From smashing social boundaries to chasing Pokemon, the power of Japanese manga to inspire and entertain fans around the world surges forth in a major London show that opened yesterday.
The largest ever manga exhibition to be held outside of Japan takes visitors to the British Museum on a journey from the art form’s traditional roots to the multibillion dollar industry of today.
“Manga is the most popular form of storytelling today,” British Museum director Hartwig Fischer said at the launch of the “Citi Exhibition Manga.”
Photo: AFP
Displays trace manga’s evolution from the comics and dramatic designs by famous Japanese artists such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) to the global phenomenon of Pokemon and the Oscar-winning animations of Studio Ghibli.
“It’s something about the engagement that makes manga special,” said Nicole Rousmaniere, curator of Japanese arts. “It’s visual language that relays content very, very quickly. This is because of the power of the line. I believe that in Japan it makes a lot of sense that when you are doing calligraphy, when you are looking at characters, your brain is already conditioned to have that pictorial content.”
Visitors learn how to properly read manga, which translates as “pictures run riot,” and about the influence of “god of manga” Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989), who created iconic characters Mighty Atom (later known as Astro Boy) and Princess Knight.
Delicate stills from hit franchise Dragon Ball are also on display, as well as more visceral works exploring complex themes.
“It’s about telling stories for a lot of people who feel their stories aren’t being told,” Rousmaniere said. “It’s always been edgy, drawn by people who feel a little bit different... You don’t have to have money to be able to draw manga, you can just draw it on a scrap of paper, many people did.”
One such artist on display is Gengoroh Tagame, one of the most influential creators of gay manga and known for his graphic depictions of sadomasochism.
“Manga is a very casual media, so to read manga is very easy ... and using manga to show social issues is very powerful,” Tagame said.
Further dispelling the notion that cartoons are only for children, there are also harrowing works addressing the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the 1995 Kobe earthquake.
On a lighter note, visitors to the museum can pose for instantly generated digital images of themselves in various manga styles.
The industry had a global turnover of US$3.8 billion in 2016 and lends itself to cross-platform franchising, with the result that its popularity is only likely to increase with the technology boom.
Manga characters are also commonly used as avatars by Internet users creating alternative online identities.
“There is a manga for everyone, literally every subject,” Rousmaniere said.
However, the ability to digitally create manga poses a threat to fans of traditional manga, she added.
“I think hand-drawing will eventually die out... I just hope we can then preserve them,” she said.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS