Cityscapes in Anime Background Art: The World of AKIRA, Ghost in the Shell, Metropolis, and More

Audiences are often captivated by the creative portrayal of urban spaces. The unique cityscapes that seem to exist somewhere in the world, yet are original and unseen, have been a source of admiration for many animation and architecture fans. This summer, from 17 June to 19 November, the Yoshiro and Yoshio Taniguchi Museum of Architecture in Kanazawa will host Cityscapes in Anime Background Art, an exhibition of hand-drawn background art from Japanese science fiction animations.

Unlike live-action films, animated films are created from scratch. Therefore, even the most minor details of the background urban landscape, architecture, and interior environment are deliberately drawn to create a unique world. This exhibition will showcase the worlds of AKIRA (1988; Director: Katsuhiro Otomo, Art Director: Toshiharu Mizutani), Patlabor: The Movie (1989; Director: Mamoru Oshii, Art Director: Hiromasa Ogura), Patlabor 2: The Movie (1993; Director: Mamoru Oshii, Art Director: Hiromasa Ogura), Ghost in the Shell (1995, Director: Mamoru Oshii, Art Director: Hiromasa Ogura), Metropolis (2001, Director: Rintaro, Art Director: Shuichi Kusamori), Tekkonkinkreet (2006, Director: Michael Arias, Art Director: Shinji Kimura). Also featured are works by Hiroshi Ono, Hiromasa Ogura, Shinji Kimura, Shuichi Kusamori, Satoshi Takabatake, Toshiharu Mizutani, Takashi Watanabe, and other artists specializing in background art.

This exhibition features hand-drawn background art from major Japanese sci-fi anime produced from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, as well as materials such as books and location scouting photos that were used as references in the creation process, interviews with the creators and architects' plans for future cities.

The exhibition is based on two international traveling exhibitions that were curated by animation researcher Stefan Riekeles and realized through archival research by media arts archivist Hiroko Myokam, Proto Anime Cut Archive (2011-2013), and Anime Architecture (2016-2020). It is planned and organized from an urban perspective, supervised by architectural critic Taro Igarashi, known for his knowledge of animation. This is also the first collaboration with different fields for the Yoshiro and Yoshio Taniguchi Museum of Architecture, Kanazawa.