Svetlana Alexievich is a Belarusian journalist and writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015. In Japan, she is credited as the original creator of the manga series The Unwomanly Face of War, published in English as War Does Not Have a Woman's Face. Her involvement in manga originates from her work as an author of documentary literature, rather than as a direct illustrator or writer of comic scripts.

The manga is an adaptation of Alexievich's first book, originally published in Russian in 1985 under the title U voiny ne zhenskoe litso. The original work is an oral history that presents the firsthand accounts of more than five hundred Soviet women who served in the Red Army during World War II, in roles ranging from snipers and pilots to medical staff and partisans. The book was groundbreaking for its focus on the intimate, everyday experiences of female soldiers, moving away from the traditional Soviet narrative of heroism to reveal the brutal and emotional reality of war from a female perspective. It took two years to find a publisher due to its unflinching portrayal of the conflict.

The Japanese manga adaptation began serialization online in April 2019 on the ComicWalker website. The artwork is drawn by Keito Koume, known for the Spice and Wolf series, and the project was supervised by Rasenjin Hayami, an expert on Soviet and Russian military history. The first collected volume was released in book form by Kadokawa in January 2020. The manga’s publication has been noted as an unusual and ambitious project within the Japanese manga industry due to the serious and complex nature of the source material. The decision to use a cute, big-eyed art style was a deliberate choice by editor Kentaro Ogino to make the difficult subject matter more accessible to younger readers, with the goal of leading them back to the original book.

As the original creator, Alexievich is not involved in the drawing or writing of the manga panels; her role is that of the author of the underlying literary work. The manga's credits list her as the original story creator, with Keito Koume as the comic artist. The adaptation is based on the Japanese translation of her book by Midori Miura.

Recurring themes across Alexievich's work, which carry into the manga adaptation, include the hidden or untold perspectives of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, particularly women and children. Her artistic identity is defined by a documentary style she called a novel of voices, where she weaves together real interviews into a narrative tapestry. The focus is not on grand military strategy but on the sensory and emotional landscape of war, including its smells, colors, and psychological toll, as well as the post-war struggles of veterans to reintegrate into a society that often shamed them for their service.

The industry significance of Alexievich's contribution to anime and manga lies in the prestige and crossover appeal her name brings to the medium. The adaptation of a Nobel Prize-winning author’s work into a manga format is a rare event that garnered significant media attention in Japan and internationally. The manga’s success led to reprints of the original Japanese translation of her book, demonstrating the ability of manga to introduce serious literary nonfiction to a new audience. Her profile has helped elevate the perception of manga as a valid medium for complex historical and journalistic content, further solidifying a trend of adapting serious world literature into Japanese comics.