Historie Review: The Most Underrated Historical Manga Being Published Right Now

Quick Take

• Historical manga about Eumenes, who became Alexander the Great's personal secretary — one of history's most fascinating overlooked figures
• By the creator of Parasyte; same intelligence, different genre
• Releases slowly but every volume is worth waiting for

Who Is This Manga For?

• Readers who enjoy deep historical fiction — not battles as spectacle but history as lived experience
• Fans of Berserk, Vinland Saga, or Kingdom who want something even more grounded and character-focused
• Anyone who studied ancient history and wanted a manga that takes it seriously
• Readers who can appreciate a slow, measured story with tremendous depth

Content Warnings & Age Rating

Age Rating: M (Mature) Content Warnings: Violence, depictions of slavery, sexual content, period-accurate depictions of historical atrocities

This is a mature historical manga. Not for younger readers. Iwaaki does not sanitize what life in the ancient world actually was.

Yu's Rating

Category	Score
Story Depth	★★★★★
Art Style	★★★★★
Character Development	★★★★★
Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers	★★★☆☆
Reread Value	★★★★★

Story Overview

Eumenes of Cardia was a real person — a Greek-born man from Thrace who became the head secretary and personal assistant of Alexander the Great, and who later became one of the most capable military commanders of the Diadochi wars after Alexander's death.

Historie begins with Eumenes as a child, taken into slavery after the fall of his city, and follows him through decades of survival, learning, and gradual rise.

The story is told with extraordinary care for historical accuracy alongside the personal experience of its protagonist. We see Alexander as Eumenes sees him — an extraordinary, impossible, dangerous person. We see the courts of ancient Macedonia. We see the campaigns. And we see one brilliant, adaptable man navigate all of it without ever being the hero in the classical sense.

Eumenes uses his mind. He reads people. He survives. That is the story.

Characters

Eumenes is one of manga's most unusual protagonists: a man of genuine intelligence in a world where physical strength is the primary measure of worth. He is not a fighter first. He is an observer, an analyst, a person who understands other people clearly enough to influence them. Watching him develop from a frightened enslaved child into someone who can hold his own in Alexander's court is deeply satisfying.

Alexander appears later in the series but his presence is felt throughout. Iwaaki's version of Alexander is charismatic, genuinely brilliant, and frightening in the specific way that great men are frightening — the complete inability to be ordinary.

Hieronymus is Eumenes's childhood friend who becomes a historian — the historical Hieronymus of Cardia was one of the primary sources for this period. His presence connects the narrative to how history actually gets recorded and shaped.

Art Style

Iwaaki's art in Historie is the most refined work he has done. His Parasyte art was functional and evocative; his Historica art is genuinely excellent. He draws ancient Macedonia and Greece with evident research — buildings, clothing, weapons, and daily life all feel period-accurate.

The faces are distinctive and expressive. Crowd scenes are detailed. Battle sequences are rendered with the chaos and confusion that actual ancient battles would have involved, rather than the clean clash of heroes.

Cultural Context

Ancient Macedonia and its expansion into Persia, Egypt, and India is one of the pivotal periods in world history. In Japan, Alexander the Great (イスカンダル in Japanese cultural consciousness, as in Fate/Zero) has been a figure of fascination for decades.

Iwaaki approaches this material as a researcher would. The notes and historical appendices in some editions indicate the depth of reading behind the story. Eumenes is a perfect protagonist because he is genuinely documented in ancient sources (primarily through Plutarch) but not famous enough to have a fixed popular image — Iwaaki can fill in the spaces.

What I Love About It

I came to Historie because of Parasyte. I expected something similarly intense and genre-focused. What I found was something quieter and, I think, more profound.

The thing that stays with me about Historie is Eumenes's relationship with knowledge. He collects information the way other characters collect weapons. He reads people's motivations. He sees through performances. And what this gives him is not power exactly — the ancient world was not built for people like him — but survival, and occasionally, influence.

I think about certain scenes from this manga during situations at work where I need to understand what someone actually wants rather than what they say they want. That is an odd thing to say, but it is true.

What English-Speaking Fans Say

English-speaking readers consistently call Historie "criminally underread" and express frustration at how slowly it releases. The series has been running for over twenty years in Japan and is still not finished, which tries readers' patience but also means each volume feels like an event.

Those who invest in it tend to become devoted advocates. It regularly appears on lists of the best historical manga alongside Vagabond and Kingdom.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

There is an early sequence where young Eumenes, newly enslaved, is sold at market. What is remarkable about the scene is not its depiction of the horror — though it does not flinch — but Eumenes's reaction. He observes. He assesses. He decides what he needs to do to survive.

That response, that turn from helplessness to analysis, is the character's entire story compressed into a handful of pages.

Similar Manga

• Vagabond — another serious, slow historical manga with extraordinary art; Miyamoto Musashi setting
• Kingdom — ancient Chinese warfare, faster-paced and more conventional
• Vinland Saga — Viking-era historical manga with similar emotional intelligence
• Berserk — fantasy-inflected medieval action with serious dark historical themes

Reading Order / Where to Start

Start from Volume 1. The series is linear and requires no prior knowledge of ancient history, though having some familiarity with Alexander the Great adds resonance.

Note: This is a slow-release series. As of this writing, 12 volumes in Japanese and 10 in English are available. Be prepared to catch up and then wait.

Official English Translation Status

Kodansha Comics has been publishing the English edition since 2012. Releases are infrequent due to the source material's slow serialization. Check for current available volumes.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• One of the most intelligent manga being published in any genre
• Exceptional historical research and authentic period details
• Eumenes is one of manga's most compelling protagonists
• The art is some of Iwaaki's best work

Cons

• Ongoing series with very slow release schedule — years between volumes
• Mature content makes it unsuitable for younger readers
• Dense and slow-paced; requires patient reading
• English release is behind Japanese

Format Comparison

Format	Notes
Physical	Kodansha volumes; look for the newer editions which have cleaner presentation
Digital	Available on Kindle and Kodansha platforms
Omnibus	Not currently available

Where to Buy

Get Historie on Amazon →

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