Six hundred original drawings is not a sampler, it is an archive: inked pages from Inuyasha, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Ooku: The Inner Chambers and ONE PIECE, seen as the artists made them. The show is built around individual mangaka and how each invents a universe. If you grew up on any of these series, this is the closest you get to the drawing board.
What to expect
Expect dense walls of original artwork, much of it in ink on paper at working size, with the pencil corrections and paste-ups still visible. Sections are grouped by mangaka and by narrative theme rather than by publication order. A companion Spotlight installation, Manga Before Manga, traces the historical roots a few galleries away.
Good to know
- Take the 2/3 to Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum — the entrance is at the subway exit.
- This is included with general admission, unlike the museum's separately ticketed shows.
- Expect long dwell times at the popular series walls; go early in the day if you want to read pages closely.
- Pair it with Manga Before Manga, the companion installation drawn from the museum's collection.
- Good for teens and older kids, though the reading-heavy displays test younger attention spans.
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Common questions
How many drawings are on view?
More than 600 original manga artworks, in what the museum calls the first major exhibition in the Americas devoted to manga as an art form.
Which series are represented?
Inuyasha, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Ooku: The Inner Chambers and ONE PIECE are among those named by the museum.
Is there a companion show?
Yes — Manga Before Manga presents 21 works from the collection tracing centuries of Japanese narrative imagery.
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