Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

Out of pure coincidence, both Kidokoro and Kirie finished Final Fantasy 13 at around the same time.
We found this to be a good opportunity to do, for the first time on our blog, a joint review.
As we had a lot to say about the game, this article is longer than usual.

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Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 日本語.

On August 21, I went to the “The DNA of Sunday/Magazine” Exhibit held at the Kawasaki City Museum.
This was a special exhibit held to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of Weekly Shonen Sunday and Weekly Shonen Magazine. With full support of Shogakukan (for Sunday) and Kodansha (for Magazine), the exhibit displayed works by the top artists that represent each magazine. I believe it was as valuable an exhibit as the “Shojo Manga Power” Exhibit which was held before. (especially given the rareness of an opportunity to see close-ups of hand-drawn manuscripts – of which you can even see how the artist scraped or layered screentones)

After purchasing a ticket at the entrance and entering the exhibit, the hallway was decorated with artworks from both Sunday and Magazine, dating from its very first volume to the present. Unlike a simple timeline with dates and names of works, it contained images of main characters from each of the works.
It was exciting to see characters from back in the days. I think it was very well done.

The next area after passing through the timeline hallway is the main exhibit space.
First, I was greeted by 2 autographed statues (shaped like a G-pen), 1 from each magazine. Most of the autographs were indecipherable, though it became clear who it was written by from the illustration drawn by it or the characters incorporated in the autograph – I suppose this is something to expect from a manga artist.

The exhibit was comprised of 4 sections:
- manuscript displays along the walls
- a timeline denoting notable manga works and popular items from the corresponding time period, along with a display of character goods and other related items, which loosely surrounded the center area
- the center area containing a display panel with a commentary on Sunday and Magazine by Fusanosuke Natsume (organizer of this exhibit), and a lineage tree of different genres shaped like a DNA model.
- close to the exit was a space containing the history of interactions between the Tokiwa-so group and the editors, Rumiko Takahashi and Mitsuru Adachi’s favorite items and notebooks containing their ideas, and display panels explaining both Sunday and Magazine‘s chief editors’ work style

It seemed as though these section did not have as much correlation among each other. The valuable manuscripts, materials giving background information of each era, and items which reminisce the artist’s workspace all provide excellent resources, and for such kind of an exhibit it was very interesting and remarkable, though the connection between each section seemed somewhat weak. Specifically, the manuscript display could have had a bit more of a twist.

The items were displayed in a rather basic method of arranging notable works in a chronological order. The captions lacked information, and without prior knowledge, it may be difficult for some to understand the correlation among works. Personally, I would have liked to see the manuscripts along with the DNA model in the center area, as it would have been easier to understand the display. It was too bad they were a bit far from each other.

Another note about the caption: it would have been nicer if it indicated what materials were used to produce the manuscripts (eg. copic, color ink, CG), especially for the colored illustrations. This might be a demand likely coming from the otaku population, but the techniques and the tools used to produce manga is something specific to the Japanese, and I’m sure many of the audience are interested in finding out how their idol manga artists draw their manga, so it was somewhat disappointing to see that such information was lacking.

I’ve been listing all the points of criticism thus far, but personally, I was quite content to have been able to see the original manuscripts up close. For the artists who do everything on paper, it was especially nice to see techniques such as touched-up details and traces of cutting and pasting.

Going into a bit of detail with regards to manuscripts, I’d like to make a note about the treatment of digital manuscripts as a display item. For this exhibit, they were printed on paper, autographed by the artists, and was put on display. Since the manga media is meant to be reproduced, giving authorization on the basis of displaying at a museum or an art gallery is a rather difficult issue. An “original” manuscript, may be perceived as a one-and-only piece of item, given how they may contain materials that would not appear in the reproduction, such as specific instructions for printing or traces of correction. For a paper-based manuscript, it would not be difficult to claim that it is a one-and-only type of item. However, for a digital-based manuscript, it can be replicated or printed as many times as needed. This then brings the issue of whether if it is worthy of display. For this particular exhibit, such issue is resolved through the process of autographing, though it would be interesting to see how facilities that intend to specialize in storing/displaying manga would go about preserving the authenticity of these manuscripts.

Overall, the fact that such a large volume of manuscripts can be observed in one place seems to be highest point of this exhibit. Even if they had to be limited to the notable works, it is rare to be able to experience visually the 50 years of history–the changes in the artistic style which reflect the audience’s preference, the changes in theme, and the sophistication of style–of the two major manga magazines, Sunday and Magazine.

It appears that they’ll later be moving to Kyoto, so for those living in the Kansai area, this might be worth viewing.