Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (Mitsuki Oosawa manga)

Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War manga is one of the four manga adaptations of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.

Technical information
This manga is written and illustrated by shoujo manga author Mitsuki Oosawa, and it was published from 1999 to 2001 by Media Factory. It reaches from Chapters 1 to 10 of the game, and it has 16 volumes as well as an artbook named "Gekka Ginyu" published in 2000.

Volumes
Author: Mitsuki Oosawa

Illustrator: Mitsuki Oosawa

Publisher: Media Factory

Volumes (ISBN):
 * Vol. 1: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-732-2)
 * Vol. 2: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-733-0)
 * Vol. 3: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-734-9)
 * Vol. 4: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-735-7)
 * Vol. 5: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-736-5)
 * Vol. 6: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-737-3)
 * Vol. 7: 23 October 1999 (4-88991-738-1)
 * Vol. 8: 24 January 2000 (4-88991-746-2)
 * Vol. 9: 24 April 2000 (4-88991-748-9)
 * Vol. 10: 23 July 2000 (4-88991-754-3)
 * Vol. 11: 23 October 2000 (4-88991-764-0)
 * Vol. 12: 23 February 2001 (4-88991-774-8)
 * Vol. 13: 23 April 2001 (4-88991-783-7)
 * Vol. 14: 23 July 2001 (4-88991-789-6)
 * Vol. 15: 23 September 2001 (4-88991-797-7)
 * Vol. 16: 31 October 2001 ([tel:4-8401-0405-0 4-8401-0405-0])
 * "Gekka Ginyu" Compilation: 23 August 2000 ([tel:4-8401-0131-0 4-8401-0131-0])

Differences from the game

 * Characters like Chulainn and Beowolf were excluded from this manga, with Oosawa allegedly admitting that she did not include Beowolf because he was her least favorite character. Regardless, she still included artwork of both of them.
 * Due to Beowulf being cut, Voltz, only appears in an artwork alongside Beowulf.
 * Ares' mother Grahnye is renamed Iria and looks different from her art in the Fire Emblem: Treasure. She is depicted as deathly jealous of Eldigan and Raquesis' closeness and gives Raquesis permission to join Sigurd's case solely because she wants her sister-in-law to die in battle.
 * A good part of the story is driven by the consequences that the fighting among nobles and military has on the common people. Many scenes show the commoners being abused by their evil or apathetic lords, specially in the Zaxon arc where a little boy is injured by a soldier to try prove a point, and he dies of his wounds despite Ferry's desperate attempts to help him.
 * Deirdre is given a larger role and characterization than in the game. She is portrayed as being very confident in her magical abilities, and even managing to win a fight almost by herself (against Clement, whom she first depowers with her Silence staff, then puts to sleep with a Sleep staff alongside all of his guards). The scene in which she is kidnapped and brainwashed is expanded as well, and she is caught by Manfroy while trying to protect Shanan, Oifey, baby Seliph and Arden (among others) from him. She also regains her memories when Sigurd visits Arvis during the climax and she tries to talk Arvis into peace but ends up watching Arvis incinerate Sigurd and mentally collapses.
 * Sigurd's character is also greatly changed. While he remains honor-bound and compassionate, he has a far more hot-blooded and impulsive side, which is portrayed as an almost fatal flaw. In example, in the fight with Sandima he is consumed with revenge due to Noish and other knights being on the brink of death due to the Fenrir spell, so he commits critical mistakes that almost cost him his own life, with Prince Jamke's timely intervention being what saves him.
 * In the game, it is mentioned that Victor (Arvis and Azelle's father) hung himself after learning of Cigyun and Kurth's affair. In the manga, however, he is seen laying on a dark pool on the floor, therefore it is not clear if he either drank poison and thus vomited blood and other fluids as he died, or if he stabbed himself and said pool is his own blood.
 * There is also a big emphasis on Arvis and his own issues, specially his relationship with Azelle and his idealization of Cigyun. In regards to Azelle, we have flashbacks of the time when a seven-years-old Arvis takes a newborn Azelle into the Velthomer court; regarding his mother, when he meets Deirdre for the first time, for a second he actually sees her as Cigyun. Still, he does not know that Deirdre is his sister until she tells him that she is found out and even calls him "Brother" right before dying at Julius' hands. Towards the end of the series, Arvis realizes his fault and basically allows Seliph to kill him, only throwing one blow towards him then feigning defeat.
 * In game, Ayra's fate is not clear. The manga states, however, that she escapes the battle with Lex and seek refuge with his brother Danann after giving him the Helswath. However Danan turns on them, kills Lex and Ayra is assumed to be dead as well.
 * The incident that finished with Prince Kurth's death is expanded, as it happens when he, Byron and Ring are traveling together. It gives some more insight in Kurth's own personality and motivations, revealing that right before his murder he was in process of searching for his daughter and heiress Deirdre (in the game we only learn that Deirdre had been found, but not whether Kurth or Azmur ordered to have her taken to Grannvale). Ring also gets some more spotlight: he is shown as a reasonable authority figure and a foil to his old friend Byron's temper, but this is not enough to prevent his death.
 * While the romantic couples in the game can be sorted by the player's tactics, Oosawa made them set on stone in the storyline. Here are some of the match-ups: Sigurd/Deirdre, Adean/Jamke, Lex/Ayra, Azelle/Tailto, Ferry/Lewyn, Eldigan/Raquesis (doomed due to the circumstances), Finn/Raquesis, Sylvia/Claude. After Belhalla, Briggid escapes with both Dew and Midayle, but ultimately ends up with Dew (confirmed in volume 11 when Patty refers to Dew as "father").
 * Sylvia's portrayal is extremely sympathetic. She explains to Ferry that when she became a dancer, people treated her badly despite her beauty and skills due to her uncertain origins. At some point Sylvia met and befriended Lewyn, who did not care about her identity, ultimately offering her to be his partner; she fell for him since nobody had treated her with such kindness before.
 * The subplot about Eldigan and Raquesis's possible incestuous bond becomes much more blatant. Their romantic vibes come from the time they met, when a 12-year-old Raquesis (daughter of the Nordion lord and a former servant/retainer) is brought into the Nordion court after her mother's passing, and a young and still unmarried 17-year-old Eldigan saves her from Elliot's bullying. Right before he confronts Chagall, Eldigan does openly tell Raquesis that he loves her in a non-brotherly way; he refuses to have sex with her when she offers him her virginity, however, but gives her a first and last kiss before leaving. When Eldigan dies, Raquesis temporarily falls into despair and self-harm, ultimately getting better and then hooking up with Finn after he helps her to get through said issues. Few after Finn leaves to Leonster with Quan and Ethlyn, Raquesis finds out that she is pregnant with her first child, Delmud.
 * While King Chagall never was the more sympathetic character, his cruelty and cowardice are made especially clear, which earns him mocks from Travant. When Eldigan is executed by his orders, Chagall has his severed head sent to Sigurd and Quan's base, horrifying everyone and making Raquesis fall into the aforementioned period of self-harm and despair. He is so afraid of dying that he commits suicide by jumping off the top of his castle when Sigurd comes to battle with him.
 * On the other hand, Annand's rival Pamela is given an extended and complex characterization. She is said to be driven by her envy and feelings of inferiority towards Annand, but without reaching the extremes of evil that other characters fall into. In example, after killing Annand in battle she doesn't behead her corpse (which earns her rebukes from Andorey) and instead she takes her body back to Silesse for a proper burial, also refusing to take Mahyna's Silver Lance for herself. Pamela also says farewell to Sigurd and company after they leave Silesse to head to Grannvale.
 * Several villains were also tweaked to have deeper, more complex personality:
 * Duke Daccar, while staying in-character when he lived, has a sympathetic death, Lewyn came personally to him and played a soothing music, which reminded Daccar of his evil acts, and to atone for his sins, he took his own life and entrusted Silesse's future on Lewyn.
 * Andorey is portrayed as a troubled man who felt like crushed under the pressure of succeeding Duke Ring in the absence of his sisters. This changed him from a gentle boy with an angelical smile (in Briggid's own words) into a cold hearted young man that commits atrocities so Briggid would witness them, hate him and then eventually kill him, releasing him from the burden of responsibility.
 * Duke Langobalt is quite similar to his game counterpart, but the origin of his greed for power were expanded: He felt that it is unfair that during the war, the Twelve Crusaders were treated as equals, and in the present day, they are playing favorites. He also used to be a loving father to Lex, but when he asked about that unfairness, that was the point Langobalt became cold and distant to Lex, driving a wedge between them. By the end of his life, Langobalt came to accept that Lex can move on as his own man, and warns him that if he ever turns back from his path, he will be waiting in Hell, a far cry from how minimal the in-game confrontation went and how Lex felt no remorse in killing his irredeemable father that had it coming.
 * Duke Reptor is also a much more sympathetic figure, while he did commit some heinous acts, he only had the interests of Granvalle in his head, and also a loving father for his family. When he heard Langobalt fell and Tailto accusing him to only see her as a pawn for his games by putting her on Sigurd's ranks, instead of letting her die to preserve the Freege house's name, Reptor realized how far he has fallen and embraced his daughter as an apology, and agreed to admit his crimes to King Azmur. When Aida, under Arvis' command, betrayed him (by having him willingly give the Mjolnir tome as a proof of his repentance), Reptor focused his retreat to protect a wounded Tailto, praying for a chance of redemption by having him die, but his daughter lived on, and on meeting Azelle, for the first time, he trusted someone else, and entrusted Tailto on Azelle as he faced his pursuers and dying in process, showing the heroism he inherited from Tordo and his prayers fulfilled.
 * While in the game the Battle of Belhalla the fate of Sigurd's companions is unknown, in the manga the survivors are shown. Arden, Alec, and Noish die in the battle, Lewyn is killed by Manfroy, Ferry fights her way to Lewyn's body then escapes, to avoid fighting the soldiers Azelle and Tailto jump into a river, Raquesis and Adean go with Oifey and Shanan to Isaach, Ayra and Lex survive and go to Isaach after the battle. Midayle, Dew, Briggid, Claude, and Sylvia are seen at the end leaving the field unharmed which leaves speculation on Jamke.
 * Travant is portrayed as having one-sided romantic feelings for Ethlyn, who finds him in a river and saves him from death some time before the Yied Massacre. Unaware that she is Quan's wife, he attempts to kiss her, and she responds to this by becoming upset and fleeing. This results in Ethlyn being terrified of him, and in the end, she never tells Quan about Travant's romantic pursuit of her. It is also established that his son, Arion, was born from a "fit of passion" and mothered by a woman who was not married to him, and that the only reason that Travant claimed him is that the markings of Dain appeared on his body.
 * Out of the substitute children, only Creidne and Dalvin appear. They are portrayed as older than the canon children and as sibling-like friends to them. Creidne was murdered some time before the action properly started after she saved Seliph, Lana and Larcei from Dozelian troops; years later Dalvin is so emotionally shattered by the loss that he completely loses his faith in Seliph and Shanan's rebellion and sells them out to Dozelian troops. Seliph decided to execute Dalvin as punishment, specially since his treason led to a whole village to be exterminated, but not before telling him that he will release the continent from the empire's tyranny. Dalvin accepts this and dies as he recalls his last talk with Creidne, where she told him that she believed in the resistence movement and in Seliph.
 * Julius is given the Loptyr tome at age five and is soon consumed by it. Deirdre realizes the change in her son and secretly sends Julia away for safety. When Julius finds out he faces both of his parents and accuses Deirdre of both plotting against him and loving Julia more. Deirdre stands her ground, explains to Arvis that she eventually realized their actual relation (even referring to him as "Brother"), and dies fighting her possessed son to save Arvis. As she perishes, her last thoughts are of the long-dead Sigurd.