How Manga Took Over the World

Written by A. H. on 06 Jul 2010

As exhibition titles go, "How Manga Took Over the World" is certainly a grandiose and sweeping one, and you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking "Has it?  Has it really?"  While it's fair to say that sitting on a bus or train reading manga will most certainly get you more sideways glances than reading, say, The Da Vinci code in the UK compared to doing likewise in Japan, to think of manga's influence as little more than a niche market abroad is perhaps missing the bigger picture - A picture which this exhibition organised and toured by Urbis looks to fill you in on.

So it was that I found myself in the picturesque port town of Lymington and, more specifically, at the entrance to the equally quaint St. Barbe Museum and Art Gallery - Not the kind of place you might expect to find a show dedicated to manga, but it's the current venue for this exhibition so there you have it.  After parting with an eminently reasonable fee of £4 to enter, in I went.

As you would hope, the exhibition begins with an introduction to manga and a very brief history of the art - The origins of the word itself and what it means, how it originated and why it has grown into the powerhouse that it is in its native Japan.

Of course, no such introduction would be complete without making mention of one Osamu Tezuka, and it doesn't take long before we come across a small section dedicated to the man himself and his influence upon manga, complete with illustrations from Astro Boy and the like.

From here onwards, the exhibition fast forwards to what is generally a much more modern bent, and with a far more English flavour, be it the exhibition's mascot created by Sonia Leong or Sweatdrop Studios manga adaptation of some of William Shakespeare's work.  The exhibition works hard to show just how many corners of modern culture manga has influenced, pointing to prominent marketing campaigns for the likes of Vodafone and MTV alongside the aforementioned Shakespeare adaptation and the growing industry for manga self-help books.

The link between manga and anime is also illustrated throughout, with images from Gonzo's take on Afro Samurai, illustrations from Appleseed and a huge wall scroll for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society providing that particular point while also giving name checks to Takashi Okazaki and Masamune Shirow's most famous works respectively.