The Associated Press writes up the exhibit currently on display in New York (why they didn’t think it was important two weeks ago, when it opened, I don’t know). Unlike the Vancouver Art Gallery’s version, this one focuses exclusively on Japan’s contributions in pop culture.
I am going to try to get up to New York and see this exhibit, even if it’s just for the day. It runs through June 14 at The Japan Society. Yeah, because of the National Cherry Blossom Festival currently going on, I kind of have Japan on the brain, but I’m pretty excited for this. We have the catalog from the Vancouver version here and while I haven’t looked at a lot, it’s neat.
I tend to get annoyed with statements like this from the AP article:
What’s also clear is that in Japan, manga and anime — unlike, say, Marvel comics — are not just for kids. Many of the images are violent and sexually graphic, such as Satoshi Kon’s 2006 animated film “Paprika.”
Because, you know, some people think Marvel isn’t exactly for kids either and while Kon’s Paprika is definitely for grown-ups (and I mean that in the best way — it’s a story for mature people, not just those who still giggle when they can see “boobies” on screen), it’s a pretty tame example as far as anime goes, if you ask me.
But I’m not going to grumble too much about it because apparently, some people have yet to get this message. At the Freer’s Cherry Blossom Anime Festival this Saturday, there was a family with a couple of 8- to 9-year-olds at the screening of Evangelion 1.0. Don’t do that! (Mind you, the Freer had this listed as PG for some reason, and it’s not.)
Image of a Junko Mizuno figure, taken from the Associated Press article.
