As anime and manga continue to garner fans the world over, many people travel to Japan looking to experience for themselves the places and culture depicted in their favorite works. A hearty bit of sightseeing and shopping at an otaku Mecca like Tokyo’s Akihabara might scratch that itch, but Japan has yet another trick up its sleeve for those who want to dive even deeper: limited time anime and manga exhibitions.
These exhibitions have carved a rather nice niche for themselves in a Japan that–while flush with robust museum options–just doesn’t have much for the anime-manga nerds out there. Although we were fortunate enough to get the lovely Studio Ghinli Museum in Kichijoji, the great majority of popular titles haven’t received proper museum representation. This is where limited time exhibitions have our back, appearing with great resourcefulness just about anywhere you can imagine. They’re held at art, literary, and history museums, in addition to shopping facilities and community centers, providing ample if sometimes under-advertised opportunities to get an intimate look at your favorite anime or manga.
A particular favorite of mine, Shirow Masamune’s manga Ghost in the Shell, finally got its time in the sun at Setagaya Literary Museum’s The World of Shirow Masamune Exhibition, which celebrates not just Ghost in the Shell but Masamune’s broader body of work and their profound influence on artists working today. I recently visited the exhibition and found it to be a model case of how exhibitions of this kind can bring fans closer to not just the media they like but the people and history behind them.
With people and history in mind then, I don’t think I could do the The World of Shirow Masamune Exhibition justice without first touching upon where Ghost in the Shell sits in the public consciousness.
I’d reckon that the first thing people think of when they hear “Ghost in the Shell” is director Mamoru Oshii’s 1996 film adaptation or perhaps the Stand Alone Complex anime series. And for good reason. Both are confidently prescient works of speculative fiction, presenting a vision of a near-future information society as artistically stunning as it is intellectually stimulating. It’s somewhat unfortunate though that these works and the vast media-mix empire that they’ve spawned have come to overshadow the series’ roots
Ghost in the Shell began life in 1989 in the pages of Young Magazine. Reading it for the first time, I was shocked by just how much of the series’ DNA was present and accounted for from the get-go. So too was I impressed by how the manga differed from its many offspring in the stylistic inclinations of Masamune, who balances mechanical and architectural verisimilitude with vibrant color and exaggerated, often cartoonish anatomy, qualities that you’d be hard-pressed to find in later Ghost in the Shell-branded media. This is the kind of manga art that prods at the dopamine centers of just about anyone in possession of a retina–the kind of manga art that would look great hanging on the wall of a museum somewhere.
It was with impeccable timing, then, that the Setagaya Literary Museum announced The World of Shirow Masamune Exhibition, ushering in a much-deserved wave of appreciation for Masamune’s work and influence.
Masamune’s idiosyncratic personality and worldview form the beating heart of this exhibit, with the entrance of the Setagaya Literary Museum setting the tone from minute one. We’re greeted by the initial protagonist of Ghost in the Shell, Motoko Kusanagi.
“やってやろうじゃないの!” (This can be very roughly translated as a call to action in the face of immense danger.)
A deep-cut for fans, this line is pulled from an iconic scene where Motoko essentially vows to trust her gut–her ghost–in a world overflowing with information. More than just a mere reference though, this is attitude.
The exhibition proper begins with a timeline of Masamune’s career punctuated by bits of commentary from the man himself. Masamune talks about his career with the same sardonic attitude that pervades his work, poking fun at himself while providing insight into the landscape that in part secured his success. This is one area where a good translation app will make a world of difference for those who can’t read Japanese. While some of the finer nuances of his Japanese might be lost in translation, the basic strength of his humor will no doubt remain.
We then get a fascinating section on Masamune’s process, so to speak, along with a selection of his artistic inspirations. The many tools he used in his analog art era are on display here, which along with some rough sketches only further highlight the meticulousness of his art. The section makes very clear just how much granular, physical labor goes into writing analog manga, with a lot more cutting, pasting, and layering than I had assumed.
I was likewise thrown for a loop by the sheer variety of influences that provided the foundation for this labor. While Masamune of course cites pulp media like the American comics magazine Heavy Metal as a big influence, he also mentions numerous scientific journals, which run the gamut from astronomy to entomology. It’s no wonder why his work often features exhaustive technological detail.
From here, we enter the exhibition’s main act, where Masamune’s most iconic works–Appleseed, Dominion, Orion, and Ghost in the Shell–are lovingly put under the microscope. For each section, Masamune first introduces the thematic goals of the respective work, before treating us to a heaping load of original manuscript pages, high-resolution murals, and collages.
Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell, both of which have received international acclaim due in no small part to their anime adaptations, unsurprisingly get the most amount of space here. Ghost in the Shell, in particular, occupies like 60 percent of the section, with a handful of chapters being displayed in their entirety. How moving it was to see guests both old and young, both international and Japanese, reading these chapters from start to finish, utterly entranced by some of the most impactful storytelling in manga history.
After brief sections on the loveable Fuchikoma spider robots of Ghost in the Shell and Masamune’s non-narrative illustrative works, the exhibit closes with the history of the science fiction genre in relation to technological development and the enduring influence of Masamune on manga and anime today. The many adaptations of his work are of course touched upon here, with particular attention given to Science Saru’s upcoming TV anime adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. As a final treat, fan-art of Masamune’s work from big name artists and designers decorate the walls near the exit.
Back at home, I began to flip through my copy of Ghost in the Shell’s infamously challenging second volume. I was pleased to find that–thanks to my time at the exhibit–what once was confusing to the point of frustration had been rendered charming. This was no longer a puzzle without a solution, but rather an unabashed glimpse into the mind of an artist devoted to his vision.
And this here is precisely why exhibitions of this sort are worth your time. They transform passive consumption into informed dialogues with artists, elevating a work of art that might have made your day into one that might change your life.
What: An exhibition dedicated to the life and works of Isao Takahata, the man behind Ghibli hits Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, My Neighbor the Yamadas, and more.
When: June 27 (Fri), 2025~September 15 (Mon), 2025
Where: Azabudai Hills Gallery (Tokyo)
Website: https://www.azabudai-hills.com/azabudaihillsgallery/sp/isaotakahata-ex/en/
What: An exhibition highlighting Kohei Horikoshi’s hit Weekly Shonen Jump series, My Hero Academia.
When: June 21 (Sat), 2025~August 31 (Sun), 2025 in Tokyo, October 25 (Sat), 2025~December 21 (Sun), 2025 in Osaka
Where: CREATIVE MUSEUM TOKYO (Tokyo), Nanba Parks Museum (Osaka)
Website: https://heroaca-ex.com/
What: An exhibition covering the bone-chilling art of horror manga giant Junji Ito.
When: July 26 (Sat), 2025~September 28 (Sun), 2025 in Miyagi, October 11 (Sat), 2025~December 25(Thur), 2025 in Nagoya
Where: Ishonomori Manga Museum (Miyagi), Telepia Hall (Nagoya)
Website: https://jhorrorpj.exhibit.jp/jiee/
What: An exhibition celebrating the 10-year anniversary of popular slice-of-life anime and manga series Laid-Back Camp.
When: November 11 (Sat)~24 (Mon), 2025 in Tokyo, January 28 (Wed), 2026~February 9 (Mon), 2026 in Osaka
Where: Tokyo Soramachi (Tokyo), Abeno Harukas Kintetsu Honten (Osaka)
Website: https://www.yurucamp-ex.com/
What: An exhibition celebrating 30 years of Evangelion, the deeply psychological mecha series that altered the face of anime–and maybe Japan.
When: November 14 (Fri), 2025~January 12 (Mon), 2026
Where: Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View (Tokyo)
Website: https://ao-eva.exhibit.jp/
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<Author>
Joseph Bayliss
Travel Consultant at WaWo Japan Travel
