By: Rachael Kahn | @TAVMedia

Currently exhibiting at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is a large manga exhibit in the United States that started its run on 27 September 2025, and will finish this 25 January 2026. Curated by Dr. Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, this is a must-see exhibit for any manga fan close enough to visit.

The exhibit both displays a breadth of manga genres and explores elements regarding how manga is created. The displays featured the original manuscripts, as well as edited versions alongside the finished and completed copies, from several major mangaka including Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma ½, InuYasha, etc.), and Gengoroh Tagame (My Brother’s Husband), among several others. 

On these original and edited manuscripts were pen and paint strokes, measurements for the panels, and tape over corrected dialogue. Next to these manuscripts are the official cover or page from the manga. Nostalgia and memories flood back as you walk around familiar artwork from these various artists and series, now seeing how they were created. 

Set up across the different areas would be displays of the art along with instruments the manga artists used when creating their crafts such as Yamashita Kazumi’s and Araki Hirohiko’s drawing tools.

The exhibit also displayed the work of profound and influential manga artists whom I had never heard of. In its gallery, I learned about Chiba Tetsuya and Osamu Tezuka, who pioneered the medium of manga. I was also introduced to the docuseries-like manga from Kazumi Yamashita and the Shueisha Manga Art Heritage about saving a Western-style house in Setagaya, Tokyo. The exhibit also featured three of the series from Rumiko Takahashi, and a summary of Hirohiko Araki’s long-running series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. While introducing me to the time traveling onsen culture of Thermae Romae from Mari Yamazaki or Japanese food in The Solitary Gourmet by Jiro Taniguchi and Masayuki Qusumi.

Paying homage to the manga, several areas of the exhibit were set up following the traditional reading process of moving right to left. Breaking up each area were decorative archways designed after screentones (the shaded backgrounds of panels in manga). Not only did they become fun backdrops to pose in front of, they also helped to section off the different areas of the exhibit.

Lastly, each featured manga would have a significant or iconic moment from the manga wallpapered on the wall of these different rooms within the exhibit. Oftentimes the original manga would be in proximity to the piece. Some of these images took up the majority of the walls, while others were nestled into the corners.

My only critique, which may only stem from not frequenting art museums, is the lack of information about how the designs of manga artists like those of JoJo and Sailor Moon have been influenced by haute fashion, something that I learned about when talking to another person exploring the exhibit. I think that would have been really interesting to read more on while visiting, though I understand that fashion is not the focus here. Additionally, we happened to coincide with a tour group and listened to how manga has influenced or has been influenced by different political events in Japan. Maybe purchasing the exhibit’s catalogue for $60, purchasing other books, or booking a tour of the exhibit may fill in these gaps—it’s something a little pricey and something I wished had been more directly presented or detailed in the placards by the art.

That said, I really think that this is a great exhibit to attend. My boyfriend and I certainly enjoyed it and I know that Peggy really wishes to attend as well, though she is no longer in California. 

25 January is the last day of this exhibit with every Saturday in January advertised as a Cosplay Day. On 17 January, there will be a conversation with Ito Junji at the de Young Museum about how artistic vision and editing create manga, which has already sold out. So, if you are interested in attending the exhibit (or any of its special events) before it ends, you may want to act fast! 

Shop the catalogue of featured art and other items here: https://shop.famsf.org/collections/art-of-manga-collection?srsltid=AfmBOorwj9oNKOMZHX3YlY_BGISlirdYgRp9GXfE9XJFZxXq2UgbBWAd

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Copyedited by: Katherine Cañeba | @kcserinlee