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Arslan Senki: At the Forefront of the High Fantasy Boom
[Preface: This essay by Mimura Mii originally appeared in Japanese as part of "The Arslan Senki Reader", a companion volume to to novel series that was published in April of 2000 between the 10th and 11th volumes of the series, and which contains an assortment of essays, a glossary, an original short story by Tanaka Yoshiki, etc...It is reproduced here in English without permission. Shh!]
Arslan Senki was first published in August 1986 as part of Kadokawa Shoten's "Fantasy Fair," a promotion for new works. While Tanaka Yoshiki's Legend of Galactic Heroes had already become a bestseller, his newest opus was not another space opera, but a piece of high fantasy set in—of all places—Persia.
Nowadays the word “fantasy” is commonplace, found in a plethora of books and games, but at the time its use was limited to only a small niche of readers. Kadokawa's first Fantasy Fair displayed only a handful of works that could truly be considered part of the fantasy genre. But among them, Tanaka Yoshiki's Arslan Senki distinguishes in a number of ways.
( Read more... )
Arslan Senki was first published in August 1986 as part of Kadokawa Shoten's "Fantasy Fair," a promotion for new works. While Tanaka Yoshiki's Legend of Galactic Heroes had already become a bestseller, his newest opus was not another space opera, but a piece of high fantasy set in—of all places—Persia.
Nowadays the word “fantasy” is commonplace, found in a plethora of books and games, but at the time its use was limited to only a small niche of readers. Kadokawa's first Fantasy Fair displayed only a handful of works that could truly be considered part of the fantasy genre. But among them, Tanaka Yoshiki's Arslan Senki distinguishes in a number of ways.
( Read more... )