Manga Realities at the Ayala Museum

Last week, me and my girlfriend went to a place i'd want us to go visit in the future, a museum. Granted we are lacking alot of different kinds of museums over here unlike in the US but at least we have one...or two...er..moving on.

Backtrack to early September when she showed me and ad for a manga/Anime Exhibit called "Manga Realities" that's being held at the Ayala Museum. Naturally, I was immediately interested. What really got me in was when she said that the exhibit will feature BECK. No, no..not the American Song Artist. Beck..ie. Mongolian Chop Squad. Goddamn was that a good manga...and an anime to boot.

Fast forward to last week of September when we decided to go have a look-see.

That's the only ad/flier/poster of the exhibit around the vicinity. The entrance fee was 225php per pax but it allowed us full access to the whole museum. The manga exhibit itself was two floors, the 1st and 3rd. The rest were typical Filipino heritage exhibits. Also, I was told that I was only allowed to take pictures while within the confines of the manga exhibit. Any place else was taboo. Sheesh.

Anyhoo...

First stop was the BECK:

 Granted that BECK's part of the exhibit seems..and is a bit bare but better than nothing.

Anyone remember these covers? :]

Iconic.

I really loved both manga and anime versions, as well as the songs! It's too bad the live-action version didn't come up-to-par. :/ As you can see the BECK exhibit [like most of the exhibits] is a bit bare. I dunno if they were going for a simple minimalistic look but meh...I just wish they made it more..uh..more. Like having BECK songs blast from speakers...maybe a few standees. Oh well...

Next was Nodame Cantabile. I must admit I never have watched a single anime episode...or manga chapter even. I just watched the live-action series and for me, it was awesome!

Sketches

The next few exhibits was also sporting a minimalist feel and again, I have to be honest...I wasn't familiar with the manga they're from [sad, I know].

Children of the Sea

No 5

Sugar Sugar Rune

Sennen Gaho

There were alot of pages/sketches of the manga displayed but I liked this one best.

Five Minutes From the Station

The World God Only Knows

I was surprised and at awe when I saw this recreated classroom. It's as if they pulled it out of the pages from the manga.

Solanin

Prolly the best exhibit there. The main room was all black and there was this black square cube at the middle. It was adorned with quotes from the characters running in the middle along the while cube. Inside was another room! And they did a great job copying the while thing, making it feel like you were in the manga. I left the colors as is as it feels like the setting sun is filling the room up with a warm glow.

...and of course, they had ALOT of manga. Most of 'em are in Japanese though. I REALLY wanted to take these babies home!

Yeap, that's the complete BECK manga right there!

The whole thing felt a bit....lacking. I'm not saying they put in a ton of stuff or add a few famous titles but at least they could've added more. There weren't any brochure guides or tour guides or enough info about the manga and it's characters. I'm also not saying that there should be cosplay, i'd rather not want that. It's just so bare bones that I felt it wasn't worth it :[

Still, it was a nice attempt. Hopefully, if they ever do this again, it would be more grandiose and fully loaded.