Last Sunday we went to the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam (Willemskade 22-25) to visit the exposition called: "The world of Manga", which will be open until January 12, 2014.
Both my husband and brother-in-law are big fans of Manga and anime, so it was only a matter of deciding when we would go. Overall we really liked the exposition, particularly the first couple of halls where the exposition pinpoints the relationship between gods of Japanese folklore and Buddhist mythology and certain characters in popular culture / anime such as Dragon Ball Z or the game Street Fighter.
Later, the exposition explains briefly different types of Manga, such as mecha manga, which focuses on war and robots and its origins as it relates to the impact of the Second World War in the conscience of the artists.
Finally, the exposition gives examples of more fantasy and fairy-tale animations and of other movies that tend to reflect stories of everyday life, and how, consequently, the aesthetics of manga exert their influence over a whole generation of young people.
After the exposition, we watched 'Wolf Children', from director Mamoru Hosoda (who also directed 'The girl who leapt through time'). It is a really sweet movie, with absolutely beautiful landscapes, about a girl who falls in love with the last man-wolf and has two children, who are half-wolf and half-human and how they struggle growing up in their mixed identities.
Uhm, when I was reading that last paragraph I was imagining them as looking human but turning wolfish during full moons and stuff like that... and then I saw the youtube still and they looked like little wolves biting furniture and I thought they ALWAYS looked like that... then decided to actually watch the clip and realized my original thought was right! Yeah, this was me just rambling on, lol
ReplyDeleteWell, they don't turn with midnight, they kind of do it at will, mostly when they get overly excited / happy / playful, but as they grow up they can do it whenever they want to. The rest of the time they look human. You should watch the movie it's really nice.
DeleteI really liked that movie Wolf Children, but then I am something of an anime nerd. I think it has a really lovely message though :) Sounds like a great exhibition too!
ReplyDeleteIt was so lovely wasn't it? The exhibition was good, though we felt they could have gone even more in depth. Do you have any favorite anime movies that you like? I really loved 5 centimeters per second, all the Miyazaki ones, and so on.
DeleteYa sé que veremos hoy... ¿Había cosas de Miyazaki?
ReplyDeleteLes va a encantar, es muy tierna y muy real... curiosamente no tenían nada de Miyazaki (es lo que decía que hubieran podido ir más a fondo, Mark salió decepcionado porque no mencionaron a Naruto ni a Bleach tampoco). Era más sobre los origenes históricos / folclóricos del arte, no enseñaron casi ningún comic impreso (y eso que hay tantos, tantos) exceptuando algunos del siglo 18, pero no modernos, y luego la parte más moderna fue un poco aleatoria (Dragon Ball, Street Fighter, está película, y algunos artistas como ejemplos, pero no fue tan extensiva). Supongo que podrías llenar un museo con un tema tan extenso, aún así fueron 3 pisos de exposición.
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