アド・アストラ ─スキピオとハンニバル─

AD ASTRA: SCIPIO TO HANNIBAL

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
13
RELEASE
January 19, 2018
CHAPTERS
81

DESCRIPTION

This is the story of two of the greatest military commanders in history: the Roman Publius Cornelius Scipio and the Carthaginian Hannibal. The story follows the two of them from their early life on. Hannibal is initially shown as a strangely silent infant, who seemed like the gods forgot to put a soul in his little body. However, he soon begins to speak in a way that shows his remarkable abilities. Hannibal and Scipio are driven enemies, and their struggle shaped an era.

(Source: MangaHelpers)

CAST

Hannibal Barca
Scipio Africanus
Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Alriven
80/100
A Diamond In The Rough
The lack of popularity surrounding Ad Astra has always surprised me. Even after 11 years, the community for this great manga is almost non-existent, which is a pity to be honest. Revolving around the Punic Wars (264-146 BC) fought between the two ancient Mediterranean powers, Rome and Carthage (present day Tunisia), Ad Astra specifically tells us the magnificent story of the 2nd Punic War of all the three wars fought between them, the first being ended with The Treaty of Lutatius and Rome's victory. Since the source of historical information for this manga is Polybius's "The Histories", the general flow of events and fate of characters can be considered to be completely true.

The story is facile to follow through even without having prior knowledge about anything related to the Punic wars. In the case of a historical manga, the lack of information regarding events often leads to the mangaka to rely on complete asspulls for the story to move on, but thankfully there are no such issues with Ad Astra and almost every event and decisions made by the characters makes complete sense. The manga covers both the political and military sides of the warfare really well. Due to the same complexity, the time taken for completing a chapter takes longer than reading an average manga chapter. Plus points for the adequate usage of maps to get a better understanding of the events.

The Punic wars introduced us to two of the greatest military tacticians of all time, Scipio of Rome and Hannibal of Carthage, and as the main characters of this manga, the author does justice to both of them, even though the focus largely lies with Scipio. The manga really well demonstrates the monster that Hannibal is, who racked up victory after victory through cunning tactics and left the Romans shaking in their boots. It is estimated that during the battle of Cannae, Rome lost 20% of its entire adult male population to Hannibal. One of the few issues I have with this manga is the lack of focus on Hannibal's personal life. Unlike Scipio, Hannibal is presented to us mostly during the battles only and his value as a character comes from his wisdom and strategies. There is almost nothing presented on his personal life and I wish the author had given some focus to it. This could have been brought about through flashbacks of his past or even mentioning events through other characters. This manga is one of those rare ones where I prefer its side characters over its main ones. Each of them has their own unique traits, flaws, motivations and backgrounds that perfectly fit into the puzzle, making this manga truly a diamond in the rough.

The art is good and stays consistent throughout the manga with occasional screenshotable great panels that portray the full scope of battles or the battles itself. It does have its fair share of comedic relief and nudity, neither being too focused or completely absent. Overall, I really enjoyed this manga and my issues with it are very minimal. The chemistry between Hannibal and Scipio was fantastic and I wish that it had been a little slower paced. Nevertheless, this manga is a must read and I will highly recommend this to every historical manga fans out there.
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baba13
80/100
Authentic depiction of Roman life and showcasing one of the best rivalries in human history.
Authentic depiction of Roman life and showcasing one of the best rivalries in human history.

Introduction

Ad Astra is an excellent historical fiction series depicting (primarily) the 2nd Punic War. Mihachi Kagano utilises many sources from Polybius and Livy. I always found this period in Roman History to be one of the most fascinating, as this is where Rome took centre stage in the Western world. It's where one of the greatest military commanders in history combated each other (Hannibal and Scipio respectfully). One of the most surprising aspects is how accurate the manga is, at least broadly. Of course, there's a lot of invention as it's a fictional account, however, not as much as you would think initially. I think one of the most tragic aspects of history is how we don't have any Carthaginian sources. Those sources were destroyed presumably during the 3rd Punic War. It saddens me to read the manga knowing Carthaginian doomed fate by the end. I only felt that heightened my enjoyment as you know the inevitable fate hence the tragedy of the situation. That said, the moments that were invented showcasing Carthaginian POV were well done. The author's depiction of Hannibal was fantastic across the board, he captures the larger life attitude of the man, his coldness, and his humanity and whenever he had a speech you can't help but be engaged. There's a lot more Scipio than Hannibal which makes sense (as we have more sources on the figure). This may seem like a strange piece of advice, but if you don't know the details of the 2nd Punic War don't look at it in advance. It's silly to suggest history can spoil a story, however, if you don’t know it’s best to go blind. I knew the general outcome of the 2nd Punic War but key details I didn’t know, so discovering them as they played out here was amazing.

Art- Panel Work

One of the most rewarding elements of reading this manga is seeing how the art evolves as it progresses. You can tell the author matured as an artist over the span of 7 years. Furthermore, I think it serves as a nice contrast to depict certain characters' ages as the war took place in the span of 218 – 201 BC. Even if that may have been unintentional it works to the author's advantage. I don't think it reaches the calibre of other historical fiction like Vagabond, Historie, Blade of the Immortal and Lone Wolf and Cub artistically, but that's a silly bar to give any manga. Generally speaking, it's pretty good across the board. The panel works I would generally say are nothing too remarkable. It's probably what holds it back from being a master of the medium (like some mentioned above). It's not bad by any means, it does the job, it handles exposition quite well and there's a lot of clarity.

Clarity

Interestingly enough, one of the strongest aspects of the art is the use of clarity. He knows when to depict a double spread appropriately, which makes up for the panel work not being amazing. That's including the battle tactics, the war sequences have a lot of clarity, it isn't confusing, and you can understand the tactics on display. It isn't mindless action, in which every scene serves a purpose.

Criticism?

I did wish this manga was a bit longer just because I wanted to be engrossed in this time period more. However, it's the appropriate length, it never overstayed its welcome. I hear some criticism of Hannibal we should have gotten more from his perspective. On the one hand, I agree but I felt that was an intentional choice of the author to give him a certain presence. Furthermore, we don’t have a ton of resources on him, so there’s only so much invention you can do.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, Ad Astra is an excellent and short historical fiction series that doesn’t outstay its welcome. I loved my journey reading it and reading one of the greatest rivalries in human history.
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Hannelore
85/100
There is more than meets the eye in the world of manga.
Many prejudices weigh on the world of anime-manga, some baseless hold by people with little knowledge of this medium-space, others believed even by anime-manga enjoyers themselves.
One of those prejudices is that the content of this medium is reduced to the typical fantasy-adventure story. And everything that falls outside that parameter "doesn't feel like an anime/manga." Examples of this are evident when comments or opinions arise that say that very old anime should no longer fall into the category of "anime." This, because it is already outside the aesthetic-narrative configuration of today's average anime-manga.
But this only responds to a case of excess of a certain type of stories being largely popular and consumed. But when we dive a little we find broader things. Ad Astra: Scipio to Hannibal is one of them.
Historical manga continues to be an underground genre, with notable exceptions such as Vinland Saga, Kingdom, Vagavond.
But few of the popular historical mangas are really appreciated for their historical aspect, as they are more appreciated for their "adaptation" to the anime-manga language.
Ad Astra: Scipio to Hannibal is one of those mangas, as is Cesare Hakai no Souzousha, that is there just for the history. And although that may sound restrictive, it is in fact a refreshing world with other paths little traveled.

Set in the Second Punic War, a war between the Roman Republic and Carthage, it faithfully follows the events of this war, revolving around the legendary Hannibal Barca and his crossing of the Alps with his army and Scipion, and his young Roman adversary. Everything that happens here, broadly speaking, happened. It is faithful to history and historical figures. And there it makes much of its brilliance. The history itself is exciting.
Of course, there are many things typical of what I call "anime language", that is, an ethical, aesthetic standard of how to act and react. What you would call "typical anime stuff." There are many moments where you listen to the mangaka instead of the historical figures and there are clearly moments where some things were messed around were changed for projection reasons, but without distorting what actually happened.
One of those changes that is most noticeable is how the author handled the whole drama of Sophonisba, Masinissa, Syphax.
In short, Sophonisba was a princess of Carthage who committed suicide with dignity with the help of her husband Masinissa so as not to be given to Rome as a trophy. In addition, she was a politically influential woman. But how was that shown in the magna? A clear case of Japanese projection, Sophonisba is presented as a submissive, hopeless woman who commits suicide not out of dignity, without spoiling, but for a pathetic reason and her husband Masinissa is not a noble man but your typical anime-manga teenager . Not even mentioning some very strange portraits like that of Syphax.
But what is most criticizable is the author's obvious position regarding the Second Punic War. A deeply pro-Roman position.

It is not difficult to notice that the author stands for the Romans. They are all presented as naturally inclined more toward nobility, while throughout the manga the Carthaginians are presented as vengeful savages.
Anyone who is even a little bit immersed in history and historiography knows that everyone has naturally always admired Carthage rather than Rome. A weakness for the underdog.
Hannibal Barca could be said to have been a proto anti imperialist but here he is portrayed as a villain.
Another strange thing about the manga is how the Roman plebs are presented, always ugly, wild, ignorant and stupid, while the patricians are presented as wiser, calmer, and good.
Again, Japanese projection.
But beyond the strangeness, this manga shows us that the historical genre is very rich and a sea to explore and experience.
There is more than meets the eye.
As final comments, it is a great manga to enter the world of the historical genre, it is a great manga to learn about the history of the Second Punic War and those involved in it.
I especially appreciate it for including Silenus Calatinus, but it would have been interesting to see Hannibal' wife Imilce, and his fierce elephant Surus.
In short, a manga that reminds us that there is much more to explore in this medium.

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