Hollywood’s recent live-action remake of the infamous Ghost in the Shell, underscored the legacy of sci-fi anime and its enduring appeal. Read more: The original Ghost in the Shell anime is coming back to cinemas
But before the big-budget Hollywood version starring Scarlett Johansson came the acclaimed 1995 anime epic featuring memorable illustrations by Hiromasa Ogura.
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Now Ogura’s original watercolour illustrations of dystopian architecture are due to go on display, alongside the work of many other acclaimed artists, in the Anime Architecture: Backgrounds of Japanexhibition at the House of Illustration in London.
It will be the first time such architectural illustrations from the sci-fi anime genre have been publicly exhibited in the UK. The exhibition’s curator, Stefan Riekeles, explained that the featured artists belong to a generation that reached its peak at a time when anime was still almost exclusively drawn by hand. “The works were made at the high time of the art of manual background illustration,” he said.
Ogura’s paintings for the original Ghost in the Shell film were based on the cyberpunk manga series by Masamune Shirow, which was first serialised in 1989. As well as becoming a classic in its own right, the film garnered praised for informing other pioneering sci-fi works such as The Matrix and Avatar. Given that it’s often named as one of the best anime films of all time, its recent return to cinema screens for the first time in two decades was welcomed fans.
With the appetite for sci-fi anime as strong as ever among UK fans, the exhibition is the poised to capitalise on the genre’s popularity. But rather than focus on plot lines or characters, the collection pays tribute the craft of anime, and in particular, the painstaking process of drawing backgrounds by hand using pencil and watercolours, in particular. As Riekeles puts it: “We focus entirely on the masterful drawings. We present scenes that are tranquil, almost picturesque. It is the sheer beauty of these illustrations that we’ll celebrate in this exhibition.”
In addition to Ogura’s works, the exhibition will also include pencil drawings by Takashi Watabe, another highly influential figure in the world of Japanese anime, thanks to his ultra-realistic style, as seen in the sequel film, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Artwork from Patlabor: The Movie (1989) and Metropolis (2001), by Mamoru Oshii and Atsushi Takeuchi, will also go on display.
Anime Architecture: Backgrounds of Japanruns until September 10 2017 in the Main Gallery at House of Illustration in King’s Cross, London.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
