TL;DR: This manga misrepresents and bastardizes foreign cultures for the sake of a cool aesthetic. It spreads misinformation and is based on poor/no research. It is basically an orientalist work I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
I was perhaps fortunate to be familiar with the setting of the first story, Turkey, as it is so wildly off base that it read like a piece of orientalist literature. That meant I didn’t read the rest of the stories that would have misinformed me about cultures I know less about. This work is part of a style that bastardizes foreign cultures for outsiders to gawk at, and one
...
that I find no value in. Elements of the story and the setting are cobbled together from disjointed information. It mixes time periods in Turkish history and presents a nonsensical version of Turkish culture. The story apparently takes place sometime in the 70s but nothing is consistent with that period in Turkey.
The most egregious example is Istanbul being called the capital, which is not only a mistake no Turkish person would make but shows that the writer apparently couldn’t even bother to look at a map. We are shown the story of a girl with a spindle, living 1000km away from the “capital,” Istanbul. So she isn’t even Turkish, but a Kurdish villager. We are then told that their “tribe” is nomadic and shown that they dress in Central Asian style Turkic clothing. She then takes a truck alone to the capital and is ordered to buy “rennet” by her mother while there.
Now, none of this makes any sense. By the 70s there weren’t any nomadic tribes in Eastern Anatolia, and if they were they wouldn’t be herding sheep in Central Asian clothing. A small Kurdish girl wouldn’t be allowed to travel to Istanbul alone, as the Kurdish society is highly patriarchal and at that time in a remote village familial bonds and rules would govern that kid's life. Also, those poor villagers couldn’t afford to make leisure trips to Istanbul, they just wouldn’t have the funds. Even though the age of the girl isn’t stated she is clearly over 6 years old meaning her family doesn’t send her to mandatory primary school a family like that isn’t going to tolerate a woman, let alone a girl, going to some faraway city alone. She would also be taken in by a state official to be returned to her family when her papers are checked since she would be a runaway, and she couldn’t leave her province, let alone enter Istanbul without having that happen. And finally, she would not only not need to buy “rennet” from Istanbul she would also know what it is. Because it is called “peynir mayası,” literally meaning “cheese yeast,” in Turkish. It is produced using the stomachs of cows and sheep etc. So it would be produced in the provinces where this girl originates from, where animal farming is done, and she would be more likely to sell it than buy it in Istanbul. Of course, if she were speaking Kurdish maybe this wouldn’t be the case since it is also called “rennet” in Kurdish, but not only does she speak Turkish, as she has no communication problems, that would still mean she wouldn’t need to buy it from Istanbul.
This is all the issues in just the first few pages. The Istanbul storyline of a witch trying to buy out the grand bazaar and build a shopping mall there is also nonsensical. The grand bazaar is a shopping district, not a corporation. The stores there would deal in gold, foreign currency, spices, clothing, etc. It isn’t something someone controls or something that can be demolished without state approval and probably great protests. So the villain's motivation doesn’t make sense.
Now we come to the weirdest part where the villain attempts to give a history lesson based on orientalist books and tourist brochures and apparently nothing else. We see the Hagia Sophia where she is criticized for being in because it is a place of faith, and then she goes on about the changes that happened there when it became a “temple.” But in the 70s the Hagia Sophia was a museum, she would have had to get in line and buy a ticket to enter. It wasn’t a place of faith. She also talks about how the last byzantine emperor is buried in the Basilica Cistern and that is why it is called “sarayı,” meaning “palace,” and not because of the pillars. However, it isn’t called that at all, it is called the “Yerebatan Sarnıcı,” which literally translates to “Yerebatan Cistern.” It also wouldn’t have any statues, or even water in it in 1970, and doesn’t today. This truly baffles me as they must have picked up a Turkish dictionary to look up “saray” but apparently either lacked the ability to read or didn’t even do the most basic research.
There are more mistakes in her “history” lessons for example Empress Anastasia wasn’t murdered, even though her husband was murdered. How Janissariers weren’t bodyguards but were the standing infantry army of the Ottoman empire under the direct command of the Sultan. Literally, every single piece of "information" about Turkey or Turkish culture is either wrong or misrepresented in some way.
Now there are also general mistakes in the manga like a street seller selling mineral water, and a girl from Eastern Anatolia, where mineral water is produced, not knowing what it is. Also, she pays “50 Lira” which equated to ~3.5 USD, nearly 20 USD in today's dollars, and around half a week’s wages for a salaried employee at the time for a glass of it. Also, the tea trays shown in the manga are inaccurate, they aren’t literal trays they have a handle on top, and they are quite distinctive. And there is a hilarious example where the villain purchases sheep heads and while eating them says she is eating “koyun başı” which is the literal translation of “sheep head” but is incorrect. The correct translation would be “kelle” which also means head. However “baş” is also used to indicate the head of a penis in Turkish, so since you wouldn’t say “baş” for the sheep’s actual head she is saying she is eating a sheep’s penis.
I haven't talked about the story as there is barely any besides the villain being rejected then dishing out misinformation and then being defeated by the girl. The main draw is clearly supposed to be the bastardized version of Istanbul and Turkey since the story is so incredibly simple when you remove that "flair." That is what an entire culture is reduced to in this manga, a cool mysterious foreign background for a simple story and a shoehorned message.
I would recommend this to no one and would recommend something that takes its setting seriously and bothers to do research about it instead of misrepresenting a foreign culture and reducing it to a cool aesthetic for foreigners to gawk at. I rate this manga sheep penis out of 10.
Jan 23, 2023 Not Recommended Funny  Informative  Preliminary
(2/7 chp)
TL;DR: This manga misrepresents and bastardizes foreign cultures for the sake of a cool aesthetic. It spreads misinformation and is based on poor/no research. It is basically an orientalist work I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
I was perhaps fortunate to be familiar with the setting of the first story, Turkey, as it is so wildly off base that it read like a piece of orientalist literature. That meant I didn’t read the rest of the stories that would have misinformed me about cultures I know less about. This work is part of a style that bastardizes foreign cultures for outsiders to gawk at, and one ... 
Aug 15, 2022
Since the only other review of this anime here is a lie, this anime wasn't on youtube but another one called "Spectral Force" was at the time of that review, I decided to write this one.
From the makers of cult hits such as Mars of Destruction and Hametsu no Mars, I had very high expectations when decided to watch this anime. Unfortunately, this anime was only available in its original Japanese DVD release or a horrid French hardsub. I decided to change that and voila, now everyone can behold this marvelous anime with glorious English subtitles on Youtube or wherever else you get your ... |
