天幕のジャードゥーガル

Some fun things that caught my eye: When Sitara, whose name means "star", first comes across Muhammad, he is holding a star-finder (i.e., Astrolabe). It was customary for mourners to wear black for a period of forty days. Afterwards, close relatives would gift the mourners new clothing and would have them freshen up. Muhammad's letter seems properly written in Persian and feels stylistically appropriate for the period. Zumurrud is Persian for Emerald.

True, Mikhail is the Russian/Eastern Slavic version of the Hebrew name Michael, so you are probably right. This is some time before the Ottomans started conquering the Balkans so that's what made my mind go elsewhere. However, it's still possible due to piracy in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea like you said. Edit: I realized after I posted this comment that she said that she was from a country far to the west. That makes the Balkans more likely, or even Crimea.

Never thought I'd see an anime adaptation of a manga that's set in Iran with Muslim characters, with beautiful animation by Science Saru. Especially the opening scene with the adhan. It feels surreal. Even with the characters speaking Japanese. I really liked Sitara and Muhammad together. Shame that it was the last time they saw each other in person. 😢 "Slave or no, seeking knowledge is the duty of every Muslim." I know this is based on a real person and real history. But I don't know much about the actual history or any of the adaptations. Or how much this series will follow them. So this will be a fresh experience for me. The first episode was very promising. So I'm very excited to see the rest. As a Muslim, it still feels surreal to see an anime about Islamic culture after so much media purposefully misrepresented us. The ED was so good. I hope one day Otoyomegatari can also get an anime.

In an interview with animate Times, Tomato Soup discussed what matters most to her when presenting real history and culture within a fictional work, as well as the charm of history. ......Later in another episode, there's a scene where the adult Sitara screams intensely, and I realized that the essence of Sitara's character might lie in her inability to escape the seemingly endless darkness despite her desperate efforts to learn and think, and in continuing to learn and think while crying and screaming like this. I believe this is the true essence of Sitara that Sekine-san, who played her, showed us. I strive to research and depict things as accurately as possible, yet there are inevitably limits to what I can do. Lately, I have felt keenly that I am not a member of the cultures, faiths, or histories I portray; I am merely an outsider utilizing them to create entertainment. I cannot even begin to imagine how those who actually belong to those cultures, faiths, and remains might feel about Tenmaku no Jadugar . As far as I can imagine, if someone becomes interested in the Mongol Empire or the Islamic world through Tenmaku no Jadugar and goes on to actively research and truly love referring those subjects, they might well come to loathe Tenmaku no Jadugar itself (I am here only to the original manga, as there are various criteria for evaluating an animated adaptation). Given that, I want to be a creator who—at the very least—acknowledges that my work is a fictional creation intended for entertainment, and who is willing to admit when I simply do not know something. The more I research history, the more uncomfortable I become with the very term "historical fact." I sometimes come across writings about my own background; while they may not be lies, they aren't the whole truth either. Even if I were to elaborate with countless words, the result would never truly reflect the reality as I see it. I have come to realize that this is the nature of historical narrative. If I could travel back in time and see the actual people of the Mongol Empire, they would never be the same figures I had become so captivated by—and I wonder if I would even want to see them... Or perhaps I would ? Maybe I would want to see a different image of them entirely... For over a decade, I have been caught in this cycle of hollow hesitation. I am absolutely captivated.

As a longtine anime fan who is also a Muslim, I really gotta appreciate Tomato Soup's effort not only in depicting this time period but also the great care and research she did on the settings. So far from what I see, most Muslims online really love it. Of course, there are some dumbass Muslims who want to complain about how we shouldn't let non-Muslims depict Muslims or stupid shit like that. Muslims online usually call these idiots the "Haram Police".

"Persia" is an exonym, but the other terms are all endonyms to Fars province, which is a very small region that had an outsized influence in ancient times. It's complicated more by the fact that the Persian language has gradually taken over most of the region and displaced most of the other Iranian languages (although technically, New Persian is actually a dialect originating in Tajikistan after the Arab conquest...)

"Persia" is an exonym, but the other terms are all endonyms to Fars province, which is a very small region that had an outsized influence in ancient times. A fu modern analogue would be how loads of foreign countries (including Japan) call Britain "England" or some variation despite the whole region being Britain or the U.K. of Great Britain (and NI) with England just being the most powerful/central part.

What’s so bad about someone who still can’t grow a beard setting foot in a woman’s room? Sitara’s got quite the wit at such a young age! Look at how flustered Muhammad got. Pretty funny how at first she acted like she’s intellectually challenged when she only responded with a smile when people talked to her. Tragic that they never got to see each other face to face again. I thought we’re going to get more moments of them bonding. One of my favourite premieres of this season so far. Love the children’s book aesthetic. It’s as if I’m reading a book but the illustration’s animated. The animation itself had been subdued but fluid. Science Saru had done an excellent job with this series.

Sometimes the prior knowledge, or being fed knowledge, on the subject can enhance it. Heike Monogatari is extremely prolific in Japan, so it'd be hard to not know enough to have some sense of foreshadowing with some things or add some extra delicious tragedy when you know how something is supposed to go. The new Paranormasight game introduces the Heike early in the story, for instance, and labourously explains the relevant whos-whos to keep everyone on the same page. There was some fun connections-building going on in the discussion threads for Nippon Sangoku using knowledge of the Heike Monogatari and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Opening OST was beautiful. I couldn’t figure out the adhan(?) and what was being said, so I’m excited for cultural contexts on the music (and fashion and architecture)!! Favorite part of historical dramas is seeing historians and cultural anthropologists in the community come out to do TED talks about what a series or movie got right and what they fudged with. I wondered what language ETA: dialect the Tus militia ETA: Mongols was speaking. Was that Mongolian then, an older dialect, and did it sound natural? Lovely animation. Science Saru, you can do no wrong. GoHands, on the other hand. Today I Learned: Ibn Sina—or Avicenna —was a preeminent Persian polymath. He was a philosopher and physician and considered one of the greatest thinkers to have ever lived! Citations Avicenna 🔗 Wikipedia Ibn Sina (Avicenna): The Prince Of Physicians 🔗 PubMed Central Ibn Sina [Avicenna] 🔗 Stanford A farsahk is also called a parasang , a historical Iranian walking distance unit. Similar to a “league”. 1 farsakh is about 3 or 3½ miles or 6 km. Citations Parasang 🔗 Wikipedia Gnarly. Straight on to episode two. I think I misunderstood the hour long premiere as a longer EP1 like Sentenced to be a Hero> , but two episodes I will take!

I wondered what dialect the Mongols was speaking. Was that Mongolian then, an older dialect, and did it sound natural? It's casual Modern Mongolian. However both have pretty heavy accents. The soldier is voiced by a native Mongolian but since he has lived in Japan for 20 years he has a very strong accent when speaking Mongolian. Also the subtitles were a little bit inaccurate. They never said "fools" and the phrasing is awkward. It's obviously translated directly from Japanese. I don't know who is voicing the noble here. If it's a Mongolian then it's obviously an Inner Mongolian accent. If it's a Japanese then it's very impressive. Since Inner Mongols speak Chinese daily their Mongolian also sounds very off or wrong to Outer Mongols. It's very casual speech, something you'd never see in a historical Mongol movie made in Mongolia. The thumb ring on the Mongols is a very nice touch. In contrast to Western archers we use our thumbs to draw the bow. What's more interesting was that they accurately used Persian instead of Arabic. Even the letter Muhammad sent was in Persian than Arabic. I wish they stressed that the Quran is in Arabic not Persian so it’s a lot harder for Iranians to memorize it and it’s a foreign language. The biggest historical inaccuracy is the tomato in the courtyard. That fruit is American and won’t be seen for a few more centuries. EDIT: nvm those were pomegranates not tomatoes lol

I always enjoy speakers coming out to comment about language and accent choices ☺️☺️☺️ That’s a shame about the translation. I have to wonder what the TL team received because I’d think they’d receive both the Mongolian and the Japanese text, but I’m probably wrong on that. That seems silly if not. If fan TL has taught me anything, best to always translate directly from the source language. But you work with what you got, so you know. Fun to know about the Persian being used accurately! I don’t know why I thought the Quran would just be translated to Persian, I just thought it would be. I’m very interested in an Arabic and Persian/Farsi dub of this (and a Mongolian dub). Knocking your bow with a thumb, I ended up watching this short about it, and I found it interesting! I want to say { A Bride’s Story } also has the FL Amir do that. She’s Kazakh. I’m curious what made them choose Modern Mongolian over consulting linguists and translators for a historical dialect. I’m not complaining. Just a curiosity. Thanks for the context ❤️❤️

Oh damn. TIL! I admit, I like translations because of accessibility, but I highly doubt the founders of a lot of these historical/ancient organization were thinking about the pros and cons accessibility in spreading the “good word” 😭 I sometimes wonder what the modern world would have been like without the widespread use of certain religions. What language and fashion and literature and politics and relationships and news look like today. We will never know because of how deep-seated the most prominent religions are in our daily lives, even if you are atheist, but I’m sure there is historical fiction that takes a crack at the possibilities. It’s interesting to consider the what-ifs.

Religions being a contributing factor to the spread of language, literature, reading, science, and arithmetic spread is something I think world builders, those who write lore for their conlangs, and fantasy writers don’t take for granted. I am indifferent to quite negative towards religion. But religions have been quite the teachers in foundational studies. A very utilized tool IRL but very underutilized in fantasy. I do wonder how many indigenous languages were stamped out or whatever the linguist term for “defunct” or “speakers have been reduced in numbers” would be with the widespread of Arabic in congruence to Islam. I hadn’t really considered it before. But I also hadn’t really much idea that Arabic wasn’t the only language spoken in Southwest Asia, West Asia, and North Africa outside of Turkish(?), Persian/Farsi, and Hebrew. I just assumed, historically, there were many languages and dialects. r/AskHistory and r/AskHistorians probably have sourced-to-death threads about this 😂