Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President

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Cover to the first volume of the American edition

イーグル

Genre

Authored by

Publisher

Other publishers:
Viz Media J'ai Lu Egmont Manga and Anime

Serialized in

Big Comic

Original run

1997 – 2001

No. of volumes

Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President is a political seinen manga by Kaiji Kawaguchi. Its plot, following a Japanese-American senator as he runs for president of the United States, was thoroughly researched by Kawaguchi during months of travel in the US.

[edit] Plot

Eagle takes place during the 2000 presidential election. Some of the characters are entirely original, such as Senator Kenneth Yamaoka (D-NY) and the series protagonist, Japanese journalist Takashi Jo. Others are fictionalized depictions of real people, such as campaign advisor George Tuck (based on Dick Tuck), Democratic Vice-President Al Noah (based on Al Gore), and the current president whose last name is never mentioned, but bears a strong resemblance to Clinton, is called Bill, is from Arkansas, has faced multiple scandals, and has a politically ambitious wife named Ellery (based on Bill Clinton). Kawaguchi was reported inspired to create the manga after watching the 1992 documentary The War Room.

Eagle was nominated for five Eisner Awards, including Best New Series, Best Continuing Series, Best Writer/Artist, and Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 2001, and again in 2002 for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material. Acclaimed writer Warren Ellis called it "A wild tangle of sex and secrets and hate and Machiavellian intrigue. It's Primary Colors in a really bad mood." [1]

The series was originally serialized from 1997-2001 in the Japanese anthology Big Comic, published by Shogakukan. From 2000-2002, Viz Comics published the English translation in monthly 100-page issues and then in five long tankōbon volumes. The series spans over 2000 pages in all.