didn't find it too bad. There are quite a few more uninteresting reads out there. Actually I believe having it read for school in Germany it's a better idea than banning it... I mean, yes, it's part of history and all that but it's a delicate part of history and you need to be careful dealing with that, that's a diary of the person who made WW2, it's a awful though that something similar could happen again because of persons who read it and don't exactly understand it. =/ I never read it and don't really intend to, but I might check it out of curiosity if someone turns it into anime... |
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vertreter said: As a liberal german student with top grades in both political science and history classes, I'm confident that I am. Your statement was disrespectful and lacked basis. It doesn't seem that you're familiar with germany's political and sociocultural structure as for today. I shall not discuss this matter any further though - at least not with you. Once again you're missing the point. The context of what I said is entirely lost on you. I was replying to this statement: Quietknight said: Does it really surprise people that a Japanese company is doing this? After all Japan was part of the Axis powers with Germany and Italy in WW2. In English it is fairly common to reply to completely retarded statements with other silly statements so as to mock them. Apparently you failed to notice the context, saw my comment and became upset. You failed to notice that what I said was intentionally stupid and sarcasm. Next time I will place my comments in spoiler tags along with a warning "This is a humorous comment, it is not meant for Germans to read." |
| I think it is a very interesting project, most of people would read this out of curiosity and/or to gain more understanding about that time of story and the nazi ideology, but I doubt besides the neo-nazi groups anyone will follows it's teaching. But I doubt manga is the right media to deliver this. |
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| Many political mangas are subjected to controversy whether it be the popular Gundam series or some other title, I don't see what makes this any different.. After all, most politically-related mangas do feature terrorists as heroes, I don't see why people are making an issue out of this. Speaking of which, if this manga becomes popular, the chances of a P2 remake would be high as that the main characters do fight against the Last Battalion and Hitler as enemies. |
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vertreter said: I agree, creating a manga out of this is in really bad taste. Seems to me they just want to cash in on all the people curious to how a manga adaptation would even work. Can't stop them from doing this, but I certainly wouldn't applaud them for their tackiness.There shouldn't be a reason to deal with "Mein Kampf" from an artistic perspective..it's just really really bad. The ones who decided to convert it into manga probably want to take advantage of the shock effect...that's distasteful behaviour. |
 ジリティック♡BEGINNER |
| Scans where? |
❝goodbyes are always hard, no matter how you might try to make them easier.❞ |
I feel that the portrail of Hitler as a manga bishonen really isn't too well done and definitely unappropriate for this subject v.v Why is everyone calling him a bishonen?in the cover he doesn't look like one |
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| More political controversies with manga, eh? This doesn't surprise me too much, unfortunately, coming from Japan. You have the textbook controversies where the Ministry of Education approved textbooks that downplay Japan's war crimes during WWII. And then a few years ago, Japan's best selling manga were Kenkanryuu (Hate Korean Culture) and another bashing Chinese culture. As a Chinese myself, I find it infuriating that some Japanese would deny war atrocities all together. Nonetheless, sometimes freedom of speech/press allows someone to be a pure asshole, and it's something we have to live with. Hey, the KKK still exists in the US because of "freedom of thought" or whatever. Bottom line for all the people complaining: Don't give this manga more attention than it needs. Japan's neighboring countries have done similar things before and all it did was exacerbate the situation. Hitler's garbage ideas might come back to life if we give it too much attention. |
 Thanks, person who gave me this on another site a long time ago, lol. |
Soulstrider said: I feel that the portrail of Hitler as a manga bishonen really isn't too well done and definitely unappropriate for this subject v.v Why is everyone calling him a bishonen?in the cover he doesn't look like one The only one who really gets a bishounen treatment in the manga is Hess.  And I would only call it that in comparison to what he really looked like. |
| Goodness, this manga might cause a furor. |
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| Doesn't 'Mein Kampf' sound like chinese food to anyone else? |
Rail_Man said: Doesn't 'Mein Kampf' sound like chinese food to anyone else? the point is...? And no, it doesn't Clearly, controversial stuffs can be published. I just hope that people will not start embracing the ideas...It's better if they actually understand how flawed it is by reading it... |
bla bla bla The endless debate between fans and haters. At one point, after spending a lot of time on MAL, you just realize it's totally pointless.Niko-kun said: On MAL, everyone who has used the lame rating system becomes a critic and an intellectual by default, haven't you heard? |
wakka9ca said: Clearly, controversial stuffs can be published. I just hope that people will not start embracing the ideas...It's better if they actually understand how flawed it is by reading it... qft! |
Thanks, person who gave me this on another site a long time ago, lol. |
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