Super Mario Bros, guest star at the Manga Fair’s 21st edition

Barcelona (CNA).- One of the most iconic characters of Japanese culture and the international video games industry, Super Mario Bros, will be the main focus at the 21^st edition of the Manga Fair in Barcelona. The event kicked off this Thursday and expects to welcome more than 130,000 comic and Japanese culture lovers in Fira de Barcelona’s exhibition space until Sunday. A good sign of this high participation is the tickets for the weekend, which have already sold out. The number of companies and professionals taking part has also increased in this 21^st edition and consequently the fair’s exhibition space has been extended to 60,000 m². Besides the commemoration of Super Mario Bros’ 30th anniversary, the 70^th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings will also be at the centre of some exhibitions. Finally, architecture will play an outstanding role in the fair, with an exhibition showing the influence of Gaudí’s architecture within Japanese culture and the work of Japanese architects in Barcelona.

The 21^st edition of the Manga Fair will cover three pavilions and the ‘Plaça Univers’square, a total of 60,000m² in Monjtuic’s Fira de Barcelona exhibition space. The tickets for the weekend are already sold out and the organisers expect to welcome a record figure of more than 130,000 visitors.

The Manga Fair is more than an exhibition of comics, it is a trip to Japanese and Asiatic culture as a whole, a meeting point which attracts people from all over the world and which is being confirmed as a cultural event of reference on the Catalan capital’s calendar. 

Anime song contests, Asian dance exhibitions, live music, Japanese cuisine - stands and workshops, a huge space dedicated to Nintendo video games, exhibitions and even a space dedicated to Japanese traditional culture and spirituality, complete the programme. 

At the opening session today, Catalan Minister for Culture Ferran Mascarell described the fair as “one of the most globalised expressions of identity’s construction that we have at our disposal”and emphasised the context of the “global identities”that we are living. The Japan Consul in Barcelona, Hiroyuki Makiuchi, also expressed his optimism for “the good health”and “longevity”of the fair. He also announced that he has reached an agreement with the fair’s organisers to continue holding the Manga Fair in Barcelona for many years to come.

One of the most outstanding exhibitions at the 21^st edition of the fair is “Manga under construction”, which is dedicated to Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí’s and the ‘modernism’style in Japanese culture. It also displays the work of Japanese architects in Barcelona.

‘Nuclear Manga’is the title of one of the exhibitions dedicated to commemorating the 70^th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. It displays some key pieces which are focused on the attacks and the consequences that they had on Japanese culture. The fair includes the collaboration of the ‘Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’a centre located a few metres away from the explosion’s epicentre, and will also have a survivor of the attack as a special guest.