Magi and Its Relations to Real Life Locales
Magi: Labyrinth of Magic is a manga series by Shinobu Ohtaka, author of Sumomo Mo Momo Mo. It tells the story of a young magician named Aladdin and his friend Alibaba and Morgiana as they go on a journey to capture dungeons and become rich and powerful. Well, Alibaba wants to become rich and powerful. Aladdin simply wants to make friends and grope large busted women. Most anime fans are aware of this series, but just in case, here’s the trailer:
The anime series can be found on Netflix as can the second season, Kingdom of Magic, and the prequel, Adventures of Sinbad. It is loosely based on the classic series of short stories, 1001 Arabian Nights. The series is full of shout outs and references to the original story including name dropping many characters.
However, more than that, almost every location in Magi is based on a real life historical culture and kingdom. Shinobu Ohtaka really did her homework when designing these locales and making sure they could be easily recognizable. This article will attempt to shortly and concisely explain the similarities between real life nations and nations in Magi.
This article will contain many unmarked spoilers. You have been warned.
Kouga Clan
The Great Kouga clan in Magi was build by Chagan Khan. Once, they were one of the most powerful nations in the world, but found themselves whittled down to a small nomadic clan. Before, they had dreams of uniting the entire world under their banner. Familiar? It should as the Kouga Clan is based on ancient Mongolia. Chagan Khan is based on Genghis Khan, who is also known as Chingis Khan. Mongolia was once a nation of nomadic clans before being united under the banner of the Mongol Empire in 1206. After the collapse of the Yuan Empire under Gengis Khan’s grandson, Kublai Khan, the Mongols retreated back to their plains. During the 16th century, the Qing dynasty absorbed Mongolia until the year 1911, similar to the Kou Empire annexing the Kouga clans.
Kou Empire
The Kou empire is a militaristic nation based on Imperialist China. The entire history of Imperialist China is far too long to go into detail here. However, the Kou Empire is most similar to the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. However, like the Qing Dynasty, the Kou did not allow their military to participate in any trade other than combat. They also pushed for all of their government officials, Han, and bannermen to adopt changshan and Manchu queue hairstyles. Most of the Han, though technically allowed to wear traditional Hanfu, shifted to wearing the Qipao anyway. Like the Qing, Kou would eventually rule a large amount of the known world, either through treaties or simply conquering the nation as the Qing did with Xinjiang, Tibet, and Mongolia. Kou would eventually find itself threatened by western powers such as Sindria, Magnostadt, and Reim, not unlike Qing and the British Empire. The Qing Dynasty attempted to strengthen its military in response to the internal struggles and conflicts with outside nations, but eventually found itself collapsing under the weight of the modern world leading to the creation of a Chinese Republic in 1912. The Kou suffered the same after a civil war between Kouen Ren and Hakuryuu Ren, and was forced to rebuild after the disappearance of Hakuryuu, leading to its current state in the manga.
Magnostadt
Magnostadt, formerly known as Musta’sim is based on a more modern nation rather than an ancient one. It’s based on Israel. Known as the “Magician’s Country”, Magnostadt is run entirely by mages. Here, Aladdin was able to learn more about his magic and increase his powers and abilities. Anyone non-magician is known as a “goi” in this country, similar to the Jewish “goy”, a name for a non-Jew. Magnostadt has attempted to annex small plots of land, not unlike the current situation at the Gaza Strip. In real life, there is a connection between Jews and Germans, leading to similar names and naming conventions. This is why, despite being based on a Jewish nation, the country uses a German-style name. In fact, the old name for Magnostadt, was based on an Arabic language and found itself replaced not unlike Palestine in reality. Not only that, but the previous rulers of the nations were goi, and suffer similar injustices as the real like Arabs do in some parts of Israel. Finally, similarly to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Matal Mogammet believes all goy exist to serve the magicians.
Reim
Obviously, Reim is based on Rome with the current leader of Reim being named Titus Alexius. Like the history of Imperialist China, the history of the Roman Empire is far too long to go into detail here. Reim was founded by one of the legenday twins, Remus, rather than Romulus who is said to have founded the real life Rome. Reim contains amphitheaters and their legendary Colloseum. It is also one of the strongest empires in all of magi, lasting for hundreds of years and leading in military, technology, and economy. Unlike the real life Roman Empire, Reim is still a republic. It continued to have conflicts with the Persia inspired Parthevia, not unlike the Roman-Persian conflicts inherited from the real life Parthians. Though not much is known about the history of the Reim Empire, it’s aesthetic and many key points, including its symbol, fall in line with what average citizens know about the Roman Empire.
Partevia
Partevia is based on ancient Persian and gains its name from old Persian world “parthava” meaning “Parthian”. Partevia’s conflicts with Reim mimic real life conflicts between Rome and Persia. Like the Assyrians, Partevia broke off from a former country and began to build what was one of the strongest and largest empires in the word. Their only real competition were the Reim Empire. There are some major differences between Partevia and the historical Persia. Persia lost land due to conflicts with Greece, not Rome. However, Partevia would lose land due to conflicts with Reim. Also, despite Persia conquering Egypt, and then losing it in an Egyptian rebellion, there’s no evidence in Magi that Partevia ever controlled Heliohapt, the Egypt of the series.
Heliohapt
Heliohapt is a country situated on the northern end of the Dark Continent. Not much is known about Heliohapt in detail. However, the emblem of the country is similar to the Eye of Horus found in Egyptian culture. Some citizens of the country also wear masks similar to the god Anubis. Nobility is known to wear headpieces similar to those of the pharaohs of old. In one scene, slaves can be seen carrying large bricks in order to build the pyramids. However, unlike Heliohapt, Egypt used paid workers for the earliest pyramids.
Imuchakk
The Imuchakk are an interesting group. They’re not based on a singular group, but of a combination of northern tribes. The Imuchakk have similarities with both the Ainu of Japan and the Inuit of Canada. Their architecture and design are more similar to how the Ainu are often portrayed, particularly in the manga series Shaman King. Like the various Inuit tribes, they are fishermen as well as not being a singular tribe, but a series of tribes. Inuit legends also speak of the Tuniit as giant people, which would accurately describe the Imuchakk. Little else is known about the Imuchakk.
Kina
Though Kina has only appeared in a handful of chapters, it is a blatant expy of Japan. The architecture is similar to that one can see of ancient castles in Japan. It is also an isolationist island nation, as was Japan for a few hundred years. The king of the nation, Takeruhiko Yamato, is based on the prince, Yamato Takeru, of the Yamato dynasty. In the past, Kina paid taxes to Kou, Kai, and Gou before separating from them and hiding itself, not unlike Japan which closed off its shores to outsiders. The citizens of the nation wear masks and horns that cause them to look like oni, the Japanese equivalent to an ogre. Yamato utilizes a form of combat called Ichigeki Hissatsu, or “one blow, certain kill”. It’s similar to the real life philosophy of ikken hissatsu and, in combat, iaido.
Sasan
Sasan is a landlocked nation that is similar to the real life Sassanian empire during the influence of Kartir. There is little information of Sasan within the series, and it has no connection with Partevia other than the events of Adventures of Sinbad. In reality, the Sassanian Empire and the Persian Empire are the same place at different times and would become the modern day Iran and Iraq. However, Sasan is incredibly religious as certain eras of the Sassanian Empire were. They also don’t think highly of outside religions, which is not unlike the time when Karkir had significant political and social pull. For some reason, most of the Sasan from Magi have Greek names.
Sindria
Sindria is the country formerly ruled by Sinbad. The founding of the country is told in Adventures of Sinbad. The country was inspired by the Indian subcontinent, which is where the name comes from. It was derived from the Sanskrit word “Sindhu”, or its Hindi-Urdu derivative, “Sindh”. However, Sindh is now located in present day Pakistan. However, the country is similar to the Greek city Nisyros with its physical design. However, Sindria is only fourteen years old when it is introduced in the story. It lacks the amount of references to real life histories that the others have. It could also be the United States due to the fact that it adopts parts of other cultures and looks not unlike Los Angeles and New York post time-skip.
Dark Continent
The Dark Continent is an interesting case as it’s not based on any culture or country in particular. The entirety of the Dark Continent is based on Africa, the Sahara to be specific, but also the savannas in general. The only part to be based on a real life location is Cathargo, which is based on Carthage. Cathargo is South of Reim, which is the general location of Carthage in comparison to Rome. Most north Africans at the time were known as Berbers, which is related to the word “barbarian” and inspired the “wild” nature of the Fanalis tribe who come from the Dark Continent. Finally, the Fanalis were often taken and enslaved just like the Berbers of Carthage. Another supporting argument for the Dark Continent being Africa is the idea that Africa is the cradle of all life on the planet. The Dark Continent comes directly from Alma Toran, the world before the current setting. Supporting this theory is a fan theory that the Fanalis tribe were supposed to have dark skin, but the author was afraid of the backlash making the slave race dark would bring about.
Balbadd
Balbadd is the home country of Alibaba, of which he is a former prince of. Phonetically, it sounds like Baghdad, but is actually based on India. The architecture, trade, and fishing, are all based on Indian culture and history. They also maintained friendly relations with other countries via trade and signed documents. There is not information to whether or not a Balbadd trading company existed similarly to the East India Trading Company, but Balbadd did have healthy ties with western countries Sindria and Partevia, as did India. However, despite being a formerly powerful company, Balbadd began to lose sovereignty to formerly friendly countries. However, rather than a British expy controlling Balbadd, it was Kou, the expy of China. Once Kou did conquer Balbadd however, they performed similar actions the Mughal Empire performed on real life India. The Kou’s administrative actions lead to a more uniform rule. It eschewed the Islamic identity, similar to how Kou eschewed the identity of the Balbadd nation. Balbadd was a republic at one point, like real life India, but unlike India, the country was soon conquered and lost all sovereignty.
Artemyra
Artemyra is another strange case. It’s based on a combination of myths and ancient religions, but also a real life city. It’s based on the real life Greek town of Themiscyra. However, Themiscyra was a coastal town, while Artemyra is is closer to Africa and exists within a cliff. Their culture is mostly inspired by the Amazonians, but their name was inspired by the goddess Artemis. Their clothing is definitely Greek and there are obvious Greek inspirations, but the town is similar to Sasan where it is more fictional than other countries in the series. The gender roles here are swapped with women dominating most of the political and military positions while men take care of the home and occasionally take up jobs outside of the home. There is a red light district in which men act as prostitutes for busy women.
Alma Toran
Alma Toran is the first known civilization of the Magi universe. This is where everything started. Before the start of the series, a rebellion was lead by Solomon who would eventually become king after killing his father, and then god after replacing Ill Illah. The Toran language is based on cumeiform scripts, which were designed for Sumeria at about 3000 BC. Some of the architecture looks distinctly Babylonian, but some of it looks more Arabic. This could be a stylistic fusion of designs to show it as the first civilization, which is a title normally attributed to Sumer or Babylon, while also referencing the source material, 1001 Arabian Nights. Alma Toran would eventually fall and become the many nations of Magi, not unlike the ancient Mesopotamian empires.
So, there it is. Every major country in the Magi universe and their real life equivalents, references, and inspirations. As the series nears its end, maybe the alternate universes hinted at will expand this even further bringing us to North American and Polynesia inspired locations. Sleep tight.
