Shoujo Manga Exhibit
Japan Information and Cultural Center, Japanese Embassy
Metro: Farragut North (red line)
Through March 16
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Free admission
Rating: B+
As soon as visitors step off the escalator, a glass case in front of them begins an exhibit showcasing original artwork from Japanese girls' shoujo manga comic creators. Arranged four pieces per mat, resembling a comic, the exhibit is immediately visually impressive.
The free exhibit is at the Japanese Embassy's Japan Information and Culture Center in Dupont Circle until March 16. It divides shoujo manga artists into three time periods: The World War II era to the 1960s, the 1960s to the 1980s, and the 1980s to the present. Each time period is defined by what style of groundbreaking work the artists, known as mangaka, created. It also introduces visitors to the major mangaka of each period.
During the first period of shoujo manga, most of the manga's themes involved girls fighting obstacles in order to lead a good life in Western-style settings. As displayed in the exhibit, the earliest work in this period was happy, bright and full of bubbly charm.
First was a tribute to the founding father of modern-day shoujo manga, Osamu Tezuka. He is known for such animated features as "Astro Boy," but he began his career writing shoujo manga because at the time, it was too difficult to break into boys' manga. Tezuka was the first mangaka to write overarching storylines, like what he saw in the movies, into his manga.
Two influential female mangaka, Masako Watanabe and Maki Miyako, were also featured during this period. Wantanabe was one of the first female shoujo artists. Her works range from erotic - such as her work "Kinpeibai," which is based on a piece of classical Chinese literature about a prostitute - to horror, like "Sei Rosalind," about a girl who has murderous rampages. Watanabe is one of the first shoujo mangaka to delve into the realms of horror and eroticism in what was originally only a quaint and simplistic genre.
Maki Miyako's work stands out as a steppingstone between the two. Her work is of mixed media, including paint and photography, and is filled with vibrant colors. Some of her characters seem doll-like in composition, while others are more realistic.
However, as visitors walk around the perimeter of the exhibit toward the center, the artwork evolves from overly adorable to an expression of feminism in Japanese society. During the second period exhibited, homosexuality was still considered taboo. Yet two artists, Keiko Takemiya and Ryoko Yamagishi, created the first popular, mainstream stories revolving around male homosexuals, titled "Kaze" and "Ki no Uta," or "Poem of Wind and Trees" and "Guessing Game." Since these two publications, homosexual themes have become much more popular in shoujo manga.
Shoujo continued expanding into serious subjects with the help of creators like Hagio Moto, whose longest running series, between 1992 and 2001, was about a boy who was sexually abused by his stepfather. It was called "Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai Suru," or "A Cruel God Rules."
In the third period, Japan began popularizing amateur artist publications, which is where the famous four-woman manga team CLAMP got its start. This third period also features work by Ima Ichiko and Fumi Yoshinaga.
The exhibit was intriguing and the artwork was beautiful, with manga ranging from bold, stocky art to airy, watercolor pieces. Unfortunately, the information cards explaining the artwork are atrocious. Guidelines of how Japanese comics are different from U.S. comics were displayed but the information lacked depth and was presented on printed versions of a PowerPoint presentation tacked on the wall. Inexplicably, panels displaying the exact same information are below them.
Several times, words are misspelled or not capitalized, sentences are suddenly cut off or begin as a fragment and the translation for the titles of works isn't consistent.
Luckily, the information given is so fascinating that those interested in one of Japan's most popular art forms can ignore the grammatical inconsistencies. After all, the chance to see original artwork from Japanese legends is more than enough of a reason to go see this free exhibit.
