Afghanis-tan
Background. "Afghanis-tan" illustrates the modern history of Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, starting from the imperialist era in the 19th century, through moe anthropomorphism. The title character, a short and clumsy bishōjo, is a national personification of Afghanistan. Other female characters personify the nearby nations of Central Asia, such as Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Nations that have fought wars in Afghanistan at various times, such as Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States also make appearances. The Taliban regime and Al-Qaeda terrorist group are also represented in the comic, the latter as cats. Each yonkoma strip  is accompanied by an "Afghan Memo" that explains in prose some of the background and history of the nations depicted. Additional pages give short biographies of the characters. The fact that it is a moe manga depicting international conflict, and the fact that it personifies countries, has drawn some criticism. However, it has also drawn attention for its attempt to blend an appropriate depiction of the history and background of each country with the personality of its characters. "Afghanis-tan" has finished, and work on its sequel, "Pakis-tan", was suspended after four editions. On July 26, 2005, after several  delays, the series went on sale as a comic book, "Afghanis-tan" (). Reception. As it makes it easy for readers to learn about the history and geography of Central Asia, topics which Japanese people are not very familiar with, it could be thought of as an educational text. Around the time when the book was published by Sansai Books, again, part of the intention was to provide information about the current state of Afghanistan. There is criticism that using the style of "moe" trivializes the situation. In particular, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were depicted as "an incident  where a cat called Al-Qaeda bit America", a fact which was severely criticized in the secondary work, "".