As part of our SAint Lucia Teens (SALT) budget for each year we set aside some funds to build up our library. It’s been a lot of fun shopping at our local Christian bookstore for material suitable for our teens.
So when I stumbled upon the Manga Messiah I just knew it was worth picking up for the sake of reading through. I have previously puchased other types of ‘Manga Bible’ which have gone down successfully. The prime aim of making these available in our library is not as a replacement for bible reading, but as a means of creating enthusiasm for the Word, very much for the same reasons the Aussie Bible was written.
So, what did I think of the Manga Messiah? Let me break this down into three parts:
1. Good points:
A lot of the animation is brilliantly done, vivid and artistic. I found myself moved in a number of places whilst reading, so in essence the message is delivered well. I found some of the background narration helpful and roughly on the mark. And in the end the authors leave with an evangelistic challenge to consider the message of Jesus and how it affects the reader.
2. Minor Quibbles:
- Some of the animation seems a bit amaturish. By this I mean some of the wide-angle scenes seem a little too roughly drawn and less-mangaesque than I’m use to.
- There was also a strange decision by the writers to use the Hebrew names for some key characters, eg. Yeshua (Jesus), Yosef (Joseph) and Miryam (Mary). I found this strange because most other character names were left untouched – Peter, Judas Iscariot, Thomas…etc
- All the animated characters look a little too Japanese, but this is a very minor quibble..
- there seems to be only two Pharisees following Jesus around to test him…and they are caricatured a little too much
- the soldier at the foot of the cross looks too similar to Pilate – in fact, I still can’t tell them apart!
- Judas Iscariot has an earing…which he wouldn’t have.
- The disciples are given a little bit too much credit in being able to figure out what Jesus is saying
Probably the largest quibble I have with the ‘Manga Messiah’ is that the authors chose to synthesise the Gospels. By this I mean they have chosen to try and harmonise each gospel account to present an overall picture of the life and teachings of Jesus, with some sort of chronology developed through splicing together each Gospel account. This leads to some interesting issues:
– not all of the disciples are ‘called’ in the early part of the book, but some are ‘called’ later on
– some events appear out of the order we may be use to in order to accomodate the authors interpretation of the flow of events
The problem I have with attempting this synopsis is that it undercuts the theological motive for each gospel writer in presenting their material as chosen. It also suggests that the gospel writers may have gotten some bits wrong or didn’t give a full enough account.
Conclusion:
So would I recommend the Manga Messiah. I’m not sure. There’s a couple more versions of the Manga Bible out there so I want to read through them. But the Manga Messiah, whilst overall being well presented, I think falls just a little short because it tries to do too much. A theological editor probably would have been helpful to the authors.
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