Videos of anime conventions in America greet visitors to Tokyo¡¯s Museum of Contemporary Art at this summer¡¯s ¡°The Power of Manga ¡ª Osamu Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinomori¡± exhibition. Looped footage of attendants in cosplay at the Los Angeles Anime Expo and other similar events play, while a ¡°prologue¡± banner nearby declares in Japanese and English, ¡°Manga is a cultural genre of which Japan can be proud of.¡±
It seems as if you are just steps away from a grand manifestation of ¡°Cool Japan¡± ¡ª the country¡¯s way of spreading ¡°soft power¡± via pop culture. And since Japan¡¯s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry assisted with putting this together, that actually is one of the show¡¯s objectives.
Yet ¡°The Power of Manga¡± impresses more as a history lesson than a sales pitch. The exhibition focuses on influential artists Osamu Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinomori ¡ª regarded as the ¡°god of manga¡± and the ¡°king of manga,¡± respectively ¡ª highlighting each artist¡¯s work and style, and using the two individuals as a way to simultaneously lay out the history of manga and its influence on Japanese pop culture.
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