In August 2019, just before heading to Dublin for WorldCon, I went to the British Museum with one of my oldest friends (who also works in the manga industry) to visit the Citi Manga Exhibition before it ended its run.

As someone who studied Classics as part of their A Levels and BA, I spent a lot of time at the British Museum but never imagined, a few decades later, that manga would feature in such a major and important museum.

The exhibition, held in the main space near the Russell Square back entrance to the Museum, used an image of Asirpa from the manga Golden Kamuy for its marketing, though the exhibits covered hundreds of manga, including Saint Young Men, Attack on Titan and Sailor Moon.

The entrance way focused on Alice in Wonderland (which appears to be the first isekai story but doesn’t even begin to delve into why Japan is so obsessed with Alice, in her various incarnations) with CLAMP’s Miyuki-chan. I was also quite surprised entering the space properly as, normally this section of the museum is dark and mysterious, as well as not allowing photography however for this exhibition, the area was bright, open and welcoming.

One thing I really liked with the connection with Japan. When I first discovered anime in the nineties, it was dubbed and ‘localised’ (here meaning sanitised of all Japanese elements, such as language and culture) so one of the delights of his exhibition was seeing Japanese sentences in hiragana and simple kanji as well as English on many of the demarkation plaques which separated the space. It really cemented the origins of manga, embracing it as an integral part of the medium’s history and that was utterly joyful for me. Also I could read alllllll the kanji which made me happier than I expected.

One of the main features, outside of screens showing documentary shorts, and walls covered in pages from actual manga proofs were visual. As well as a Titan/kyojin head, there was a library featuring around five hundred manga volumes (tankobon) for visitors to pick up and flip through. There was also word art in the form of a three-dimensional sound effect.

Ironically, I actually learned more about the exhibition only recently when, as part of our Researching Japan module, Dr. Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere (the mind behind the exhibition) spent a lecture walking us through the exhibition but also explaining its hidden meanings and origins. For example, I didn’t realise that the British Museum uses different backgrounds for a reason. Take the Manga exhibition key art above: anything with a black background means the exhibition is a special pay to enter event, where as white means the exhibition is free.

The most surprising part of the exhibition was actually the shop. Normally these are mediocre affairs filled with heavy coffee table books, not so awesome merch and passable figurines. The Manga Exhibition was the exception: there was actual merch like A4 files (a key Japanese souvenir usually found in anime magazines) featuring the key art, to postcards, plushies and even snacks! It was a refreshing change, as well as not gauging too much out of the wallet. I really hope future exhibitions take note of how well this one was recieved and go from strength to strength.

The Citi Manga exhibition ran from 23rd May to 26th August 2019.

Manga: A Citi Exhibition (2019年)

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