Ordinarily, I wouldn’t go to an Attack on Titan exhibition, but my boyfriend is a big fan of the series so I thought it would be fun to go with him! I know a bit about what the manga is about, but I don’t know about the details and I figured that this way, I’d be able to understand what’s going on.
The Attack on Titan exhibition starts with a quick photo taking session (you can opt to buy photos later) in a room full of information about the survey corps. After that, it’s time to choose your path – will you choose to live outside the walls or inside the walls?
This was probably our most anticipated part of the exhibition and sadly, it fell short. Literally. I remember reading the paths would “converge in the middle” and expected a detailed look at life inside and outside the wall, but I think the paths were maybe a fifth or a quarter of the total exhibition.
Basically, if you like looking at sketches of the manga, this is the exhibition for you. There aren’t many interactive elements (apart from the paths) and the exhibition basically organises sketches by the mangaka into various topics – characters, life outside vs inside the wall, etc. Occasionally, there are comments by the mangaka about a scene that he drew.
While it was cool looking at the art, I think I generally liked the latter half of the exhibition better – this is where we had a video of some of the key scenes in the manga (towards the final), an interview with the mangaka about his thoughts on AoT, and a 20-minute recap of the series. I actually thought the recap would have been more useful at the start of the exhibition, for people like me, but at least a recap was done.
Another thing I liked is that the exhibition is mostly in Japanese translated to English, but that is really my personal preference because I enjoy the opportunity to read the original. All the sketches are in Japanese as well, so knowing how to read would be a huge plus if you want to study how the original manga was drawn.
Overall, this was an interesting exhibition that I think is more for fans of the series. Specifically, it’s for fans of the manga series, who want to look at the original drawings and recap the series before going on to the final chapters/season.
That’s really cool. I’ve only seen season 1 of the anime, but I enjoyed it and admired the animation. I’d love to see an exhibit like this, but I’d love if it was more immersive too, like if they expand on having to choose a path at the beginning.
Yeah, I would have liked it more if they made the pathways a bigger thing – they could have played with the concept a lot more!
It’s a pity they didn’t go harder with this exhibition!
For sure! And I was talking to some other friends who went and I think everyone had the same opinion :p