Naoki Urasawa's exhibition is taking place in Setagaya Literary Museum now. Naoki Urasawa is one of the most incredible Japanese manga artists who drew Yawara!, Master Keaton, Monster, 20th Century Boys, etc. According to one story, it is said that he changed the history of manga. Maybe, he is as great as super manga maestro Osamu Tezuka. He must leave his name on the history of Japanese culture.
In the exhibition, more than a thousand things related with Urasawa are exhibited such as his original drawings, story memos, rough sketches, and so on. One highlight is a showing of all pages for whole final volume of Monster. I had read the volume once in past times, but it very touched me when I read it again anew this time.
The most impressive scene for me was Grimmer's last extremity moment. Grimmer is a character who can't have any emotions, so he wasn't able to feel sad when he lost his son, but he could get an emotion on the verge of his dying. He lastly said something like this- “People………can't lose emotions………. My emotion………had wandered into some parts of my body where I don't know………. It's like that someone's letter addressed to me………got to me many decades later. This is………true sadness………, and this is………happiness………. ” Grimmer could finally feel sad for his son's death and found a pleasure of getting emotion at his last moment.
I like Grimmer's phrases. We sometimes have a occasion which we get meanings of what other people said or did to us even if we couldn't understand them at that time. They may be like letters which are put in a mailbox from them many decades ago. I got such an image from Grimmer's last message.
Anyway, In Japan, actually, I don't need to explain splendor of his works any more because his works have been already very famous and everyone knows his fabulousness, but I want to say about his works in his younger days purposely.
In this exhibition, we can see not only his professional works but also early works in his student days. His early works were very interesting because, surprisingly, these works' touches had been much affected by big manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, etc. I didn't know the fact because I hadn't been able to find traces of the influence from his current works' touch. I think that it is generally hard to replace influenced skill with original skill, but he did it totally. It was amazing and was my most interesting thing in this exhibition.
By the way, This exhibition is held until March 31. Fortunately, many chances which you can go there are left for you. I hope that you see Urasawa's splendid works directly in the museum.