A piece of manga history is soon to be replaced.
Shogakukan’s HQ Building, which has been “home” to many of Japan’s most popular manga titles (which in turn have been made into classic anime) for 46 years, is set to be demolished & rebuilt into a shiny new HQ building soon. And to celebrate this, some of Shogakukan’s manga artists were given permission to go nuts and draw ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE all over Shogakukan’s 1st Floor Lobby. They held an event for only 2 days called “Graffiti Tournament! Thank you Shogakukan building!”, where fans could buy tickets and come see these drawings before the building gets torn down.
It’s an amazing display, featuring art by Naoki Urusawa (Yawara!, 20th Century Boys, Monster, Pluto), Fujiko Fujio A (Ninja Hattori-Kun, Manga Michi) Masami Yuki (Birdy the Mighty, Patlabor), Mine Yoshizaki (Versus Knight Lamune & 40 Fire, Sgt. Frog), Kazuhiko Shimamoto (Kamen Rider ZO, SkullMan), Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2), Riyoko Ikeda (The Rose of Versailles, Oniisama E), Shinohara Chie (Red River), Shigeru Mizuki (Gegege no Kitaro) and many others. See if you can spot their art and messages! You can see even more photos of art here.