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I really do love the Magi series. It's funny and emotional. The story is lovely. The characters are amazing. Both Magi: Labyrinth of Magic and Magi: Kingdom of Magic are series I definitely suggest you watch.
But when I was watching the series, I began to notice similarities between the kingdoms in the series and ancient kingdoms. And, after a while, the similarities for some of the kingdoms got overwhelmingly obvious. So I've decided to explain exactly which Magi kingdom matches with which ancient kingdom.
The most obvious one is the Leam Empire and Ancient Rome. There are so many similarities. For one, there is the Coliseum and the gladiators. Ancient Rome was known for its bloody gladiatorial sport. (Also, did you know that gladiators were vegetarians?) There is also a famous architectural piece in the city of Rome, the center of Ancient Rome, called the Coliseum.
The outfits are also evidence for this correlation. The prince Nerva Julius Caluades wears a toga and a laurel wreath. Although laurel wreaths are more associated with winning the Olympics (A Grecian sporting event), these were also seen in Roman culture, again for victory.
But there's also the names. Take Nerva Julius Caluades for example. The name Julius is often associated with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar. (There's also the Roman emperor Nerva.) Most of the other names such as Muu Alexius might not be Roman per se, but the ties between the Leam and Rome is pretty clear.
The next most obvious one is the Kou Empire and Han China. If you don't know, China has been around for a long time. (If you've seen Hetalia: Axis Powers, you probably know many jokes about China's age.) The Kou Empire is similar to Ancient China in its architecture and clothing. (A quick review of China's history.)
The roofs are similar to those in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. There's an emphasis on red and dragons, both symbols in Chinese culture even to this day.
The clothes that the princes and princesses wear are similar to Ancient Chinese styles.
It is also described as being in the 'Far East', and China is an Eastern country. (Eastern in respect to, say, Greenwich where the time zones start.)
Alright. Now onto the harder ones. They were all relatively hard to place, so bear with me.
Sinbad's kingdom of Sindria could be Southwest Asia. (Yes, I don't like using the term 'Middle East'. Deal with it.) The kingdom would most likely be the Sassanids in Persia.
PICTURE
First, we have the link to Sinbad himself. According to Wikipedia, (Yes, not a very reliable source, I know, but here's the link anyways.) the mythological Sinbad was a sailor who lived in Baghdad, Iraq. The sailor part matches up well enough. It's never mentioned how the story ends up really. We don't know if Sinbad the Sailor settled down and created a vast kingdom, but we do know that he went on many adventures. I haven't seen the spinoff Magi: Adventures of Sinbad yet, so I can't confirm if Sinbad the Sailor is the same Sinbad in Magi, but I feel like there's a good assumption.
We can look at the clothing of the people of Sindria, though. (I really don't know of the history of the Southwest Asian region other than a little about the Muslim kingdoms.) The Eight Generals are mostly light, white, flowing clothing. In the hot areas of Southwest Asia, this was pretty necessary. Even now. You want to wear light colors to not have your clothes absorb the Sun's rays and end up hot. The thinner clothing made it cooler; thicker clothing is typically for wintertime when it's colder. Most of this, though, comes from knowledge about clothing for hot temperatures and not specifically that region. (You could say that Ja'far's little hat is a turban, though, and that would link Sindria to the Southwest Asian region as well.)
Morgiana in Magi: Kingdom of Magic goes to explore her homeland the Dark Continent to learn more about herself. This one is a bit of conjecture as well, but I think she's going to Egypt. When exactly, I'm not sure, but we'd have to assume around the same time that Ancient Rome existed, so I'm saying the height of the Roman Empire from 31 BCE to 14 CE. Which is interesting because that's around when the Rome takes over Egypt. (According to this timeline) According to this article, Leam (Roman Empire) did take over parts of the Dark Continent, and there are cities such as Cathargo (Cartharge) that are located within Tunisia, which isn't Egypt, but it's close enough.
There's also the barren desert that Morgiana has to cross, which can be related to the Sahara Desert.
I'm not sure which Egyptian kingdom this would be categorized since it would technically be under the Roman Empire, so it's not really a kingdom.
The Kambala, though a wandering tribe, would most likely be from Ancient China, technically Mongolian. The Mongolians were fierce warriors that roamed most of Asia and Europe, much like the gladiatorial Kambala. There were trades between China and Rome, which could explain the Kambala in Leam. They also talk about qi a Chinese concept of life force.
The hardest was probably Magnoshudatt. The best answer I have is India. There is the rigid caste system that India had. But that's all I really have. Magnoshudatt is more of one city, but there really isn't any place that I can think of that makes that one-city aspect.
But if it is based on India, then it'd probably be the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. This fits within the time period. (Found with this link)
I love how Magi makes connections with history. It makes the story very interesting and adds more depth to it. I haven't seen the spinoff or read the manga, but I feel like I should.
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