The 31st Manga Barcelona fair closed its current edition on Monday in a “renewed space” as highlighted by the organizers, with the participation of 167,000 people at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, in L’Hospitalet del Llobregat (Barcelona). The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, inaugurated the competition last Friday by affirming that manga and comics are a “fundamental educational instrument” because, he declared, “many young people learn to read thanks to these genres”.
The organizers highlighted, among other activities, in a press release, the concert of Seatbelts, “who for the first time performed outside Japan”, and Aina The End. The assistance of Takashi Matsuyama (Akira Toriyama’s assistant), Satoru Nii, Gou Tanabe and AkemiTakada also stood out. Additionally, coinciding with the 3Cat previews, the characters from ‘Dr. Slump’ and, also in Catalan, Ash from ‘Pokémon’ a few days before its premiere at Súper3.
The current edition brought together great authors such as Gou Tanabe, famous for his masterful portrayal of HP Lovecraft’s stories (published by Planeta Comic), sensei (teacher) Kazuki Nakashima, creator of iconic anime such as Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill And Promareand the prominent dramatist or anime director Shinishiro Watanabe. The organizers also highlighted the presence at the competition of Tsutomu Takahashi, the author of series (published by Norma) such as Neunon the secret creation under the Third Reich of children with Hitler’s DNA or Detonation Islandbased on his own experiences in the 80s as a band member bosozoku.
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