What was the first Arslan manga?
Thirteen volumes, an original ending, and a generation of readers who met Pars here first.
Arakawa’s is the second Arslan manga. The first was drawn by Chisato Nakamura for Kadokawa’s shōjo magazine Asuka Fantasy DX, running from November 1991 to September 1996 and collected in thirteen volumes. It is a faithful adaptation of the novels’ first seven books, until it runs out of novel.
THE NAKAMURA VERSION
1991–1996Thirteen volumes · Kadokawa
Volume 1 on November 11, 1991; volume 13 on August 30, 1996. The manga marched in step with the films and OVAs of the same years.
The original ending
Nakamura’s version caught up with Tanaka’s published story and passed it, so its conclusion is the manga’s own invention, an ending no other Arslan telling shares.
Never in English
Unlike Arakawa’s manga, Nakamura’s was never licensed for an official English edition. English readers know it, if at all, through the anime of its era.