JOJO Bizarre Adventure Exhibition 2018

「荒木飛呂彦原画展　JOJO　冒険の波紋 」Tokyo Exhibition & Osaka Exhibition has ended. However the Nagasaki edition of JoJo Bizarre Adventure Exhibition will be starting from 25 January 2020 –  29 March 2020!! Kanasawa’s edition will start from 25 April 2020 – 23 May 2020 Kanasawa’s edition has been postponed till further notice.

So… after my tiring but extremely fun annual fangirling  trip to Japan in May 2018, I was toying with the idea of flying to Tokyo again for a short trip in September.

Why? Because there were two exhibitions I had wanted to visit:

1.JUMP Exhibition Part III (Exhibition Part II was really really great and I had so much fun reminiscing about all my childhood favourite manga that I was actually quite excited to see what they would do for Part III! Especially since there would be Boku no Hero Academia & Hunter x Hunter in the line up )

2. JoJo Bizarre Adventure Exhibition!! I got into the JoJo’s fandom relatively late in the game (seeing how it’s been around for 30 years) about 2 years ago and boy am I loving it! Part III: Stardust Crusader is my favourite in the series.

As I was still deliberating if I should travel  to Tokyo again in the same year, I was presented with a ticket to the Jump 50th Exhibition Part III (yay!)  and then I thought, “why not?” ^ ^

So I went on a super last minute trip to Tokyo (Thank goodness I managed to secure accommodations and flight tickets!) and I was glad I did so!  I had a lot of fun and new experiences which hopefully I’ll get round to sharing soon.

Now on to the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Exhibition!

I have to say, after having been to quite a few anime/manga themed events/exhibitions/ galleries/pop-up shops/cafes, , the JoJo Bizarre Adventure Exhibition is hands down one of the best anime/manga themed exhibition I have been to!

The entire concept, layout and thought that went into it is really superb and of the utmost quality. There’s an audio guide you can rent for 500 yen too. I really love how they had a specific theme for each of the “spaces” in the exhibition.

Alas, there was only 1 area in the entire exhibition space where photography was allowed which are the huge paintings you see below. (There was also another series of paintings that were newly drawn by 先生 but those can’t be photographed.)

All of these huge artworks were painted and drawn by hand by 荒木 飛呂彦 先生!! There was no digital composition involved. Look at how beautiful they are!! Featuring all 8 parts of the JoJo Universe…..ORA ORA ORA!

What you see in this post were the only stuff allowed to be photographed. The team behind the JoJo Bizarre Adventure exhibition really gave a lot of thought to the entire theme and design to it and you really need to be in the actual physical space to fully appreciate and be in awe of it.

Hirohiko Araki Sensei is really amazing and after viewing the exhibition, you really get a sense of how insanely creative and talented he is. I enjoyed reading about his thoughts and his influences as well. Did you know that 先生 had partly based Dio on Roy Batty (Bladerunner) and Jotaro had some influence from Clint Eastwood?!

The added bonus for this trip was that this was also my first visit to the The National Art Centre Tokyo. Interesting Note: You can’t bring the long umbrellas into the art gallery. They actually have an umbrella locker area for the umbrellas! 🙂

The only upsetting thing  for my trip was that so many of the exhibition exclusive goods were sold out!!! Nooooo! And most of Kakyoin’s merchandises were sold out too. (He’s my favourite character in the entire JoJo Universe). Note to self: Always try to go earlier for any anime/manga themed exhibition with original goods on sale.

I’ve only managed to get the following items:

If there’s anyone going for the Osaka exhibition… do let me know! There are new goods being sold and restock of those that were sold out at the Tokyo exhibition.

If anyone’s going for the Nagasaki’s edition, do let me know!! The new goods looks AWESOME!

In conclusion, I highly recommend ALL FANS of JoJo to visit the「荒木飛呂彦原画展　JOJO　冒険の波紋 」exhibition if you can, and even if you are not a fan (yet), i am pretty sure you will enjoy the JoJo Bizarre Adventure exhibition too. The Osaka version will have slightly different artworks and gallery items from the Tokyo one too. (How I wish I could visit the Osaka one too!)  The Nagasaki’s edition will have new artwork and goods!! 

Tips:

I recommend to follow the exhibition’s official twitter account because they do regular updates on ticket sales and goods inventory. Perhaps acknowledging the huge international fandom of the series, their tweets updates are in both Japanese and English!! (So sweet of them!)

Please also take note of the opening and closing hours and your ticket entry times.

For crowd control (I suppose), there are different “entry” timings (a total of 5 different time-slots) for the tickets. What this means is that you MUST enter the exhibition within the time-slot indicated on the ticket. However, once you are in, you can stay as long as you want (till the exhibition closes for the day of course).

And… if you do go for the exhibition, do try to swing by the Mercedes show-rooms because they have a JoJo collaboration as well! (Due to reasons, I missed out going to the one in Tokyo.) From the photos I’ve seen online and via the official website:  https://www.mercedesme.jp/jojo/, it looks so gorgeous!!

Check out my other posts!

• Detective Conan Scientific Investigation Exhibition
• Nendoroids – A Guide on Buying Nendoroids
• Geeky Goods Spotlight: Forwarder, Buying Service & Proxy Bidding (Anime Goods)

• Mister Donut: Pokemon
• Attack on Titan x Aniplus Cafe
• Mob Psycho 100 Anime Review & Thoughts
• Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe
• Genshin Impact x Aniplus Cafe

Exhibition Information