Lots and lots of manga

Spent a good deal of yesterday at Louisiana Museum of Modern Arts. I don't go there much - grow up around Elsinore and you'll get to visit it often enough that the permanent collection is a bit too familiar, so it's really only if there is a special exhibition that I'll spend the time and money.

Anyway, they currently have agreat big exhibition about manga (surprisingly enough titled: Manga! - go figure), which sounded interesting enough to merit a visit. And it was interesting - there was your usual exhibits with examples and explanations about history and genres, a reading corner with an admittedly somewhat meager selection of manga in Danish and Japanese, some Japanese games you could play, old picture scrolls (some of which were full of ghosts and demons that could have filled a couple of rpg worlds with monsters and had more to spare), a few works of art by modern Japanese artists, even anime being shown in the little cinema (I watched a movie called Memories - creepy and sad, but gorgeous). All in all, a perfectly good exhibition (perhaps not quite worth the price of admission, but then, few things are...), although perhaps more geared towards people not already familiar with manga than towards those who are. Considering the location, that's not really surprising...

Two complaints, though. Small complaints, but complaints nonetheless.

First, I thought the distribution of the exhibition was a bit - well, it seemed to me as if there was a lot more emphasis put on the genres of manga which are intended for males than the genres intended for females. Oh, they were there - display cases with examples of various girl manga, though not as many as for the male genres. But I didn't spot any shounen-ai, not a single one. Nor did the display cases with erotic manga feature any yaoi or any naked men for that matter, just naked and semi-naked and tied-up girls. (Actually, that one was almost an embarrassment. I mean, really - erotic manga and not a tentacle in sight?) It's not that the people behind the exhibit weren't aware of the genres - there was this giant board at the entrance with explanations for a pile of words relating to manga and Japanese culture, and both shounen-ai and yaoi was on it - but they apparently couldn't be bothered to show even a single example. I know that's just my personal taste, but it still feels like a lack.

Second, and this is just silly, but there was a manga they really should have had at the exhibition . This one. Just admit it - a manga with a story that partly takes place at Louisiana at an exhibition about manga at Louisiana. That would have been perfect. Of course, the people behind the exhibition are probably not even aware it even exists. Still, it would have been a nice thing to see. A little something extra. Oh well...