Poster 30 Manga Barcelona

NAOKI URASAWA

Born in Tokyo in 1960. Mangaka.

He made his debut in 1983 with the short story Beta! Since then, he has created relevant works such as Yawara!, Monster, Happy! and 20th Century Boys, among others.

In 2018, he exhibited the work Mujirushi in collaboration with the Louvre Museum in Paris, and is currently focusing on his latest work, the Asadora! series.

A three-time winner of the Shōgakukan Manga Award, Urasawa has also received many other national and international awards, including the Best Series Award at the Angoulême Festival in France, two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards for the best American edition of foreign material - Asia, or the Lucca Comics and Games, in Italy.

Urasawa has sold over 140 million copies worldwide. His solo exhibition has reached national venues as well as the halls of four foreign countries, a clear indication of his international fame.

NAOKI URASAWA'S POSTER

It's probably a cliché, but such a special occasion deserves something special, and that's why we have the pleasure of having an exceptional poster for this 30th anniversary of Manga Barcelona. The author is none other than Naoki Urasawa, creator of very popular titles both in Japan and Spain, who is not only visiting us this year, but has been commissioned to illustrate the 30th anniversary edition.

Although this is the first time he has visited Barcelona (at least publicly), we have seen references to the city in his work for years. In his manga Yawara!, there is a judoka training for the 1992 Olympics, and some will remember an iconic manga panel of the protagonist smiling in front of Sagrada Familia. This manga was popular enough in Japan to have an anime and a live-action film with a part shot in Barcelona. In one of the posters of this movie, the protagonist couple appears in front of Sagrada Familia, in a similar manner to one of the protagonists of Pluto.

Coincidence or not, the new poster of Manga Barcelona has the emblematic building as one of the protagonists, and in the foreground appear some of the most famous characters created by Urasawa: Yawara and Jigoro Inokuma from Yawara!, Kenji from 20th Century Boys with his guitar, Asa from Asadora!, Miyuki from Happy!, Dr. Tenma from Monster, and in the background, one of the biggest villains of manga: Amigo. Flying in the sky we can find Billy Bat from the manga of the same name, who, according to the author himself, was strategically placed to hide the scaffolding of the monument under construction. All these characters seem to have come to visit Barcelona, and we can't even imagine how many interesting stories could happen with all these characters together. Now the poster is all yours and you can let your imagination run wild!